If you don't want your neighbors joining a defensive alliance, STOP INVADING YOUR NEIGHBORS!

Love Finland 🇫🇮 from Canada 🇨🇦 ❤

It's crazy to think how capable Finland is. Like US Senator Tom Cotton has said: "Finland has one of the strongest artillery forces in Europe, with more rocket launchers and howitzers than France, Germany, or the United Kingdom. Finland’s reserves are larger than the reserves of France, Germany, and Italy-combined. Finland owns more combat tanks than Germany."

A comment from Swede here. I live on Gotland, the island mentioned in the video. When the Swedish military downsized it's presence here in the mid 2000's, a lot of people worried about the consequences leaving us practically defenseless. Especially with the construction of Nord Stream 1, which runs very close to the coast of Gotland. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 however, Sweden woke up and started militarizing Gotland again. With Sweden and Finland joining NATO, finally we might get the military presence needed to keep the Russians away.

As president Niinistö said: "you caused this - look at the mirror"

it is strange how these history documents always skips Lapland War where Finland fought against Nazis and Nazis burned basically whole Lapland. You should check that too.

Sweden has seriously top notch sensors and radars they have deployed. Saab is WAY up there in sensor development, actually world-leading in some cases.

Finland actually didn't really help in the "Siege of Leningrad". The army pushed to the old border on the Karelian isthmus, but the leader of the military (Field Marhsal C.G.E. Mannerheim) ordered them not to push any further and help in the siege.

I live in Finland and I'm only 13, but it scares me that if there's a war between us and Russia, it's pretty scary, but I know that Finland can defend itself

81 years Finnish Defence force has been training war against one enemy only. Last time we were not prepared and hopefully next time never comes.

I've been supporter of Finland's Nato membership already almost 10 years now and it's frustrating we didn't apply earlier. Also for me the Nato membership is more about joining sides with Denmark, Norway, Poland, UK, Germany and other western nations rather than just looking for that US power.

While it's true that Finland wanted the lost area back, the interim peace between the Winter and Continuation Wars wasn't a good period either. The tensions were very high. The Soviet Union, for example, shot down a Finnish civilian airplane just to be able to acquire the diplomatic papers aboard (including American diplomatic papers carried by an American person). Nobody in Finland could genuinely believe nothing would happen anymore when the larger war in Europe was only getting worse.

A small correction. Finland actually refused to take part of the siege of Leningrad. Despite requests by Germany, Finland did not continue the attack to close the siege but stopped at the old border.

The reason finland rejected soviet demands was that they wanted a military base in hanko so they could invade the rest of the country. The baltic states were invaded with such military bases

We have something thats called Total Defense Duty here in Sweden, and it means that everyone between 16 to 70 can be called in and help out in various situations such as medical and defending Sweden in front line. Everybody has to contribute.

7:39 almost all of these kinds of videos don't mention that one of the demands was to destroy ALL defensive fortifications on the Soviet border. That was one of the biggest reasons why Finns were reluctant. There were others as well, but it wsnt about just small piece of territory.

Finland and Sweden-unlike too many of our European allies-are putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to their defense.

I think especially the Murmansk / Kola peninsula is one of the reasons why the Finnish Air Force were cleared for the JASSM missiles for our F/A-18 Hornets. It is as much a defensive weapon as a long range strike asset that makes the eastern neighbour think twice.

Man it's so nice to watch a youtuber who's just genuine.

Yea this channel puts out amazing videos. Amazing research and very detailed

that picture that you looked at with the big helmet and lose chin strap is from my platoon hahaha

I think the reason the Russians moved the capital back to Moscow, from St Petersburg, after 1917 was that Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania became independent states back then. So St Petersburg was once again very close to the border, as before 1808. At least that was one reason, maybe there were other reasons as well.

Like Senator Tom Cotton said: Finland and Sweden are the strongest candidates to join NATO since its origin in 1949.

St. Petersburg is a really young city. The area was still inhabited by Finnic people until the 1600s/1700s when Peter “The Great”, who was obsessed with Europe and hated Moscow, founded St. Petersburg and moved the capital there from Moscow. They moved the capital back when the czardom fell.

Make love not war ☺️! Hello from finland. Love your videos.Hope things wont get escalated too much in current time of things happening.🇫🇮.I love people.I love life.Russian common people deserve more than this.They are just normal as us 🥰

This is a excellent video. Thank you! Keep it coming...

thanks for showing this and adding comments

In 1939 USSR tried not only take those territories mentioned in the video. The Soviet prewar areal demands changed immediately when the war against Finland started in Nov 1939. The new goal was to occupy Finland. However in March 1940 Soviet Union had to give up its goal of placing the O.W. Kuusinen's communist puppet government in Helsinki. Finland’s regime and constitution could not be changed. In November 1940 Soviet PM Molotov was sent to Berlin to ask Hitler's consent for USSR to finish in Finland the invasion that had failed in March. Hitler refused because he had started to see the pissed-off Finns as an asset in his plan to attack USSR in 1941. Followed the Continuation War 1941-44.

Amazing analysis with the video. Greetings from Helsinki :) your pov was really interesting when you talked about what it means to have _defence forces_ vs armed forces and so on.

This was great react again. Thank you.

About the R21 highway/railway: During the wars between Finland and the Soviets, I know that Finland succesfully sabotaged a railway bringing supplies from the north. I assume this is the same railway. These days one could propably just fire some MLRS from a distance to destroy the railway.

Coming from a NATO country moving to Finland I didn't really think about it, then 2022 happened. When the membership is finalized I'll be happy. Though I do currently already feel safer.

Belgian here, my great grandfather was working as a commercial sailor when world war 1 broke out, he was in crimea and had to travel all the way north to Murmansk to be able to get onto a ship home :p

Just found this channel my friend. Liked and subscribed. Love your work 👍

I like y video’s very much. Greetings from Finland 🇫🇮

Mielenkiintoinen video 😎 kiitos 👍

Finland is very important for Americans especially because Finland would threaten Russia’s major military installations in the Kola Peninsula, where Russia’s largest and most advanced naval forces are positioned to break out into the Atlantic and threaten the United States.

given the shallow depths and convoluted coasts HE and other area of effect rounds are very dangerous to the coastal craft all sides need for recon/patrol. the swedes have a 57mm autoloading naval gun with proximity rounds... edit. motivation is also impossible to underestimate in self defence.

Awsome video lot of details

13:03 Almost all of the finnish soldiers in these pictures are conscripts, probably on their parade march to lay their wovs to defend the finnish nation against all enemies etc etc. Basicly this means all of them are have done basic soldier training and after that special training depending on what brach you "choose", in many cases given, depending on youre education and so on. If needed these guys are ready for combat, but the army needs truck drivers, tank drivers, artillery men, air deffence, snipers, airforce, navy, recon and so on. And most of all conscripts are willing to deffend finland and I believe its because almost every one has a relative who deffended finland in WW2. Just giving up would be a waste of all the lives lost in WW2

He didn't mention that Putin literally threatened Finland and Sweden "or else!". So I think that's what clinched the decision, no one likes to be threatened in their own home.

One of the most balanced valuations I have seen. Thanx.

Love your videos man greetings from 🇵🇹

A dictator will NEVER stop, until he is STOPPED.

17:47 yes as a Finn I am very proud of our countrys army and weapons, but have always been jealous of Swedens innovations and willingness to make their own equipment. This is a topic you should deinitely do a video about if you haven't already (just subscribed). If I remeer correctly a small Swedish submarine actually sank US aircraft carrier in an exercise few years ago. Pretty admirable considering how much each country spends on their military tech.

Ive followed real life lore for quite a while, mostly on nebula (they post there first, and no ads at all) they always do a fantastic job of explaining complicated topics in my opinion.

I second the recomendation of real life lore, I've binged watch its content because is so good, learned a lot, and its a good mix between tactical-geopolitical and other kinda lore like culture and history.

the beat up uniforms are used in combat/survival training so to not destroy the newer uniforms which are mostly used on base training and leaves of absence. :)

Been on a RealLifeLore geopolitics binge myself recently. Never realized how interesting and intricate such things were and highly recommend watching more

20:14 There is one thing they are missing here. Sweden and Finland is part of a passive defense pact via EU, so Sweden and Finland would already need to defense the Baltic state via EU. What this complicated a bit is that Norway is part of Nato, but not EU, that in a conflict of this kind Norwegian troops would be locked out, and US and UK troops would not be alowed to operate of Gottland. Still.. French and German troops could operate of Gottland. Its also worth saying that the distance here are really short.. A Gripen lifting of a airbase in Gotland, could shoot down a MIG in riga, pretty much instantly of lift of.

Biggest thing that these history lessons forget is that the areas Stalin was demanding were our best defensive fortifications (Mannerheim Line) that were built against Soviet aggression. Those fortifications were one of the biggest reasons we managed to inflict so many casualties on the Soviets and make them only get pyrrhic victory and Finland keep it's independence. I am 100% certain if Stalin got his demands he would have invaded anyway as he was still hyped on his free land grabbing from Poland & Baltic States and thought everything would happen with Finland too.

The north remembers. Here is a nice short read how Russians acted in Finland during the Great Wrath. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wrath and now we see similarities in Ukraine war.

Greetings from Finland!

Real life lore has a whole modern conflict series

There is one false interpretattion sneeking in to many videos talking about siege of Leningrad )St. Petersburg thaat time). Finland allowed germany to use airfields and ports in finland and fought together againnst russia, BUT never partisipated ssiege of Leningrad. Marshal mannerheim specifically refused to do so and kept finnish forces in historical finnish territory. Only towards the end he allwed few small units to cross towards south to please Hitlers tightening demands. Hitler had othervise stopped desperately needed materialand food supply to finland. Finns even secretly allowed russians northen supply line to keep on supplying aid from Murmansk to Leningrad - through area that finns occupied during the years (look at the operational maps of time! Finns were up to Äänislinna/Petroskoi all time). So Mannerheim saved millions of Russian lives, because he was not animal and had history in russian army before russian revolution. How russians thanks mannerheim today? Starts spreading false informatio about finnish natzi concentration camps and mass graves in carelia, which in reality are graves of finnish imigrantso to russia executed by 'Father Stalin' before wars.

I live in Helsinki and I've been to Saint Petersburg multiple times by train and ferry, actually a very beautiful city, such a shame travel there is no longer possible.

Front line in lapland didn't really move much during continuation war. In my opinion it was because harsh conditions there during both summer and winter. Kola peninsula would be hard to attack from land.

Really like geopolitics keep it up!🫡🇵🇹

Thank you for your service.

Finland is now in the process of purchasing David Sling or Barack MX missile defense system from Israel. Those are kind of like patriot system on steroids. Israelis use those them selfs along with their iron dome and they seem to work against their enemies,. So they probably will work against Russians too, and Swedish saab avacs planes will help also if there are missiles coming from Russia. Cheers from Finland.

As a Finn who just joined the Finnish navy it's quite scary to see these events play out and seeing Russia make these decisions. Let's hope that we won't have to see any more invasions.

I'm finnish, and if my country needs me, I will defend her. There's a conscript-ish joke that goes "Lupaan ja vannon, kautta kiven ja kannon, että lataan ja ammun, kunnes kentälle sammun." Which roughly translates to: "I promise and swear, Through rock and tree[stump] That I'll reload and fire, Till on the field I expire" We are prepared.

Good video. Rgds fr Finland

27:33 Don´t be fooled by the scale of the map. The distance between Sverodvinsk and Alaska is not very far. It would take no more than 4 days for a sub to go that distance, its actually pretty close. For instance, its close then say London to NYC.

18:00 Swedish Bofors (in association with BAE Systems) also makes some pretty nifty smart artillery rounds. 22:45 I wasn't aware that they had so much of their big guns up there either, especially the strategic nuclear stuff.

Very good video as usual. I enjoy your content. Just a quick point though in the video at 11.24 the guy above your head is the spitting image of a younger Putin.

Another expert channel on strategy affairs

Finland has already JASSM-ER, which can be shot to Moscow from Gulf of Bothnia (West coast of Finland). Not a probable use case, but possible one. That sculpture is in front of Nato HQ in Bruessels, Belgium. I have been there (near it/seen it with my own eyes distance). I can probably say now, that in 1995 the weapon system I was trained on had comms system that could of been connected to Nato-systems in turnkey fashion, if such decision would of needed, that is.

I am from Denmark and I served in the Danish recon forces we don't run a military like you would expect if you want to find out something special about Denmark lookup or special forces and our future king and his training, when I was in the recon forces of future king where are platoon leader 😋

Thanks for your reaction. 🇫🇮🇺🇸

17:08 I used to live close where that particular coast guard vessel was based. It's massive, I don't really know why the coast guard need a ship that big for, but what I do know is that it's really cool to see it up close.

as a karelian brigade guy im happy to join nato

5 million in Finland that’s crazy. My home country of Burundi is one of the smallest countries on the planet and we’ve got 12-13 million.

Yep, the Kola peninsula. Pretty much ingrained in the pshyche of any northernly situated Northern European growing up during the cold war.

Hi from Finland 🇫🇮

I'd choose 5 million Finn's over 20 million Russians anyday ⚔️🇫🇮🇸🇪

Russia was planning on attacking Finland anyways, they just wanted to move the border so it would be easier. Finland's population is pretty small because every time things have started to look better someone or something has to show up and mess things up. In the 1700s Russians killed a whole bunch of Finns and took slaves. 1714, for example, in one day Russians killed about 800 people in Hailuoto and Finland's population was around 400 000 at the time so a huge portion of the population was killed and taken away in one day. In 1860s famine killed about 9% of the population, etc. etc.

Good show!

13:08 This years uniform that you are only allowed to wear during weekend leaves or outside of base will in the following years steadily become the uniform for indoor classes, to light duty and eventually handed down to the rookies to crawl in the mud. Getting a fittint gear is down to luck, persistent complaining or befriending people at the armory. I have a feeling this is how it is on most countries that dont have a top tier military funding.

It's not the jet stream it's the Gulf Stream from the Southern Coast of the US!

Don't know if Russia could actually close Suvalki gap. I mean they are facing Poland there. Most militarized country in Europe. I think Poland running over Kaliningrad is more likely outcome.

LOL did NOT expect minecraft CAT song in the end :D (My wife and kids always compete on who finds that in the game first and plays it nonstop in their cabin :D)

This was very educational. I live in Finland and was not aware of that highway to NW russian bases. Interesting stuff.

Did you know, that Peter "the Great" actually built St. Petersburg on soil inhabited by purely Finnic (Finnish/Ingrian) population? So Peter never had any right taking that region to be his capital city, but you see - that's the continuum of the Russian policy a latest part of which we now see in Ukraine. From the Russian point of view Finland is never too far from St. Petersburg, but since we can't move away, they feel insecure. Poor them. P. S. In the winter war 1939-40 we Finns were only 3,5 million against 190,7 million (1939) Soviet citizen.

We can do whatever it takes.🇫🇮

Love it, you giggling; let's go coast guard destroyer ship

The truth is that Finland does not need NATO, but NATO needs Finland's eastern border, Finland is capable of self-preservation.

Russia kicked Sweden's butt so hard we stayed neutral for 200+ years, as a swede I am offended! I have no re-torque as it is basically true. The last war against Russia ended with Russians in Stockholm and an abdication if I remember correctly of and we lost the entirety of Finla.. I mean 'Eastern Sweden'. As a new King we chose a Danish prince as the best candidate - who um.. drunkenly fell off his horse and died before he could ascend the throne, yeppers. Denmark graciously offered some other prince but the Swedish court, um, had second thoughts. And instead turned to Bernadotte, a general in Napoleons army and asked him if he wanted to be King of Sweden. Why? Well we had just lost Finland to the damn Russians and we wanted it back, so a general from Napoleon's army sounded great. He had to change name to something more Swedish of course like Carl Johan, obviously superior to any frenchie frog name he had before. Anyway so Sweden now had a new Warrior King and was all pumped up to invade Russia again, but the new king was actually strategically savvy and made peace with them instead, french people... Instead we joined the coalition against Napoleon (Yes when ABBA sings about Waterloo they did not lie) on the tinie tiny condition that Russia and company helps Sweden Invade Denmark in order to conquer Norway.. yes! Norway was in a union with Denmark at the time, or rather they were until recently and were now their own independent nation, for like 5 minutes before Sweden knocked on Copenhagen door and was like "We demand Norway!" to which I imagine the Danes looking confused at each other and answering like "Err, sure?...its..um.. yours?" At which point the swedes were like "Well that was easy, cant wait to tell Norway the news!". And that sort of marks the end of Sweden last war; which we won by allying with Russia in the ultimate "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" move possible. Cheers!

Nice video 🇩🇰

You need to check out the videos showing the bunkers they built into their cities, it amazing.

10:09 I've had couple discussions with people who served their own country from different corners of the world and somehow I always get asked "But what if its someone else other than Russia that would attack Finland?" I might be indoctrinated enough, but to me it was a baffling question. Who would? Why would they? After the extremists in Middle East started to shake up things the picture changed a litte, yes there are foreign threaths too, but a nation state adversary? Very unlikely to the point of it being counterproductive to take out resources from preparing for the Russian invasion. I feel safe and secure in my small buffer zone, I know my family is safe and secure and if it really gets bad, they can flee west with zero problems while others stay and try to figure the best logistics for the fallen Russians. Might be because I was a combat engineer but to me Finland in a game of Risk would be like a big land mine. You can come, you can try, but you will leave your legs here. edit: to clarify. If any of out other neigbours would try to invade Finland, we would a) surrender immidiately and co-exists peacefully from that point on or b) get overrun in a day and have the right to complain about something other than our own political leaders.

In advance of NATO membership, Finland and Sweden have signed a mutual defence pact with the UK so they can be protected under their nuclear umbrella.

VERY interesting from a Finnish point of view!

The word "occupied" is false. Finland have never been occupied. The geographical area that nowadays are known as "Finland" was the eastern province of Sweden.

14:25 I think that is true if you ask Americans now, but if we lived in an alternate reality where the ruZzians could invade and that threat was real and it was about to happen, I think the % of willingness to defend would be the same, or even more. Secondly usually the polls are taken of 10,000 people who happen to answer them, that 10K is pretty significant considering our population.

RealLifeLore is one of my favourite channels, Yours is awesome too! Keep doing what you do man!

I've watched the videos produced by that group many many times, and I have to agree with you this one is one of the best and most deeply comprehensive videos I've watched from them. Now that Finland HAS joined NATO in full.... checkmate.

You should REALLY watch 'Why Turkey is preparing to invade Syria (Again)', it's from the same channel

This original video is silly American propaganda and misrepresents both NATO and Finland. Yes, Finland seeks to join NATO, but it's not planning to host nukes (it's forbidden by the Finnish law) and NATO isn't attacking Russia any time in the future.

I watched that video when it came out. I just got this one in my feed today. Finland is in NATO as of like late March or early April, Sweden is not yet in NATO or atlest I haven't seen anything announcing that they are. But as of announcement yesterday(or today depending if you are in Europe or not) for the next NATO meeting, they will be discussing Ukraine joining NATO. The Russian Dude video from this morning relayed the info about the announcement of the discussion of Ukraine joining NATO. So, ¿¿do you think Ukraine will be a NATO member before the war is over or after Ukraine wins??