Russian here. The first thing we think when hear word "Finland" is winter war. We respect finns a lot for standing for their country and fighting back. It was our dark history moment on which we agree without argueing. Since ww2 we have chill and respectful relationship. Helsinki is litterly negotiation room, common ground, between West and Russia. We don't hate fins. How could we if they love alcohols and banya/sauna same as we do

Hey, i have a lot of russian and finnish blood in me so everytime we are at hockey game and there is finland and russia playing im just sitting there confused. I live in finland tho. And for some reason, even tho i wasnt even born then, i feel bad for ussr and yeah, you probably get the "stupid innocent child" vibes from me cuz duh i am stupid innocent child lmao. But i am really proud of finland for winning and fighting. I hope russia and finland will get better relationship soon ^^ you can correct and and hate on me if you want, since i deserve it ^^

Pretty accurate. Greetings from Finland.

Thank you for this!

Great video! 👍

I fucking love your videos, keep the great work going

Great, looking for part 2.

Weird that there's no mention about how ancient Finnics basically founded Novgorod and how relevant they were in early Russian history.

Good vid!

Good video 👍

Great work! Could this be the beginning of a series on Finnish participation in WW2? ;)

Modern Swedes and Finns and Russians and Norwegians and even Karelians are very nice people, very peace loving too. I heard that thinly populated Sweden was in the business of conquering other neighboring countries about 300 years ago, despite having a small population of 5 million Swedish souls that time, and despite living in a relatively big kingdom of Sweden even before the conquering process began. Sweden conquered Finland and Norway, Orthodox Karelia province out of Novgorod province. The armies of Sweden came up to the suburbs of the capital of Imperial Russia, close to Saint Petersburg, where they stopped. Next, they gave independence to Finland, and also gave the adjoining province of Karelia to newly independent Norway. Karelia comes all the way to the suburbs of Saint Petersburg. In Karelia province outside Saint Petersburg, the people attended Russian orthodox church for centuries, even if they had their own extinct language called Karelian. Karelians say they love all neighbors and can adjust to any conqueror. Karelian language among orthodox Karelians has been revived successfully in recent years as a second language among villagers of Russian province of Karelia, similar to Gaelic in Ireland. The military of Finland in the 20th century used the Swastika in their insignia and their uniforms. Many Finnish soldiers also wore helmets which looked similar to helmets of Nazi soldiers who wore futuristic looking helmets. This raised concerns in Saint Petersburg looking through binoculars across the border. Every bunker had a Nazi swastika. Finally the capital of Russia and the Soviet Union was shifted back to Moscow. This was before a winter war of 1939 to win areas of South Karelia outside Saint Petersburg previously overrun by Swedish forces many many decades earlier and gifted to newly independent Finland as former areas conquered by Sweden more than 100 years earlier.

The next part that covers the cold war era (and before) will be interesting, since it's a subject not often covered. The Finnish wars always draws the attention when it comes to non-English historians. Finland at that time of the cold war was developing from an agrarian nation into an industrialized one, while balancing between east and west. I've heard it said that Finland bowed to the west just enough not to moon the east. A notable event pertaining to the earlier days of the cold war is the Note Crisis, which debatably contributed to Urho Kekkonen winning his second term as president. The immediate years after WW2 were called "the danger years" in Finland, as there was a legitimate fear that the Finnish communist party would gain a tight foothold in the government, then appoint its members in leading positions of government branches (including the Finnish police force) to then turn Finland into Soviet puppet state, or even join the USSR. Sometime in the early-to-mid sixties, the USSR informed Finland that they had become concerned by West Germany beefing up its military. The USSR then saw Finland's Paris Peace Treaty-restricted military as pitifully incapable of stopping, much less resisting a potential West German/NATO force trespassing through Finland's territory to attack the USSR. The Soviets "suggested" that if Finland cannot defend itself from a theoretical attack, then the Soviets must be there to do that for them. Ergo, allow Soviet troops to establish base on Finnish territory. Needless to say, this was a huge scare, prompting Finland to hurridely modernize its military with purchases from both the east and west. Hence, the cold war-era Finnish military was a bit of a mishmash of equipment, a legacy that persists to this day. Finnish politics of the past is still a mostly grey area to me, but I know that the Finnish communist party fractured in 1968 after denouncing the occupation of Czechoslovakia. The hardliners (comparable, but not equal, to Stalinists), who were ardent supporters of the Brezhnev doctrine and thus deemed the occupation as justified, formed their own opposing group within the party. Headed by Taisto Sinisalo, these hardliners were then (derisively) called as "taistolaiset" (or Taistoans, if Englisised), and proved to be a thorn in the side of the Finnish communist party, arguably contributing to the party's gradual decline and eventual demise. There are also several instances where a book, a movie, a song, or even a computer game (Raid Over Moscow) has upset a few Soviet officials (and Soviet-conscious Finns) to then cause a small but farcical stir. Self-censorship among Finnish media was commonplace, occasionally reaching absurd and comical heights. The 1961 American comedy movie One, Two, Three was banned for nearly thirty years for, and I quote, "political reasons." In 1977, an album by the Finnish rock band Sleepy Sleepers had to change its name from "Karjala Takaisin" (Return Karelia) to "Takaisin Karjalaan" (Return to Karelia) for the same reasons. The songs on the album itself heavily mocked and ridiculed Finnish self-censorship and cowing to the Soviets, inevitably sparking condemnations and overreactions, and even requests to dance halls to deny Sleepy Sleepers from performing. Of course, the album gained a lot of publicity, and consequntly, popularity! These were only tiny tidbits that I recalled out of memory, so it's probable some details may be inaccurate. I suggest you research them deeper, if they've aroused your curiosity-and if there's any information to be found in a language you understand. At the least, these were anecdotal factoids that shows a glimpse of the cold war Finnish mindset and atmosphere.

"Tsarist" the Tsars were ended at the beginning of the Russian Empire (as opposed to Tsardom). The last Tsar was the first Emperor, following a war with Sweden.

Why did you have to use the post winter war map of Finland...

Be sure to check out Part 2 of the series! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ptGhi9172pixdYU.html If you would like to support the vitality of this channel please consider supporting me through patreon and paypal; also check out my book recommendations via Amazon. Thanks! www.patreon.com/blitzofthereich www.paypal.me/blitzofthereich www.amazon.com/shop/blitzofthereich Trivia - Did you know Tzar Alexander II promised Petsamo to the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1864?

It's a nice video! Please use correct vocabulary to get the details right. Right off the bat, after WW2 Russia did not challenge Finnish autonomy, as that would imply Finland was still a part of Russia. I guess you meant Russia challenged its independence. Keep up the good work!

One mistake in this video about finno-ugric peoples. Finno-ugrics used to live as south as moscow. Name of moscow even comes from finno-ugric tribe

Few notes... It is doubtful that Sweden itself took part to the battle of Neva. Sweden was at the time having a civil war so it was kind of busy fighting elsewhere. On the other Finland was at the time largely controlled by catholic bishops who may have taken part to the expedition to Neva but that is about it. It certainly wasn't anything notable since Sweden itself really had no time or resource for such. It is likely that some kind of skirmish was fought at Neva but not much more than that. Besides that battle didn't decide anything. It didn't even end the fighting - it was the peace of Nöteborg of 1323 which did. Also Finland was an integral part of Sweden where people had full rights, the very same which Swedes had - including the right to take part to the elections of the Swedish kings. The Great Northern War was quite a bit larger than just a fight between Sweden and Russia. It was Denmark, Poland (& Saxony) who together with Russia invaded Sweden. And 'decisive naval battle' is rather hilarious description of the battle of Hanko (Gangut). Unless you count the capture of a pram and pair of galleys as such. Sure it was the first actual naval victory by Russia so it got somewhat elevated status in Russia. Also the brutalities and violence carried out by the Russians certainly did cement the 'relationship' for times to come. Unless you consider selling civilians into slavery as means of building a relationship, as that is what the Russians did. The Finns responded to this by waging guerrilla war. The time is still known as 'isoviha' in Finnish or 'the great hatred'. Together with disease epidemics, Russian occupations, scorched earth tactics and everything it took decades for the population of Finland to recover from it. Also in Napoleonic Wars the Russia actually invaded Sweden (which included Finland) because of Russia's agreements with Napoleon in which Russia agreed to uphold the Continental System which Sweden refused to do - essentially because Napoleon told them to do so. British expeditionary force of 12 000 was actually kept in southern Sweden as Swedish king intended to invade Denmark but eventually - long before the conflict ended - sailed back home and from there to take part to the Peninsular War in Spain. Finland actually retained the Swedish era laws and even the Finnish Diet (direct continuator of the Swedish Riksdags of the Estates). Status of Finnish language was rather peculiar. There wasn't common Finnish let alone truly written Finnish prior to the Swedish era - just some odd scriptures. It was the Swedish who supported the developed of Finnish language largely due to the religious demands. That process created what is now know as 'kirjakieli' or 'Common Finnish'. Prior to that some of the Finnish dialects were not truly mutually intelligible. Additionally the Swedish Riksdags (and Crown) had Finnish translators so that the subjects of the Swedish Crown who spoke Finnish could make their pleas on their own language. Russia's stance towards Finnish is rather strange since early on (up to 1830s) they opposed it even placing a full ban on printing anything non-religious in Finnish while on the other hand they were hoping that by supporting Finnish they could try to separate Finland from Sweden. This kind of worked in the end but not like the Russians had hoped i believe since instead of trusting Russians Finns developed their own national identity often summarized in saying of 'Swedes we are no longer, Russians we will never want to become, so let us be Finns'. Time of the attempted Russification of Finland from 1899 to 1905 and from 1907 to 1917 are known as the 'times of oppression' in Finland. It should not be any miracle that Finnish sought help from all sources. Some even cooperated with the Japanese to acquire weapons for an uprising during the Russo-Japanese war of early 20th century. Finland also went through a change of government type at the time. The old estates based Finnish Diet was replaced with the modern Finnish Parliament that had full universal suffrage (the first female MPs were elected already in 1907). On the other hand the continued Russian efforts to destroy the Finnish autonomy backfired and Finland went from stable and loyal part of the Empire into rebellious hotbed which housed and protected even the Bolshevik rebels. It should not be any wonder that when the Great War started there were plenty of Finns who rather opted to volunteer to fight for Germany rather than for Russia. Also Finland was literally dragged into the Civil War. Finnish socialists had been reluctant to use force for their goals so the Soviet Bolsheviks, who had just granted Finland its independence believing that it would soon fold back into the socialist Russia, started instigating, arming and supporting hard line left wingers who started an uprising. After the first shots had been fired the people had to choose which side they would follow. Both the Reds and the Whites used terror tactics - Reds even targeting and murdering 'moderate' socialists (meaning socialists who refused to fight). The reason why the Russian Bolsheviks helped relatively little openly was the Brest-Litovsk treaty which among many other things explicitly forbade the Bolsheviks from doing that. That didn't stop the Russians from giving artillery and machine guns to the Finnish Reds though. The Heimosodat (~ 'wars of kindred people') which took place after the Finnish Civil War were largely the result of the yet undetermined nature of the relation between Finland and Soviet Russia. Namely that due to the Bolshevik involvement to the Finnish Civil War many saw that countries could still be in a sense be seen as being in war. In Finland the nationalist fervor however drove some to try to bring the Karelians either free or to integrate them as part of Finland. It is worth noting that the Finnish state was not involved and in once occasion where it tried to stop the activists the Finnish minister of interior was murdered for doing that. The first of the expeditions failed largely because of the British - who were still occupying the area - chose to arm and support the locals against the Finns whom the British saw at the time as more or less German subjects. Second one was fended up by the Bolsheviks when the locals opted not to take part to the efforts of the Finnish activists. Last one - in 1921-22 - resulted from the Karelians rejecting the Bolshevik rule and collectivization. As a result stretches of the Soviet Karelia were left nearly uninhabited when most of the people from those sparsely populated areas (~ 30 000) fled to Finland.

This is not very important in the context of this video, but 3:25 you show the map of territories that Russia lost during the Livonian War. Among these lands you also show Eastern Estonia. It is important to add that Russia did not own this land before the Livonian War, but only temporarily during the war.

Also, I do not see any sign of Greater Finland [Suuri Suomi] and Kinship Wars [Heimosodat] as a result of neo-tribalistic "ethnonational romantism" ever mentioned there. I find it amazing as such neo-tribalist movement actually paved the way to all the following wars and shaped them into some form of modernized tribal warfare, accompanied with massive ethnic cleansing since Vyborg massacre by tribalistic "Jagers" in 1918 and the following expulsion of all former Russian emperial citizens from Finland by bureaucratic official goverment just next to it (1918-1919). This effectively highlights Finland [just from its cradle] as extremely hostile anti-Slavic entity madded with tribalism but surprisingly with weird incline to Germanic aliens at the same time.

☠BLACK BARON☠0:19 The bubble for Russia is funny.

9:21 - "German Imperial soldiers" + Sweco-Fennic henchmen known as German Jagers, most notorious by their Vyborg massacre. You omitted important details of German role. Germany was re-establishing Hanseatic league with intent to monopolize coastal trade over all of South, East and North-East of the Baltic sea. For that reason, Germany was wrestling the Duchy of Finland from Russian empire economically, through a trade war since early 1900s. It quickly struck the deal with mostly local Swedish colonists (as they were actual owner and local policymakers) who were O.K. to swap primary loyalty from mother Sweden to its southern competitor. All this lead to construct of Germanic Duchies across Finland, Kurland / Livonia and Estland headed with German princes or "kings", so these lands would be just German protectorates and dependancies. Only collapse of Germany n 1918 rendered those plans impractical, rebellion of Baltic German militias were quenched down by local Estic and Lettic tribalists and Baltic Germans were eventually forced into expulsion in 1937-1939. Since then (around times of Dorpat treaty in 1920) Finland and Baltic statelets turned to ally with Anglo-French imperialists instead. However, before then, in 1918-1920, British saw Sweco-Fennic expeditions into Karelia etc. as mere expansion of reconstructed German Hanseatic league from Baltic sea into White sea coastal areas as well, thus sending British forces to block pro-German invasion into Karelia and Kola and even setting Orthodox Karels against their Luteran Fennic ethnic compatriots from South-West (Luteran Finns + Karels + Ingrian Finns alike). The same concern pupped up later when Mannerheim declared war of conquest of Eastern Karelia again (in 1941) and Britain in responce declared war on Finland (as German ally).

9:00 Finland got independence in 6th of december 1917 and Finland had its own civil war, they weren't in a russian civil war

9:40 - "Lenin ... display to the word the sincerity of his policy of the right of nations of self-determination" Russian Commies were quite upsed by their failure in Finland as their hidden agreement with Finnish Reds was independence for Red Finland and not of White one. Unfortunately for them, the pro-White politicians in Finland learned these plans (all was about 1914-1918) and managed somehow to joggle or rig the election so that socialist would never be able to establish the desisive majority in parliament thus removing the threat of socialism being legally inforced by their rivals. Lenin was then saving its face + Commies hoped that with some help of ComIntern / Great Depression etc. the power in Finland and other borderlands would fall into hands of local Reds anyway (just check for proof the structure of Soviet military Finn-focused propaganda at times since 1917 and all the way after till the end of Winter War in 1939) - unending hope that most of Finns eventually will turn against their squires, other landowners and capitalists themselves.

This didn’t happen in my eu4 game reeeee

Your sources seem a bit one-sided. Most of them are about russian history and none of Finnish.

I like your channel a lot, I think it is criminally undersubsrcibed. Having said that, and having no real knowledge of the situation, I think it is difficult to justify that Russia was adding a buffer zone between themselves and Napoleon by invading "Finland". It does not lie between Russia and France, so therefore not an avenue of attack, and therefore not a buffer zone. Still like your stuff, don't get me wrong.

i wouldnt really call it a hate love relationship, more like a hate hate relationship.

Can't believe I found your channel through a comment chain. KZfaqs recommendation system is a joke.

Dont forget isoviha.

PERKELE

Finland was treated as a colony of the Russians, albeit a weird form of an autonomous colony with limitations under the Tsarist regime. Hence it didn't receive the level of repression we Poles endured. However, when hearing Finnish claimed that they were the first to give women's right to vote, I feel like it is telling Russia being the first country to do so, and that's... insulting.

Artillery only

Some dude who disliked has notifications on

you can't start by saying Kieven Rus and follow it up with what is now known as Russia while showing that map

Hey, don't you go spitting venom at Potential History, now. He does some damn-fine work for an unrepentant memester.

Finland I,S Best ( ˶ ❛ ꁞ ❛ ˶ )Suomi on paras(~￣³￣)~

You forgot to mention that Finns whites could win the civil war only with the help of German division. Also, it's strange to mention 'Finland' before 1918 because such state never existed in history, as this territory was occupied by Sweden. Only when it was taken by Russian Empire the process of building Finnish state started.

squeak

How Winter war may have been avoided:::: If we ignore Hitler and Joseph Stalin::: Earlier on, Swedish cavalry-men on horseback or infantry under the orders of kings of Sweden had invaded and ruled over Norway and Finland, and wrested out (conquered) South Karelia province from the kingdom of Novgorod. Kingdom of Sweden had conquered South Karelia province of Novgorod kingdom. Swedish kings sent Swedish cavalrymen or infantry of the Royal Swedish kingdom to the gates of Saint Petersburg, as there was only a small province named Karelia formerly of Novgorod kingdom which if conquered, the invaders may reach the outskirts of Saint Petersburg. So Sweden invaded South Karelia, and ruled over Karelia. After this, Swedish cavalry-men, had parades and drills within monocle - view of defenders of Saint Petersburg. If all the three Scandinavian countries were united under one king, then Swedish kings would surely have returned the remaining invaded territory of Karelia back to Novgorod kingdom instead of Swedish kings gifting Karelia to Finland. South Karelia was a non Swedish invaded territory of Sweden. South Karelia was the last province of Novgorod, bordering Finland with Saint Petersburg capital city on the inner side. South Karelia would surely have been given back to the kingdom of Novgorod by the United Three States of Sweden by Swedish kings. This is like Mexico conquering the United States and Canada, and then gifting New York State to Canada. simply because ".. Canadians like the Niagara Falls". Some Finns shot down some Russian prisoners of war in the name of spies which may or may not be true, unless the POW's were caught wearing their Finn uniforms. The gift of South Karelia formerly of Novgorod kingdom was given by former Royal kingdom of Sweden to Finland may have been signed only by the king of Sweden, and no signature from the king of royal Russian king of Russia. The land gift of South Karelia to newly independent Finland, has to be given by two kings of both countries, including country / kingdom which originally owned South Karelia, who signs along with the Swedish king (Swedish king's forefathers conquered Karelia province and newer Swedish king is about to give independence to Finland) about to give independence to Finland.

You missed ancient Finnics...

Финляндия это наш финно-угорский уральский народ который захотел независимость но у них это получилось)))

Finland was under russian rule from 1809 to 1917. During this time, Finland experienced significant cultural and political changes as it adapted to Russian governance. One of the notable cultural changes was the shift towards Russification, where the Russian language and customs were promoted in Finland. After Finland gain their independence in 1917, the country underwent a period of nation-building and redefining its identity. The Finnish government implemented policies to preserve and revive Finnish language, culture, and traditions, promoting a sense of national pride among its citizens. We can learn from Finland's experience that political changes can have a significant impact on a country's cultural identity. No country is perfect all countries have dark history and have hurt each other but it is important to acknowledge and learn from these mistakes in order to strive for a better future. Hate wont bring about any positive change or progress. Instead, it only perpetuates a cycle of violence and division. By embracing empathy, understanding, and forgiveness, we can foster a more inclusive and harmonious world for future generations.

🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷

I'm sorry, but Finland has 1 hate-love relationship and her name is Sweden. When it comes to Russia, it's more hate than love although Russia is slowly buying more and more into Finland, so.... it's more hate-money relationship.

earlyyyy

How can anyone not admire Finland against Russia, any country's worst neighbor?

Finland isn't part of Eastern European history.

Torilla tavataan

Finland and Russia should've never separated.

This video is full of misunderstandings of history and politics. It is not even funny.