Finnish oaths?

[subskipper]

Did the Finnish soldiers take any oaths when enlisted in the army? If so, cpild anyone please provide it?


Many thanks


~Henric Edwards

[Tiwaz]

Yes. I think it has been tradition after civil war if not even earlier.

I failed to find one translated in english but perhaps someone else has better luck with it.

[subskipper]

Thanks anyway Tiwaz!





~Henric Edwards

[JTV]

The original military oath in Finnish (the form used from 1918 to 2000, some minor changes were made at year 2000):

"Minä lupaan ja vakuutan kaikkivaltiaan ja kaikkitietävän Jumalan edessä olevani Suomen valtakunnan luotettava ja uskollinen kansalainen. Tahdon palvella maatani rehellisesti sekä parhaan kykyni mukaan etsiä ja edistää sen hyötyä ja parasta.

Minä tahdon kaikkialla ja kaikissa tilanteissa, rauhan ja sodan aikana puolustaa isänmaani koskemattomuutta, sen laillista yhteiskuntajärjestystä sekä valtakunnan laillista esivaltaa. Jos havaitsen tai saan tietää jotakin olevan tekeillä laillisen esivallan kukistamiseksi tahi maan yhteiskuntajärjestyksen kumoamiseksi, tahdon sen viipymättä viranomaisille ilmoittaa.

Joukkoa, johon kuulun, sekä paikkaani siinä, en jätä missään tilanteessa, vaan niin kauan kuin minussa voimia on, suoritan saamani tehtävän loppuun.

Lupaan käyttäytyä kunnollisesti ja miehekkäästi, totella esimiehiäni, noudattaa lakeja ja asetuksia sekä säilyttää hyvin minulle uskotut palvelussalaisuudet. Tahdon myös asetovereitani kohtaan olla suora ja auttavainen. Milloinkaan en sukulaisuuden, ystävyyden, kateuden, vihan tai pelon vuoksi enkä myöskään lahjain tahi muun syyn tähden toimi vastoin palvelusvelvollisuuttani.

Jos minut asetetaan esimiesasemaan, tahdon olla alaisiani kohtaan oikeudenmukainen, pitää huolta heidän hyvinvoinnistaan, hankkia tietoja heidän toiveistaan, olla heidän neuvonantajanaan ja ohjaajanaan sekä omasta puolestani pyrkiä olemaan heille hyvänä ja kannustavana esimerkkinä.

Kaiken tämän minä tahdon kunniani ja omantuntoni mukaan täyttää."


And my try to translate it (I am no official interpriter, but this should be close enough to at least give some idea):

"I swear and declare in front of all-mighty and all-knowing God to be trustworthy and loyal citizen of Finland. I want to serve my country with honesty and with my best ability to seek and progress its interest and best.

I want in everywhere and in every situation, during peace and war to protect the integrity of my country, its legal social order and its legal authorities. I if notice or found out about something in the making for defeating of legal authorities or social order, I will want to inform that to authorities without delay.

The troop in which belong, and my place in it, I will not leave under any circumstances, but as long as I have strength, I will fulfil my mission.

I promise to act with dignity and manly, obey my superiors, follow the laws and regulations and hold the military secrets trusted to me. I want to be frank and helpful towards my comrades in arms. Never will I for kinship, friendship, hate or fear neither for presents or any other reason act against my responsibilities.

If I will be set into position of leadership, I want to be righteous towards my subordinates, take care of their well-being, acquire information about their requests, be their advisor and mentor and from my own behalf try to be good and encouraging example for them.

All this will I want to fill according my honour and conscience."


Nowadays there is are also altenative "vakuutus" (declaration) that can be done instead of oath (As you may notice the first part of oath assumes that the person making it has some religious belief to one god etc...), but I don't think it existed yet during WW2.

[subskipper]

Thanks you JTV!





~Henric Edwards

[Antti V]

hmmm.. I think I do have some old army book from war years with that original oath. I try to find it and post it if I can find it. If I remember correct, there was something about our eastern neighbourhs in that oath originally too...
Or then it was in AKS´s or IKL´s oaths only. (AKS = Academic Karelia Society and IKL = Patriotic Folk Movement, IKL is again alive with shorten name IKL but name means now Patriotic National Alliance).

[subskipper]

Thanks Antti! I hope you find it.


P.S. I sent the questions today.




~Henric Edwards

[JTV]

hmmm.. I think I do have some old army book from war years with that original oath. I try to find it and post it if I can find it. If I remember correct, there was something about our eastern neighbourhs in that oath originally too...
Or then it was in AKS´s or IKL´s oaths only. (AKS = Academic Karelia Society and IKL = Patriotic Folk Movement, IKL is again alive with shorten name IKL but name means now Patriotic National Alliance).

That one that I included *is the original one* (the one used from 1918 to 2000). The new version used since year 2000 has some changes that were made to update it more suitable to this time. For example: In old Finnish military oath the one who made the oath promised to behave "manly", as Finnish Army nowadays takes also female volunteers as soldiers "manly" got changed as "upright".

So, the one with mentioning of eastern neighbour must have been used either by AKS, IKL or some other similar organisation.

Article about the update of military oath (mentions the exact above mentioned change as an example) in official server of Finnish Defence Forces:

http://www.mil.fi/tiedotus/tiedotteet/2 ... 737_1.html

[Topspeed]

This belongs here neither.

JT