Interesting,
There is going to be release of 300 previously censored winter war and continuation war photos from Finnish archives at tomorrow. These photos have been previously censored becouse political reasons from public view under fear of provoking Soviet Union. As this material contains so called “horrors of winter and continuation war”.
Material contains visual proves about Soviet partisans destroyed and burned Finnish villages among with women and child victims killed by Soviet partisans during these village raids.
Also material contain visual proves that there where cannibalism during winter war among Finnish encircled Soviet divisions as food run out soviet comrades started eat their fellow soldiers.
There are also photos of Finnish court martial and executions of war deserters and mutineers with have been previously censored to protect military court Judges and their relatives.
There will be full article at tomorrows Helsingin Sanomat the main Finnish newspaper.
Release of Shocking Winter War & Continution War photos
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Jarkko Hietala
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I just saw about this in the morning news, and out of curiosity checked Helsingin Sanomat webpage, there are some of the pictures available there.
http://www.hs.fi/kuvakoosteframe/1135223079631
They are indeed quite shocking, and even cruel pics.
Regards,
-Pete
http://www.hs.fi/kuvakoosteframe/1135223079631
They are indeed quite shocking, and even cruel pics.
Regards,
-Pete
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Juha Tompuri
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Eisenfaust
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Thanks for the hint.
I think it is a good thing to publish all photographs related to the Finnish-Soviet wars, so that everybody has a realistic idea of war. The so called official pictures tend to give the impression that war is a "clean game", and that losses are just statistics. Even though it is important to publish these photos, I must admit this is a very sensitive issue. I don't know if I wanted the general public to see pictures of my relatives who died in the battlefield.
=E=
I think it is a good thing to publish all photographs related to the Finnish-Soviet wars, so that everybody has a realistic idea of war. The so called official pictures tend to give the impression that war is a "clean game", and that losses are just statistics. Even though it is important to publish these photos, I must admit this is a very sensitive issue. I don't know if I wanted the general public to see pictures of my relatives who died in the battlefield.
=E=
Dead bodies are seldom a pretty sight. I don't like the idea of the yellow press feasting on macabre details, and I doubt how many people actually want to see more. It is unlikely that the personal identities of the victims arouse any particular interest, even less so the identity of their living relatives of today.
However, publishing photographic evidence is appropriate where misleading claims or popular beliefs have prevailed. For example, there are plenty of photos in the War Archives that prove how Finnish POWs were treated under Soviet captivity, but the material has not been made public for similar political reasons as those applying to the newly released photos.
However, publishing photographic evidence is appropriate where misleading claims or popular beliefs have prevailed. For example, there are plenty of photos in the War Archives that prove how Finnish POWs were treated under Soviet captivity, but the material has not been made public for similar political reasons as those applying to the newly released photos.
As I said in another post, nothing new after buying photos taken privately by Finnish soldiers and officers in the Winter and Continuation War.
War is not nice uniforms, cool-looking weapons, heroes on both sides and knightly fight. In the end it is all about cruel pictures like this.
I think it is good to bring these pictures forward and also to make war movies more cruel to show that war is the worst solution to all disputes. All this is my humble opinion, of course.
with best regards,
Bair
War is not nice uniforms, cool-looking weapons, heroes on both sides and knightly fight. In the end it is all about cruel pictures like this.
I think it is good to bring these pictures forward and also to make war movies more cruel to show that war is the worst solution to all disputes. All this is my humble opinion, of course.
with best regards,
Bair
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G. Trifkovic
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Could somebody translate into english the captions on the last four photos?I just saw about this in the morning news, and out of curiosity checked Helsingin Sanomat webpage, there are some of the pictures available there.
http://www.hs.fi/kuvakoosteframe/1135223079631
They are indeed quite shocking, and even cruel pics.
Regards,
-Pete
Many thanks in advance,
Gaius
"Soviet spy laughs to his executioner at Rukajärvi November 1942. The following pictures show, how the spy is shot. In the (Finnish) Defence Force had been speculated, that publishing pictures of prisoners of war and spies had been avoided also because it was feared that sovietphile Finns would use pictures in propaganda."
http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2006112 ... _uu.shtml#
A great many more photos are listed on this site.
As someone that collects military gear I have often thought about how the items that I collect might have been used to take the lives of others. One reason that I collect is to keep history both alive and remembered but it can be sobering when one thinks about it. War is and always has been hell. War is also hardest on the weakest and the old and young suffer the most.
A great many more photos are listed on this site.
As someone that collects military gear I have often thought about how the items that I collect might have been used to take the lives of others. One reason that I collect is to keep history both alive and remembered but it can be sobering when one thinks about it. War is and always has been hell. War is also hardest on the weakest and the old and young suffer the most.
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Juha Tompuri
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Today one is subjected to equally or more graphic pictures in everyday newsmedia, so that even the pictures of dead Finnish civilians, while certainly tragic, fail to truly shock.
But a picture in Juha's link, showing a Finnish deserter begging for mercy before he's executed -- that's certainly one of the most moving and shocking pictures I've ever seen.
That's a typical photo/caption mismatch: the photo depicts a scene from Rukajärvi in November 1942, but the caption refers to the other (unincluded by HBL) photo of a similar scene in Hanko in June 1941.
The picture of the Finnish condemned man must be from 1941 - IIRC there weren't any death penalties for "desertion and" during the following winters - any idea about the location?
(FWIW for some reason it's my instinctive reaction, too, to "identify with" the person, Finnish or Soviet, soon to be shot, rather than the shooter(s).)
The picture of the Finnish condemned man must be from 1941 - IIRC there weren't any death penalties for "desertion and" during the following winters - any idea about the location?
(FWIW for some reason it's my instinctive reaction, too, to "identify with" the person, Finnish or Soviet, soon to be shot, rather than the shooter(s).)
Perhaps he should have considered that before deserting. Deserters can have only one future, execution.Mikko H. wrote:Today one is subjected to equally or more graphic pictures in everyday newsmedia, so that even the pictures of dead Finnish civilians, while certainly tragic, fail to truly shock.
But a picture in Juha's link, showing a Finnish deserter begging for mercy before he's executed -- that's certainly one of the most moving and shocking pictures I've ever seen.