How about Finnish professor, who would be also, gifted musician and a bandit. I think you some-what misunderstood me here - what I meant is basically: If you know nationality of a person and observe the phrases and terms that he/she prefers to use you have good chance of getting some idea about the ideals behind his/her thinking at least in contemporary matters even without talking about the actual matters. IMHO most (if not all) cultures/languages have phrases and terms loaded with political significance - if you know these then such observations should be quite possible. The terms we all pick without much a though may reveal quite bit of the way in which we are thinking. The country from which the person is from and/or the language he/she talks has no real relevance on its own in this sense. As for the other way around - language, both written and spoken, is the main tool for politicians - and a very powerful tool for that. As for the few details such as writing DShK - I just don't have time to proofread my text so many times in these days.BIGpanzer wrote:guys!
I don't think so. The language is great culture source and the source of additional interesting info from original literature, nothing common with some ideals if we are talking about well-educated people not about nazis of all kinds [because languages exist for centuries and corresponding ideals/politics change sometimes every dozen years]. If I am the German-native speaker - does this mean that my ideals are SS or Hitler?! The phrases yes - inside the language - I hope you can distinguish easily Finnish professor or musician from Finnish bandit, for example. I also don't understand how the language can show the person's nature - of course, there are some natural characters [quite often stereotypes and myths - positive and negative] of every nation, but as all men are strong individuals that means nothing - are you German, Russian or Finn, what is the difference, especially in today's global world [every well-educated man liked his own language and nation traditions, and respect the languages/traditions of other countries]. At least for European nationalities from Portugal to Russia and from Norway to Greece I don't see any significant diferences from my huge experience of work and friendship with people of different nations; in Asia you can feel the differences with the European style of life/communications, this is true.JTV wrote:
Language is politics and politics is language - the language spoken and the phrases used tell about the person speaking and the about the ideals he/she believes.
I am personally feel the great interest to learn more about grammar and history of every language when I have such a possibility.
I am now back home, so I checked my copy of "Aselevon jälkeen". It has six pages about the subject (pages 319 - 324). It seems that Väinämöinen was in pretty poor condition from the war and it received rather large repairs before its transfer to Soviet hands. I am not going to translate the whole text, but here the most important parts: While Väinämöinen survived World War 2 Finnish leadership no longer found it important. Finnish-Soviet peace treaty included large financial payments (for example weaponry acquired from Germany during the war and not yet paid had to be paid to Soviet Union according peace terms). So government of Finland decided to sell Väinämöinen to Soviet Union as part of these payments. The matter demanded new law, which was legislated and approved by Finnish Parliament.
The deal was for Finland to sell the ship with all its weapons, ammunition, equipment, tools, machines, documents etc for price of 265 million Finnish marks. Ministry of Defence was responsible arranging this deal. Väinämöinen had been stripped (of all equipment not necessarily needed?) and was in Pansio naval base (in city of Turku). Its personnel had been mostly transferred elsewhere. From Finnish side the man responsible for preparing the transfer was Chief of staff for Turku naval base Komentaja-kapteeni (Commander) Kaarlo Pakkala, who had four other officers assisting him in this matter. For organising practical matters Finnish Navy had to order or hire about 100 men who knew the ship from previous experience. Representing the Soviets in preparing this transfer was Captain 2nd Class Negoda, who arrived with 8 officers to Turku in 31st of January 1947. About 200 sailors from Soviet Baltic Navy arrived as a new of the ship in late February and their training for using the ships equipment started. Finns supervised this training. The ship needed new paint and cleaning. Some of the toilet seats and sinks needed repairs, oven of officer's mess was broken and both radio-systems and telephone-systems were unfit for duty. All other of these repairs were made, but the oven would have required spare parts from Germany, so it could not be fixed. Two motor boats and spare parts for them were delivered to the ship. Soviets demanded also historical survey about the ship, so this was written and delivered to them. The ship had: 1,372 shots for 254-mm guns, 3,825 shots for 105-mm guns and 12,000 shots for anti-aircraft guns. The Soviets were demanding 2,000 shots for its 254-mm guns, but as 1,372 was all that Finnish Navy had left they settled for taking these with the ship.
According plan this training should have taken 30 days, but it took much more (until the next spring). The book suggests two reasons for this:
1. Soviet officers handing the matter lived very conformably in Finland and enjoyed their stay.
2. Electronic equipment on the ship was more complicated than to which Soviet Navy was used to.
Engines of the ship were tested for 11 hours on idle and besides damaging piers it revealed problems with them - two of the main diesels required repairs.
Finnish flag on ship was replaced with Soviet one in official ceremony 25th of March. Test run (with Finnish supervision and Soviet crew) was 29th of May. The ship sailed 4 hours on full speed during this testing and had no engine trouble this time. Also each 254-mm was tested by firing 1 or 2 shots per gun during this test run and also smaller calibre guns were tested during it. Writing the final transfer documents required several meetings about exact text, but finally 5th of June it was signed. Finnish signee was Commander Saukkonen (Commander of Turku naval base) and Soviet signee Captain 1st Class Suhorukov. Also Rear Admiral Raskonikov took part to this event. The Soviets had promised to pay transfer expenses - some 6.7 million Finnish Marks, but these were never paid. Finns ended up paying also using of the two tugboats, which assisted Väinämöinen/Viborg off from harbour. So the final financial benefit proved to be much less than originally planned. The Soviets took their new ship first to Porkkala, from where it sailed to Kronstadt 29th of August 1947.
Jarkko