Finland at War - Koivisto remembers

Summary of Olof Santesson's article in RSAWSPJ no 4 2001.

Former President Mauno Koivisto has in Young Soldier (Ung soldat, Bokförlaget Atlantis, Stockholm 2001) written down his war memoirs - an event his Finnish compatriots have long been waiting for. The author, who grew up in modest circumstances in the town of Turku in south-western Finland, was an adolescent when, in the autumn of 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland. In the ensuing Winter War (1939-1940) he held a volunteer job as a fireman. After heroic resistance Finland was forced to sue for peace, giving up part of her territory. Koivisto resumed menial work, but peace was short-lived. Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, and after Soviet bombs were dropped on the Finnish capital Helsinki, Finland entered the war as Nazi Germany's co-belligerent.

In this 1941-1944 Continuation War - as it is called in Finland - Koivisto once more first took part as a fireman, this time in a unit organized on a military scale. In 1942, the eighteen-year-old Koivisto was called up, and for the rest of the war he served as an infantryman. In his book he gives a vivid description of life as a private soldier in the trenches. In early 1944, for reasons he today has some difficulty in discerning, he volunteered for duty in a specially organized ranger company. Later, this unit was in the forefront of the battle when, in 1944, the Finnish Army was forced to retreat under heavy attack from powerful Soviet forces.

Interestingly enough, Koivisto is rather critical of his company commander, the legendary Lauri Törni who, after the war, took refuge in the United States and in 1965 was killed in Vietnam. The author feels that Törni's daring and soldierly behaviour sometimes confused his own men and put their lives at risk.

The book is full of observations of this kind. They give examples of Koivisto's great integrity and of his sterling character, traits that in later years made him one of Finland's most respected statesmen throughout her turbulent history.

The war memoirs of Koivisto are reviewed here together with two historical volumes on Finland’s great military conflicts, all written in Swedish and with the title Finland at War (Finland i krig, Schildts förlags Ab, Espoo 2000, 2002). Also mentioned is a pictorial diary, Permanent patrolling (Permanent patrullverksamhet, Scriptum, Vasa 2000) by an outstanding platoon leader, Harry Järv. These books combined give an important strategical, operational and tactical view of a small European country at war.