Behind him, persistently, two women and six men watch as Kettunen moves. Everyone has volunteered to take part in backup exercises. Ketunen, the coach and president of the reserve association, sees some of them today for the first time. In a piece of forest about an hour away from Helsinki, there are weekly shooting exercises with four different types of weapons. As of February 24 this year, the Vandaa Reserve Association has received more than 400 new members. at the beginning of the year the whole club numbered about 1,000 members. On May 18, 2022, Finland submitted its application to NATO – a decision that Kettunen has been waiting for a long time. Although there was only about 20% support for NATO membership before the Russian invasion, Ketunen does not know a single person who would oppose membership. Shortly after the end of the war in Kosovo, Ketunen took part in a peacekeeping mission. “You could say that the mass graves were still warm when we arrived. The mission changed everything for me. “Only alliances like NATO can ensure peace in the long run.” This is what Kettunen says when asked about Finland’s imminent accession to NATO. From late April to mid-May we – Finnish photographer Jonathan Terlinden and German photographer Patrick Junker – traveled to Finland to visit people and places to better understand the history between Finland and Russia. The first stop of our trip led to Suomenlinna Fortress, a few miles outside of Helsinki. Its construction began in 1748 and became necessary when the Russian Tsar Peter the Great tried to claim Russia as a naval power by founding St. Petersburg. The fortress was surrendered in 1808 and the then Swedish province of Finland became the Grand Duchy of Finland a year later and therefore part of Russia.
Tamara Danylova, 26, a journalist from Ukraine, arrived in Finland two weeks ago. He lives with two friends in a hostel that has been turned into a refugee shelter. Hailing from Sloviansk, a town in the Donetsk region, she has been supporting the Ukrainian army with her family since 2014. Most recently, she has lived in Lviv. But as the fighting drew nearer and nearer to the city, he decided to leave.
Juho Moilainen, 20, is completing his military service and has returned home for the weekend. He is not worried. “We have always lived here on the Russian border. “Nothing has changed.” As is customary in rural Finland, he spends Friday night in the car with his friends. For the new generation, the threat of war is very abstract.
Fifty years later, Tsar Alexander II granted the Finns extensive autonomy. The Finnish language was promoted to weaken the influence of the Swedes and to anchor the Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire. But Finland’s desire for independence grew. It was not until 1917, after the October Revolution in Russia, that Finland declared its independence. But Finland was a divided country. A bloody civil war ensued between whites led by the conservative Finnish Senate who fought against the Red Socialists. Nearly 30,000 people have lost their lives in connection with the Finnish civil war. “People in Russia are not bad. I have many good friends there. “But if I had not seen so much from Russia, I would have thought differently today,” said Helena Seppänen, 71, of Ruhtinansalmi, a town 450 miles north of Helsinki and a walk across the Russian border. Suomussalmi, the nearest major city, is an hour’s drive away. When we get here in late April, the days are sunny and clear. However, the rough ice of the lake landscape is still strong enough to carry skiers and ice fishermen. Helena and Eero Seppänen, 77, could already see the first bears. A few weeks ago they woke up from hibernation. Before 1989, there was an invisible wall here. It was a strange situation. Now we have this invisible wall again Helena Seppänen Eero Seppänen has lived here all his life. His mother, Lembi, is honored as a hero in the village. She watched the first Russian soldiers cross the border on November 30, 1939. She took her three children and ran 6 miles to warn the villages and soldiers on the other side of the river. It was the beginning of the winter war and established the national identity of the Finns. In this chapter of Finnish history, especially in the battle around Suomussalmi, there are many parallels with the situation in Ukraine today. Russian security interests served as a pretext for attacking a desperately inferior military nation. But the Finns were able to resist the overwhelming enemy in the impassable terrain and in the deep winter, a resistance that the Soviets did not expect. They actually believed that they would free the Finnish people from the yoke of landowners and capitalists. But the opposite happened: the enemy attack and the first victories of their own army made the camps, which had been hostile to each other since the civil war, grow together. Through the “spirit of winter war” Finland gained international prestige and domestic power. A peace treaty was reached, but Finland had to cede territory to the Soviet Union. Although the country fought alongside Germany in the ongoing war since 1941, it remained independent and free of alliances after World War II. The perpetually perceived latent threat from the East forced Finland to carry out a frequently criticized foreign policy balancing act in the decades after World War II, aimed at preventing the Soviet Union and later Russia. During the Cold War, the term “Finnishization” was introduced in the West. Although neutrality was maintained, the influence of the Soviet Union was palpable. For this reason, the country consciously avoided joining NATO. There was always a lot of talk about the war in Finland. Especially since we have such an unpredictable neighbor Veli Merentie, 98 years old “When Putin threatened Finland and said we should not join NATO, I completely changed my mind. “Of course, we have to join NATO,” said Veli Merentie, 98. “It has nothing to say about what we Finns should do.” Merentie himself fought in the war of attrition and two of his brothers died in the winter war. Finland is a country on alert. It has always been the border between west and east.
Paavo Terä is doing his military service in the tank brigade. He comes from a military family and his great-grandfathers have already fought in the Winter War and the War of Continuation.
“Russia has seen us as an enemy since we joined the EU. For them, we are already the front line, they just have not attacked yet,” said Paavo Terä, 19, as we met him at the Arrow 22 military exercise. Unlike many other EU countries, Finland has retained its military service even after joining the EU. The Finnish Armed Forces has a permanent force of 34,700 and about 900,000 reservists. The Armed Forces regularly participates in various international exercises. In May 2022, the Finnish army visited forces from the United Kingdom, Latvia, the United States and Estonia to practice cooperation under Exercise Arrow 22. The day we and more than 40 other media outlets visited the Arrow 22 military exercise, a Russian military helicopter violated Finnish airspace. Such incidents are becoming more frequent. For example, in early April, a Russian military transport aircraft briefly entered Finnish airspace. At the same time, assets of Russian oligarchs are being expropriated and economic cooperation is being terminated. Finns have become more aware that Russian oligarchs have had suspicious properties in Finland in recent years. Large apartment buildings and villas in strategically necessary locations have attracted a great deal of media attention. Back to Suomussalmi? Pentti Seppänen, 82, has also spent his entire life near the Russian border. The retired teacher participates in many associations, including the Veterans Association. He was born when his mother was evacuated and his father fought in the battle for Suomussalmi in the Winter War. However, regardless of what the politicians decide, the only thing that matters to him is the maintenance of peace. “The war in Ukraine shows that the Russian government can make irrational decisions. “Finland’s accession to NATO will probably not make them think logically.”
