It is not for nothing that the country sees more and more inhabitants expressing themselves in favor of joining NATO. The percentage now stands at 62% of Finns. The war in Ukraine has revived fears and sometimes hatred against Russia in the country, while previous generations remain deeply marked by the wars which pitted them against the Soviet Union.
This statement is all the more true on the south-eastern border of Finland, in Karelia, where part of this region was forcibly and violently annexed by the Russians in 1944. At that time, nearly 400,000 people fled to take refuge further west in Finland. Among these families, that of Kristina. This lady, now 68 years old, remembers very well what her mother told her about the Russians. “A Russian will always remain a Russian even if you fry him in butter. It meant that no matter what, you can be attacked at any time.”
Finland has only been independent from Czarist Russia since 1917 and has twice had to fight against the Soviet Union: first in 1939, when the USSR annexed the Karelian Isthmus after the Winter War. Between 1941 and 1944, then, when at the end of the Continuation War, Finland again had to cede territories to its powerful neighbor, including Karelia.
In the town of Lappeenranta, near the border, a museum maintains the memory of this lost territory. A giant model of the city of Viborg, destroyed, then swallowed by Russia is exhibited there. “I’m very worriedcomments Päivi Partanen, historian and director of the museum. I hope things work out, but humanity works a certain way, you know. History tends to repeat itself.”
If the Finnish authorities assure that there is no direct threat, precautions are taken. Fallout shelters are currently listed.