To conclude (for now) the topic of Finland, let us look at a few caricatures and posters, depicting Finnish actions during its invasion of the USSR. We invite everyone to explore this post at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden” for a comprehensive set of links on the topic of Finland and also to see the list of the articles tagged with the “Finland” tag at the Beehive.
We had already presented the first image as an illustration to The new Finnish doctrine: Ignorance, deception, and ingratitude. An Article by Dmitry Medvedev:
Death to the German-Finnish Occupiers!
This is TASS Window #11 from Leningrad, created in July of 1944 by Vasily Selivanov.
The poster shows the Finns taking Hitler’s baits of the “Greater Finland to Urals and Leningrad”. It is accompanied by a verse by K. Vysokovsky.
— I’ll take the Urals! – the bandit cried,
Accepting Hitler’s bait at face value,
The Russian “Hurra!” was then heard,
Turning the bandits into dust and feathers!
Source: Beorn And The Shieldmaiden
An Awkward Camouflage
The caricature by Boris Yefimov from 1943 shows the dual nature of how Finland positioned itself during the WWII.
The sign above the bunny reads: «Finland is a quiet, HARMLESS country!». Meanwhile, the soldier behind the snow mound is loading a gun with an artillery shell, carrying an inscription «At Leningrad». Below the picture there is the second title: «Finnish bandits ‘under cover’»
Finland called the Second World War for a «Continuation War», referring to the Winter War that it had with the USSR a few years before that, where the USSR secured its North-Western border and also moved the border away from the outskirts of Leningrad.
The Finnish Shapeshifter Cooking The Books
This caricature by Boris Yefimov from 1943 further demonstrates the dual nature of the Finnish position during WWII. What today is called for «double standards» was popular back then as well.
In the left part of the caricature, Finland is licking Hitler’s boots, with Hitler waving a promise of «Greater Finland to the Urals», before the heiling boot-licker’s nose.
In the segment on the right, Finland is all dandy: «Finland is conducting only a defensive war. We have nothing in common with Hitler.»
The subtext under the caricature sums it all up: «An uncomplicated, yet mean dual book-keeping».
The Fascist Zoo-corner of 1944
On May 13, 1944, the governments of the USSR, the United States and Great Britain jointly appealed to the governments of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland with a proposal to withdraw from the war on the side of Germany. The document stated:
“These states can still, by withdrawing from the war and ending their pernicious cooperation with Germany and by resisting the Nazi forces with all possible means, shorten the duration of the European struggle, reduce their own sacrifices that they will eventually suffer, and contribute to the victory of the Allies.”
The call of the allies was heard. At the end of August 1944, after the fall of the regime of dictator Ion Antonescu, Romania sided with the anti-Hitler coalition. In September, after the overthrow of the regime of Tsar Boris III, Bulgaria followed suit, and then Finland. In October, Hungarian dictator Miklos Horthy also attempted to withdraw from the war. However, it was suppressed by the Nazis. The leader of the fascist party “Crossed Arrows” Ferenc Salasi came to power in Hungary. Hungary fought on the German side until April 1945.
Source: Historian Magazine
♦️♦️♦️
🇷🇴🇭🇺🇫🇮🇪🇸 For the illustration we chose a 1944 caricature by Boris Yefimov with the title “The Fascist Zoo-corner of 1944”.
Under the drawing, these critters are qualified in a sarcastically biting way:
“🇷🇴 The innocent dove, 🇭🇺 the meek lamb, 🇫🇮 the harmless hare, 🇪🇸 the gentle calf.”
The Finnish militant hiding behind the guise of a harmless hare is seen sitting on the plans of “Greater Finland”.
👉 This caricature is one of many on the display at the digital exhibition of the Nekrasov library, “The Artists of Victory”.
Another TASS Window is more sombre:
Death to Finnish lachtars!
This is TASS Window №10 from Leningrad, created in June of 1944 by Boris Leo.
The drawing is accompanied by a verse by A. Flit, here translated verbatim:
This Finn closed the ring of siege
Together with the German,
This Finn dreamed to quicker see
The ashes of Leningrad.
This Finn fired eagerly —
Sending shells into the dark at kindergartens.
This Finn dreamed to leisurely
Settle on the Soviet soil.
This Finn, with a beastly soul,
Tortured women and children.
This Finn built lots of
Concentration camps in Peteozavodsk.
This Finn wandered as a jackal
In the footsteps of the German wolf.
This Finn wanted to eat
The Urals for his dinner.
So, beat the Finnish bandit,
Dealing out judgement over the fiend.
Beat him the Russian way! In earnest!
Beat the lackey-lachtar!
♦️♦️♦️
NOTE: Lachtar is a derogatory name given to the Finnish soldiers — the interventionist White Finns of the so-called “Civil” War, the soldiers of the Winter War, the Finnish Nazis of WWII.
♦️♦️♦️
The text of this poem brings to memory another cry for retribution, a poem by Konstantin Simonov from 1942
Kill him!
If your home is dear to you,
Where you’ve been raised as a Russian,
Under the log ceiling,
Where you were rocking in a cradle, floating;
If within that house, are dear
To you the walls, the stove and the corners,
And the floors, well-trodden by
Grandfather, great-grandfather and father;
If you like the meagre garden
With the colour of May, with the buzzing of bees
And a table under the linden tree,
Dug into the ground by your grandfather a 100 years ago;
If you don’t want the floor in your house
To be trampled by a fascist,
That he’d sit at your grandfather’s table
And he’d break the trees in the garden…
If your mother is dear to you —
The breast that has fed you,
Where there’s been no milk for a long time,
To which you can only lean with your cheek;
If you can’t bear it,
That a fascist, stationed with her,
Would beat her on her wrinkled cheeks,
Having wrapped her braids around his hand;
That the very same hands of hers,
That carried you to the cradle,
Would be washing the bastard’s underwear
And would make his bed…
If you haven’t forgotten your father,
Who rocked you in his arms,
Who was a good soldier
And went missing in the Carpathian snows,
Who died for the Volga, for the Don,
For your Fatherland’s fate;
If you don’t want him to
Spin in his grave,
That a soldier’s portrait in crosses
A fascist would take and crash on the floor
And in front of your mother’s eyes
He’d be stepping on his face…
If you don’t want to give away
Her, with whom you together walked,
The one whom for a long time
You didn’t dare to kiss, you loved her so much, —
That the fascists can take her alive
They they’d take her by force, in a corner,
And the three of them crucified her,
Naked, on the floor;
That these three dogs would get
In moans, in hatred, in blood
Everything that you cherish as sacred
With all the power of a man’s love…
If you don’t want to surrender forever
to a fascist armed with a gun
The house where you lived, your wife and mother,
Everything that we call – Motherland, —
Know this: no one will save her,
If you don’t save her;
Know this: no one will kill him,
If you don’t kill him.
And while you haven’t killed him yet,
Shut up about your love,
The land where you grew up and the house where you lived,
Don’t dare to call for your homeland.
Though your brother killed a fascist,
Though a neighbour killed a fascist, —
It’s your brother and neighbor taking revenge,
And there’s no excuse for you.
They don’t sit behind someone else’s back,
They don’t take revenge from someone else’s gun.
As it’s your brother who killed a fascist, —
It is he who’s the soldier, not you.
So kill the fascist so that he,
And not you would lie on the ground,
So that not in your house they’d bemoan,
The dead, but in his.
That’s what he wanted, it’s his fault, —
Let his house burn, not yours,
And let it be not your wife,
But his to end up as a widow.
Let it be the tears not of yours,
But of the mother that gave him birth
Let not your family, but his
Wait for return in vain.
So kill at least one!
So kill him quick!
And as many times that you see him,
Kill him so many times!