Finland's Military: A big win for NATO? #Finland, #winterwar

Comments · 861

• MI

  @michaelshurkin613 · 1 year ago · pinned

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• VI

  @virkkunen · 1 year ago

  Finns did not participate to the siege of Leningrad. Germans were furious about that Finns didn&apos;t close the encirclement from the west and left the gap for supplies. It was a direct order from Mannerheim.

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• RE

  @reeseasmr2511 · 1 year ago

  imagine a military thats sole purpose is to protect your own country. &nbsp;What a novel concept

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• SA

  @Salmar80 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Some notes and thoughts from a Finn:<br><br>- Finland&apos;s military ethos is still: You may conquer us, eventually, but can you afford the cost? Finland&apos;s military is built ONLY for defense, hence the reliance on a huge (per capita) reserve infantry and a large not-so-mobile artillery force. Any offensive capability such as the battle tank fleet and mobile infantry is only big enough for tactical counterattacks that are needed as part of the defense in a vast territory. Very intentionally Russia faces zero offensive threat from Finland&apos;s forces. Joining NATO is a move that signals: If we are invaded, hopefully we won&apos;t have to fight alone for long. Even in NATO, we can&apos;t rely on much actual outside support due to our relatively low strategic significance to the key NATO countries. <br><br>- The conscription system is cost effective in many ways (you famously pay a drafted soldier the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes and a donut per day), but there&apos;s a hidden cost to most males spending 6-12 months in the military, and others in civilian service, plus the continuous refresher exercises that maintain the reserve. Service is time taken away from work and from adding to the GDP. Still, in Finland&apos;s particular circumstance of needing to squeeze everything possible out of a small population in a large area, it makes perfect sense. And service builds a mutual will to fight. Rich or poor, you will serve and be part of the nation&apos;s fate. <br><br>- The defensive preparedness goes way beyond the men with guns: We have long maintained a spread out just-in-case stockpile of not only weapons, but other supplies from food to meds, even if it comes down to guerilla warfare after a potential defeat at the front. All top politicians, business leaders, relevant companies, and other players in key positions are included in the total defense plan, and take part in exercises. For example, trusted construction companies may get invited to drill building fortifications on a short time scale, there&apos;s redundancy in comms and key infra, there&apos;s bomb shelters everywhere, there&apos;s a plan to destroy all bridges and make road and rail network unusable by the enemy, etc. <br><br>- Inherent in this is that the Finns have witnessed what happens to countries under Russia&apos;s rule, and unanimously don&apos;t wish that fate upon us. Thus the support for self-defense crosses all party lines, which combined with an extremely highly educated and low-corruption society makes us resistant to hybrid warfare like election interference. Even Finland&apos;s nearest equivalents to far right parties, the ones that in other parts of Europe have fallen under a degree of Russian influence, are reliant on the patriotic voters, and simply can&apos;t lean Russia&apos;s way. And what&apos;s today called the left wing has zero sympathies to the East, either. Russia of today doesn&apos;t fit the ideals of building a free social-democratic society in the least. <br><br>- Unknown Soldier is not only a great book, but the 2017 movie is fantastic in it&apos;s realistic depiction of war and great production values. Easily on par with Band of Brothers in visuals and sound, and in many ways more realistic. You can tell even the directors and actors have served, and know how to run a trench and use cover properly, what fear under fire is, as well as how camaraderie actually displays in often silly ways.<br><br>- Although Russia does pose by far the biggest threat to Finland, there was a period after the fall of the Soviet Union that we Finns looked at Russia with optimistic eyes. We thought we could become mutually beneficial neighbors with prosperous trade, prosperous tourism, and no threat of war between us. Hence the temporary drop in military spending, and an increase in mutual investment. Unfortunately, Russia chose otherwise, and we have no choice other than to prep for the worst. It&apos;s not so much Putin&apos;s Russia we fear, but what potentially comes after. No one can predict what exactly happens after his reign comes to an end. Not even the Russians.

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• TA

  @tapioportimo2551 · 1 year ago

  A german high ranking officer was visiting Rovajärvi artillery range in Lapland and asked how many rounds of artillery the Finnish Army launches annually for practice. 30000 pieces was the answer. &quot;How many do you fire in Germany?&quot; The answer: &quot;60&quot;...

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• WA

  @wakuzaki · 1 year ago

  The one thing that always bothers me when people talk about Finnish history is that they always focus on the fact that we were a Russian satellite for a 100 years but always leave out that before that we were part of Sweden for 700 years. I think this will make Finland look like were culturally closely related to Russians when were actually much more culturally related to swedes.

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• HE

  @henrihamalainen300 · 1 year ago

  The military history of Finland is a lot longer than its independence. For example many of the soldiers in Swedish armies were Finns and they earned fierce reputation when fighting central European countries. The reputation from WW2 is just a continuation from the old times.

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• TB

  @tbo2307 · 1 year ago (edited)

  What most americans call «reserve forces» in a conscript system is really the main army to be mobilized when needed. The «standing army» is just the education system to make the mobilization army.

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• AN

  @andrewcombe8907 · 1 year ago (edited)

  I think Finland joining NATO is a greater worry for Russia than any other nation joining NATO apart from Ukraine. Finland’s military is excellent with good equipment, leadership and personnel with focus on rapid mobilisation for defence against a Russian incursion; it has a circa 1,000km border with Russia which is the longest of any NATO frontier; every Finn is extremely patriotic and prepared to perform military service; the Finnish military, border guards, civil police and emergency services frequently jointly train for hostile incursions and terror attacks; and by Finland and Sweden joining NATO, Scandinavia is militarily unified for the first time since the Kalmar Union and the Baltic is now a NATO lake.

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• LU

  @luvirini · 1 year ago

  On long range air defense: Finland has ordered an Israeli David’s Sling air defense system

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• DE

  @Demomancer · 1 year ago (edited)

  One point, during World War II the Finnish Army did not participate in the Siege of Leningrad. Mannerheim ouright refused to attack the city and threatened to resign if he was ordered to do so. Finnish forces occupied the old border area and stayed there. Also they didn&apos;t allow the German&apos;s to use Finnish territory to attack the city either. Mannerheim probably understood that the Russians would never forgive or forget an attack like that.

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• VO

  @voinyhelvetti · 1 year ago

  For anyone interested about the specifics of the naming of Molotov cocktail, it was indeed named after the Foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov. During the war there was heavy bombing on civilian targets among military ones by the Soviet air force but Molotov claimed on radio broadcasts that there were no bombings and that the Soviet Air Force was merely dropping food supplies to the starving Finns. Finns started to call these bombs &quot;Molotov&apos;s breadbaskets&quot; and devised a cocktail as a drink to go with the food.

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