User:FulmenTheFinn

A Finnish military and political historian. My focus is on the Winter War and Continuation War, as well as on topics that are very poorly known even in Finland, such as the Finnish War of Independence^[1] and the Kinship Wars^[2].

[1] This is the original name of the war in English (vapaussota, lit. "Freedom War" in Finnish). For political purposes the war was anachronistically effectively rebranded to a pure civil war during the post-WW2 era of Finlandization, hiding the pivotal role Lenin's Russia played in arming, instigating, training and even leading the Red Rebellion during the war, involvement without which it would have never even broken out in the first place. In Finnish the original name of the war is still largely used by military historians, although it is less common in mainstream discussion, and unfortunately the original English name of the war has fallen out of use almost completely. The Russian involvement in the war is a particular point of interest of mine, and like the people of the Baltic States, who in the aftermath of WWI fought similar wars of their own, I have not forgotten the true nature of the war, what Lenin's goals in it were and what it meant for the survival of the Finnish nation, and thus I continue to use its original, rightful and most accurate name.

[2] The Kinship Wars (heimosodat, lit. Tribe Wars in Finnish), whose earlier stages are actually a part of the Finnish War of Independence, namely the First Expedition to Petsamo and the First Expeditions to White Karelia in 1918, the latter which formed the Northeastern Front of the War of Independence (vapaussodan koillisrintama), known by the Russians and Finnish Reds as the Northern Front of Finland's Red Guard (Suomen punaisen kaartin pohjoinen rintama), virtually forgotten in Finnish historiography and public discourse after WWII, are particularly unknown in Finland, nevermind abroad. Once again post-WWII Finlandization plays a pivotal role in how these conflicts, and especially the pleas for help by the local ethnic Finns in East Karelia and Ingria, have been largely swept under the rug and forgotten. After Eero Kuussaari's 1957 book Vapaustaistelujen teillä: sotahistoriallinen katsaus Suomen rajantakaisilla heimoalueilla 1900-luvun alkupuoliskolla käytyihin sotatoimiin [On the Roads of Battles for Freedom: A Military Historical Summary to the War Operations Conducted in the Kindred Areas Behind Finland's Border at the Beginning of the 20th Century] there wasn't a single comprehensive book written on the Kinship Wars until Jussi Niinistö's 2005 book Heimosotien historia 1918-1922 [The History of the Kinship Wars 1918-1922], which is very telling. At any rate, the Kinship Wars are another particular point of interest to me, and at the time of writing this I am in the process of translating a long list of East Karelian attempts at joining Finland, and later when official Finland would not come to the aid of the ethnically Finnish population of East Karelia, attempts at creating their own independent state.

As for political history, my primary focus is on Finnish political history from c. 1917 on, though my interest on the topic is by no means limited to that niche.