Thank you, typo corrected.
There will be ramifications. There was a note about one of them in a previous chapter, but more will follow...
The Land of Sad Songs – Stories From Protect and Survive Finland
- Thread starter DrakonFin
- Start date
Thank you, typo corrected.
There will be ramifications. There was a note about one of them in a previous chapter, but more will follow...
Well, speaking of Sweden, one of the reasons I had a chuckle was I'd just been editing this before posting over on my Alternative Winter War thread - https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=6624950&postcount=637
... and it struck me as a common thread linking a number of the Finnish ATL's
It is certainly a sentiment (or perhaps a prejudice) many Finns, especially of the older generations tend to agree with. That Sweden might support Finland when the times are good and even to some extent when they get bad. But when push comes to shove, Sweden will look after itself first and any other country (its Nordic neighbours included) comes a very distant second. I actually think few Swedes understand how deeply the Finnish WWII-era generations felt they were being politically and militarily betrayed by Sweden during the Winter War -despite the generous material help received from the western neighbour, and the volunteers- and how much that feeling has shaped Finnish understanding of Swedish policies for long after that.
Just goes to show that little everyday details and decisions aren't as trivial as they sound when it comes to the greater outcome of history...
You're right, Petike. One minor event can end up altering a lot of things.
Tell me about it. Of the three or so TLs I've got going, two involve a kid being born in place of one that didn't or died in OTL, and one involves PODs as minor as a change of weather and a case of diarrhea suffered by one of the key historical figures involved.
Good updates, DrakonFinn!
In due time, Sweden might be able to help given that it received less hits.
The insane officer should have been kept in confinement.
Thank you.
The Captain being released is due to both him being able to appear quite lucid and reasonable for extended periods of time, as well as having a decisive way of acting and using his (reserve) rank to throw off soldiers his junior. That is indeed how he could fool the hapless Corporal to let him in at the "Technical Depot". The fact that not even all military police know the significance of the place and that it is basically Colonel Ahola's private facility also plays a role. Had the Colonel been around to witness the situation, the Captain would have been locked up and the key thrown away. But he is negotiating in Sweden, the subordinates in his office fail to communicate with the local MP HQ and the Captain is able to explain the incident away as just mistakenly entering a wrong building, pulling rank and threatening retribution from on high, just like the story's 2nd lieutenant did with the kitchen staff..
It is night and very late
As I write this
But I am driven by fear
And I must write
When the rain swings
Long grey hair
From the darkness towards the window pane
I built a woman out of straw
When you did not arrive
I missed you so much
An I couldn't wait
I tied straw together
Found your nicest clothes
Made a wig out of bits of rope
And used swedes for breasts
And as the night fell
I fell asleep next to the woman
Until just now
I woke up to hear laughter
Chorus:
Now the straw lady dances on the roof of the barn
In its hands its ripped-up clothes
And its head under its arm
The straw lady, the straw lady
Laughs and hollers
And below the hem of the shirt
I see the black blade of the scythe
I am not a melancholic man
But I am very scared
As the pine needles are screaming
And the landscape gasps
When my footprints grow dog teeth
My God, how I am afraid
….
Miljoonasade: Olkinainen (1989)
A parade of provincial troops in Seinäjoki in the spring of 1984. FNA archives.
XXXIV. The Days of the Raven
...negotiations. The Swedish government promised the Finns food shipments, as well as medicine, fuel and other necessary assistance. There were no specific numbers or amounts mentioned, though, but a deadline for the first aid transports was set in two weeks from the end of the negotiations. In return, the Finnish authorities allowed the Swedish armed forces the right to use the Finnish territorial waters freely, as well as the right to use Finnish airspace as long as all planned flights were reported to the Finns in advance. Furthermore, the Swedish received the right to set up temporary naval bases in 3-4 coastal towns for the purposes of facilitating the aid effort. The initially suggested locations were Hanko in the south, Rauma in the south-west and Kokkola in the north-west. The Swedish Military Mission in Finland (SMMF)was created to organize the aid and all necessary arrangements. While the composition of the mission's leadership was not decided initially, it was due to have a permanent staff based in Mikkeli and also possibly in Seinäjoki, made of Swedish soldiers, medical personnel and a transport/logistics contingent.
The results of the negotiations give ample evidence that the Swedish had the upper hand. Indeed the concessions they demanded were considered excessive by many Finns when the larger details of the plan became common knowledge. We know now that the Swedish side held the new Finnish cabinet accountable for different issues brought up in the so-called Jakobson Papers, the last diplomatic communications from President Koivisto and Prime Minister Sorsa. While we still don't know what the papers specifically include, what they contained seems to have undermined Finnish sovereignty vis-a-vis the...
Interview nr. 205
07.02.2010.
TBF
Subject: Man, 54 (M152)
Occupation in 1984: Police officer
Location: Kokkola, Western PPO
[The subject is not wearing his Ostrobothnian police uniform today, but a traditional red-grey pullover and patched jeans. He seems more relaxed than in the last interview. (See INT.198)]
[I would be interested to know about what happened in late April in Seinäjoki. I understood you were there to witness the events.]
If you insist. It is not something I'd rather talk about, but sure, what ever you need.
[If it is all right with you. What were your duties those days?]
Me and my colleagues were doing road policing, just like before the war. And we were called to handle small disturbances. It was the military that was responsible for upholding the Line, thank God. The stories I heard the young conscripted men talk about the camps... The realm of the dead[1], but here on Earth. Now, I understand why that decision was made not to care after those people. It would have worn out most of us that still had a reasonable chance to survive, and depleted any and all medical and sanitary wares we still had. But would it have been impossible to be a little more humane about all of it? Now, later, it sometimes makes me wonder.
[Did you visit the camps yourself?]
A few times, yes. And what I saw was gut-wrenching. The smell of the dead and the barely living . The fires, the muddy snow. What perhaps shocked me the most was the fact that the people, the internees and the soldiers watching over them had the same blank stares on their faces. Like they had already given up on the world and just waited that somebody would take them away to a better place. The internees more often than not got their wish, like you must know. But their keepers... I really think it was not the war, as such, that caused the biggest damage to those who survived. It was what so many people had to do, were ordered to do in the aftermath. Hollow shells, many of those men are now. The ones that are still sane or have not killed themselves.
As me and my colleagues moved around a lot, we would also carry visitors to the camps. One that stuck into my mind especially was a young Lutheran pastor, serving as a military chaplain. His was the duty of recording the deaths in one of the camps near Vaasa. There were other men like him, too, but he was the one I got to know. So, every week, we would take him to the camp gate, with a ordinary conscript that was his assistant. Both had clipboards and both would cover their faces as they entered the camp. We would wait outside, if we didn't have anything more pressing to do.
In an hour or two, they would return. Now with a handwritten list of the recently deceased. Their faces would be grey and strained. I sometimes glanced the lists. As time went on, they were increasingly more incomplete and the writing more incomprehensible. Once, the pastor told me how it went. They would be greeted by two camp officers, and the other would recite the names of the dead, as good as they knew them, and their causes of death. Usually, it was ”disease”, ”heart failure”, ”radiation poisoning” and even ”natural causes”. All the time the bodies would be waiting there, frozen and stacked like so much firewood. And then they would be pushed to a hole in the ground by a tractor and covered up while the pastor held a brief ceremony. The place for the camp had been chosen because of the sandy ground, so even when it was frozen those mass graves could be digged. In the south, I hear they blasted graves with dynamite, burned the bodies or just waited for the spring to bury them.
[Subject strokes his bald head thoughfully.]
Why I'm telling this now is that I was again transporting the pastor on the morning of the day in question. I was in unusually high spirits, because I knew there would be an announcement of some sorts by the parliament leadership, and that preparations had been underway for two days for some sort of a public event to be held on the Market Square. Most of the other police officers on duty were there already.
So, when we left the camp the pastor was even more disoriented than usual and even somewhat panicky. He told me that when the bodies were being buried, several crows and ravens had been circling overhead, as if just waiting. And just before the tractor covered the bodies with sand, he had seen – he was sure of this – one of the dead open its eyes and look directly into his. While I tried to tell him that it was impossible, that the camp personnel wouldn't bury the living, he kept reciting different prayers to soothe himself. Thankfully, he finally fell silent before we got back to Seinäjoki and seemed at least somewhat calmed down when I dropped him off near the Parish House. I remember him saying he had to marry a young couple in two hours. Maybe it was the thought of young love and of life continuing that calmed him down.
It was already getting dark when I reached the Market Square and parked my cruiser on a side street. Bonfires had been build to provide light and a podium and a PA system set up. When I arrived, there was a small military parade going on, provincial troops marching past the podium with the commander of the Western Command receiving them. They were playing the March of the Pori Brigade, the Jäger March and Sillanpää's March Song via loudspeakers. The square itself was pretty full of people, both civilians and soldiers. Beverages and food were given out, hot berry juice and pea soup. The lines were unending. Police, military police and Civil Defence men were standing in small knots around the area. The general feeling was that of expectation and sort of relaxed, in a way. It was a rare feeling.
At 18.30, or so abouts, I joined the other cops and some military police in opening up Laamanninkatu for the modest, if official, motorcade coming from the Aalto Centre, the seat of both the provincial government and the rump parliament. Just when the two military jeeps and two minibuses arrived, the parade troops had lined up on one side of the square. As the governor and the group of SDP parliamentarians exited the vehicles, we got a pretty normal power cut and for a while the square, the crowd and the podium were illuminated only by the flickering bonfires. The PA system, though, ran on batteries and started playing the national anthem. I remember it all sent shivers down my spine.
The governor and the SDP leadership climbed up on the podium, shaking hands with the general expecting them. The governor took the microphone, and as the last bars of the anthem died down, welcomed everyone present and announced that the chairman of the SDP's parliamentary group, Erkki Liikanen, has important news for us, and that he would relinquish him the microphone without further ado. The governor then smiled to Liikanen cordially and the two shook hands.
I have wondered later how we could have stopped what happened then. We could have been more careful, I mean there definitely was enough security on the square. But I guess we had no idea that someone might do something like that. It was just so unexpected.
[So, what happened? What did you see?]
I saw Liikanen open his mouth and just collapse. I also registered a loud noise at the same time, but somehow I thought it was something wrong with the loudspeakers. In reality it was a burst of fire from an assault rifle. There were very few people in the square that understood it right away, and everything sort of froze. I think one of the the Western Command officers on the podium was first to see and realize what happened, as he started drawing his pistol in what looked like slow motion. But then another burst of fire ran out. Several others on the podium fell down, either they were hit or were taking cover. People started to flee the square, and I had to struggle against the tide to get closer to the front. I heard people shout about ”Russians”.
The man, the shooter... I understand you have heard about him. He had arrived on the square just after the parade troops and inserted himself into a group of officers pretty near the podium. He was in full uniform with rank badges visible and carrying his rifle, but then were the parade troops, even if I am pretty sure they were not carrying ammunition. There was nothing immediately suspicious about him. So despite the police and military police almost lining the podium, he had managed to get close enough to open fire against the politicians and military officers and to hit them easily. Somehow, he even managed to jump the couple of steps to the microphone and grab it before he was shot by several men almost simultaneously. I had drawn my weapon, but I was too far away. ”Traitors!”, the dying man shouted to the microphone, with what seemed like was his last breath...
Interview nr. 225, 28.03.2010. TBF.
Subject: Man, 48 (M177)
Occupation in 1984: Politician
Location: [REDACTED], Central FNA.
[Interview with a former FNA bureaucrat resumed. (See INT.223)]
[When did you get the news of what happened?]
I think it was just a couple of hours after the events. The connections to Seinäjoki were pretty good by that time. A Signals NCO came to me with a transcript of of the news, and together we took it to Voutilainen. As the minister in charge of internal security, it was his field after all. Oh how he cursed when we told him. He had already knocked back a couple of shots of brandy from a private stash, because of the news from Sweden. To hear this, now, was a punch in the gut.
But his reaction was nothing. Compared, that is.
[I'm sorry, compared to what?]
I'll get to that. My boss was right then on the air, speaking to the people. His regular ceremony, or confession, or what ever it was. To me he always seemed like he had received an absolution from a priest when he returned from the studio at night. Somehow lighter in his bearing.
And so it was now. He stormed back into the offices, with another aide in tow and a couple of dog-eared papers in his hand, obviously the notes for his recent speech.
”- Uki”, he said to Voutilainen, ”why the long face? I'll have that brandy now, if the offer is still valid.”
There was something very much like humour in his eyes. I hadn't seen that in days, at least. But to see our faces gave him some pause. General Halonen entered the room just then, too, the Acting Minister of Defence. He was about to say something when he saw our little standoff and closed his mouth. He had just received word, too. My boss glanced at him and turned his gaze back at us.
” - All right, what is it?”
Voutilainen held up the transcript.
” - Seinäjoki has sent word that an attack was made against the parliamentary and provincial leadership at the public event they decided to hold for the people. Several people are dead, and more have been hospitalized. Those dead include Liikanen, Jaakonsaari, Tuomioja, and... Hurskainen...” [2]
He faltered, then, and looked up to my boss.
” - I am sorry, Urpo, but it seems Sinikka is dead.”
It was scary how the Acting President crumbled before our very eyes. I have never seen somebody change so much in mere seconds. He had had a relationship with SDP's Sinikka Hurskainen since long before the war, and there had been talk of marriage just before the Exchange. My boss had even confided in me that he planned that Sinikka would be brought over from Seinäjoki and given a post in the cabinet.
My boss stared straight ahead with glazed eyes. After a brief pause Voutilainen decided to forge on.
” - The governor is badly injured, as are several Western Command officers. Just one fatality among the military leadership so far. Early reports indicate the shooter acted alone. He was dressed as a military officer.
” - No,” said my boss quietly. I could see tears rising into his eyes.
” - This is too convenient. There must be something more to this. Uki, promise me you'll see that this is properly investigated. You have free hands.”
” - I promise.”
My boss glanced to the Acting Minister of Defence.
” - This carnage is on you, General. You need to put your house in order. We can't have military officers going around assassinating democratically elected leaders. Abolutely not. You have to find out if the assassin had collaborators, - I am sure he did - and did they have a deeper agenda, and who it is they are working with. Use anyone you trust. Anything it takes, and I mean it, Halonen.”
He had transformed again. Now there was pure hate in his eyes. The general, surprised at the transformation as I was, looked at him earnestly.
” - Of course, sir. I'll get right to it. I am sorry for your loss, sir, as we all are.
As the General excused himself and left to begin his investigations – I don't believe he slept that night – my boss just stalked off toward his office without saying a word. He closed the door behind himself very quietly.
Voutilainen left for his office, too. A moment later, the Acting Minister of the Interior came back with the brandy bottle, and proceeded to knock on the Acting President's door.
There was no answer.
...following the attack saw the rump parliament reinstate the death penalty in Finland. Somewhat surprisingly, Mikkeli did not oppose the move but in fact seemed to receive the decision with something approaching relief. In the following two weeks, executions were widespread as the ubiquitous military courts in the Finnish areas, especially close to the territories considered a part of the so-called Line overturned previous maximum sentences of hard labour for life and sentenced those who had committed most heinous crimes within their jurisdiction to death. Most sentences were carried out by a firing squad, though in some areas hanging was used, too. The new law itself was somewhat vague on the approved methods of execution, even though it was required to be ”quick and as painless as possible”.
Later these two weeks have been known as the May Days. Together with the courts, also the police and the military authorities were very active. Widespread, even excessive investigations to the Seinäjoki attack were conducted, and up to one hundred people both civilian and military were questioned, often using quite dubious and brutal methods. Several members of the Western Command military police lost their positions for ”dereliction of duty”, and many reserve officers who had served in the same unit as the assassin were detained and interrogated for an extended period of time. The two-week period can be well described as a bout of official paranoia, a belief that conspiracies were being hatched everywhere to bring down what ever government Finland still had. The fears were compounded by the fact that Acting President Leppänen withdrew to his office for days and did not even appear to the radio waves to hold his customary speeches.
It seems that what ended the May Days was the arrival of the first Swedish aid transports, by helicopter to Seinäjoki, Kokkola and Uusikaupunki almost simultaneously on May 11th 1984. The day has became since known as Helicopter Day, and today it is celebrated annually to commemorate Finno-Swedish friendship and cooperation, in both the areas of the FNA and the PPO.[3] In Seinäjoki the arrival of the Red Cross-marked helicopters in fact served to break a mob that had gathered outside the local police station, where some of those suspected of conspiring with the assassin...
Notes:
[1] Subject used the archaic Finnish word "Tuonela". Words from the Kalevala and from Finnish mythology in general are increasingly common in post-War Finnish vocabulary. This is possibly due, in part, to the FNA's way of using archaic turns of phrase in its official propaganda.
[2] All members of the Social Democratic Party parliamentary group. Erkki Liikanen (1950-1984) was, as the group chairman, in an important position among the rump parliament and the main negotiator in Gothenburg. He had arrived back to Seinäjoki only two days before. Liikanen, as wellas Erkki Tuomioja (1946-1984), Liisa Jaakonsaari (1945-1984) and Sinikka Hurskainen (1951-1984) were all part of the younger generation of SDP representatives.
[3] Though in the last years, the celebrations have become increasingly muted in the FNA.
As I write this
But I am driven by fear
And I must write
When the rain swings
Long grey hair
From the darkness towards the window pane
I built a woman out of straw
When you did not arrive
I missed you so much
An I couldn't wait
I tied straw together
Found your nicest clothes
Made a wig out of bits of rope
And used swedes for breasts
And as the night fell
I fell asleep next to the woman
Until just now
I woke up to hear laughter
Chorus:
Now the straw lady dances on the roof of the barn
In its hands its ripped-up clothes
And its head under its arm
The straw lady, the straw lady
Laughs and hollers
And below the hem of the shirt
I see the black blade of the scythe
I am not a melancholic man
But I am very scared
As the pine needles are screaming
And the landscape gasps
When my footprints grow dog teeth
My God, how I am afraid
….
Miljoonasade: Olkinainen (1989)
A parade of provincial troops in Seinäjoki in the spring of 1984. FNA archives.
XXXIV. The Days of the Raven
...negotiations. The Swedish government promised the Finns food shipments, as well as medicine, fuel and other necessary assistance. There were no specific numbers or amounts mentioned, though, but a deadline for the first aid transports was set in two weeks from the end of the negotiations. In return, the Finnish authorities allowed the Swedish armed forces the right to use the Finnish territorial waters freely, as well as the right to use Finnish airspace as long as all planned flights were reported to the Finns in advance. Furthermore, the Swedish received the right to set up temporary naval bases in 3-4 coastal towns for the purposes of facilitating the aid effort. The initially suggested locations were Hanko in the south, Rauma in the south-west and Kokkola in the north-west. The Swedish Military Mission in Finland (SMMF)was created to organize the aid and all necessary arrangements. While the composition of the mission's leadership was not decided initially, it was due to have a permanent staff based in Mikkeli and also possibly in Seinäjoki, made of Swedish soldiers, medical personnel and a transport/logistics contingent.
The results of the negotiations give ample evidence that the Swedish had the upper hand. Indeed the concessions they demanded were considered excessive by many Finns when the larger details of the plan became common knowledge. We know now that the Swedish side held the new Finnish cabinet accountable for different issues brought up in the so-called Jakobson Papers, the last diplomatic communications from President Koivisto and Prime Minister Sorsa. While we still don't know what the papers specifically include, what they contained seems to have undermined Finnish sovereignty vis-a-vis the...
Interview nr. 205
07.02.2010.
TBF
Subject: Man, 54 (M152)
Occupation in 1984: Police officer
Location: Kokkola, Western PPO
[The subject is not wearing his Ostrobothnian police uniform today, but a traditional red-grey pullover and patched jeans. He seems more relaxed than in the last interview. (See INT.198)]
[I would be interested to know about what happened in late April in Seinäjoki. I understood you were there to witness the events.]
If you insist. It is not something I'd rather talk about, but sure, what ever you need.
[If it is all right with you. What were your duties those days?]
Me and my colleagues were doing road policing, just like before the war. And we were called to handle small disturbances. It was the military that was responsible for upholding the Line, thank God. The stories I heard the young conscripted men talk about the camps... The realm of the dead[1], but here on Earth. Now, I understand why that decision was made not to care after those people. It would have worn out most of us that still had a reasonable chance to survive, and depleted any and all medical and sanitary wares we still had. But would it have been impossible to be a little more humane about all of it? Now, later, it sometimes makes me wonder.
[Did you visit the camps yourself?]
A few times, yes. And what I saw was gut-wrenching. The smell of the dead and the barely living . The fires, the muddy snow. What perhaps shocked me the most was the fact that the people, the internees and the soldiers watching over them had the same blank stares on their faces. Like they had already given up on the world and just waited that somebody would take them away to a better place. The internees more often than not got their wish, like you must know. But their keepers... I really think it was not the war, as such, that caused the biggest damage to those who survived. It was what so many people had to do, were ordered to do in the aftermath. Hollow shells, many of those men are now. The ones that are still sane or have not killed themselves.
As me and my colleagues moved around a lot, we would also carry visitors to the camps. One that stuck into my mind especially was a young Lutheran pastor, serving as a military chaplain. His was the duty of recording the deaths in one of the camps near Vaasa. There were other men like him, too, but he was the one I got to know. So, every week, we would take him to the camp gate, with a ordinary conscript that was his assistant. Both had clipboards and both would cover their faces as they entered the camp. We would wait outside, if we didn't have anything more pressing to do.
In an hour or two, they would return. Now with a handwritten list of the recently deceased. Their faces would be grey and strained. I sometimes glanced the lists. As time went on, they were increasingly more incomplete and the writing more incomprehensible. Once, the pastor told me how it went. They would be greeted by two camp officers, and the other would recite the names of the dead, as good as they knew them, and their causes of death. Usually, it was ”disease”, ”heart failure”, ”radiation poisoning” and even ”natural causes”. All the time the bodies would be waiting there, frozen and stacked like so much firewood. And then they would be pushed to a hole in the ground by a tractor and covered up while the pastor held a brief ceremony. The place for the camp had been chosen because of the sandy ground, so even when it was frozen those mass graves could be digged. In the south, I hear they blasted graves with dynamite, burned the bodies or just waited for the spring to bury them.
[Subject strokes his bald head thoughfully.]
Why I'm telling this now is that I was again transporting the pastor on the morning of the day in question. I was in unusually high spirits, because I knew there would be an announcement of some sorts by the parliament leadership, and that preparations had been underway for two days for some sort of a public event to be held on the Market Square. Most of the other police officers on duty were there already.
So, when we left the camp the pastor was even more disoriented than usual and even somewhat panicky. He told me that when the bodies were being buried, several crows and ravens had been circling overhead, as if just waiting. And just before the tractor covered the bodies with sand, he had seen – he was sure of this – one of the dead open its eyes and look directly into his. While I tried to tell him that it was impossible, that the camp personnel wouldn't bury the living, he kept reciting different prayers to soothe himself. Thankfully, he finally fell silent before we got back to Seinäjoki and seemed at least somewhat calmed down when I dropped him off near the Parish House. I remember him saying he had to marry a young couple in two hours. Maybe it was the thought of young love and of life continuing that calmed him down.
It was already getting dark when I reached the Market Square and parked my cruiser on a side street. Bonfires had been build to provide light and a podium and a PA system set up. When I arrived, there was a small military parade going on, provincial troops marching past the podium with the commander of the Western Command receiving them. They were playing the March of the Pori Brigade, the Jäger March and Sillanpää's March Song via loudspeakers. The square itself was pretty full of people, both civilians and soldiers. Beverages and food were given out, hot berry juice and pea soup. The lines were unending. Police, military police and Civil Defence men were standing in small knots around the area. The general feeling was that of expectation and sort of relaxed, in a way. It was a rare feeling.
At 18.30, or so abouts, I joined the other cops and some military police in opening up Laamanninkatu for the modest, if official, motorcade coming from the Aalto Centre, the seat of both the provincial government and the rump parliament. Just when the two military jeeps and two minibuses arrived, the parade troops had lined up on one side of the square. As the governor and the group of SDP parliamentarians exited the vehicles, we got a pretty normal power cut and for a while the square, the crowd and the podium were illuminated only by the flickering bonfires. The PA system, though, ran on batteries and started playing the national anthem. I remember it all sent shivers down my spine.
The governor and the SDP leadership climbed up on the podium, shaking hands with the general expecting them. The governor took the microphone, and as the last bars of the anthem died down, welcomed everyone present and announced that the chairman of the SDP's parliamentary group, Erkki Liikanen, has important news for us, and that he would relinquish him the microphone without further ado. The governor then smiled to Liikanen cordially and the two shook hands.
I have wondered later how we could have stopped what happened then. We could have been more careful, I mean there definitely was enough security on the square. But I guess we had no idea that someone might do something like that. It was just so unexpected.
[So, what happened? What did you see?]
I saw Liikanen open his mouth and just collapse. I also registered a loud noise at the same time, but somehow I thought it was something wrong with the loudspeakers. In reality it was a burst of fire from an assault rifle. There were very few people in the square that understood it right away, and everything sort of froze. I think one of the the Western Command officers on the podium was first to see and realize what happened, as he started drawing his pistol in what looked like slow motion. But then another burst of fire ran out. Several others on the podium fell down, either they were hit or were taking cover. People started to flee the square, and I had to struggle against the tide to get closer to the front. I heard people shout about ”Russians”.
The man, the shooter... I understand you have heard about him. He had arrived on the square just after the parade troops and inserted himself into a group of officers pretty near the podium. He was in full uniform with rank badges visible and carrying his rifle, but then were the parade troops, even if I am pretty sure they were not carrying ammunition. There was nothing immediately suspicious about him. So despite the police and military police almost lining the podium, he had managed to get close enough to open fire against the politicians and military officers and to hit them easily. Somehow, he even managed to jump the couple of steps to the microphone and grab it before he was shot by several men almost simultaneously. I had drawn my weapon, but I was too far away. ”Traitors!”, the dying man shouted to the microphone, with what seemed like was his last breath...
Interview nr. 225, 28.03.2010. TBF.
Subject: Man, 48 (M177)
Occupation in 1984: Politician
Location: [REDACTED], Central FNA.
[Interview with a former FNA bureaucrat resumed. (See INT.223)]
[When did you get the news of what happened?]
I think it was just a couple of hours after the events. The connections to Seinäjoki were pretty good by that time. A Signals NCO came to me with a transcript of of the news, and together we took it to Voutilainen. As the minister in charge of internal security, it was his field after all. Oh how he cursed when we told him. He had already knocked back a couple of shots of brandy from a private stash, because of the news from Sweden. To hear this, now, was a punch in the gut.
But his reaction was nothing. Compared, that is.
[I'm sorry, compared to what?]
I'll get to that. My boss was right then on the air, speaking to the people. His regular ceremony, or confession, or what ever it was. To me he always seemed like he had received an absolution from a priest when he returned from the studio at night. Somehow lighter in his bearing.
And so it was now. He stormed back into the offices, with another aide in tow and a couple of dog-eared papers in his hand, obviously the notes for his recent speech.
”- Uki”, he said to Voutilainen, ”why the long face? I'll have that brandy now, if the offer is still valid.”
There was something very much like humour in his eyes. I hadn't seen that in days, at least. But to see our faces gave him some pause. General Halonen entered the room just then, too, the Acting Minister of Defence. He was about to say something when he saw our little standoff and closed his mouth. He had just received word, too. My boss glanced at him and turned his gaze back at us.
” - All right, what is it?”
Voutilainen held up the transcript.
” - Seinäjoki has sent word that an attack was made against the parliamentary and provincial leadership at the public event they decided to hold for the people. Several people are dead, and more have been hospitalized. Those dead include Liikanen, Jaakonsaari, Tuomioja, and... Hurskainen...” [2]
He faltered, then, and looked up to my boss.
” - I am sorry, Urpo, but it seems Sinikka is dead.”
It was scary how the Acting President crumbled before our very eyes. I have never seen somebody change so much in mere seconds. He had had a relationship with SDP's Sinikka Hurskainen since long before the war, and there had been talk of marriage just before the Exchange. My boss had even confided in me that he planned that Sinikka would be brought over from Seinäjoki and given a post in the cabinet.
My boss stared straight ahead with glazed eyes. After a brief pause Voutilainen decided to forge on.
” - The governor is badly injured, as are several Western Command officers. Just one fatality among the military leadership so far. Early reports indicate the shooter acted alone. He was dressed as a military officer.
” - No,” said my boss quietly. I could see tears rising into his eyes.
” - This is too convenient. There must be something more to this. Uki, promise me you'll see that this is properly investigated. You have free hands.”
” - I promise.”
My boss glanced to the Acting Minister of Defence.
” - This carnage is on you, General. You need to put your house in order. We can't have military officers going around assassinating democratically elected leaders. Abolutely not. You have to find out if the assassin had collaborators, - I am sure he did - and did they have a deeper agenda, and who it is they are working with. Use anyone you trust. Anything it takes, and I mean it, Halonen.”
He had transformed again. Now there was pure hate in his eyes. The general, surprised at the transformation as I was, looked at him earnestly.
” - Of course, sir. I'll get right to it. I am sorry for your loss, sir, as we all are.
As the General excused himself and left to begin his investigations – I don't believe he slept that night – my boss just stalked off toward his office without saying a word. He closed the door behind himself very quietly.
Voutilainen left for his office, too. A moment later, the Acting Minister of the Interior came back with the brandy bottle, and proceeded to knock on the Acting President's door.
There was no answer.
...following the attack saw the rump parliament reinstate the death penalty in Finland. Somewhat surprisingly, Mikkeli did not oppose the move but in fact seemed to receive the decision with something approaching relief. In the following two weeks, executions were widespread as the ubiquitous military courts in the Finnish areas, especially close to the territories considered a part of the so-called Line overturned previous maximum sentences of hard labour for life and sentenced those who had committed most heinous crimes within their jurisdiction to death. Most sentences were carried out by a firing squad, though in some areas hanging was used, too. The new law itself was somewhat vague on the approved methods of execution, even though it was required to be ”quick and as painless as possible”.
Later these two weeks have been known as the May Days. Together with the courts, also the police and the military authorities were very active. Widespread, even excessive investigations to the Seinäjoki attack were conducted, and up to one hundred people both civilian and military were questioned, often using quite dubious and brutal methods. Several members of the Western Command military police lost their positions for ”dereliction of duty”, and many reserve officers who had served in the same unit as the assassin were detained and interrogated for an extended period of time. The two-week period can be well described as a bout of official paranoia, a belief that conspiracies were being hatched everywhere to bring down what ever government Finland still had. The fears were compounded by the fact that Acting President Leppänen withdrew to his office for days and did not even appear to the radio waves to hold his customary speeches.
It seems that what ended the May Days was the arrival of the first Swedish aid transports, by helicopter to Seinäjoki, Kokkola and Uusikaupunki almost simultaneously on May 11th 1984. The day has became since known as Helicopter Day, and today it is celebrated annually to commemorate Finno-Swedish friendship and cooperation, in both the areas of the FNA and the PPO.[3] In Seinäjoki the arrival of the Red Cross-marked helicopters in fact served to break a mob that had gathered outside the local police station, where some of those suspected of conspiring with the assassin...
Notes:
[1] Subject used the archaic Finnish word "Tuonela". Words from the Kalevala and from Finnish mythology in general are increasingly common in post-War Finnish vocabulary. This is possibly due, in part, to the FNA's way of using archaic turns of phrase in its official propaganda.
[2] All members of the Social Democratic Party parliamentary group. Erkki Liikanen (1950-1984) was, as the group chairman, in an important position among the rump parliament and the main negotiator in Gothenburg. He had arrived back to Seinäjoki only two days before. Liikanen, as wellas Erkki Tuomioja (1946-1984), Liisa Jaakonsaari (1945-1984) and Sinikka Hurskainen (1951-1984) were all part of the younger generation of SDP representatives.
[3] Though in the last years, the celebrations have become increasingly muted in the FNA.
Last edited:
Question for you DrakonFin, I have run across "Tuonela" in a few other pieces of reading on Finland but I never quite did get the context, other than its one of those words that, like "the vengeance of Kullervo", wraps a whole lot of background concepts into one word. I know the literal translation, more or less Realm of the Dead, but how does that fit into using it as an expression in this context?
For the benefit of the readers of the TL, the Minne 1984 project, in cooperation with the Government of Sweden, the Finnish National Administration's State Information Office and the archival services of the Provisional Province of Ostorbothnia present
Addendum I. The Visual Evidence, Vol. I
Editor's Note: This is a limited sample of the photographs from the Minne 1984 Photographic Collection. The collection is currently held in its entirety by the Uppsala University Library, and the collection catalogue is available for all interested parties at the Carl XVI Gustaf Library, Dag Hammarskjölds väg 1, Uppsala.
Picture 1. The Prime Ministers of Sweden and Finland, Olof Palme (left) and Kalevi Sorsa meeting in
Stockholm in November 1983.
Picture 2. Provincial reservists training in North Karelia in the fall of 1983. These second line troops were sometimes equipped with old 40s and 50s weapons and equipment due to material constraints.
Picture 3. Finnish Anarchists take part in an anti-war demonstration in Central Helsinki in December 1983.
Picture 4. Life in the new residential area of Meri-Toppila in Oulu in December 1983.
Published originally by the newspaper Kaleva. Caption says: "In between the buildings is
a safe playground where Tuomas has ample space to drive his tractor".
Picture 5. Ilves was one of the two traditional Tampere ice hockey teams in the National
Championship League. It topped the league table when the '83-'84 season was cancelled
by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in December 1983.
Picture 6. Foreign Minister Paavo Väyrynen takes a break between the Finno-Soviet negotiations in January 1984.
Picture 7. Finnish Air Force fighters, a MiG-21U in the foreground, photographed
at an auxiliary highway base in early February 1984.
Picture 8. Evacuees from the capital area are being briefed in a Seinäjoki sports hall in February 1984.
Picture 9. A nuclear strike map of Finland compiled during the Minne 1984 project.
Picture 10. The Finnish icebreaker Urho outside Turku in early 1984.
Addendum I. The Visual Evidence, Vol. I
Editor's Note: This is a limited sample of the photographs from the Minne 1984 Photographic Collection. The collection is currently held in its entirety by the Uppsala University Library, and the collection catalogue is available for all interested parties at the Carl XVI Gustaf Library, Dag Hammarskjölds väg 1, Uppsala.
Picture 1. The Prime Ministers of Sweden and Finland, Olof Palme (left) and Kalevi Sorsa meeting in
Stockholm in November 1983.
Picture 2. Provincial reservists training in North Karelia in the fall of 1983. These second line troops were sometimes equipped with old 40s and 50s weapons and equipment due to material constraints.
Picture 3. Finnish Anarchists take part in an anti-war demonstration in Central Helsinki in December 1983.
Picture 4. Life in the new residential area of Meri-Toppila in Oulu in December 1983.
Published originally by the newspaper Kaleva. Caption says: "In between the buildings is
a safe playground where Tuomas has ample space to drive his tractor".
Picture 5. Ilves was one of the two traditional Tampere ice hockey teams in the National
Championship League. It topped the league table when the '83-'84 season was cancelled
by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in December 1983.
Picture 6. Foreign Minister Paavo Väyrynen takes a break between the Finno-Soviet negotiations in January 1984.
Picture 7. Finnish Air Force fighters, a MiG-21U in the foreground, photographed
at an auxiliary highway base in early February 1984.
Picture 8. Evacuees from the capital area are being briefed in a Seinäjoki sports hall in February 1984.
Picture 9. A nuclear strike map of Finland compiled during the Minne 1984 project.
Picture 10. The Finnish icebreaker Urho outside Turku in early 1984.
Last edited:
As far as I understand the word, to pagan Finns Tuonela was the Realm of the Dead, where the dead continued to exist as something like shadows of their former selves. It was not "Hell", but still a grim and dark place where people would experience various stages of discomfort, depending on how good they had lived their lifes. It was not wholly on "the other side", either, as living people could visit it but only through a long and arduous journey.
The police officer here is using in that sense, the people in the camps existing as something not fully human anymore, already partly on the other side.
The living will envy the dead, indeed...
Helicopter Day.
Best. Name. For. A. National. Holiday. Ever. Frailty, thy name is human nature...
Last edited:
Helicopter Day.
Just the randomness of history. If one names a holiday something like "The Day of Finno-Swedish Friendship and Cooperation", one is really asking for a more to-the-point name to replace it in informal use.
I'm having fun thinking about how the Finnish language could change in the decades after the war, it is something I have been neglecting a bit so far so I think I'll tackle the issue some more in future updates.
On Helicopter Day eve, the Acting spoke of the import of the remembrance of those who went to Tuoni on the Line, not forgetting the TeeVees and their sacrifice to the Fatherland.
Rock'n'Roll, Vodka and Goodwill
Let me start off by by saying that this timeline is seriously the best Finland ATL I have ever read. Us Finns do like our sad songs and depression and this TL most certainly delivers.
Now my main point. Are Mato Valtonen and the rest (or most) of the Sleepy Sleepers alive ITTL? Is Aki Kaurismäki? If so, especially taking into account the large number of Red Army types still left in the country, would the formation of the Leningrad Cowboys and their co-operation with the Red Army choir be possible? IOTL their concerts in the 90s helped create a lot of goodwill between the Finns and Russians after decades of mistrust (and straight-up hatred from the Finns).
Let me start off by by saying that this timeline is seriously the best Finland ATL I have ever read. Us Finns do like our sad songs and depression and this TL most certainly delivers.
Now my main point. Are Mato Valtonen and the rest (or most) of the Sleepy Sleepers alive ITTL? Is Aki Kaurismäki? If so, especially taking into account the large number of Red Army types still left in the country, would the formation of the Leningrad Cowboys and their co-operation with the Red Army choir be possible? IOTL their concerts in the 90s helped create a lot of goodwill between the Finns and Russians after decades of mistrust (and straight-up hatred from the Finns).
Thank you for these comments! And welcome aboard.
That is an interesting question. I'll definitely have to look into how I could integrate the Sleepy Sleepers into the story. Lahti did survive, though it will have seen some horrors, being considered beyond the Line as it is. Hmm, there just might be an update in that, in the near-to-intermediate future even...
I have also had some plans for a certain actor well-known from period Kaurismäki films, but I'll return to that later.
Long live the queen of the Javelin
I thought you might appreciate the cameo.
If someone is wondering, the TL is not dead even if the current hiatus has streched longer than I expected. I fully intend to post a bunch of new updates before the end of December.
