The Land of Sad Songs – Stories From Protect and Survive Finland
- Thread starter DrakonFin
- Start date
I thought some might appreciate Mr. V making one last appearance in the end, after all he got a lot of love when mentioned in the posts about the immediate post-War times...
It's my personal rule that Väyrynen must make an appearance in any post-WW2 Finnish TLs.
He's just a way too interesting character not to be mentioned. Unfortunately there aren't too many TLs about Finland to begin with (yet). Interestingly, my high school history teacher, who was from Canada, found Väyrynen an extremely interesting personality and liked to talk about him a lot during lessons. I'll take a small break from writing now - but eventually you'll most likely find me churning out some other Finnish yarn here...
I'm eagerly waiting for that.
Archangel said:Excellent ending, DrakonFin!
Feel sad for Vartia having to leave his family, but he'll be safe and can be an asset for his nation.
I worry that Koivu may stir trouble to the young democracy.
wannis said:This is the end now? (Just caustious after calling it wrongly one time
Thank you, guys! I am happy if you found this a worthwhile read.
And yes, it definitely is the end.
(I will reserve the right to revisit some issues in extra bits if I feel like it, though...
I already have, for example, an idea for
a jolly little story I thought up as a "Christmas special" but never got around to writing it as a regular update...
The thing with Blomqvist is that while on one hand he did draw the short straw and did not really deserve the treatment and fate he got, on the other hand if he truly gets out the story (and can back it up with evidence) about Swedish involvement in the Revolution in detail, making public the involvement of Streng (and his collaborators and minions), the Minne folks (especially Holmén and including what he might know about the part played by Fedja), and then Ahola, Soini, Vartia, etc, in the Finnish end, it might in turn cause a lot of trouble for those people. Careers could be ruined, and many people's livelyhood and security would be under threat. And like the Spokesman (Soini) told Vartia, from a certain perspective this all also might threat to undermine the development of the fledgling democracy in Finland... So unfortunately in what ever way it turns out in the end, someone would suffer in one way or another...
General Tirpitz said:It's my personal rule that Väyrynen must make an appearance in any post-WW2 Finnish TLs.
I think one reason I decided to include him in the end, apart from the shock value
p), was that I got a bit annoyed by the character known as Streng and decided to show that even if he seems to succeed absurdly well in all his underhand machinations, in terms of surviving to the very end of the timeline he still has nothing on Paavo Väyrynen.
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Well, life's like this, but I still don't like it. Of course, it's perhaps strange to obsess aboutthe fate of one man in a TL where millions have died in a nuclear war and lots of people suffered similar fates when the Mikkeli Regime was set up, but it still rubs me the wrong way...
In any case, thank you for this great TL, and if you write anything new, could you announce it here or PM me? I'm mostly only checking my subscribed TLs and might miss it otherwise.
Thank you for the kind comments, Zoom and hwyl - and for sticking along for the ride too.
If I ever get around to starting a new TL (or, possibly, rebooting the Lords of the North), I hereby promise to put a reminder here in this thread. I'll try to remember to PM you, too, should the opportunity arise.
wannis said:
If I ever get around to starting a new TL (or, possibly, rebooting the Lords of the North), I hereby promise to put a reminder here in this thread. I'll try to remember to PM you, too, should the opportunity arise.
Congrats and Excellent Ending!
Drakonfin,
Congrats on finishing an amazing TL! I eagerly wait for what you have next!
Gen_Patton
Drakonfin,
Congrats on finishing an amazing TL! I eagerly wait for what you have next!
Gen_Patton
Thank you guys! And thank you for your support along the way.
(By the way, I'll post a soundtrack list of the TL next for the benefit of anyone who wants to listen the Finnish songs this TL was in many ways built upon without going through all the updates.)
The Land of Sad Songs: a Provisional Soundtrack
(Songs marked with * are not translated in the update.)
Main TL:
CMX: Talvipäivänseisaus (1994) [Intro]
Eppu Normaali: Suomi-ilmiö (1980) [Chapter II]
Hassisen Kone: On jouluyö, nyt laulaa saa (1981) [Chapter III]
Juice Leskinen: Myrkytyksen oireet (1981) [Chapter IV]
Irwin Goodman: Kusessa ollaan (1985) [Chapter V]
Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus: Lumessakahlaajat (2002) [Chapter VII]
Dingo: Sinä ja minä (1984)* [Chapter VIII]
Esa Pakarinen & Eemeli: Säkkijärven polkka* [Chapter VIII]
Kotiteollisuus: Kaihola (2005) [Chapter X]
Jarkko Martikainen: Kaikki me kuolemme pian (2004) [Chapter XI]
Maamme* [Finnish national anthem] [Chapter XIII]
Savolaisen laulu* [Savonian provincial anthem] [Chapter XIII]
Eppu Normaali: Poliisi pamputtaa taas (1978) [Chapter XIV]
Viikate: He eivät hengitä (2005) [Chapter XV]
Eppu Normaali: Jee jee (1979) [Chapter XVII]
CMX: Vainajala (1998) [Chapter XVIII]
Tapio Rautavaara: Päivänsäde ja menninkäinen (1949) [Chapter XXI]
Danny: Kuusamo (1976) [Chapter XXII]
Kaseva: Strip-tease tanssija* (1975)
Kaseva: Vanha mies* (1975)
Jarkko Martikainen: Jokainen sotilas on vihollinen (2009) [Chapter XXIII]
Unto Mononen: Satumaa (1962) [Chapter XXIV]
Hassisen Kone: Oikeus on voittanut taas (1981) [Chapter XXVI]
Leevi and the Leavings: Koko talvi kesämökillä (1990) [Chapter XXVIII]
Juice Leskinen: Kuumaa tuhkaa (1980) [Chapter XXIX]
CMX: Ruoste (1994) [Chapter XXX]
Absoluuttinen Nollapiste: Eräät tulevat juosten (2002) [Chapter XXXI]
Apulanta: Odotus (2000) [Chapter XXXII]
Viikate: Pohjoista viljaa (2005) [Chapter XXXIII]
Miljoonasade: Olkinainen (1989) [Chapter XXXIV]
Rauli Badding Somerjoki: Laivat (1985) [Chapter XXXV]
Mana Mana: Tie vie (2000) [Chapter XXXVI]
Kauko Röyhkä: Paha maa (1988) [Chapter XXXVII]
Sir Elwoodin Hiljaiset Värit: Hämärän taa (1995) [Chapter XXXVIII]
Sir Elwoodin Hiljaiset Värit: Älä mee (1993) [Chapter XXXVIII]
Hector: Lumi teki enkelin eteiseen (1973) [Chapter XL]
Skädäm: Mustat joutsenet (1985) [Chapter XLI]
Kotiteollisuus: Soitellen sotaan (2011) [Chapter XLII]
Merja Rantamäki: Jossain (1977)* [Private Diary of GET, II]
Skädäm: Katujen kuningatar (1986)* [Private Diary of GET, II]
Leevi and the Leavings: Pimeä tie, mukavaa matkaa (1988)* [Private Diary of GET, II]
Chips: Dag efter dag (1982)* [Private Diary of GET, II]
Viikate: Kuu kaakon yllä (2010) [Chapter XLIII]
CMX: Vierasta viljaa (1998) [Chapter XLIV]
Porilaisten marssi* [military march] [Chapter XLIV]
Narvan marssi* [military march] [Chapter XLIV]
Sun kätes herra voimakkaan* [hymn] [Chapter XLIV]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STS9h4sKUFs
Jo joutui armas aika - Suvivirsi* [hymn] [Chapter XLIV]
Mokoma: Punamultaa (2012) [Chapter XLV]
CMX: Kirjeitä paratiisista (1998) [Chapter XLVI]
Tuula Amberla: Auto sammui maantielle (1985) [Chapter XLVII]
Hector: Suomi-neito (1972) [Private Diary of Jan Holmén, II]
Poets of the Fall: Dreaming Wide Awake (2010) [Chapter XLVIII]
Dingo: Sata rohkeaa laivaa (1985) [Chapter XLIX]
SIG: Jos taivas on vain pienille enkeleille (1982) [Chapter L]
Maija Vilkkumaa: Satumaa-tango (1999) [Chapter LI]
Hector: Kuunnellaan vaan taivasta (2003) [Chapter LII]
Kari Rydman: Niin kaunis on maa (1976) [Chapter LII]
Jean Sibelius: Finlandia-hymni (1900) [Chapter LII]
CMX: Jatkuu niin kuin sade (2000) [Chapter LII]
The Epilogue:
Apocalyptica: Epilogue (Relief) (2003) [Epilogue]
Dingo: Kerjäläisten valtakunta (1985) [E1.]
Juice Leskinen: Outoon valoon* (1980) [E1.]
Kollaa kestää: Musti, sotakoira* (1978) [E1.]
Tuomari Nurmio: Viiniä! Malja marttyreille* (1980) [E1.]
Hector: Paratiisilinnut (1992) [E2.]
Sielun Veljet: Aina nälkä* (1984) [E2.]
Dingo: Apinatarhaan* (1984) [E2.]
Eppu Normaali: Urheiluhullu (1990) [E3.]
Ne Luumäet: Onnellinen perhe (1991) [E4.]
Viikate: Tervaskanto* (2013) [E4.]
Hector: Kenpä tahtois olla mulkku (1992) [E4.]
CMX: Vanha talvitie (1994) [E5.]
CMX: Kivinen kirja (2008) [E6.]
Dingo: Kunnian kentät (1985) [E7.]
Sillanpää/Mustonen: Sillanpään marssilaulu (1940) [E7.]
Viikate: Susitaival (2007) [E8.]
Juice Leskinen: Poliisikouluun* (1983) [E8.]
Kollaa kestää: Jäähyväiset aseille* (1979) [E8.]
CMX: Kuolemaantuomitut (2007) [E8.]
Eppu Normaali: Kitara, taivas ja tähdet (1985) [E9.]
Absoluuttinen Nollapiste: Portaat (1994) [E10.]
Juice Leskinen: Atomisuoja* (1982) [E10.]
Neljä Baritonia: Pop-musiikkia (1997) [E11.]
Viikate: Tähdet varjelkoon* (2012) [E11.]
Dingo: Via Finlandia (1994) [E11.]
Additional Inspirational Songs:
Kotka Rankki Ohutta Yläpilveä: Pearl Harbour [The countdown to the Exchange]
Hector: Lapsuuden loppu [The Exchange]
Sir Elwoodin Hiljaiset Värit: Viimeisellä rannalla [The Exchange]
Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus: Hyvä päivä [The Exchange]
Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus: Surupuku [The War and the aftermath]
Tuomari Nurmio: Liputtomat laivat [The story of the Lahti Free Area]
Juliet Jonesin Sydän: Kun isänmaa kostaa [The story of the Lahti Free Area]
Kotiteollisuus: Tuonelan koivut [The story of Anne & Tommi, General]
Kotiteollisuus: Tämän taivaan alla [General]
Kotiteollisuus: Iankaikkinen [General]
Sir Elwoodin Hiljaiset Värit: Elisa [The stories of Saana & Anne]
Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus: Lintu [The story of Raili]
Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus: Hiljaisen talven lapsi [The stories of Anne & Raili]
Viikate feat. Topi Sorsakoski: Hautajaissydän [The story of Saana, General]
Pasi Kaunisto: Koskaan et muuttua saa [The story of the Finnish National Administration]
Jarkko Martikainen: Halla-ahot [The story of the Finnish National Administration]
CMX: Ei yksikään [The story of the Acting]
CMX: Siivekäs [The story of Fedya]
CMX: Vallan haamut [The story of the Battle of Porvoo and the National Committee for the Continuation of the Government]
CMX: Ainomieli [The story of the Winter Games and the aftermath]
CMX: Kain [The story of the Acting, the story of Gen. Halonen]
Ratsia: Täynnä elämää [The Winter Games]
Ratsia: Tämä hetki ja tulevaisuus [The Winter Games]
Topi Sorsakoski: Viimeiseen korttiin [The story of Gen. Halonen]
Marko Haavisto & Poutahaukat: Paha vaanii [The story of Vartia, Holmén & Streng]
Viikate: Oi pimeys [The fall of Varis & Halonen]
Kolmas Nainen: Oi Suomen nuoria [The story Maria & Joni]
Aknestik: Suomirokkia [The summer of 2014]
Ahti Lampi: Elämän valttikortit [General]
Tapio Rautavaara: Väliaikainen [General]
Tapio Rautavaara: On aivan sama [General]
Jouko & Kosti: Muisto vain jää [The Exchange, General]
Eppu Normaali: Murheellisten laulujen maa [General]
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That is, what, 80 pieces of music (one of which Swedish), a totally subjective crash course into mostly post-70s Finnish popular (and otherwise) music.
I'll add links later today, as well as some songs that did not make the cut despite fitting in as well as most of these. AFAIK all are still available on Youtube, though some of the links from early updates are already broken.
I'll add links later today, as well as some songs that did not make the cut despite fitting in as well as most of these. AFAIK all are still available on Youtube, though some of the links from early updates are already broken.
Now this is fine fan service indeed!
Well, with all the great songs in the TL, it would be a bit cruel to force everyone to read all the boring (and depressing) walls of text between them before getting to hear them...
The lists are now updated with links and additional, not previously featured songs. Some of you might notice there are pieces among them you have suggested to me - thank you for those nudges towards the right direction.
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I thank you again.
Naturally I hope everyone who might have enjoyed the TL will show up in great numbers and vote for it one last time, too.
Hey little girl won't you come along, yeah
Well, I'm gonna take you where I come from, yeah
It's a place with no heart, a place without pity
It's a place that's called the Mystery City
...
Hanoi Rocks: Back to Mystery City (1983)
Addendum VIII. Dead by X-Mas (Part One)
The counterfeit government agent in a dark suit and a military haircut had parked the Saab sedan on a quiet side street in the Gothenburg suburbs, where it now sat flanked by a couple of trees and a fence plastered with peeling posters of Swegoth and nuglam bands. Suitably sure that nobody was watching him, the youngish man took the journalist's leather case and started going through the papers and notebooks contained within. Reading Blomqvist's scribbles and wondering about the source of what seemed like photocopies of official FNA documents, the ”agent” almost felt sorry he'd have to destroy the material. At the very least, he was going to commit most of the things he saw in them to memory – and he had a good memory, like his boss and mentor did.
Our job is simple, Streng had told him some years ago, we find well-placed people, we unearth information that we can use, we discern pressure points, like buttons to push, and then we exert a suitable amount of force. It is all there is to it, at the base of it, below all the frills and skulking around in the dark, the bald man had said to him. The younger man could appreciate the thought, and he could also buy the idea that the work they did was for the common good. Official government agents could not do things they did for Sweden, not without a plethora of possibilities if it all going wrong and coming out in the open. The Office, like Streng called it, had been set up a during the Cold War, a long time before the Exchange as a so-called stay-behind organisation, to be activated in case the Soviets occupied Sweden. Somewhere along the way, its purpose and focus had shifted, changed somewhat, but its basic reason for existence had not. The military, the police, even the Säpo – they all have a chain of command, they all suffer the plight of accountability, Streng had told him. We are different. We don't answer to anyone, and we can do the things the others can't. The things that are as unsavoury as they are necessary. We are the Un-officials, if you may, the last resort, he had said and smiled that cold, thin smile of his.
The younger man had thought the bald man was all too mysterious and grim with his quiet voice and his ridiculous little glasses. But he was nothing if not professional, and he had assured his soon-to-be colleague that it was a job for life, with significant benefits – although a leisurely retirement most likely would not be one of them. So far, the younger man had liked the job, for all the complications and the ungainly hours. To a certain kind of a man, it offered quite satisfactory challenges.
Again checking the street around the car for any movement, satisfied that it was deserted, the man flipped open another notebook and started reading. A light drizzle outside made a soothing sound as it landed on the car's roof.
All Those Wasted Years [ working title ]
By Sven Blomqvist
It was a sunny spring morning as I walked through the Finnish Temporary Capital towards the YLE broadcast centre, a surpringly unassuming collection of low office buildings crowned with the Broadcast Tower some jokingly call Kairamo's Knob. The Finnish Public Radio, known in Sweden as much as the mouthpiece of the oft-disparaged Finnish National Administration as a quintessential relic of pre-War Finnishness and a probably misplaced belief in the trustworthiness of Nordic state media monopolies much like the SVT and the SR, has worked in this location since the summer of 1984.
I had visited these buildings before the Finnish Spring. The atmosphere here had always struck me as stuffy, strict, bureaucratic and old-fashioned, like so many other things in the areas under the National Administration. For example, on previous occasions I would have always been accompanied by a minder from the Finnish State Information Office, the military bureau that traditionally oversaw the YLE's operations and broadcasts. This time I saw it would be different as I walked in to the foyer. Now after the National Committee is in the process being put out to pasture and Soini's Opposition Interim Council acts more like a real government every passing day, East Finland seems to be getting more comfortable all the time, more relaxed, like someone had suddenly told the entire nation that it can finally take off the tie and pop open the top button on its shirt. So, instead of meeting a military officer offering me a formal handshake and a typically Finnish combination of nervousness and strained civility, I found the man I had come to interview waiting me in person, with long blond hair and wearing what certainly passes for highly bohemian clothing in East Finland, smiling broadly as he noticed me.
This was a man all Finns know. He is even known in Sweden, though for somewhat different reasons. Here, he is Matti Fagerholm, the radio's head announcer following his father Pentti in being the man the Finns trust more than anyone else. And like his father before him, many today call him ”the voice of Finland”, a beacon on the radio waves you can tune into and feel that everything in the world is still as it was yesterday, in its right and proper place.
In Sweden, this man is known as Michael Monroe, a rock singer. But I'll get to that later.
Fagerholm took me to his office on the building's third floor. Walking through the corridors I was surprised that I saw no men in uniforms, but instead the walls were covered in colorful posters and here and there actually a graffiti. The air felt generally fresher since the last time, and the people we passed younger, somehow happier. It was like someone had opened the curtains, and then for the heck of it, also the window. And from that open window, new winds were blowing in. For this man showing me into his office was now in the process of becoming the director of a new YLE, one which would be sending TV as well as radio broadcasts to the entirety of Finland as soon as possible.
Fagerholm's office was still something of a mess, and he seemed somewhat apologetic as we sat down and a female secretary brought us coffee. After thanking the young woman with a warm smile, Fagerholm told me that this was the former office of the director of the SIO, who had overseen the YLE here, but now as the SIO was disbanded the office had been passed to him. His first act in taking over the rooms had been to order the janitor to remove the door someone had violently broken down – and to take it away permanently.
” - I like to tell my colleagues my door is always open”, he told me gesturing to the doorway with his hand, ”and now, as you can see, it really is a permanent state of affairs”.
Fagerholm's enthusiasm is catching. He likes to talk about what he wants to do with the YLE, at length, and his ideas certainly seem very modern in the Finnish context.
” - I'd like to get the people involved”, he confides to me, signalling for his secretary for new cups of coffee, ”it is their YLE after all. Programming based on demand, that is where it is. We need to know what the Finns want and offer that to them. This has been the leading theme of all the changes in Finland these last months. This media, too, needs to be social, like the pro-democracy movement has been. We can't keep talking to the people from on high, as it were – we need to engage the grass roots.”
Matti Fagerholm is seen as something of a hero among the Finnish pro-democracy movement and the supporters of the Opposition Interim Council. After all, the YLE was the first official government organ to move its support to the opposition, and Fagerholm himself became seen as the voice of protest when he in a quite early stage of what is called the Winter Games in Finland started reading news pieces on the air that were openly critical of the actions of the military leadership, especially the military police troops. There was real bravery in this, many will tell you, for these units were commanded by the feared Major General Varis, who during the culmination of the popular uprising in Finland ordered several bloody crackdowns against peaceful demonstrators and finally killed the FNA's long-serving military leader, General Halonen, in cold blood during a seemingly demented coup attempt.
The popular depiction of the events at the broadcast centre, endorsed by Soini and others in the Interim Council, paints a heroic picture of Fagerholm and other radio personnel barricading themselves in the studios and keeping out both the SIO officers and the military police troops with deception and a series of ingenious ruses. When I asked Fagerholm himself about the events, he looked at me conspiratorially, took me to an empty sound stage and started telling his side of the story in a quiet voice.
[ how much of this should I make public in this piece, and how much in the upcoming major story about the power change in Finland? It is explosive stuff anyway, but I have to be careful until I am sure I will see it in print... ]
” - Look, Mr. Blomqvist”, the man wearing velvet trousers said to me, ”I can tell you what really happened, but you you have to keep it confidential”.
I was surprised to find out there was more to the story than seemed, and so encouraged him to continue.
” - You see, it was just not me and some brave technicians that took over the studio. We could not have done that alone, there was an entire company of Special Military Police here and they would have made short work of us...”
To be fair I had also been sceptical of the official narrative all along – maybe it had been my journalistic experience and instincts telling me it seemed all too easy.
” - The thing is that the very head of the SIO, the colonel leading the State Information Office, was in on it. He set it up so that people supporting the opposition were hired and put to suitable positions here, and that on the right day, or night as a matter of fact, virtually only people who supported the power change were on duty at the YLE. Also, he, ah, incapacitated the officer leading the ESP unit stationed here and ran interference with the rest of their leaders so that they were actually not in the know about what was happening here until it was very much too late to stop it all.”
Fagerholm leaned back in his chair and smiled to me.
” - There you have it. The dissatisfaction with the National Committee went deeper than most think, and the uprising had more support from many quarters, both in Finland and abroad, than is being openly acknowledged by even the Interim Council. And so, I ask you to keep this confidential – or if you decide to report it, leave me out of it, and treat me as an anonymous source. I am not counting on staying at the YLE until retirement, oh no, I have a lot of plans for the future, but I have started important projects here and I am committed to see them through – it would be a damn shame if Soini or anyone else kicked me out from the YLE before I have left my mark here.
I agreed not to reveal Fagerholm's name, even if I would write a story of how the events at the YLE really went down [ although I might have to name him anyway to give my story more credence – it would be much better to give his name than to just mention an anynomous source...] and we went out of the sound stage. We climbed to the broadcast tower to take in the view out over the Finnish capital.
” - When it comes to the Winter Games”, Fagerholm told me, ”I am not the hero many people may say I am. I did what I think needed to be done, and I was supported in it by colleagues and many other people. To be fair, as long as I have been at YLE after my father got me to rejoin the organisation in 1990, I was constantly bothered, sometimes angered, by the fact that we were not giving the truth to the Finns, not the whole truth at any rate. But before this spring I had no real chance to fight the system, so to speak, without getting into big trouble myself. Now, since the uprising, I feel more at home working with the YLE than I ever did. I believe my father would agree with me if he was alive – I always believed it was a strain on him too that YLE was for a long just a shadow of what it was before the war, or at any rate just a ghost of what it could be.
Fagerholm looked out over the town of Mikkeli and spread his hands.
” - That is what I want to accomplish here – to help make the YLE what it really can be. An actual people's broadcaster, a source of entertainment and good music as well as truly trustworthy news. Something we can all listen and relate to, something we can be proud of.”
And you say you are not a hero, I told him. But maybe you understand if some see it differently, I asked him.
” - Maybe so. To me, working for what I believe in an airy, big office, surrounded by inspiring people I have hired myself is not being a hero. Being a hero is a whole different thing.
The man with the long, fair hair went silent for a moment, resting his eyes on the sunny contours of the buildings and parks below us.
” - This nation has many people who I could call heroes, people who got us through the massive disaster and tragedy known as the Exchange and its aftermath. My father was one of them – I can be nothing like the hero he was 30 years ago. I remember those years painfully, too – I saw it first hand, you understand. And as to being a hero – there was only one time when I actually felt heroic, felt I was making something of a difference. But that, as they say, is a different story entirely.”
So it was – and then he told it to me anyway.
” - Back in 1983, just before the war, my band Hanoi Rocks was in London...
[ I could cut the story here to make it a two-parter, because obviously here we reach back to the wartime events and it would make like a good cliffhanger. Have to ask Eva what she thinks. ]
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