Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
Eight hours of walking around Helsinki doesn't make anyone a Finland expert. I wouldn't dream of discussing this country--or rather, that country; we're sailing away now--as if I really knew something about it. But my first impression: Finns are amazing.
Yes, that's the most boring city I've ever seen. That's interesting. Think of everything you have to do right to make a city that boring, especially when your neighbors are as severely interesting as the Russians.
Don't forget what the Finns did to the Soviet Union. You all know about that, right?
Even the Turkish immigrants agreed: This is a seriously boring country. No problems here. No news. It's nothing like Turkey. Everything's just fine.
A people who can be this boring in peace and that savage in war are by definition highly interesting. I wish I'd had time to get to know them a bit better.
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Jun '10
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
I think weather does more to create a cultural personality than any other thing. Deadly cold makes you clever and stoic.
Aug '10
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
What did the Finns do to the Soviet Union?
Jun '11
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
Michael Palin said...err, sang...it best:
Finland Has It All
Feb '11
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
Helsinki is beautiful. The entry to the harbor by ship is breathtaking. Food is good, the people are prosperous-looking and friendly and the public ways clean and net. Not bad for openers. It has an dramatically unordinary church built into the side of a rock hill which is one of the most interesting I have seen anywhere.
Dec '10
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: .
A people who can be this boring in peace and that savage in war... ·
This reminds me of PJ O'Rourke's comment during the lead-up to the first Gulf war. We should send them pictures of Detroit. This is what we do to our own cities during peace. Do you know what we are going to do to your's in war?
Edited on Jun 9, 2011 at 8:45amJun '10
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
It's known as the Winter War of 1939-40. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in the middle of winter without a proper officer corps (Stalin had purged most of them down to the level of captain), on foot, through heavy snow, and without proper logistics. Finnish ski troops swooped in on the flanks, cut the supply lines, and allowed thousands of ordinary Russian foot soldiers to die of exposure. Meanwhile, on the Mannerhein Line, the soviets launched a massive human wave attack against a fortified position. Only the shear force of numbers overcame the defenses, but the loss of life on the Russian side was appalling. The result convinced Hitler that the Soviet Union was a rotten edifice and he needed only to kick the door in to see the whole thing collapse.
May '10
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
The Imperial Russian invasions of Finnish territory during the 1700s were called by the Finns as the Greater Wrath and Lesser Wrath.
The Finns also had an alliance with the Nazis against the Soviets until 1944. Then after the signing of the Finnish-Soviet armistice, the agreement required Finns to attack the Nazis. This war in Lapland was equally bloody, with scorched earth policies by Germany.
Do you get the feeling that there is a real schizophrenic relationship between the two peoples?
Nov '10
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
The only thing I know about Finland is that "Ÿ" is completely unpronounceable.
Dec '10
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
If Kimi Räikkönen is at all representative on the Finns as a people, stoic just doesn't quite do it.
The man is like a robot. He drives with the precision and all the emotion of a machine.
This demotivator poster circulated around while Kimi was still an F1 driver, and it is spot on.
Nov '10
Re: Goodbye, Helsinski. Respect, Finns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_Hayha
That about sums it up.
Edited on Jun 10, 2011 at 11:22am