Atmospheric Tours to the Famous Winter War Battle Sites North and East of Kajaani Bring History to Life
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
TRAVEL MILITARY SITES MILITARY SITES TRAVEL Into the wi lderness Atmospheric tours to the famous Winter War battle sites north and east of Kajaani bring history to life WORDS AND PICTURES RICHARD ASHER report from January 1940, it was among (a Finnish sniper with a claimed 542 kills) the first appearances of the word in an T-shirts are selling in workaday department English-language publication. To this day, stores. Winter War documentaries air on TV. the deeply-Finnish concept is considered And while I’m in the air heading north, the nearly untranslatable. If you really want Prime Minister speaks at a commemorative to understand it, the best thing you can event near Kuhmo. do is go and stand in the wilderness that After all these years, this still serves as inspired these words. In winter. Feel the the David and Goliath stuff that every bite of the air on your cheeks, shiver as the small country needs. These battles clearly feeling fades from your fingers. Then try to occupy a special place in Finland’s psyche. The Finns have something imagine waging war in those icy woods. And when you come up to this part of the they call sisu. It is a compound There’s no better place to do this than country and soak up the history, it’s hard of bravado and bravery, of the famous battle sites north and east of not to get caught up in it. ferocity and tenacity, of the ability to keep Kajaani. Whether Finland ‘won’ the Winter Early on the morning of 30th November fighting after most people would have quit, and War definitely depends on whose version 1939, with the Second World War just a to fight with the will to win. The Finns translate of history you’re reading, but on this front couple of months old, the Soviet Union sent sisu as ‘the Finnish spirit’, but it is a much more there’s no doubt that sisu had the final say. troops pouring across the Finnish border gutful word than that. Last week the Finns gave For Finns, the ultimately successful north and east of Kajaani. At the time, “the world a good example of sisu by carrying battles on the Raate Road and nearby areas Helsinki was a German ally, and Stalin’s plan the war into Russian territory on one front while have become a national inspiration. I realise was for these divisions to push through to on another they withstood merciless attacks by this before I even arrive in Kajaani on the Finland’s western seaboard at Oulu. The a reinforced Russian Army. In the wilderness... 75th anniversary of the Russian invasion country would be severed in half, the Soviets of the Russo-Finnish frontier... the Finns that started the Winter War. I’m in the would control a vital port, and celebratory definitely gained the upper hand.” faraway south of the country, but even there vodka would be flowing on the quay in time When Time referenced sisu in this Raatteentie (Raate Road) and White Death for Stalin’s birthday on December 18th. >> 34 WINTER/SPRING WINTER/SPRING 35 TRAVEL MILITARY SITES MILITARY SITES TRAVEL GO WILD IN WAR COUNTRY The border region, served by Kajaani Airport, is a hive of sporting and outdoor activity all year round. You can arrange all manner of fun from Suomussalmi or Kuhmo, the two main towns in the historic Winter War area. These forests are some of the best places in Europe for spotting brown bears, but remember they hibernate in winter. You’re also in with a winter of 1939-40 was ridiculously frigid at its in these parts. The Russian Memorial narrow treeless strip at the identical forests chance of seeing elk, wolves, wolverines or foxes. early January worst. We’re talking lows of 40 along Raate Road marks the entrance to a of Mother Russia, and not get a shiver Sighting an arctic hare is also a treat…they’re the degrees below zero. Gunfire and blood may morbid boardwalk leading to a mass grave. down your spine. To think that this country largest members of the bunny family! be hard to imagine amid today’s silent forest This is not a place for denial. Nor is the stretches almost all the way from here to Summer activities include epic forest hiking in and pure-white snow, but the cold bites now graveyard in the old part of Suomussalmi, Alaska is enough to make your head spin. the Hossa National Hiking area, or even the 160km as it did then. where many of the Finnish fallen were Luckily for the Finnish soldiers of 1939, trail along the Russian border. Canoeing is popular, The icicles around the bunker windows buried just yards from their last battle. The the sheer size of the mighty land to the and so is camping, which you can legally do just are probably unchanged, as surely are the tightly-packed crosses tell their own story. east didn’t intimidate them. With sisu on about anywhere in these parts. enormous snowflakes – so big you can see The Finns succeeded not only because your side, perhaps anything is possible. Winter warriors can have the time of their lives their pattern. It’s merely minus 10 when we Stalin had purged so many of his best military in the war lands. Think skiing (mostly cross-country, visit the Raate Road sites, but that’s more leaders, but because of their superior ski skills, though there is a slope at Sotkamo), husky safaris, than enough of a hint. Rarely in history has knowledge of the forests and sensible white snowmobiling, snowshoe-trekking and ice-fishing. war been fought in such conditions. camouflage that helped them carry out their More surreal experiences include the summer Memorials and death litter the landscape guerilla operations and motti siege warfare. cross-country ‘ski tunnel’ in Vuokatti, learning EXPLORING THE WINTER Against a force as monumentally massive as to extract tar from wood, and floating down WAR SITES Kuhmo’s icy Lentuankoski rapids in a dry suit. Visit the Soviet Union, it was a mighty shock. To Suomussalmi in early September, and you could get a sense of just how mighty, a visit to the even enter the world championship of berry- modern border is a must. The tourist offices and, if possible, the Winter picking! Take your pick of bilberries, cloudberries A guide can take you right into the War Museums, should be your first ports and lingonberries… protected zone. Ours, retired border of call. They’re your best bet for maps and post commander Pertti Koivisto, has the guides for exploring the military sites around necessary permissions to bring us to the Suomussalmi and Kuhmo. fence marking the end of Finland. It’s impossible to stand here, gazing across the Kuhmo Tourist Office Only it didn’t quite work out like that. that you didn’t don a fourth. Hear your teeth up the Soviet T-26 tank outside the entrance +358 (0)8 615 55292 Yes, the Soviets had all the advantages on chatter after just a few minutes outside the – she rumbles and she moves! Inside, the [email protected] paper. Our guide tells us that at the lonely car, and marvel at how anyone could last a coolest (literally!) exhibit is the pistol they keep border outpost of Juntusranta, for example, day here, let alone weeks. Only then can you in the freezer. Open the door and hold it by the Suomussalmi Tourist Office only 44 men were initially present to try and grasp why Finns consider this victory one for metal handle for a brief, burning taste of how a +358 (0)8 615 55545 repel 18,000 members of the Red Army’s the ages. One that epitomises sisu. soldier’s hands might have felt all day. [email protected] 163rd Division. Unsurprisingly, initial Soviet If this all sounds like slightly-overblown But it’s out of doors that you’ll really get progress was swift. And yet by January, with propaganda, then yes, there’s definitely a a sense of what those men faced. Outside Raate Road Winter War Museum (outside Suomussalmi) temperatures dipping like mad, the tide had whiff of that when you visit the war sites. the Raate Road Museum you’ll find the +358 (0)40 534 7677 turned. The Soviets had gone nowhere. Maybe it’s justified, maybe not. But not uniquely-sprawling Winter War Monument. [email protected] Yes, the USSR had done better in the everything written about this war has been On the roads that take you to Russia, traces Seasonal opening south, where Finland ultimately ceded penned by Finns. Bring along a copy of A of the war can still be seen in the furrowed territory in the subsequent March peace Frozen Hell by American historian William land or, more starkly, the yellow signs that Winter War Museum (Kuhmo) treaty, but their mission in this area was Trotter for a transatlantic perspective that, still warn against unexploded devices. The +358 (0)8 6155 5395 an embarrassing and globally-publicised when the air gnaws at your eyeballs, does restored trenches and bunkers, for example [email protected] failure. Finland’s never forgotten it, and if not appear to have an exaggerated title. at Purasjoki (not far short of the border you visit these parts, you won’t either. You’ll need some advanced Finnish skills on Raate Road) or Saunajärvi (on the Frozen Hell Winter War Tour (4 days) You need to travel to the battlegrounds in and a call ahead to get the most out of Saunajärventie battle route outside Kuhmo), +358 (0)40 7339 262 the winter months.