Punapanssarit ja poltettu kylä, Punapanssarit Suomen sodissa ja rauhassa

2013 | 74 min | K-12 | documentary, war

Two Documentaries About Wartime Finland, available in DVD.

Burned Village – Three Stories of War and Reconciliation:
Burned Village tells the personal stories of Hilja Kuosku and Tyyne Martikainen from Savukoski and Hemmi Seppänen from Suomussalmi, based on their experiences with Soviet partisans during the Winter War and Continuation War in the villages along Finland’s northern eastern border. For decades, these stories were either voluntarily silenced or suppressed by the state. In recent years, these experiences have begun to be documented, shedding light on the trauma people endured during the war. Efforts have also been made to understand why the Soviet Union conducted such brutal partisan operations in Finland.

Red Tanks in Finland’s Wars and Peace:
Red Tanks is a story of the Soviet tanks familiar to Finnish war veterans. These tanks were used against Finnish forces on the frontlines but, through war spoils, significant numbers were also repurposed for Finnish use. The story of Soviet tanks did not end with the peace treaty; their use continued for many years in “peaceful tasks.” In the program, war veterans and postwar tank operators share their experiences from the battlefields and tank training during the postwar period in the Soviet Union.