Why Putin Couldn't Invade Finland - TLDR News

I was told there is a joke among Finnish military that goes something like this; one time some junior officer suggested "what if the training had the "enemy" come from the west instead?", the other officers nods and agrees, "yes Russia might do a flank attack through Sweden..."

There was a media press conference where the media (foreign) interviewed Finnish and Swedish army officers. One foreign journalist asked how they could communicate when the Finnish language isn't even in the same "language tree" as Swedish and is so different. Finnish officer : (looked at the Swedish officer) and said in English " how do you think we can manage?" and the Swedish officer replied, " I have no idea".

Well, I mean, every time Russia tries to invade Finland, some crazy Fin goes and kills an inordinate number of Russian troops. There's a joke about this based on a true story. A large group of Russian soldiers in the border area in 1939 are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a small hill: "One Finnish soldier is better than ten Russian". The Russian commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the hill where Upon a gun-battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, then silence. The voice once again calls out: "One Finn is better than one hundred Russian." Furious, the Russian commander sends his next best 100 troops over the hill and instantly a huge gun fight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again Silence. The calm Finnish voice calls out again: "One Finn is better than one thousand Russians!" The enraged Russian commander musters 1000 fighters and sends them to the other side of the hill. Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets and cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought... Then silence. Eventually one badly wounded Russian fighter crawls back over the hill and with his dying words tells his commander, "Don't send any more men...it's a trap. There's two of them."

finally a country who is willing to do whatever to protect it's people. The rest of the world can learn from Finland ❤️👍🏾

The way a Finn described it to me: every aspect of our country is designed to make it as difficult and expensive as possible for Russia to invade.

As a swede I am very happy to have Finland as a neighbour!

Finland is such a great nation, I would be very proud of being Finnish 🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮

Helsinki is one of the most beautiful cities I've visited and I stayed with some absolutely lovely Finns. It's amazing to find out that beneath the surface they are so prepared for war. I'm now even more impressed. Welcome to NATO, brothers and sisters! We are very glad to have you.

putin: if finland tries to join nato, it could go quite badly. finland, who has been preparing for round 2 for the last 8 decades: yes— for you

One thing worthy of note is that the Winter War was an absolute catastrophe for Russia, and is the main reason Finland was not annexed in 1939. The Russian military then was as incompetent and badly led as it is now, in Ukraine. They advanced along roads (because the forests were impassable to their vehicles) and, just like in Ukraine, the Finns were highly mobile (they used ski troops a lot) and were able to target the long Russian columns wherever and whenever they chose. They also let Russian columns cross frozen Finnish lakes, and then dynamited the ice, sending thousands of Russian troops to a watery, frigid grave. In the air Finland used whatever it could get - most notably the despised (elsewhere) Brewster B239 Buffalo to devastating effect, tearing the Red Air Force to shreds. In the end, Russia "won" by sheer weight of numbers. It was the kind of victory that can only be won by a side that doesn't care how many of its soldiers die, and that's what happened. But Finland gave Stalin such a bloody nose that he abandoned plans to take the country and settled instead for some small slices of border territory.

After watching this video, I feel more safe as a Swede, with our excellent, Finnish neighbours! 😊

Just before Covid my wife was in Finland visiting her family and got lost on the drive from Helskinki to Kuopio. She took a wrong turn, then another and ended up in a complex of underground tunnels leading to a bunker the size of a sports stadium. She was lost within the tunnel/bunker network for about 30 minutes and had to be rescued by a perplexed police unit.

Makes me wonder if Finland is joining NATO or if NATO is joining Finland. Hats off to these policies. Even though they were a result of desperate times.

Has Finland considered bolstering its defense by stockpiling vodka all along its border with Russia? With the level of discipline shown by the Russian Army in Ukraine, its advancing columns would stop at every vodka cache and take days to sober up before advancing to the next cache, giving Finland ample time to mobilize. Of course unlike most deterrents that you have to advertise to make them effective, telling Russia about this one might cause a Russian stampede into Finland.

As a Finnish artillery officer conscript (Chief of a Fireline Company), I approve very much of this video. Our artillery is the most capable of all armies in the world. And we do have these bunkers everywhere in this country. Every apartment building has one (by law), and there are tens of the larger bunkers in every city, small and big. I've been in several of them here in Tampere, the third biggest city in Finland. They are massive caves, usually used as a parking lot, one as a swimming hall, hobby/sport centers or just rental storages, locked off-limits storages for military and such.

I'm from Finland and I remember grandparents had less than favorable things to say about Russia.🙄 One that stuck to my mind was "Russian is Russian even if you fry him in butter". Rough translation. That turn out to be true!🇺🇦

The best revenge is living well, which makes the fact that Finland can invest so much into preparing for another Russian invasion and still maintain a higher standard of living than Russia all the sweeter.

Correction, no country 'officially' came in support to Finland. Also, Finland have had many wars with Russia before it was even its own country, as part of Sweden.

In Sweden, we have great admiration for how the Finns fought during these wars. Many Swedes volunteered to help Finland and afaik there was material aid as well. Don't know if I would say that Finland lost the wars, they definitely didn't have the most losses.

Finland is extremely innovative, just like Sweden. A lot of high tech comes from Finland (and Sweden, often cooperation). However Finns are also shy and humble, and so nobody knows our full capabilities.