HS Culture 21.1.2003 - Finnish classic war film <I>The Unknown Soldier</I> opens old wounds in Russia

By Mika Parkkonen in Moscow

A screening of the classic Finnish war movie The Unknown Soldier in Moscow was a harrowing experience which opened many old wounds.

After a wait of half a century, the lights were dimmed in the projection room of Moscow's film museum on Sunday for the Russian premiere of the 1955 movie. The film proved to be a major boost to national feeling in postwar Finland.

More than 50 people showed up to see the film. The print was subtitled in English, and there was simultaneous interpretation into Russian. The microphone interpretation inevitably lagged behind the actual events, and the interpreter could not do justice to the colourful dialects that were spoken in the film.

Watching an old Finnish cinematic masterpiece in an equally old Russian theatre with a Russian voice-over can be described as a very special cultural experience.

Some of the older members of the audience were shocked

more by what the film omitted, than by what it contained.

"On the basis of this, the Continuation War was a fairly static war, during which time was passed waiting in the trenches and dugouts", said a somewhat disappointed middle-aged woman.

She said that her mother and grandmother had experienced the horrors of Stalin's concentration camps, and she had expected that the Finns would have made more note of the suffering of the Russians.

"The Finnish losses were nothing compared to what the Russians had to experience", the woman pointed out.

She could not at all accept the notion that Finland retained its independence as a result of the fighting in the Continuation War, and that The Unknown Soldier would be a tribute to the heroes of their country who gave everything.

"Germany attacked first, and then Finland willingly joined the war, because it wanted to get Karelia back. For us it meant getting stabbed in the back", the woman thundered.

"It was painful to hear that the Finns had something to defend: farms, independence, their own way of thinking. For us the Soviet Union was a big mass grave at that time, where everything had been taken away from the people. I can feel nothing but envy. The Finns knew who they are, what they belong to, and what they were defending", the woman sulked.

Most of those interviewed

said that it was interesting to see the Finnish point of view of the "Great Patriotic War", which had been a major theme of Soviet propaganda for decades.

"This is the first time that I saw a film of the war from the Finnish point of view, and I am thankful for that. We did not know that it was the second war fought against Finland within a short time", says Yevgeni Katseneltson.

"It was a well-made and very objective film, but very dispersed. The characters changed so quickly that there was no time to identify with any of them", said Vladimir Golobev, who expressed regret that The Unknown Soldier had not been shown in Moscow a long time ago.

Vladimir Smirnov wondered why the film did not depict Finnish soldiers on skis. "I had the impression that the Finns were good skiers, and that the winter was a major problem for the Red Army."

In a discussion that followed

the screening, an older man said that he was surprised to hear that The Unknown Soldier is one of the most watched Finnish films. "Today it probably would not interest young viewers. There is not enough action or special effects. The cannon just fire, but the bodies are nowhere to be seen."

He also wondered where the Finnish "prostitutes" - volunteers of the Lotta Svärd women's auxiliary organisation - were. The comment, betraying a good deal of ignorance, provoked outraged responses from those who knew better.

The favourite scene for the Russian audience was when the Finnish soldiers got drunk while celebrating the birthday of Marshall CGE Mannerheim. The loudest laughs came when a drunken Second Lieutenant Koskela punches another officer who is singing in German. One viewer saw subtle symbolism in the sequence.

However, many felt that the visit by Corporal Rokka and two other soldiers at the home of the buxom Verushka in the Finnish-occupied city of Petrozavodsk, was completely out of place. "Why did the soldiers go to her home, and why did she dance Kalinka for them? The women of Karelia were not so plump and healthy during the war!" complained one older woman.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 14.1.2003