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Russian POW´s and relationships with Finnish women

Discussion in 'Winter and Continuation Wars' started by Kai-Petri, Jan 7, 2014.

  1. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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    Saw a document just recently on a Finnish man whose father was a Red Army soldier. He was a POW in Finland. A book was released in 2011 on Foreign soldier´s children in Finland, and altogether some 1,000 were born. 700 for German fathers and 200-300 for Russian fathers.
     
  2. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    Only 1000? That figure seems actually quite low compared to other countries. I'd have expected way more . Was this only for Pows ?
     
  3. green slime

    green slime Member

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    Dude, it's Finland.
     
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  4. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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    The author had expected more babies for Finnish women with foreign soldiers as well. This was for Russian POW´s and German soldiers, and some foreign volunteers.
     
  5. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    I suspect there were more, but in 1945 I doubt that many women were going to scream on the roof that they had had a baby with a German or a Russian.
     
  6. green slime

    green slime Member

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    I suspect the language barrier had something to do with it. Today, all Finns learn English as a third language, I'm not sure that was the case then (and if I'm wrong, I'm sure Kai-Petri will put me right).

    Germans were mostly in the Northern half, the least populated. If the demographics are anything like Sweden's, there's a distinct lack of women, the further North you go.
     
  7. Owen

    Owen O

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    Were the Soviet PoWs sent back to the USSR after the war or did they stay in Finland ?
    How many Soviet PoWs were captured in total in the Winter War & Continuation War ?
     
  8. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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    As far as I know not very many Finnish people spoke German or Russian ( except close to the USSR border perhaps ) back then but we know "love is a universal language"... Still as the USSR was considered our enemy surprisingly many children with Red Army POW´s.

    The Soviet POW´s were sent to the USSR after the war ( also requested by the Soviets in peace terms. For some reason we were not asked to return the Red Army weapons or tanks ). I don´t know how many were sent to the camps but we know that anybody who surrendered in war was considered a traitor by the political system. Some escaped to Sweden and Norway, but from books I know many also thought that their families were waiting and there was no alternative than to return.

    In Winter War Finland captured 5700 Soviet soldiers, and during Continuation War 64,000 soldiers.
     
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  9. Karjala

    Karjala Don Quijote

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    I agree with you, that women indeed were not advertising the nationality of the fathers of their children.

    Still I think these estimates are pretty plausible. In Finland the population was/is small and people mostly new their neighbours and what was going on with them.
     

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