American Finnophile Gordon F. Sander writes book on Winter War
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By Kimmo Oksanen
A man, a complete stranger to me, steps out of the elevator in a Manhattan hotel in New York. We are introduced by a Danish friend: “Gordon F. Sander, this is Kimmo Oksanen.”
“Are you Kimmo Oksanen? The Kimmo Oksanen?” the man asks, his eyes blazing with enthusiasm.
To my disappointment, this did not mean that I would have been somehow famous among elevator-riders in New York. Instead, in front of me was standing a man who, for an American, has exceptionally good knowledge of Finland, and especially of Helsinki. Some common acquaintance of ours has mentioned by name.
Sander has visited Finland dozens of times since 1977. He has written more than 100 articles in American and British publications.
Soon he is asking me if I know Christian Moustgaard , Ami Hasan, Risto Ihamuotila, Max Jakobson, Stefan Lindfors, Laila Snellman, or Aki Kaurismäki.
Now and then I nod to his curious array of names from Finnish society and culture, and he is pleased.
It was 1999, and the place was the Gershwin Hotel, the “poor man’s Chelsea Hotel”, favoured by artist, whose facade had been designed by Stefan Lindfors.
Now Sander is in Helsinki. His major achievement, the book What Free Men Can Do. The Untold Story of the Winter War, has just been published.
About 20 years ago Sander was standing on Mannerheimintie, looking at the equestrian statue of CGE Mannerheim He was wondering how this person, who was unknown in other parts of the world, was so respected in Finland as to deserve a statue in a prime location in the centre of the capital city.
Now, after studying the Winter War for about three years, and after meeting both Finnish and Russian veterans of the war, and after spending eight months writing the book, he says that he understands.
“The first times that I visited Finland, I heard people everywhere talking about the Winter War, as if it had just happened yesterday. I realised that in order to understand Finnish people, and Finnishness, one had to know the Winter War. Alongside the Kalevala, it is a central Finnish myth.”
Sander got his first contact with Finland in 1977 when he found a book on Finnish history by Max Jakobson covering the years 1917 to 1967.
In the same year he travelled to Finland, hoping to write an article for the Atlantic Monthly about a country between East and West. However, fate had dictated that two Soviet men who had hijacked a plane where tricked into believing that they were landing in Sweden, when they landed in Helsinki instead.
Sander found himself reporting on the events to The New York Times.
“Upon realising that the plane had landed in Finland, which had a ‘special relationship’ with the Soviet Union, the men threatened to blow it up”, Sander recalls.
“The situation was surreal. There were 50 journalists from around the world spending the night in the airport’s VIP facilities, waiting for something to happen. Some started to party, forgetting that just 100 metres away about 100 people were spending the most horrific moments of their lives.”
Finally, what happened - or as Sander put it, what had to happen, in the spirit of the Finnish-Soviet Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance - happened: “Special forces detained the hijackers and freed the passengers. The Soviet citizens were sent back to Moscow, and soon after that they were shot.”
In 1990, 13 years after his first visit, Sander returned to Helsinki. It happened that at the same time, the presidents of the Soviet Union and the United States, George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev had decided to organise their summit right here. Again Sander was “the voice of Helsinki in the world”.
“During my 13 years of absence, the atmosphere in Helsinki had changed completely. The small town was opening up to the world. Finland would soon join the European Union. Helsinki was becoming more international. As a journalist interested in culture, the change excited me tremendously”, Sander said.
“I saw my first Aki Kaurismäki movie, and I got drunk with actor Matti Pellonpää. I fell in love with Finland, a country at the top of the world.
The most distressing event that Sander confronted was the sinking of the car-passenger ferry, the Estonia in 1994. The journalist writing for The New York Times saw the victims at a morgue in Turku.
“Have you ever reported on a major disaster? Good Lord, I’m a culture journalist!”
But Sander has also picked some nice stories out of this small insular country, whose inhabitants love rules - perhaps a bit too much. “It was night on a deserted Mannerheimintie. No cars - nothing”, Sander says.
“I noticed a suspicious figure on the other side of the street. He was ridiculously drunk, and I was afraid that he was going to fall flat on his face. The man was going to cross the street, but right that moment, the pedestrian light turned red. The man froze in his tracks. Only when the light turned green again did he start crossing the street. Such law-abiding behaviour could only be seen in Finland!”
But let’s not empty the whole arsenal; the writer himself should have a chance to say something, especially as his little stories on Finland are to have further use.
“The wars can wait for a while. I’m constantly seeing nightmares about the Winter War”, he says.
“It was great to write about the most glorious moment of Finnish history. I first wrote about it for English-speaking readers, who did not know anything about the Winter War. Then WSOY wanted to have it in Finnish, and I started writing for older Finns who knew everything about the war, and for young people who thought that they knew - a very difficult audience. But in my next book I will describe my other experiences in Finland. I love to tell ‘lost stories’.”
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 13.2.2010
KIMMO OKSANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
kimmo.oksanen@hs.fi
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| 16.2.2010 - THIS WEEK |
 American Finnophile Gordon F. Sander writes book on Winter War |
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