Historian claims number of executions of deserters during Continuation War was deliberately understated
Director of Department of Military History at Defence University accuses author of "stigmatization"
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In his new book that was published on Tuesday, Emeritus Professor Heikki Ylikangas indicates that the number of deserters from the Finnish armed forces who were executed during the Continuation War (1941-44) was considerably higher than can be seen from official documents.
According to Ylikangas, the number of executions was about 250. In his view, dozens of them were illegal. The name list of the allegedly executed soldiers is included in the new book, entitled Romahtaako rintama? ("Is the Front Collapsing?")
Based on the official figures given by the Finnish Defence Forces, Finns executed just 58 of their own soldiers during the Continuation War.
However, Ohto Manninen, Professor of War History at the Finnish National Defence University, says that he himself has never noticed that the Defence Forces would have wanted to conceal such information.
While admitting that he has not read Ylikangas’s new book in its entirity as yet, Manninen seriously doubts that the Defence Command would have ordered its archives to be systematically cleaned.
Some errors have already been found in the book. For example, one soldier whom Ylikangas had mentioned as having died during the war had passed away as recently as in the 1990s.
Ylikangas admits that some mistakes can found in his book, but says that the aim of the book was to prompt a need to find out the exact number of the executed soldiers and to look into the fate of those who vanished during the Continuation War.
Previously Manninen and Jarmo Nieminen - the director of the Department of Military History at the National Defence University - have proposed that the fate of those soldiers who vanished during the wars over the period from 1939 to 1945 should be looked into.
According to current information, the fate of as many as 5,311 Finnish soldiers is still unclear.
During the launch of the book on Tuesday, Nieminen presented Ylikangas with a written statement of his "twisting the facts" and of "stigmatizing" the institution Nieminen is heading.
After reading the book, Nieminen regarded it as insufficient and lacking in facts. He also believes that this book will arouse an academic debate on the fate of those soldiers who vanished or were executed during the war.
Ylikangas started his book by comprehensively rejecting the allegations of the executions of hundreds of wartime deserters in Lappeenranta in the summer of 1944.
The exhumation of remains in the cemetery at Huhtiniemi has continued for some time: thus far the only bodies that have been found were shown to date from the 19th century, and not from the 1940s.
Towards the end of the Continuation War, the Red Army launched a massive infantry and artillery assault on Finnish positions in the Karelian Isthmus in June 1944. The lines broke in various degrees of order and disorder and the Finns retreated back towards the former border with the Soviet Union.
This is the background to the allegations of mass desertions and field courts-martial.
According to Ylikangas, the number of executions was about 250. In his view, dozens of them were illegal. The name list of the allegedly executed soldiers is included in the new book, entitled Romahtaako rintama? ("Is the Front Collapsing?")
Based on the official figures given by the Finnish Defence Forces, Finns executed just 58 of their own soldiers during the Continuation War.
However, Ohto Manninen, Professor of War History at the Finnish National Defence University, says that he himself has never noticed that the Defence Forces would have wanted to conceal such information.
While admitting that he has not read Ylikangas’s new book in its entirity as yet, Manninen seriously doubts that the Defence Command would have ordered its archives to be systematically cleaned.
Some errors have already been found in the book. For example, one soldier whom Ylikangas had mentioned as having died during the war had passed away as recently as in the 1990s.
Ylikangas admits that some mistakes can found in his book, but says that the aim of the book was to prompt a need to find out the exact number of the executed soldiers and to look into the fate of those who vanished during the Continuation War.
Previously Manninen and Jarmo Nieminen - the director of the Department of Military History at the National Defence University - have proposed that the fate of those soldiers who vanished during the wars over the period from 1939 to 1945 should be looked into.
According to current information, the fate of as many as 5,311 Finnish soldiers is still unclear.
During the launch of the book on Tuesday, Nieminen presented Ylikangas with a written statement of his "twisting the facts" and of "stigmatizing" the institution Nieminen is heading.
After reading the book, Nieminen regarded it as insufficient and lacking in facts. He also believes that this book will arouse an academic debate on the fate of those soldiers who vanished or were executed during the war.
Ylikangas started his book by comprehensively rejecting the allegations of the executions of hundreds of wartime deserters in Lappeenranta in the summer of 1944.
The exhumation of remains in the cemetery at Huhtiniemi has continued for some time: thus far the only bodies that have been found were shown to date from the 19th century, and not from the 1940s.
Towards the end of the Continuation War, the Red Army launched a massive infantry and artillery assault on Finnish positions in the Karelian Isthmus in June 1944. The lines broke in various degrees of order and disorder and the Finns retreated back towards the former border with the Soviet Union.
This is the background to the allegations of mass desertions and field courts-martial.
Helsingin Sanomat