Ali Karim was a Board Member of Bouchercon [The World Crime & Mystery Convention] and co-chaired programming for Bouchercon Raleigh, North Carolina in 2015. He is Assistant Editor of Shots eZine, British correspondent for The Rap Sheet and writes and reviews for many US magazines & Ezines.
With the incredibly hot weather enveloping Europe, I was kept cool by this immersive historical narrative based around the icy grip of a Finnish winter in 1939. Meticulously researched, it tells the true story of how the small country of Finland newly independent from Soviet Russia, fought valiantly against Stalin’s vast hordes when they invaded to reclaim their former territory.
World War Two commenced when Hitler and his forces of Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. The reality was little was happening in the rest of Europe in terms of ‘boots-on-the-ground’ military activity.
“There has to be a first death; you have to see with your own eyes to truly believe in war,” is the adage that the author bookends his narrative.
There is a worrying prescience in the actions of Stalin’s Russia invading Finland [starting the Winter War in 1939], with the current ‘special operation’ that Putin’s Russia has mounted by invading its former territory Ukraine.
As a prelude to a wider European [and then Worldwide] conflict, Stalin invaded Finland to incorporate this former territory to act as a ‘buffer’ in case Hitler and Germany decided to attack Russia. Despite Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop signing the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the USSR. Stalin did not trust Adolf Hitler. Finland would serve as a buffer to protect mainland Russia, and Stalin considered his invasion of Finland would take at most a matter of weeks before the Finns surrendered. In order to find pretext to mount an invasion of Finland, Stalin orders a ‘False Flag’ operation using political prisoners from a Soviet Gulag.
What Stalin and his sycophantically fearful generals hadn’t understood was Finland’s Field Marshall Carl Gustav Mannerheim’s use of ‘SISU’, the internal and physical resolve of the Finns. He also drew his defensive army from ordinary people, from villages, of brothers, sisters, friends, and relatives to share a common purpose – to defend their homeland, with ‘SISU’. The legend of Lotta Svard inspired many young Finnish women to join their men in the conflict as field nurses defending their homeland.
The tale features several friends [including brothers] from the small village of Rautjarvi - Toivo, Onni, Pretara [and Brother Victor] and especially Simo though a farmer, but thanks to his Father’s training is now Finland’s Champion Marksman.
The friends join the 6th Company lead by the manic alcoholic Captain Aarne Juutilainen [aka ‘The Terror of Morocco’ due to his service with the French Foreign Legion]. There are four commanders that form 6Th Company. The boys from Rautjarvi join platoon number 1, led by Karlsson. Their objective is to prevent the Russian advance by protecting both fronts at Kollaa and the Mannerheim line.
Despite heavy artillery bombing Finnish villages and cities including Helsinki, the Russian army can only advance via the Loiloma Road, due to heavy impenetrable forests and lakes. The Finns of 6th Company mount a guerrilla campaign even attacking Russian tanks and vehicles. Simo’s prowess as a sniper becomes feared among the invaders, and he is termed ‘The White Death’.
The novel details harrowing episodes as the massively outnumbered Finns fight valiantly against a ruthless Russian army. It becomes a David and Goliath battle with guile and resolve [SISU] on the side of Finland as it battles for its homeland against the overwhelming military capability of Russia.
Battles on the Loiloma Road, Ullisma Forest and Gulf of Finland are detailed dispassionately but in graphic detail. Russian propaganda is redoubled as its population at home are kept in the dark as to the mounting casualties, as are the soldiers [Ivans] thanks to the implanted Politruk officers [who report any lack of loyalty back to the increasingly paranoid Stalin].
Norek’s narrative is filled with action, detail, pathos, compassion making this book astonishing. It provokes deep thought about humanity [as worthy as that sounds] and the power and resolve of the human spirit when one’s back is to the wall. The editing is so judicious that when I put the book down, I shook it vigorously listening for a rattle. There was silence as not a single sentence, word, or superfluous comma could be heard.
In closing the author provides two epilogues which add context to the proceedings, photographs of the people in the narrative, a detailed bibliography [of references], concise notes and acknowledgments that make one pause, and think.
I learned a great deal, for which I am so very grateful to Oliver Norek in explaining a very crucial part of European history and an exploration of human nature.
I would urge you to seek this book out because when I put the book down I clapped at the skill of the author until my palms became stained red.
Translated by Nick Caistor
