Finland and Russia: a photo journey through the border zone

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jun/10/finland-and-russia-a-photo-journey-through-the-border-zone

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Finland and Russia share more than 800 miles of land border, plus the archipelago sea in the Baltic region with tens of thousands of small islands. Until now, neutrality has been part of Finland’s security policy, but now it seems certain to apply for Nato membership. Travelling through Finland, we look at the places and people who have a special relationship with their Russian neighbour

Antti Kettunen, 44, runs through a slalom consisting of two orange pylons with his pistol drawn. Then, back at the starting point, he kneels behind a construction of two pallets, aims through a gap and hits the target more than eight meters away.

Behind him, intently, two women and six men watch as Kettunen moves. They have all volunteered to take part in reserve exercises. Kettunen, the trainer and chairman of the reserve association, is seeing some of them today for the first time. In a patch of forest about an hour away from Helsinki, weekly shooting exercises are held with four different types of weapons. Since 24 February this year, the reservist association in Vantaa has received more than 400 new members; at the beginning of the year, the entire association counted about 1,000 members.

Antti Kettunen, 44, the coach and chairman of the Vantaa Reservists Association.

On 18 May 2022, Finland submitted its Nato application – a decision Kettunen has been awaiting for a long time. Although there was only about 20% support for Nato membership before Russia’s aggression, Kettunen does not know a single person who would oppose membership. Shortly after the end of the war in Kosovo, Kettunen took part in a peace mission. “You could say the mass graves were still warm when we arrived. The mission changed everything for me. Only alliances like Nato can ensure peace in the long run.” So says Kettunen when asked about Finland’s imminent accession to Nato.

From late April to mid-May we – the Finnish photographer Jonathan Terlinden and German photographer Patrick Junker – travelled through Finland to visit people and places to better understand the history between Finland and Russia.

Suomenlinna fortress, where even today marines are trained. A large part of the island has been a Unesco world heritage Site since 1991.

The first stop on our journey took us to Suomenlinna fortress, a few miles outside Helsinki. Its construction was started in 1748 and became necessary when the Russian tsar Peter the Great tried to assert Russia as a naval power by founding St Petersburg. The fortress surrendered in 1808, and the then Swedish province of Finland became the Grand Duchy of Finland a year later and thus part of Russia.

Tamara Danylova, 26, a journalist from Ukraine, arrived in Finland two weeks ago. She is living with two friends in a hostel that has been converted into a refugee shelter. She comes from Sloviansk, a city in the Donetsk region, and has supported the Ukrainian army with her family since 2014. Most recently, she lived in Lviv. But as the fighting drew closer and closer to the city, she decided to flee.

Juho Moilainen, 20, is completing his military service and has come home for the weekend. He is not worried. “We have always lived here on the Russian border. Nothing has changed,” he says. As is common in rural Finland, he spends his Friday evening in the car with his friends. For the young generation, the threat of war is very abstract.

Fifty years later, tsar Alexander II granted the Finns extensive autonomy. The Finnish language was promoted to weaken the influence of the Swedes and anchor the Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire. But the desire for Finnish independence grew. Only in 1917, after the October Revolution in Russia, did Finland declare independence. But Finland was a divided country. A bloody civil war between the Whites led by the conservative Finnish senate fought against the Red socialists ensued. Almost 30,000 people died in connection with the Finnish civil war.

Helena Seppänen is waiting to watch the bears. She lives right on the Finnish-Russian border, in Ruhtinansalmi.

“People in Russia are not evil. I have many good friends there. But if I hadn’t seen so much of Russia, I would think differently today,” says Helena Seppänen, 71, from Ruhtinansalmi, a town 450 miles north of Helsinki and a walk from the Russian border. Suomussalmi, the nearest major city, is an hour’s drive away. When we arrive here at the end of April, the days are sunny and clear. Nevertheless, the rugged lake landscape ice is still strong enough to carry cross-country skiers and ice fishers. Helena and Eero Seppänen, 77, could already see the first bears. A few weeks ago they woke up from hibernation.

A family portrait of Eero Seppänen, taken in 1946. He is the baby on his father’s arm and one year old at the time.

Eero Seppänen has lived here all his life. His mother, Lempi, is revered as a hero in the village. She watched the first Russian soldiers cross the border on 30 November 1939. She took her three children and ran 6 miles to warn the villages and soldiers on the other side of the river. It was the beginning of the winter war and consolidated the national identity of the Finns. In this chapter of Finnish history, especially the battle around Suomussalmi, are many parallels to the situation in Ukraine today.

Russian security interests served as a pretext for attacking a militarily hopelessly inferior nation. But the Finns were able to resist the overwhelming enemy in the impassable terrain and deep winter, a resistance the Soviets did not expect. They actually believed that they would free the Finnish people from the yoke of the landowners and capitalists. But the opposite was the case: the enemy’s attack and the first victories of their own military made the camps, which had been hostile to each other from the civil war, grow together. Through the “spirit of the winter war” Finland gained international prestige and internal strength. A peace treaty was reached, yet Finland had to cede territory to the Soviet Union. Although the country fought alongside Germany in the continuation war from 1941, it remained independent and free of alliances after the second world war.

The Russian memorial on Raate Museum Road was erected on 19 September 1994. The statue’s base bears the text in Russian and Finnish: “To the sons of the fatherland – mourning Russia”.

Veli Merentie, 98

The permanently perceived latent threat from the east forced Finland to perform an often criticised balancing act in its foreign policy in the decades after the second world war, which aimed at not provoking the Soviet Union and later Russia. During the cold war, the term “Finlandisation” was established in the west. Although neutrality was maintained, the influence of the Soviet Union was noticeable. For this reason, the country has consciously refrained from joining Nato.

“When Putin threatened Finland and said we shouldn’t join the Nato, I changed my mind completely; of course, we should join the Nato,” says Veli Merentie, 98. “He has nothing to say about what we Finns should do.” Merentie himself took part in the continuation war, and two of his brothers died in the winter war. Finland is a country on high alert. It has always been the border between the west and east.

Paavo Terä, is doing his military service in the tank brigade. He comes from a military family, and his great-grandfathers have already fought in the winter war and continuation war.

“Russia already sees us as an enemy since we joined the EU. For them, we are already the frontline, they just haven’t attacked yet,” says Paavo Terä, 19, as we met him at the Arrow 22 military exercise. Unlike many other EU countries, Finland has retained its military service even after joining the EU. The Finnish armed forces have a standing strength of 34,700 and about 900,000 reservists. The armed forces regularly participate in various international exercises. In May 2022, the Finnish army was visited by forces from the UK, Latvia, the US, and Estonia to practice cooperation in the framework of Exercise Arrow 22.

On the day we and more than 40 other media visited the Arrow 22 military exercise, a Russian military helicopter violated Finnish airspace. Such incidents are becoming more frequent. For example, in early April, a Russian army transport aircraft briefly entered Finnish airspace. In parallel, property is being expropriated from Russian oligarchs, and economic cooperations are terminated. Finns have become more aware that Russian oligarchs have suspect properties in Finland in recent years. Large apartment buildings and villas in strategically essential locations have attracted much media attention.

Pentti Seppänen playing his accordion.

Back to Suomussalmi; Pentti Seppänen, 82, has also spent his whole life close to the Russian border. The retired teacher is involved in many associations, including the Veterans Association. He was born when his mother was evacuated, and his father fought in the battle for Suomussalmi in the winter war. Yet, no matter what the politicians decide, all that matters to him is that peace is kept. “The war in Ukraine shows that the Russian government can make absurd decisions. A Finnish Nato membership probably won’t make them start thinking rationally.”