Tääll' ovat jo taattomme taistelleet (Here Our Fathers Have Already Fought): Finnish poster before the Winter War
A Finnish soldier in a steel helmet, rifle at his side, stands beside a plain printed sheet in heavy black type that reads that 'our fathers have already fought here, protected freedom with their blood'. The sentence borrows the standing of earlier generations' fighting for the present soldier and sets 'freedom' beside it, with no named enemy, place or request.
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Finnish authorities (issuer not printed on the poster); photographed by an unknown photographer for the Finnish Defence Forces wartime photo archive (SA-kuva)
- Country
- Finland
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Cajander Government
- Leader
- Aimo Cajander
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- Winter War
- Techniques
- TransferGlittering generalities
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- SA-kuva (Finnish Defence Forces wartime photograph archive, Sotamuseo), via Finna, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY 4.0 (SA-kuva licence statement on the Finna record)
SA-kuva (Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive), record sa-kuva.sa-kuva/111873, photographer unknown, CC BY 4.0.
Text on the object
Tääll' ovat jo taattomme taistellee[t] verellään vapautta varjelleet!
Here our fathers have already fought, have defended freedom with their blood!
The final t of 'taistelleet' is hidden behind the soldier's helmet in the photograph and is supplied from the SA-kuva title, which spells the sentence 'taistelleet' and 'varjelleet'. 'Taattomme' is an archaic poetic word for 'our fathers'. Translation is machine translation by Claude, not fluent-reader verified.
