Suomen sotilaat! (Soldiers of Finland!): Soviet leaflet on a springboard against the USSR and the fate of Denmark and Norway
A short Finnish-language Soviet leaflet photographed flat: five lines under the headline 'Soldiers of Finland!' say Hitler has made Finland a 'springboard' in a war against the Soviet Union and is preparing for it 'the fate of Denmark and Norway', then call the Germans 'fascist robbers'. The tells are an imminent-fate comparison with a single prescribed remedy (turn your weapons on the Germans) and a loaded label in place of argument.
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Soviet forces (Red Army propaganda, as catalogued by the Finnish archive); no issuing unit is printed on the sheet
- Country
- Soviet Union
- Medium
- Leaflet
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Soviet Union
- Leader
- Joseph Stalin
- Audience
- Enemy forces
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- Continuation War
- Techniques
- Fear appealName-calling
- Leader
- Joseph Stalin
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive (SA-kuva), Sotamuseo, via Finna, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY 4.0 (holding institution's Finna record); anonymous wartime print
SA-kuva (Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive), photo Neittamo, record sa-kuva.sa-kuva/89678, CC BY 4.0.
Text on the object
SUOMEN SOTILAAT! Hitler on muuttanut maanne ponnahtuslaudaksi neuvostovastaisessa sodassa. Hän valmistaa Suomelle Tanskan ja Norjan kohtaloa. Kääntäkää aseenne saksalaisia fascistirosvoja vastaan, taistelkaa vapaan ja riippumattoman Suomen puolesta!
SOLDIERS OF FINLAND! Hitler has turned your country into a springboard in the war against the Soviet Union. He is preparing for Finland the fate of Denmark and Norway. Turn your weapons against the German fascist robbers, fight for a free and independent Finland!
Read from a 1280 px copy of a glass-negative photograph; the line breaks of the original are not kept. 'Ponnahtuslaudaksi' is as printed (usual spelling ponnahduslauta).
