--- title: 'Suomen armeijan sotilaat! (Soldiers of the Finnish Army!): Soviet leaflet signed by named Finnish prisoners' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/soviet-leaflet-suomen-armeijan-sotilaat-1939/ description: 'A Finnish-language Soviet leaflet, photographed on a glass negative: a group portrait of eight men in winter caps above a small-print list of their home…' section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![Suomen armeijan sotilaat! (Soldiers of the Finnish Army!): Soviet leaflet signed by named Finnish prisoners](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/soviet-leaflet-suomen-armeijan-sotilaat-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/soviet-leaflet-suomen-armeijan-sotilaat-1939.jpg) # Suomen armeijan sotilaat! (Soldiers of the Finnish Army!): Soviet leaflet signed by named Finnish prisoners A Finnish-language Soviet leaflet, photographed on a glass negative: a group portrait of eight men in winter caps above a small-print list of their home parishes and units, then a text headed 'Soldiers of the Finnish Army!' signed by those eight names. The named signatories vouch in the first person that they were treated well as prisoners and that their officers lied, while the text places the blame for the war on 'the gentlemen Cajander, Tanner, Mannerheim' and on 'manor lords and capitalists'. - **Date:** 1939 - **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii) - **Made by:** Soviet forces (Red Army propaganda); the issuing unit is not printed, and the text is signed by eight named 'former soldiers of the Finnish army' - **Region:** [Eastern Europe and Eurasia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=eastern-europe-eurasia) - **Country:** [Soviet Union](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=soviet-union) - **Medium:** [Leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=leaflet) - **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed) - **Regime:** [Soviet Union](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=soviet-union) - **Leader:** [Joseph Stalin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=joseph-stalin) - **Audience:** [Enemy forces](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=enemy-forces) - **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support) - **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military) - **Event:** [Winter War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=winter-war) - **Techniques:** [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/) - **Regime:** [Soviet Union under Stalin](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/soviet-union/) - **Leader:** [Joseph Stalin](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/soviet-union/#joseph-stalin) - **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure - **Source:** [Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive (SA-kuva), via Finna](https://www.finna.fi/Record/sa-kuva.sa-kuva%2F106861), retrieved September 29, 2026 - **Rights:** CC BY 4.0 (SA-kuva licence statement on Finna record) SA-kuva (Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive), record sa-kuva.sa-kuva/106861, CC BY 4.0. ## Text on the object Original (Finnish) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` KUVASSA, SEISOVAT VASEMMALTA OIKEALLE: Jääskeläinen Hanski. — Kotoisin Mikkelin läänistä, Juvan pitäjästä, Härkölän kylästä, palvellut 37 rykmentissä, 1 pataljoonassa, 3 komppaniassa, 3 osasto. Hämäläinen Martti. — Kotoisin Wiipurin läänistä Salmen pitäjästä, Palojärven kylästä, palvellut rajavartiossa, Pirtoselän kasarmilla. [rest of caption illegible] ISTUVAT: Korhonen Aarne. — [illegible] Airaksinen Uuno Anselm. — Kotoisin Mikkelin läänistä, Juvan pitäjästä, Kiiskilän kylästä, palvellut jalkaväessä, 37 rykmentissä, 1 pataljoonassa, 3 komppaniassa. SUOMEN ARMEIJAN SOTILAAT! Silloin, kun me jouduimme Punaisen Armeijan vangeiksi, niin ajattelimme, että rupeavat kiduttamaan ja ampuvat meidät, kuten meille upseerit puhuivat. Mitään sellaista ei kuitenkaan tapahtunut. Puna-armeijalaiset ja komentajat kohtelevat meitä niinkuin läheiset ja omat veljet. Syöttävät meitä hyvin ja sodan päätyttyä lähettävät meidät kotiin. Porvaristo ja sen palvelijat, — upseerit, kertoivat meille taruja bolshevikkien petomaisuudesta. Upseerit ja suojeluskuntalaisten johto ilkeästi pettivät meitä ja parjasivat Punaista Armeijaa. Punainen Armeija tuli Suomeen sitä varten, että auttaa Suomen kansaa ja sen Kansanhallitusta, puhdistamaan synnyinmaamme kansan pyöveleistä, — cajandereista, tannereista ja mannerheimeistä, sekä turvata Suomen kansalle itsenäisyys ystävällisten suhteiden kautta Neuvostoliiton kanssa. Me nyt ymmärrämme, että Neuvostoliiton kanssa aletussa sodassa syyllisiä ovat taantumuksellinen porvarillinen hallitus, — herrat cajanderit, tannerit, mannerheimit, jotka kartanoherrojen ja kapitalistien hyväksi, tahtovat hukuttaa vereen, vapautta rakastavan Suomen kansan ja muuttaa Suomi hyökkäystukikohdaksi Neuvostoliittoa vastaan. Sotilaat! Älkää kuunnelko upseereita! He pettävät ja kavaltavat meitä. He pakottavat meitä polttamaan kaupunkeja ja kyliä, jättäen meidän lapset ja äidit ilman suojaa. He hävittävät kansan luomat rikkaudet. Lopettakaa rikollinen sota! Kääntäkää kiväärit omia sortajianne vastaan, siirtykää Suomen demokraattisen Kansantasavallan armeijan puolelle, joka Punaisen Armeijan, — suuren Neuvostoliiton työläisten ja talonpoikien armeijan, — avustuksella tuo rauhan ja onnellisen elämän Suomen työtätekevälle kansalle. Suomen armeijan entiset sotilaat: JÄÄSKELÄINEN HANSKI AIRAKSINEN A. POUTIAINEN AATU KORHONEN AARNE NYKÄNEN WALDE KÄÄRIÄINEN AUGUST HEIKKOLA ERKKI HÄMÄLÄINEN MARTTI MOILANEN JAAKKO ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` IN THE PICTURE, STANDING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Jääskeläinen Hanski. — From Mikkeli province, Juva parish, Härkölä village, served in the 37th regiment, 1st battalion, 3rd company, 3rd section. Hämäläinen Martti. — From Viipuri province, Salmi parish, Palojärvi village, served in the border guard, at Pirtoselkä barracks. [rest of caption illegible] SEATED: Korhonen Aarne. — [illegible] Airaksinen Uuno Anselm. — From Mikkeli province, Juva parish, Kiiskilä village, served in the infantry, 37th regiment, 1st battalion, 3rd company. SOLDIERS OF THE FINNISH ARMY! When we became prisoners of the Red Army, we thought they would start to torture and shoot us, as our officers had told us. Nothing of the kind happened, however. The Red Army men and commanders treat us like close relatives and our own brothers. They feed us well and, when the war has ended, will send us home. The bourgeoisie and its servants, the officers, told us tales about the beastliness of the Bolsheviks. The officers and the leadership of the Civil Guard maliciously deceived us and slandered the Red Army. The Red Army came to Finland in order to help the Finnish people and its People's Government to cleanse our native land of the people's executioners, the Cajanders, Tanners and Mannerheims, and to secure independence for the Finnish people through friendly relations with the Soviet Union. We now understand that those guilty in the war begun with the Soviet Union are the reactionary bourgeois government, the gentlemen Cajander, Tanner, Mannerheim, who, for the benefit of manor lords and capitalists, want to drown in blood the freedom-loving Finnish people and turn Finland into a base for attack against the Soviet Union. Soldiers! Do not listen to the officers! They deceive and betray us. They force us to burn towns and villages, leaving our children and mothers without shelter. They destroy the wealth created by the people. Stop the criminal war! Turn your rifles against your own oppressors, go over to the side of the army of the Finnish Democratic People's Republic, which, with the help of the Red Army, the army of the workers and peasants of the great Soviet Union, will bring peace and a happy life to the working people of Finland. Former soldiers of the Finnish army: JÄÄSKELÄINEN HANSKI AIRAKSINEN A. POUTIAINEN AATU KORHONEN AARNE NYKÄNEN WALDE KÄÄRIÄINEN AUGUST HEIKKOLA ERKKI HÄMÄLÄINEN MARTTI MOILANEN JAAKKO ``` Read from a 1500 px copy of a glass-negative photograph. The photograph caption under the portrait is small and smudged: only the segments shown were read, the rest is marked [illegible], and place names in it may be misread. 'aletussa' is transcribed as it appears. The signature block is in two columns in the original; the caption's 'Airaksinen Uuno Anselm' is abbreviated 'Airaksinen A.' in the signature list. [← 打死汪精衛，打死漢奸們！ (Beat Wang Jingwei to death, beat the traitors to death!), Kangweijun Pictorial vol. 1 no. 3](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-wang-jingwei-kangweijun-pictorial-1939/) [The "Spirit of Anzac" Calls You: Enlist Now for Overseas Service (Second N.Z. Expeditionary Force) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/spirit-of-anzac-calls-you-nz-1939/) ## Using the same techniques - [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer) - [Seljuq gold dinar of Sanjar, dated 493 AH, with the Abbasid caliph named on one face](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/seljuq-gold-dinar-sanjar-caliph-name-1099/) (1099 · Testimonial) - [Bande Mataram (Paris), memorial page to Madan Lal Dhingra, 17 August 1909](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bande-mataram-paris-dhingra-memorial-1909/) (Aug 17, 1909 · Testimonial, Transfer) - [Ein Volk in Waffen gegen eine Welt in Waffen (A People in Arms against a World in Arms), Red Cross welfare postcard](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ein-volk-in-waffen-haeseler-red-cross-postcard-1914/) (Sep 11, 1914 · Testimonial, Transfer) - [Australia's imperishable record. Australians! The empire needs you (Farmer's, Sydney)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/australias-imperishable-record-1915/) (1915 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities) - [Ireland & Poland (recruiting appeal quoting the Rev. William P. Burke)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ireland-and-poland-1915/) (1915 · Fear appeal, Testimonial) - [Mr. John Dillon, M.P., on recruiting in Ireland. Join an Irish regiment to-day](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/john-dillon-on-recruiting-in-ireland-1915/) (1915 · Testimonial, Semantic hijacking) - [La France / L'Allemagne: même dans le timbre-poste (France / Germany: even in the postage stamp)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-france-l-allemagne-timbre-poste-1915/) (1915 · Testimonial, Name-calling)