It was hell, but we're alright now

It's exactly 70 ago today since the Winter War against Sovjet Union started. The Russians had shot at their own village near the border and claimed that the Finns done it. That was the excuse to start a war against Finland. Sovjet Union began a heavy-scale attack and thought Finland to be conquered in two weeks. It took finally 105 days and Finland stayed independent. The Finns had almost tenfold army against them, but they made it. Support from other countries was close to non-existent. Yet Finland had to pay a heavy price for the war it didn't even start.

Today people ask if the Finns still have the same kind of fighting spirit left. I doubt it, but no-one really knows. At least I wouldn't be willing to find it out. Those veterans of the war were basically common people who had a misfortune to be young adults those days. They didn't think of being heroes; it was just their duty that called. They must have been sad times, times of horror and uncertainty. It has transferred to the following decades and generations. We can't forget the terrible things that happened. Hell, we are not allowed to forget. It will be a part of me too as long as I live, even if I was born more than 25 years later. I'm not sure if that's a good burden to carry.

Both my grand-fathers were in both wars, the Winter war and the Continuation war. They survived but some of their brothers didn't. It must have been hell to discover those unnecessary casualties of war. There probably were no families that weren't affected. Due to reasons I leave untold, I have to confess that without those wars I wouldn't be writing here. Actually, I wouldn't even have been born. Talk about coincidences of life and death.