Mannerheim, Marshal of Finland Henrik Meinander’s balanced biography
Many readers will be familiar with Finland’s heroic resistance to Soviet aggression in the Winter War of 1939-1940, a conflict in which Mannerheim again rose to the fore.
Far more sensitive is Finland’s 1941-1944 military alliance with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union.
For decades, the official story in Finland was that Hitler forced the country into this alliance, and that the so-called Continuation War was in any case a “separate war” between Finland and the USSR.
Meinander carefully demonstrates that this comforting version of history is largely untrue. He calls Mannerheim one of the chief architects of the “brotherhood-in-arms with Germany”.
Tony Barber FT 25 July 2023
Kommentarer