DISINFO: Lenin created Finland
SUMMARY
Finland is now a hostile country, created by Lenin in a misguided way, and joining NATO today.
RESPONSE
Historical revisionism by Russian officials targeting Finland as it is joining the NATO defensive alliance.
The story that Lenin created Finland is a Russian imperialistic myth. Finland celebrates it Independence Day of 6 December, 1917. The construction of the independence was a long process, which final stretch started with the end of the Russian Empire in March 1917 and the abdication of the Russian tsar, but had its roots in a long tradition of own languages, national symbols, and independent institutions from those in place in Tsarist Russia. The Soviet power recognised this independence on 31 December 1917, Vladimir Ulianov [Lenin] was the chairman but other Commissars signed the document (L. Trotski, G. Petrovski, J. Stalin, I. Steinberg, V. Karelin, A. Schlichter).
Later, in March 1919, at the congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Lenin commented the independence of Finland: “Look at Finland; it is a democratic country, more developed, more cultured than we are. In Finland a process of separation, of the differentiation of the proletariat is taking a specific course, far more painful than was the case with us. The Finns have experienced the dictatorship of Germany; they are now experiencing the dictatorship of the Allied powers. But thanks to the fact that we have recognised the right of nations to self-determination, the process of differentiation has been facilitated there.”
Setting aside the “the right of peoples to self-determination”, assessing Lenin's decision to recognize Finnish independence as “misguided” ignores the situation of the Bolshevik power in 1917, before the separate peace treaty with Germany signed in Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Here, abandoning peripherical territories with less geostrategic significance can be viewed as a necessity dictated by the lack of resources. Also, Finnish declaration of independence was followed by a civil war, part of which the remaining troops of Imperial Russian forces were pushed forcefully out of Finland.
A condemnation of the recognition of Finland by soviet power was expressed by Vladimir Putin in a 1992 film he himself commissioned.
Finland is not a hostile country to Russia, but as direct reaction to Russia’s unjustified full invasion of Ukraine the overwhelming majority of Finns felt the necessity to join a defensive alliance.
Russia's unprovoked attack led to a massive shift on public opinion towards the Atlantic Alliance in Finland: while prior to the invasion only 24 percent of Finns expressed support for joining NATO, this figure jumped to 74 percent shortly afterwards, and to 85 percent at the moment of its actual entrance. A similar trend took place in Sweden for the same reasons.
Regarding Russia's intentions, Russia has executed multiple aggressions against neighbouring countries, including the illegal annexation of Crimea, the promotion of separatist conflicts in Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, and multiple destabilisation attempts against Moldova and Georgia.
Read also stories about Finland: Finland’s NATO membership aims to corner Russia, Irrational decision to join NATO will bring down the Finnish economy, Finland is trying to start a world war by joining NATO, Finland has been dragged into a new Barbarossa operation against Russia.