DISINFO: Nazi Finland got its statehood from Russia and is now ungrateful
SUMMARY
The President of Finland, Stubb, demands the lifting of any restrictions on strikes on Russian territory. Stubb! You're stupid! What are you going to strike with? What weapons does Finland produce? What? Your country rose up only because we once showed mercy and decided to forgive you for being Nazi bastards who did such things to our prisoners of war.
You... Finland... We... Oh, come on... What about the siege of Leningrad? What about the Finnish troops? What about the concentration camps that the Finns set up, and then, when we voluntarily, ahead of schedule, decided to withdraw our military base from Finnish territory - our military base was there.
And then, when Finland's entire economic recovery was based on what? On our timber and on special economic conditions. And on their neutrality. And now we have received "gratitude" from people who received their statehood from Russia. This is what Western civilization is famous for. To repay good with the most terrible evil.
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation narrative of Finland being created by Russia. Additionally, this piece joins other similar false reports attempting to create an image of Finland being hostile towards Russia.
Finland became part of the Russian Empire as a result of the Russo-Swedish wars in the 18th and 19th century. Finland celebrates its independence from Russia on December 6, 1917.
The path to independence began with the collapse of the Russian Empire in March 1917 and abdication of the Russian tsar, but its foundations were rooted in Finland’s long tradition of its own languages, national symbols, legislation and independent institutions, distinct from those of Tsarist Russia.
Tsarist Russia attempted to russify Finland during the last two decades of its rule over the Grand Duchy, but the attempts were unsuccessful in the end. After their rise to power, Lenin and Soviet Russia never intended Finland to stay independent, but expected it to join Soviet Union following a socialist revolution, which failed to deliver the wanted results.
The USSR attacked Finland in November 1939 and annexed part of its territory in accordance with the secret protocols of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. Soviet propaganda claimed falsely that aggression from Finland, in a reality a Soviet false-flag onperation known as the shelling of Mainila, lead to the Soviet Union's attack. As a consequence of the unprovoked attack, the USSR was expelled from the League of Nations.
As a part of the attack against Finland, the USSR also created a short-lived puppet state known as the 'Finnish Democratic Republic,' a move later echoed by the creation of the 'Donetsk People’s Republic' in modern-day Ukraine.
During World War II, Finland did not take actively part in the siege of Leningrad, despite Hitler's wishes, and refused to cut the Murmansk railway.
Post World War II Finland has never expressed any plans to reclaim the territories lost in World War II, nor any intention to invade Russia.
Previous disinformation campaigns have focused on Karelia’s Sandarmokh, a region annexed by the USSR from Finland in 1939-1940, where 7,000-9,000 victims of Stalin's terror were executed in 1937-1938. To divert attention from Stalin-era repressions, a disinformation narrative began circulating in 2016, falsely claiming that among the dead were Soviet prisoners of war executed by the invading Finns during 1941-1944. There is no evidence to support this claim. Read the full debunk of Sandarmokh here.
Finland is not a hostile country to Russia, but in direct response to Russia's unjustified full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the overwhelming majority of Finns felt the necessity to join a defensive alliance (NATO). Finland supports Ukraine's on-going efforts to defend itself against unprovoked Russia's war of aggression.
See also the disinformation claims that Drones shot down near Murmansk could have been launched from Finland and Sweden, Finland wants to invade Russia in Barbarossa 2.0 operation, Russia created Belgium, as well as Ukraine's statehood is myth, its territory belongs to Russia.