Day of memory Leningrad.

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by Dowly

AFAIK, it is still debated. How I've learned to see it (and again, just my opinion)
is that germans attacked SU from Finland, Finland told SU that we are to
remain neutral and take no part in any offensive actions. SU, instead of targeting
airfields etc. bombed population centers and we went to war yet again

I am not specialized in war history, but I am majoring in history for fourth year, so I'm speaking from that basis. As far as I know, the fatalistic "not our fault, we were forced" Driftwood Theory was first questioned by the foreign researchers and later by the Finns too. These days the topic is not so much about if there was to be a war or not, but if we were willing participants with Germany or not.

There are those who say that we tried everything before accepting to side with Germany, for example looking for help from Sweden. When nothing else worked, we took the lesser evil. Then there are those who say that we were happy to side with Germany and it was our first choice.

While it's not black and white anymore than anything else in history, I'm still more inclined to believe in the latter for various reasons.

First of all there is no questioning that we were bitter after the Winter War (and who wouldn't have been?) Even the contemporary people called its peace a temporary one. Germany in 1941 seemed like a powerful ally and offered us a chance for retribution we couldn't have had on our own.

Second, we weren't there just for the old lands. Already after 1917 there had been the ideal of "Greater Finland", and it wasn't just some extremist loonies who supported it. It never came to be in the end, but remembering its existense merits a question: what would have Finland done / tried to do if Germany had won in the East?

Third, ever since its independence Finland had roots with Germany (even if Germany didn't necessarily think the same). The whites had been victorious in the Civil War largely because of the military training the Jägers had received in Germany. After the Civil War some had wanted to turn Finland into monarchy with a German king. While the fervor may have toned down a little in the 1920s and 1930s, it was still just two decades from those years. That's a very short time for any ideals to die.