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00:30Helsinki, Finland.
00:38The prosperous, confident capital of a prosperous, confident country.
00:45Much of this prosperity can be traced back to World War II,
00:49where this small country battled against the odds to survive
00:52and lay the foundations for its current economic success.
01:00But what you don't see emphasised on the war monuments
01:02is that for most of this war,
01:05the Finns fought not on the side of the Allies,
01:07but on the side of the Nazis.
01:11And amongst the prominent Finns that gave their full support for this
01:15was Finland's greatest hero, Marshall Mannerheim.
01:21The Finns justify this collaboration by saying that the alternative
01:25was to be swallowed up by communist Russia.
01:31But is this true?
01:35Was Mannerheim right to advocate fighting alongside Nazi Germany?
01:39Is it indeed possible to justify collaborating
01:46with the most evil regime in history?
01:51Could the Finns be that rare thing?
01:54Good collaborators.
01:56September 1939.
02:13War is declared.
02:14Germany and Russia invade Poland
02:26in a deal to split the conquered country in two
02:28and share the spoils.
02:33But in the north, Russia saw the chance
02:35to settle a long-standing grudge with an old enemy, Finland.
02:40Finland had been independent from Russia for just 22 years.
02:48Now the Russians wanted it back.
02:57In November 1939, Helsinki is attacked by Russian aircraft.
03:02400,000 Russian soldiers pour over the border.
03:15At the start of what became known as the Winter War,
03:18there seemed to be no contest.
03:22The Russian forces massively outnumbered the Finns.
03:26Their generals confidently predicted a victory in 10 to 15 days.
03:32Finland, after all, was only a small nation
03:37of just three and a half million people.
03:4380% of their forces weren't professional soldiers,
03:46but volunteers.
03:49The Finns lacked key military equipment, like tanks,
03:53and had just two weeks' supply of ammunition.
03:57But Finland did have two secret weapons.
03:59The 1939 winter was exceptionally cold,
04:04which the Finns could use to their advantage.
04:09They also had a commander who knew the Russians
04:12like the back of his hand.
04:18Karl Gustav Manaheim had served for 30 years
04:21in the Imperial Russian Army.
04:22He had then returned to Finland to lead the country
04:26to independence after a bloody civil war.
04:31Now this cigar-smoking aristocrat
04:33was back in charge of the Finnish army
04:35at the age of 72.
04:37It was Manaheim's sure grasp of the tactics and strategy
04:47a small nation could use against a much larger aggressor
04:50that now would make all the difference.
04:56In the years leading up to the war,
04:58he had concentrated on building a series of trenches
05:00in the disputed Karelian Isthmus
05:02to the south of the country near Russia.
05:04Now those new defences,
05:08which became known as the Manaheim lines,
05:11were being put to the test
05:12as the Russians advanced ever deeper.
05:15They worked.
05:27They held back the Red Army
05:28for a crucial 46 days of unrelenting pressure.
05:36And Manaheim wasn't content just to defend.
05:39He organized small bands of soldiers,
05:42often lightly equipped on skis,
05:45who soon got the measure of the Russians.
05:50They used the terrain of forest, lakes, and wood
05:54to frustrate and trap the Red Army.
05:56This land may look beautiful now,
06:03but 50 years ago,
06:05it was a killing field.
06:12A favorite tactic of Manaheim's
06:14was to trap the long Russian armored columns
06:16by attacking the convoys at the front,
06:19in the middle,
06:20and at the rear.
06:20The Finns then set about killing
06:33the remaining Russians
06:34in lightning attacks
06:36from all quarters.
06:37And if the Finns didn't get
06:48the Russian conscripts,
06:50the weather did.
06:56The fortunate were captured.
07:01Others froze to death.
07:05200,000 of them.
07:07But despite these early Finnish successes,
07:19Manaheim knew that the might of the Red Army
07:21would eventually win through.
07:29So in March 1940,
07:31he urged a battered and exhausted Finland
07:33to sue for peace with Russia.
07:38The result was a treaty
07:39in which it had to surrender
07:41much of Karelia,
07:42including its second largest city,
07:44Vipuri.
07:50400,000 refugees fled
07:52into what remained of Finland.
07:53Many Finns felt betrayed,
07:58but Manaheim stressed that their troops
08:00had done well
08:01and at least Finland had not been conquered.
08:04But it was a very dark time
08:05and it could only get worse.
08:09Manaheim knew he needed help.
08:12The Russians were bound to come back.
08:15They always did,
08:17because Finland and Russia
08:19shared a long
08:20and savage history.
08:29For a hundred years,
08:30Finland had been ruled
08:31as part of the old imperial territories
08:33of the Russian Tsar.
08:34Finnish independence
08:42seemed simply a dream.
08:55But then in 1917,
08:57towards the end of the First World War,
09:00imperialist Russia collapsed
09:01under the communist revolution,
09:04Finland became an independent nation.
09:07It was, though,
09:09too good to be true.
09:18The new communist rulers of Russia
09:20encouraged the Finnish working class
09:22to rise up
09:23and establish a Finnish communist state.
09:26Finland divided between the left,
09:32the communist Reds,
09:33and the right,
09:35the nationalist Whites.
09:38Civil war became inevitable.
09:42The Reds took over Helsinki
09:44and looked to Russia
09:46for help and support.
09:49The Whites regrouped in the country
09:51and looked instead for help
09:52to an old friend,
09:55Germany.
09:56After several months
10:04of very bloody battles,
10:05the White nationalists,
10:07led by the virulently
10:08anti-communist Mannerheim,
10:09triumphed.
10:15Over 80,000 Reds sympathisers
10:17were interned,
10:18some in islands around Helsinki,
10:21in appalling conditions.
10:2211,000 of them perished.
10:2511,000 of them perished.
10:36The Whites had triumphed,
10:38but it was a triumph
10:39that was due not only to Mannerheim,
10:41but also to the German army,
10:43who in April 1918
10:44helped take back Helsinki.
10:46It was a lesson
10:49all Finnish nationalists learned.
10:52Finland was free,
10:53and this latest Russian threat
10:55had been resisted,
10:56but they had needed German help.
10:58Ten years later,
11:08the Russian threat returned.
11:11The Great Depression
11:12caused the financial meltdown
11:13of the whole continent.
11:14In the descent into social unrest
11:21and industrial disarray,
11:24Finland was not immune.
11:33Millions lost their jobs.
11:38Communism became attractive once again,
11:40especially to the working class
11:41and the poor.
11:42In elections all across Europe,
11:48the Communist parties gained ground.
11:52In 1929, in Finland,
11:54they won 14% of the vote.
12:02Deep in the Finnish countryside,
12:05many were appalled.
12:06This rise in communism
12:07meant just one thing.
12:10The return of the Russians.
12:12Finnish farmers became the backbone of Lepore,
12:16a nationalist movement formed in 1929
12:19dedicated to the eradication of communism.
12:24Its most prominent supporter
12:26was Gustav Mannerheim.
12:28after the Civil War ended in 1918,
12:37Mannerheim had retired to an elegant wooden house
12:39in the most expensive part of Helsinki.
12:46There he entertained and stored all the many trophies
12:49he'd acquired in his travels.
12:51Today it's a museum kept in the elegant style
13:01in which he lived.
13:06Although his bedroom reflects the soldier,
13:08he always remained in his heart.
13:10But the rise in communism at the end of the 1920s
13:18persuaded him to return to public life
13:20and start hunting different kinds of prey.
13:23He did not like the complete politics of the Lepore movement,
13:29but, of course,
13:31he did not accept the communist ideals,
13:37and that was the reason why he more sympathized with Lepore.
13:42Lepore persuaded the government to outlaw communism,
13:50but it then went much further,
13:52using terror and intimidation
13:54against anyone who opposed their vision of Finland.
14:04In 1932, Lepore was banned,
14:08but soon another right-wing party emerged
14:11taking inspiration from Nazi Germany.
14:16The People's Patriotic Movement
14:18consciously copied elements of Hitler's political thinking,
14:22notably the national community,
14:24where the individual is secondary to the fatherland.
14:34Its newspaper called for a Finnish Hitler,
14:38and there was only one person they had in mind.
14:41For Mannerheim and Finland,
14:44it was a crucial moment.
14:46He had to choose between a Finnish democracy,
14:49whose weakness he despised,
14:51and a nationalist movement
14:52which shared his hatred of communism,
14:55but also was close to an ideology
14:57he feared as much as admired,
15:00Nazism.
15:04Mannerheim chose democracy.
15:07He decided the best way for Finland to resist the Russians
15:10was for him to stay out of politics
15:13and reorganize and rearm the Finnish army.
15:16The winter war of 1939 proved him right.
15:35The Finnish army's resistance
15:36had stopped Russia taking back all of Finland,
15:40at least for now.
15:41It gave Mannerheim time.
15:44Time to find an ally who could help defeat the Russians
15:50when they inevitably returned.
15:53But who should they turn to?
15:58Mannerheim's preference
15:59was for the Western allies,
16:01particularly Britain and France.
16:03In the winter war,
16:06the British cabinet had discussed
16:07sending a Franco-British volunteer force.
16:12But the Baltic Sea was controlled by the Germans,
16:15and in the end,
16:16it came to nothing.
16:23The 12,000 volunteers from all around the world
16:26who did make it to Finland
16:27included only a handful of British and French citizens.
16:30The option of a successful collaboration
16:35with the British and French
16:37seemed highly improbable.
16:44There was, however, another option.
16:47Finland's old friend Germany.
16:50The only problem was
16:51that this was a very different Germany.
16:54It was now controlled by Hitler and the Nazis.
17:00The Nazis had agreed a pact with the Soviet Union
17:05and stayed neutral in the winter war.
17:08But everyone knew this pact was cynical,
17:11and Hitler started conceiving the idea
17:13that his Russian ally
17:14would soon become his enemy.
17:17He was determined to strike first
17:19by preparing in secret an invasion.
17:24One key to a successful invasion
17:26would be taking the city of Leningrad.
17:30And to make sure of that,
17:32Hitler needed the Finns.
17:38In August 1940,
17:40Mannerheim received a letter from Hermann Göring,
17:42the most senior of all Hitler's commanders,
17:45requesting permission for German troops
17:47to cross Finnish soil.
17:51Granting permission
17:52would open the floodgates
17:53to cooperation and collaboration.
17:55It was a crucial moment.
18:00Mannerheim's flirtation with Lepore
18:02and Finnish nationalism in the 1930s
18:05had given him a distaste for fascism.
18:08And he knew dealing with the Nazis
18:10would destroy his international reputation forever.
18:16Yet the Winter War
18:17had made the Finnish people weary and hungry.
18:19The country was collapsing
18:22and needed aid.
18:24Aid only Germany could deliver.
18:32As Mannerheim pondered his decision,
18:34the pro-German movement in Finland
18:36grew stronger.
18:38particularly influential
18:43was the new rector
18:44of Helsinki University,
18:46Ralph Nevenliener.
18:49Nevenliener had made his name
18:50not in the world of politics,
18:52but in mathematics.
18:53In the 1920s,
18:58he developed what is still known today
19:00as Nevenliener theory,
19:02a major contribution to function theory,
19:05the classical mathematics
19:06which emerged from the calculus
19:07of Newton and Leibniz.
19:12In the first half
19:13of the 20th century,
19:16he was certainly
19:17one of the most famous mathematicians
19:19in the world.
19:20In the 1930s,
19:25Nevenliener's interests
19:26turned to politics
19:27and nationalism.
19:29He supported Le Poir.
19:31And in Germany,
19:33the center of world mathematics
19:35and the country
19:35where his mother was born,
19:37he looked approvingly
19:38at the rise of Hitler
19:39and national socialism.
19:43Well, he sympathized it.
19:45He had many relatives
19:47in Germany
19:47because of his mother.
19:51So uncles
19:52and so close relatives.
19:55And their reports
19:56were positive.
19:59So I think he
20:00was happy to see
20:02the rise of Germany.
20:07Nevenliener traveled frequently
20:08to Germany,
20:10supporting academic events
20:11and conferences
20:12organized by the Nazi government.
20:14He became known
20:17as a sympathetic friend
20:18of the Third Reich,
20:20openly praising
20:21their achievements
20:21and singling out Göring
20:23for a special mention.
20:24He gave a speech
20:31in Finnish radio
20:32in the fall of 1940.
20:36He praised the German
20:37armed forces
20:38of their successes
20:39in Europe
20:40and especially
20:42Nazi ideology.
20:45Although Nevenliener's
20:50enthusiasm for the Nazis
20:51wasn't widely shared
20:52in Finland,
20:53it was extremely influential.
20:57It was clear
20:58that given a choice
20:59between Russian communism
21:00and the Nazis,
21:02most Finns
21:03would choose the Nazis.
21:06So Mannerheim
21:07did the deal
21:08he knew
21:09would go down well
21:10with his fellow countrymen
21:11and women.
21:12With his ally,
21:14the new Finnish president,
21:15Risto Ritti,
21:16the Finns would cooperate
21:17with Nazi Germany.
21:24The result was felt
21:26straight away.
21:27Ammunition,
21:28oil, coal,
21:29fertilizers,
21:30grain and meat
21:31flooded into the country
21:32brought in by German troops
21:34to enthusiastic receptions
21:36from Finns
21:36all across the land.
21:41Finland had made it clear
21:45that the Finns
21:46would not be collaborators
21:47with the Nazis
21:48but co-belligerents
21:50fighting on the same side
21:51against a common enemy,
21:53Soviet Russia.
21:56But the reality
21:57was more complex.
21:59It was a price
22:00which Finland had to pay
22:01for Nazi help.
22:07Mannerheim and Ritti
22:08had to make
22:08several crucial concessions
22:10to the Nazis
22:10that went way beyond
22:12co-belligerency
22:13and which stepped
22:14over the line
22:15to collaboration.
22:20They allowed
22:21Finnish troops
22:22who were fighting
22:22the Russians
22:23in northern Finland
22:24to come under
22:25German command.
22:31And amongst the
22:32200,000 German troops
22:34that now moved
22:34into Finland,
22:36the Finnish government
22:37turned a blind eye
22:38to soldiers
22:39to soldiers
22:39from the armed wing
22:40of the Nazi party,
22:41the SS.
22:53The SS
22:54had been formed
22:55in 1925
22:56as a personal protection unit
22:58for Adolf Hitler.
22:59under the leadership
23:05of Heinrich Himmler,
23:07it had grown
23:08into one of the largest
23:09and most powerful
23:10organisations
23:10in the Third Reich.
23:16SS soldiers
23:17swore personal allegiance
23:18to Hitler
23:19and fought unquestionably
23:21for his ideology.
23:22They were responsible
23:29too for many
23:31of the atrocities
23:31carried out
23:32under the Nazi regime,
23:34in particular
23:35the Holocaust.
23:40There was no Holocaust
23:41in Finland.
23:43The German SS officers
23:44were allowed
23:45a pretty free reign
23:46to interrogate
23:46political radicals
23:48and prisoners,
23:49especially those
23:50who were Jewish.
23:51but it was
23:55the final concession
23:56made by Manaheim
23:57and Ritti
23:57to the Nazis
23:58that would prove
23:59the most troublesome.
24:05The Finns agreed
24:06to the German request
24:07to recruit volunteers
24:08to join the Waffen SS
24:10on the Eastern Front.
24:12Amongst these volunteers
24:13was Konstantin Kandy.
24:15in the Eastern Front.
24:16Minulla oli tulossa
24:19niin kuin
24:20aseenvelvollisuusaika
24:22vuonna 1941
24:24lokakuussa,
24:28mutta
24:28silloin
24:29toukokuun aikana
24:32selvisi tieto,
24:35että Saksaan
24:36armeijaa
24:37pääsisi palvelemaan
24:38noin kahdeksi vuodeksi.
24:40niin me emme tienneet
24:42sitä,
24:43että me joudumme
24:44niin sanottuja
24:45Waffen SS-osastoihin.
24:52Manaheim and Ritti
24:54realized
24:54that providing soldiers
24:55like Konstantin Kandy
24:57to the Waffen SS
24:58would not only
24:59be a great propaganda
24:59triumph for the Nazis.
25:02It would take them
25:03across the line
25:03from being co-belligerents,
25:05fighting the same enemy,
25:07to active collaborators.
25:08So they did everything
25:13they could
25:14to limit the damage
25:15and cover their tracks.
25:25The Finnish SS battalion
25:26could only fight
25:27against Russia,
25:28not against
25:29the other allies.
25:33Their recruitment
25:34would be done
25:35not by the government,
25:36but at arm's length
25:37by Finns like
25:38mathematician
25:39Ralf Nevenlina,
25:40known for their
25:41Nazi sympathies,
25:42but who could be blamed
25:43if anything went wrong?
25:49And the raw recruits
25:50were described
25:50not as soldiers,
25:52but as industrial workers
25:54when they were sent
25:55to SS training schools.
25:58Not that the training
25:59left any doubt
26:00about their role.
26:01They were
26:31to go to Rintamalle on 15.6.1942.
26:38The battalion was carried out by Avo Neljöön.
26:43They were sent to Hitler.
26:52Once they had sworn their oaths,
26:54they were then ready to take part in the Nazi's latest
26:57and most daring military plan.
27:00Operation Barbarossa.
27:15In August 1941, German panzers drove deep into Russia,
27:20catching Stalin, their former ally, completely by surprise.
27:25The German army was soon well on the way to Leningrad.
27:32And there was another surprise for the Russians.
27:42Up in Finland, Mannerheim seized his opportunity.
27:47He launched his own attack on Russia to regain the land that was lost at the end of the Winter War.
27:59With the Red Army preoccupied with the German attack inside Russia,
28:16the Finnish troops managed to quickly capture all the territory conceded.
28:20Even the battered city, Vipuri.
28:25But at the old Russian-Finnish border, Mannerheim stopped his troops and ordered them to go no further.
28:47Despite German pleas, attacking Leningrad was a line of collaboration he was not prepared to cross.
28:56Mannerheim realized that if the Finns joined in with the German troops who were attacking Leningrad from the south,
29:02they would become aggressors.
29:06They would no longer be able to claim that Finland was involved in a defensive war,
29:10simply to take back Finnish territory.
29:12But now there was another unexpected problem that the Finnish government had to deal with.
29:28What to do with the Russian prisoners of war and displaced civilians who now came under Finnish control?
29:33Unlike the Germans, the Finns treated many of them well.
29:38But not all.
29:47In the last few years, historians and journalists like Boris Salomon have started investigating what really went on
29:54during the period of cooperation with the Nazis.
30:00They're uncovering stories which reveal that this cooperation had its dark side,
30:05which in Finland has often been denied or forgotten.
30:10Such as the treatment of prisoners, displaced civilians and refugees when the Finns took over eastern Karelia.
30:18There were camps, internations camps, that in many of the systems,
30:23that the Germans had installed in the occupied areas of the Soviet Union.
30:37In one camp in the summer of 1942, over 3,000 Russians died of malnutrition.
30:43The big idea was to take a settlement action.
30:55That means to stop the slavish population of the population
31:02and to replace the finnish settlers by the finnish settlers.
31:07After the war, several prison wardens and officers were tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity.
31:16But at the time, nobody cared.
31:20Not even Mannerheim, who was focused instead on how well the war was going.
31:26Meanwhile, 200 miles south from Mannerheim's Finnish army, now stationary on the Russian border,
31:39the Finnish SS volunteers were deep inside Russia, fighting alongside the German army on the Eastern Front.
31:45They proved to be magnificent warriors, often against the odds.
31:58They were involved in the savage siege of Leningrad.
32:11And they then fought for the oil fields of Grozny, as part of Hitler's push to Stalingrad.
32:16The Finnish volunteers' bravery earned the division many German medals.
32:28But at great personal cost.
32:31Over 500 of them were wounded.
32:34200 lost their lives.
32:36The military army came to my friends.
32:38The armed forces came to me.
32:39The military army came to my head.
32:48The military army came to my head, and the army came to me.
32:50The military army came to me.
32:51I didn't get out of this.
32:53He did not get out of it.
32:54And he was the military army.
32:56He was the military army on the war.
32:57Obergeführerrepp, his name was Alanne, who died in the head of Pente Koivisto.
33:14But although they were part of the SS, the Finnish survivors claim to this day that they never took part in any atrocities or war crimes.
33:23And certainly not in the SS leader Heinrich Himmler's most murderous policy, the Holocaust.
33:30Yeah, same thing, we didn't even have any of these wars.
33:39They had a bad idea, a bad idea for the local SS groups.
33:54And take care of these SS groups, who were in the military,
34:00The most important part of the Baltian people were the Baltian people, the Lietuans and the Latvian people.
34:11And this has been the accepted opinion in Finland for the last 50 years.
34:21But now these accounts are being questioned too.
34:25The Finnish soldiers were after all fully part of the Vafan SS.
34:31Also man hat also nachweisen können, dass also Waffen SS Einheiten an Mordtaten in Lidice teilgenommen haben und auch in Frankreich Menschen ermordet haben.
34:46Das heißt, es gibt diese Einstufung, nämlich kriminelle Organisationen.
34:54Man kann belegen, dass auch Finnen, die im Raum Kaukasus gekämpft haben, durchaus an Tötungen teilgenommen haben.
35:10Boris Salomon says that in at least one fully documented case, in Poland in June 1941, a Finnish SS soldier witnessed an execution of Jews.
35:27He thinks there may well be other cases.
35:33But this is strongly denied by the SS veterans still alive today.
35:38They say they neither witnessed nor participated in any such crime.
35:43Nor did any Fin they knew.
35:44There was one man, though, who gradually realised the potential for disaster the Finnish SS Division might prove.
35:55In Finland today you can't escape tributes to Karl Gustav Manaheim.
36:01Not only does his statue dominate downtown Helsinki, the most important street in the capital is named after him.
36:16And in the house where he once lived, alongside his preserved furniture, you can now buy your very own Manaheim bust, a bargain at 25 euros.
36:33But one event that is not recorded here is Manaheim's 75th birthday in August 1942, when he received a very famous, although not entirely welcome, last minute visitor.
36:50He was never a friend of Hitler and he didn't want to make close, close friendship with him.
36:57But at the time, the Fuhrer certainly wanted to be friends with Manaheim, or at least make sure the rest of the world saw him as a friend.
37:07So Hitler insisted his film unit recorded every step of his trip to give Manaheim his birthday wishes.
37:15But the Fuhrer wasn't here just for a birthday party.
37:34There were one or two key problems with the German-Finnish cooperation on Hitler's mind, which was the real reason he made the trip.
37:45He needed a deal.
37:47A deal which involved Manaheim agreeing to move the Finnish army into Russia, helping the German army secure Leningrad.
37:54And a deal which enabled him to keep the Finnish SS volunteers fighting with the German army in Russia, and not recall them home.
38:07Manaheim relished his moment of power, even doing something people rarely did in front of the Fuhrer.
38:14Hitler hated smoking.
38:20After the lunch, he lit his cigar, and all the officers of the Hitler companions, they were quite pale when they saw that, but they couldn't say anything, and Hitler did not say anything.
38:35Manaheim could sense that the war was on the turn, and that things were beginning to slip away from Germany.
38:46He wanted out.
38:50So he insisted that despite Hitler's wishes, the Finnish SS volunteers should be recalled from Russia, and the men integrated into the regular Finnish army on the Russian border.
39:01That didn't please the Germans at all.
39:11They turned to an old Finnish friend.
39:14With German approval, Professor Rolf Nevenlina became chair of a new committee designed to win public support for the Finnish SS.
39:21He had regular meetings with the volunteers, made frequent visits to Berlin, and lobbied hard.
39:38But Manaheim wouldn't give way, and eventually the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, recognized defeat.
39:43Today, I release you from the service to the Waffen SS.
39:52I thank you for your courageous service that you have provided to the glory and honor of your beautiful motherland in a German soldier's uniform.
40:01You have just as much contributed to the victory against your and our age-old enemy, Russia, and against Bolshevism, as your German SS comrades.
40:14By the summer of 1943, most of the Finnish SS battalion had been recalled.
40:24Although over a hundred did volunteer to stay on, and fight as part of German units.
40:29Many of the battalion that made their way home joined the regular Finnish army under Manaheim, now in stalemate with the resurgent Russians.
40:49But extracting Finland from the SS was relatively easy.
40:52Much more difficult was bringing an end to the war against Russia, not least because there were still hundreds of thousands of German troops on Finnish soil.
41:05Yet it was clear that this collaboration with the Nazis had to stop if Finland wasn't to find itself on the losing side at the end of the war.
41:12As the Nazis started experiencing a series of defeats and setbacks, so the Finns began slowly winding down their confrontations with the Russians in the north.
41:29By the end of 1943, they were refusing to take part in any offensive military operations that might help Germany.
41:37The trouble was, the Russians had another agenda.
41:42As they drove the Nazis out of Russia, so the Red Army targeted the Finnish front as part of a new initiative against Germany, called Operation Bagration.
41:58Within days, the Russians had pushed the Finnish army back and were heading towards Vipuri.
42:14Soon the Finns would be steamrolled by their arch-enemy.
42:17Once more, the Finns needed help, and the only possible help was the friend that Ritti and Mannerheim were trying to get away from, Nazi Germany.
42:32Nazi Germany.
42:38So they hatched a daring plan.
42:41In return for Nazi support, President Ritti gave a personal undertaking not to pursue a separate peace with Russia.
42:48But what Mannerheim and Ritti knew well was that this presidential agreement, while perfectly lawful in Nazi Germany, was illegal in Finland, because it hadn't been approved by the Finnish parliament.
43:06Mannerheim and Ritti tricked the Nazis into signing an accord which they could get out of any time they wanted.
43:11The Germans rushed troops and anti-tank weapons to the rescue of the Finns.
43:27And in June and July 1944, Finland fought one last epic battle with Russia.
43:36150,000 Russians faced 50,000 Finns.
43:39In an area spanning 40 square miles, the two sides' artillery pounded each other relentlessly.
43:55The Finns were fighting for their country's very survival.
43:56But they held on.
43:57The Finns were fighting for their country's very survival.
43:58But they held on.
44:02600 Russian tanks were destroyed.
44:03600 Russian tanks were destroyed.
44:05Many with German supplied weapons.
44:06Many with German supplied weapons.
44:07Many with German supplied weapons.
44:08Many with German supplied weapons.
44:09The Finns were fighting for their country's very survival.
44:13up to 20,000 Russian troops were killed.
44:14Up to 20,000 Russian troops were killed.
44:15up to 20,000 Russian troops.
44:16up to 20,000 Russian troops.
44:17up to 20,000 Russian troops.
44:22The battle was hugely important.
44:29600 Russian tanks were destroyed many with German supplied weapons up to 20,000
44:37Russian troops were killed
44:49the battle was hugely important the Finns had proved to the Russians they were a
44:54force to be reckoned with they would fiercely resist all attempts by the Red
45:01Army to conquer them and they had shown that the price of capturing Finland would
45:06be far too high
45:13most crucially the Finns had forced Stalin to revise his policy he opted for a
45:18separate armistice with Finland a unique concession that no other former German
45:23ally would receive
45:37none of this would have been possible without German support the deal with
45:42Germany had secured Finland's future and now the Finns would repay the Germans by
45:49going back on what they had promised
45:56they claimed that they weren't bound by President Risto Ritti's personal agreement
46:00not to agree a separate peace with Russia because Ritti hadn't got Parliament's
46:04support and so had acted illegally
46:12Ritti resigned Mannerheim took over as president and was able to negotiate a
46:16separate peace between Finland and Russia without reference to Germany
46:23just as Mannerheim and Ritti had planned months before the Nazis were now out in the cold
46:29Finland may have lost the war but it had survived
46:35true the Russians did insist on keeping all the territory they had won in the winter war
46:44including Vipuri Finland's second city now known as the Russian city of Viborg
46:50but Finland unlike the other Baltic states remain free of communism
46:54there was however a price to pay
47:01in Helsinki today there is a memorial for President Risto Ritti who is now seen as a hero
47:11but in 1946 he was the fall guy
47:13a liberal economist who was a great admirer of Britain and America
47:20Ritti was imprisoned by the Allies for ten years in the trials which Russia demanded
47:26as a price of peace
47:28his health never recovered
47:30other collaborators were much more fortunate
47:36the mathematician and Nazi sympathizer Rolf Neven Liener had to resign as
47:43rector of Helsinki University
47:45but then like the other Finnish intellectuals who backed the Nazis
47:49he was left alone by the Russians
47:54he took up a lucrative professorship in Switzerland
47:57and in the 1950s became one of Finland's most revered public figures
48:01his reputation remains virtually unblemished today
48:16the reputation of Carl Gustav Mannheim has if anything increased
48:22although just as guilty as Ritti in cooperating with the Nazis
48:26his national popularity meant that it was too difficult for the Russians
48:30to put him on trial
48:32he escaped any retribution whatsoever
48:39after resigning as president
48:40he took another even more rewarded retirement
48:43which this time didn't involve shooting tigers
48:51he was buried with full honours in 1951
48:53and in 2004 was voted the greatest Finn
49:12Finland itself came out of its association with Nazi Germany remarkably unscathed
49:16it remains proud of the Finns who served in German uniforms
49:28although most Finns would still rather forget the darker moments of Nazi collaboration
49:35few countries can claim their relationship with Nazi Germany was a success
49:44Finland however, is the exception
49:53even if it meant collaborating with some of the most vicious war criminals
49:56the world has ever seen
49:58the world has ever seen
50:26and Sofans
50:28this is a good idea
50:29in this story
50:30the the world has ever seen
50:31in this story
50:32in this story
50:33in this story
50:34that's a very interesting story
50:35though
50:36it's happened to us
50:37that always
50:38that's the thing
50:39it's made a sense of
50:40the reality
50:41that's also true
50:43as a very particular story
50:45that's very true
50:46that's actually the most meaningful
50:47and the most great story
50:48that's a very exciting story
50:49that you're going on