Post #3201

📰 Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova: Neo-Nazism on the march across Europe “I killed 500 Russians” – this is the headline of a piece in the British Telegraph dedicated to the Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä. In their frenzied effort to re-write history, the Brits went as far as designating this killer of Russians as WWII hero, even if he only took part in the USSR’s conflict with Finland in 1939-1940. Including this figure in a series of publications about World War II reflects a targeted effort to erase USSR’s contribution to the allied coalition and denigrate Red Army. One can’t help but recall similar manifestations of Japanese militarism: in 1937, the press in the Land of the Rising Sun glorified a “contest” among Imperial Army officers… for beheading Chinese people. Many historians note that the victims were unarmed prisoners. Newspapers dwelled on the details of these crimes with relish. After the war, the “heroes” received the punishment they deserved. This is something the British press and Western revisionists must keep in mind. This article came in the footsteps of Sisu: Road to Revenge, a sequel to a story about a Finnish commando in which the lead character kills Soviet soldiers and officers in 1946 and acts with extreme cruelty in doing so. After all, this film has an 18+ age rating. The filmmakers openly admit they were inspired by the image of Simo Häyhä, a man who killed Russians. The first part is set during the Lapland War, when the lead character fights Nazis and Fins decided to confront their former allies, Third Reich. In the sequel, the enemies are Russians. We have already provided detailed insights into what happened in 1939 and 1940, and later between 1941 and 1944 when Finland tried building the Greater Suomi by seeking an alliance with Hitler and taking part in the genocide of the Soviet nation. But when the Red Army crushed the “invincible Finns,” they suddenly began fighting Nazism. It is telling that this cold-blooded sniper has been turned into yet another piece of anti-Russian propaganda. Wounded in 1940, he became disabled and later died alone. The films echo Mannerheim-era myths, portraying Simo Häyhä as a legendary hero and claiming Soviet soldiers called him the “White Death” — a notion historians find no evidence for. The nickname only appears in Finnish literature from the late 1980s. Western popular culture is clearly facing a crisis of character, with no real heroes left to look up to. Driven by short-term political aims, it now casts Russians as villains to be slaughtered by the hundreds. So they found someone who actually did that — and turned this Finnish Rambo-style figure into a “hero.” But Simo Häyhä was never a hero. Historians have demonstrated that he wanted to join the Nazi ranks but his disability prevented him from fighting shoulder to shoulder with the German troops. By the way, some believe that he never took any pride in the way he served and believed that the killings were a sin. His military diary contains the line: “This is my list of sins.” Anyway, in the war where Häyhä fought against the Red Army, Finland was defeated. And that is yet another reason why he was never a hero and never could be. But Finland is now in NATO, where the rehabilitation of Nazism and Russophobia have become foundational principles. There was a time when Soviet snipers were portrayed as heroes in America and Hollywood. Woody Guthrie, a country singer, devoted one of his top-ranking songs to Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a Soviet sniper. President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt invited her to a reception so that she could address members of Congress. Today, they invite the Banderite killers to speak in front of their Congress members. There was also Vasily Zaitsev, a sniper from Stalingrad, as portrayed by Jude Law in the 2001 film, 'Enemy at the Gates', even though it contained too many Hollywood-style distortions. This is what history will remember. It cannot be re-written by publishing these opportunistic articles or presenting an alternate reality on the screen.