Put yourself in the shoes of the Finns, Chris. Formerly part of the Russian
Empire, independent since 1917, and having lost much territory to the Russians
after 1945, it is understandable that they treat their neighbour with
circumspection, without getting too close to "the other side". We can no doubt
think of a recent example which has chosen the opposite route.
On the other hand, the unconventional tactics employed by the Finns during the
Winter War (e.g. bicycle infantry attacking field kitchens and thereby
thwarting an armoured attack) were a clear example of the advantages of knowing
the territory and being equipped for the weather.
Piers
________________________________
From: olympus <olympus-bounces+piers.hemy=gmail.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on
behalf of Chris Barker <ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 1, 2019 4:42:36 PM
To: Olympus Camera Discussion <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [OM] Nathan's PAD 28/10/2019: cold and empty streets
Thanks for those comments, Piers. I thought Finnish was a Turkic language, but
now I remember that Hungaric came into my reading at some stage nearly 20 years
ago.
it looks like an interesting place; and of course during the Cold War it was a
strange sort of frontier country, neither in the Warsaw Pact nor completely out
of it, I understood.
Cheers
Chris
> On 1 Nov 2019, at 10:33, Piers Hemy <piers@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Thanks for an interesting view on an interesting place, Nathan. I haven't
> been to Helsinki "proper" for 30 years, and on that visit time was extremely
> short (Since then, only in transit to Moscow or Tallinn, though the airport
> is a pleasure to use). You show a city which is European, but "different",
> encapsulating Finland very well. The name Stockmann is well-known to me, as
> they also had branches in Moscow from 1989 until very recently.
>
> Chris, I can say "Thank you" and "Auditor" in Finnish, no more, which might
> give you a clue as to the business on that visit 30 years ago! Finnish is a
> Finno-Ugric language, very close to Estonian (the Finns liken that to
> Shakespearean English) and related to Hungarian as well as Sami. Not only has
> Finnish nothing in common with the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian,
> Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic) the Finno-Ugric group has nothing in common with
> the other European languages which are Indo-European.
>
> Piers
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