Why was Finland prosecuted after world war 2 even though they, literally and unironically, "did nothing wrong"
>Finland invaded twice by soviet union
>forced to ally with Germans
>allies see them as part of the "axis" as a result
>prosecute them after the war and send their democratically elected president to prison
they were the only member of the axis that were democratic and did nothing wrong
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Do you even Realpolitick? Who cares how democratic or justified they were, they picked the wrong side.
Because the Soviets were on the winning team
>Do you even Realpolitick?
Do you?
From a realpolitik perspective potentially alienating your the surviving enemy of your enemy just because they were considered an axis power is a dumb idea.
That's not realpolitik, that's taking an uncompromising moral stance against anything to do with the axis.
>From a realpolitik perspective potentially alienating your the surviving enemy of your enemy just because they were considered an axis power is a dumb idea.
That's not the argument in OP. Even then, Finland got off relatively scot-free, compared to Italy, Germany or Japan. And at any rate, even if Allies treated them much worse it wouldn't have mattered - Finland was (and is) a non-country that would fall in line anyway.
soviet union was right on the border and could have annexed Finland whenever it wanted. as says, there was probably an implicit soviet threat underlying it all if Finland wasn't punished in some way by the western powers.
Stalin let Mannerheim off scott free. The same Mannerheim who was the number one propaganda target during the 2 wars.
They did try to ally with the west first, but it was not possible. Axis was the only option.
How were they persecuted? They gave some land and retained independence and later got privileged deals from Soviets. What did you expect, that Soviets apologize?
>they picked the wrong side.
Finland didn't really have the luxury of getting to pick a side.
Bunch of leaders ( two prime ministers, the president, ambassador to berlin and 4 other ministers) were jailed for I guess the crime of working to defend their country when it was invaded?
If anything Finland was pure realpolitik throughout WW2
While a propaganda target, apparently Mannerheim also had friends on the soviet side who were friends with Stalin so thats probably the main reason nothing happened to him.
Pretty much the same stance Finland had back before soviet union fell. The deals pretty much caused Kekkonen to shit on any politician who dared to whine at the Soviets. "Who gives a shit what wrongs they did, were becoming fucking rich off them now so shut up"
>"Who gives a shit what wrongs they did, were becoming fucking rich off them now so shut up"
And this dependency caused major problems when the early 90s recession hit and Soviet Union fell at the same time. Western markets didn't buy crap meant for soviets.
>The Finnish political cartoonist Kari Suomalainen once explained Finlandization as the art of bowing to the East without mooning the West.
Soviets were butthurt the Fins BTFO the Red Army during the Winter War
If Finns hadn't put up such a fight in winter war USSR might actually have gotten completely rekt by Hitler. They revved up that military machine heavily after the humiliation.
They were all released after the soviets had calmed down. President Ryti sat in jail the longest and he got pardoned after three years
It always boils down to the Finns doesn't it.
And if Finland had joined with General Yudenich's attack on st. Petersburg in 1919 they would had crushed the bolsheviks and Soviet Union would had never even existed. Fuck i hate Finns now.
>Starving Leningrad is not a crime
That was Nazi, not Sweden.
Snow mongols were part of the blockade forces.
Snow mongols just took back their territory that happened to be very close to Leningrad
Well their ''its muchh our land'' had coused starvation, cannibalism and death of hundreds of thousands of the citizens of one of the world superpowers which at the time was headed by one of its most brutal and vindictives leaders, so they got off very easy.