Valaam Monastery. Valamo Monastery. The heart of the Orthodox Church in Karelia and an outpost of Russia within the lands of the Finns. Mount Athos of the North – so was called this ancient monastic dwelling, which was founded a thousand years ago in the dawn of Christianity in Russia … Continue reading
The Winter War: The Soviet Attack on Finland, 1939-1940 by Eloise Engle and Lauri Paananen There are a number of books available on the now little-known Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, which was fought from December 1939 to March during the Sitzkrieg, and just before the Nazi … Continue reading
Finnish Weather: Finland is a land of climatic extremes. Winter and Summer in Finland are poles apart. In 2010, for example, the highest temperature was 37.2ºC (99ºF), and the lowest temperature was -41.3ºC (-42ºF). Despite these extremes in Finnish Weather, summer temperatures are usually even, often reaching the mid thirties in … Continue reading
Between 1900 and 1908, the Russians built 25 Sokol (“Falcon”) class torpedo boats for the Russian Baltic Fleet. These boats served in various roles in the Tsarist Russian Baltic Fleet in WW1. The war went badly for the Russians and in 1917 the Russian Navy mutinied. The mutiny turned into a revolution and … Continue reading
