Page 151 [151]
OCR
The Old Foe Again: The Pictorial Image of the Ruskie (ryssd) in the Finnish Sports Journal 1939-1940 Explanations of the Figures Figure 54 In the first cartoon a Russian soldier has succeeded in capturing a field kitchen from the Finns and is happily salivating and shouting: “A vot! Now I'll be promoted to the rank of the Provisions-Commissar” (Suomen Urheilulehti, January 1, 1940). The hidden message is that the Red Army was physically weak and undernourished because proper rations were not distributed, instead they were given vodka. Here one can see two soldiers saying ‘AAH1’, i.e. we are getting sufficient rations at last. In reality, the POWs the Finns captured were usually in quite bad shape physically and mentally. This was largely because Red Army provisions were inadequate in winter conditions and the Army had prepared for an easy and smooth victory. Although the Red Army had hundreds of tanks, the soldiers remained hungry and not so enthusiastic about winter warfare. Figure 55 The title of the caricature is: Mr Molotov’ present nightmare (Ibid.: January 2, 1940). When the Russians bombarded Helsinki, the Finnish air defence was very effective and the bombardment caused only some minor damage. ‘The figure shows both Russian incompetence and carelessness and Finnish preparedness. Figure 56 Once more the field kitchen is in action (Ibid.: February 2, 1940). After fierce fighting on the northern front (at Suomussalmi), it was discovered that Russians ate almost everything they could find: in this cartoon they are shown cooking and eating washing powder (called “LUX”) after having robbed a food shop. The laughable consequences can readily be seen. Figure 57 This cartoon is very different from the others. There is a light touch of self-assured humour in it, showing Finnish soldiers marching to the front in regular formation while a Finnish street sweeper enigmatically asks: “Poland lasted only two weeks, I wonder how many weeks the Soviet Union can last?” (Ibid.: February 15, 1940). This optimistic question bordering on prophesy was obviously inspired by the Finnish success on the front at the time: the Red Army had suffered heavy losses in December 1939 and January 1940. One implication is that the Finnish soldier is the opposite of the Russian and is competent and gallant. It was calculated that one Finn equalled ten “Ruskies’, and one Finnish sportsman-soldier even more (Ibid.: February 1, 1940). 149
