I only hope that more Russians learn english so they can become part of such discussions (then again, we could all learn Russian…. ;-)). In any case, even America which commits the most atrocities in present-day, has no shortage of people who are willing to speak-out against its actions. I hope Russians will do the same.

There are opinions, everyone has one. Then there are facts. The facts are that Soviet Union invaded the Baltic States and occupied them and tried to do the same with Finland as well. The facts are that Soviet troops butchered finnish civilians near the finnish-russian border. The facts are that hundreds of thousands of baltics suffered under the Soviet oppression. Those are the undeniable facts. Soviet Union was just as much a fascist state as Nazi Germany.

Now, opinions formed about the atrocities Soviet Union commited of course vary. In Russia the atrocities simply do not exist. Russians have been taught that they were in a a Great Patriotic War, liberating their neighbouring peoples. Obvious propaganda. Ask any baltic or finn.

Russians might not be baby-eaters (although they did eat their horses, and eachother, when they were fighting against finns and ran out of food) but even today Russias ruling elite refuses to discuss Soviet Unions war crimes and atrocities. The average Russian doesn’t really even know what happened. And as strong nationalism is on the rise in Russia I bet they’ll not hear about it anytime soon.

There’s this program going on in YLE, “Kamrat” or something like that where a finnish woman is travelling in Russia and trying to show finns that russians are not that different or that bad. But I think she did a disservice to her program when she was interviewing a russian research who said something like “it’s not wise to call Russia an angry old bear because if you do, Russia just might turn into one”. I think it goes to show how “ready” russians are to face the facts about their past.

http://stockholmslender.blogspot.com/2006/10/eesti-ajaloost.html

But you are right, like I have commented here long ago, there are plans of new invasion into baltic states - it’s openly discussed in Moscow. After that Russia takes back Poland and DDR. I think it’s gonna happen pretty soon, before 2008 elections in Russia, because russians are so thirsty for blood of christian babies.

I have more respect for the Baltic peoples that suffered under the Soviet Union, and wish to remove traces of that evil empire from their independent countries than Russians who seem to be in denial about the extent of the horror that the Soviet Union represented, and seek to bully the Balts once again.

Ultimately, from Africa, just like everyone else.

More respect than towards who?

The language is approximately from the 1200’s

You mean the “modern” version of it? At least according to the trusted old Wikipedia “the Baltic Finnic languages separated around the 1st century (around years 1-100, that is):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language#History

Well, nowhere, we were here all the time. That is as “Finns” in the three tribes were “formed” as nations in the year 1000 or so as to what they are now, Savonians for example as a tribe are a “later invention” as the even later Ingrians… The language is approximately from the 1200’s, but still Agricola used letters to show sounds hence dissapeared, so it is also a living language.

So “Finns” did not just come from somewhere. We formed to what we are here.

What “new” Baltic states? You mean states that got independence in the Russian Revolution, got sold to Stalin with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact just like Finland, got invaded and annexed in 1940 by Stalin and his sycophants, and then tried to nmake best of it being run over by Germans and again by the USSR?

I have much more respect for the Estonians who fought against all odds to try keep their independence.

Well, the Urals, as you mentioned. Other places include Ingria, nothern Germany, Somalia……

If I remember correctly, the language and the people took a little bit different routes. The “protofinnish” came here with a rather small population of so-called “hammer-axe” culture about 2000 years ago. The country was already inhabited by various groups of Sami, Germanic etc. people, who adopted the language of this little newcomers group for some strange reason.

The language is certainly uralic and the ancient finnish culture has many things in common with the cultures of the small relative nations now living in Russia.

“July 1942: The bodies of civilians killed by Soviet partisans have been laid out on the grass in the village of Seitajärvi in Finnish Lapland. Discussion of the mass murders of Finnish civilians has been largely off-limits. During the war itself, the authorities even went so far as to order those who knew of the cross-border attacks on Finnish villages to keep their silence.”

Chapter 2 - Finland’s Origins: Prehistoric and Historic
Unlike their larger neighbors, the Swedes and Russians, Finns cannot build a national identity based on hundreds of years of visibility as an independent polity on the map of Europe. The lack of a long visible past has provided fertile ground for the creation of fanciful myths about the Finns’ prehistoric origins. This chapter replaces widespread myths with rigorous research drawn from archaeology, linguistics, and genetics.

Specifically, where on earth did the Finns come from? The few Finns I’ve met say “The Urals”, but that doesn’t answer it for me. Are there artifacts of their old civilization there? Anyway, looking forward to it.
Jeff