For those who don't know, Talvisota is a Finnish film about the Winter War. It was one of the most brutal chapters of WWII, though it was not directly connected with the main war. Stalin, who at the time was not fighting Germany, expected to snatch Finland and her strategic ports in a very quick and one-sided fight. But what happened surprised everyone. The Red Army advance mired down under Finnish defenses. The Finns used their superior knowledge of the terrain and their adaptation to the deep cold against the Soviets, who were equipped only for a short battle. Much is made of the Russian winter and its role in the defeat of Napoleon and Hitler. But it is NOTHING compared with the Finnish winter. Temps dropped to forty below zero for weeks on end. Whole squads of Red Army Men simply vanished into the "white death" of that winter. Their equipment stopped working, and they suffered from terriblef frostbite. In the mean time the Finns seemed to be able to move at will in the worst of the cold. Special ski troop snipers, including the famous Simo Hayha, racked up hundreds of kills.
Initially the Brits and Americans were sympathetic with the plucky Finns, but as the geopolitical situation changed our illustrious leaders decided we needed to avoid alienating poor Uncle Joe. So no help came, and the Finns ultimately had to align with the Germans. The Finns ultimately lost much of Karelia in the Winter War, but the fact that Finland even EXISTED after the dust settled was a massive victory. Stalin flew into such a rage he had most of his general officers slaughtered. Hitler saw the Finnish victory as a sign of Aryan superiority, which is pretty funny given the prejudice that existed against the "degenerate" Finns by the allegedly true "Nordic" types.
The rifles are 91/30's on the Soviet size and M-27's (SA), M-28-30's (Civil Guard) and M-91's (SA) on the Finnish side. The reference to the Soviet bolts working better is to the experimental "wings" on the M-27's bolt, which did tend to get jamed with mud and dirt. The M-39's did not see service in the Winter War, but some did in the Continuation War. Such a huge percentage of Finns fought with such a small supply of equipment in 1939 that if you have a pre-39 M-91, M-27 or M-28/30, there is a pretty good chance it actually saw combat. Certainly a FAR higher chance than with an M-1 Garand, Mauser or Soviet Mosin-Nagant.
I wish netflix had this movie since it's like 45 dollars on amazon.com
I have the North American region release. Unfortunately it was put together off of a VHS tape and given only a very small scale release. Thus the small number of copies. It's also a pretty grainy copy and has some missing scenes.
Given the influence of "Talvisota" on the opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan" and other recent big-budget films, I think it deserves more respect as a war movie and should have its own special edition DVD. The lack of music, lack of cinematic heroism, dead-pan delivery and the brutality of the scenes were unknown stateside at the time it was released in the late 80's.
. Verrrry cool...... but now I want a M-39 or M-27. Even a PPsh
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