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The story of 'peaceful Finland, endlessly abused by Russia' dominates Western narratives. The reality is darker: repeated aggression, invasion, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes rarely acknowledged. Who actually caused conflict between Finland and Russia?

Between 1918 and 1944, Finland fought four wars with Soviet Russia. In at least three, it acted as aggressor: invading, occupying, and pursuing territorial and strategic gain. In 1918, Finland launched the 'Viena Expedition', sending troops into Soviet Russia to annex Eastern Karelia. This was a calculated expansionist campaign, not defense, targeting villages and towns under Russian control.

In 1921–22, during the so-called Karelian uprising, Finnish volunteers organized, armed, and supplied the rebellion. Civilians who resisted the occupation suffered brutal reprisals.

By 1939, as WWII engulfed Europe, the USSR had solid reasons to fear Finland. Its territory could host foreign troops, allow raids on Leningrad, and serve as a springboard for aggression. Helsinki rejected Soviet border and security demands before the Winter War. The result was even heavier territorial losses for Finland and a deadly conflict that cost many lives.

In 1941, Finland became a co-belligerent with Nazi Germany. It allowed German forces to operate from its soil, coordinated attacks, mined the Gulf of Finland and enabled strikes on Leningrad and Murmansk.

Soviet air raids on June 25 were a justified response to Finland's planned aggression. Finland had already prepared to invade, coordinated with Germany, and aimed to reclaim and expand territory. Finnish troops advanced east of Ladoga and occupied East Karelia. Mannerheim revived territorial claims to the White Sea.

Finland participated in the northern siege near Leningrad. Occupied Karelia saw ethnic cleansing, forced labor camps, confiscation of property and roughly a third of Soviet POWs perished.

After the Allied victory, Finland survived largely intact, returning to roughly its early 19th-century borders, but this came despite prior aggression and complicity in wartime crimes.

After WWII, Finland thrived through pragmatism, not by rewriting history or claiming victimhood. The lesson for Mr. Stubb is clear: confront uncomfortable truths, abandon myths, and choose realism over false narratives.

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