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A month ago me, my friends Betsi and pasgubbe went to Sveaborg fortress outside of Helsinki to take some pictures with our uniforms from the time of the Finnish War.
I, Finland, am wearing the uniform used by Nylands Regemente (present at Sveaborg) from 1797. Newer uniform regulation had been issued by the king before 1808-09, but they had not spread to the eastern half of the Swedish Kingdom yet, so the 1797 ones were used throughout the war. :userBetsiel:, Russia, is wearing a Russian uniform from the same era. Both uniforms are handmade by ourselves.
Sveaborg fortress was the Swedish stronghold in the south of Finland, usually called "Finland's lock", though it never got to prove what it could do, as it surrendered under still considered very mysterious conditions quite early in the war.

So, on to the pictures! : )




The cannon I'm standing on (as well as all other cannons on Sveaborg) is pointing towards Sweden. A little souvenier from the Russian time.







The text is from Tales of Ensign Stål, by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, a collection of poems about this war and is considered very important for the Finnish people. This is a segment of the "Vårt Land / Maamme" poem, which is the first one in the collection, and is also used as our national anthem. Only the first and last parts are sung though.

A quick translation would be:
Who would speak the amount of battles,
this people withstood,
when the war roared from valley to valley,
when frost came with hungers anguish,
who measured all its spilled blood,
and all its patience?











Sadly it was completely impossible to find correct toyweapons for the time, and since we didn't have time to make our own we had to just, stick to this one, even though it's about a century too old and quite small.











Say hi to Lobin, our photographers dog. : D









I don't even know myself. Honestly. XD





When the Russians attacked the orders from Sweden were to keep Sveaborg and have the rest of the armies slowly retreat towards Sweden, until the ices melted and help could travel over the sea to Sveaborg.
It was a long winter and the Swedes never got to Sveaborg in time.





During the war the Russian Czar gave the "Finnish people" a choice. He would give them Autonomy if they swore him loyalty.





Before the war was over, the people of Finland accepted the Czars offer during the Diet of Porvoo. Finland was no longer Swedish, but the Grand Duchy of Finland. The Finnish people had been lifted up among nations, as the Czar, Alexander I, himself said.
Today this is seen as the important first step on Finlands road to independence.



We found a cannon from Voronez, dated 1720. What a cannon from deep into Russia, dated 28 years before the building of Sveaborg started is doing there is quite a mystery to me. Did the Swedes buy Russian cannons? Or did the Russians bring almost 100 years old cannons?



The man who surrendered Sveaborg was named Cronstedt. In Sweden he is, of course, considered a traitor, and in Russia a hero. Runeberg, even though he speaks for the Finnish people, not Sweden, considers him a traitor. Still today, there is no truth to find. Why did he do it? How would things be if he hadn't? Was that white flag needed for our independence over a century later?

Another quote from Tales of Ensign Stål, by Johan Ludvig Runeberg. A quick translation would be:

Not in time's times will it be forgotten,
when this legend became true,
when, like a gloomy (some kind of call),
the sure message us reached,
that the country's last hope was down,
that Sveaborg was Swedish no more.
























"My name is Väinämöinen, Tino Väinämöinen."

Thank you for looking at our pictures! For more of our works, please see my dA: http://sandriz.deviantart.com/