Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's keynote speech at the Main Event of National Veterans’ Day

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Mr President, Mrs Haukio, Esteemed War Veterans, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, it is 71 years since the last German soldiers left Lapland. At this time, the heaviest phase in the history of independent Finland came to an end, after a wartime period lasting nearly six years. The Winter War, the Continuation War and the Lapland War meant immeasurable suffering and the nation experienced much loss, but retained the most important of all: independence and a democratic system.

The date on which the Lapland War ended has been celebrated as National Veterans’ Day since 1987. I am pleased that Oulu is the municipality organising the main event of National Veterans’ Day this year. As a port town in Northern Finland, Oulu played an important role during the harsh years of the last wars, and later during the reconstruction.

The struggle for survival during the war years and the decades of reconstruction have carried us to this day. A country and a nation that survived the Winter War, retained its independence, was able to resettle more than 400,000 people who had lost their homes, paid substantial reparations, rebuilt the country and made it into a modern welfare state through hard work, are a family of survivors. The core values of wartime – responsibility, a sense of duty, patriotism, caring for our neighbours as well as a strong and unwavering belief in the future – have not lost their importance today, either.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

My own grandfather, my Grandpa, was also a veteran of our wars. During the pre-war period he lived in Suojärvi. Suojärvi was the largest municipality by area in the ceded Karelia. Grandpa was called up already in October 1939 for extra military refresher training. He had visited at home a few days before the outbreak of war, and had said that the children must not undress for the night.

Grandpa wanted to save history and impress these memories in the minds of us grandchildren before he himself would be too weak. At 80 years of age, in 1995, he began to prepare a joint trip to Karelia. He started exercising. First, he took a one-kilometre walk with his rollator, and later he made a daily five-kilometre round on his kick-sled. He was in good shape in the summer of 1996, when we headed out on our trip towards Suojärvi. Travelling by all-terrain vehicles, we crossed Grandpa’s entire 21-day Winter War trip all the way to the foxhole where the enemy threw a hand grenade beside Grandpa’s skis during the battles of Tolvajärvi at Lake Ägläjärvi.

During that trip, Grandpa was moved at two places. The first place was when he told about how the men had become impatient with retreating at the beginning of the Winter War. He said that the men had rebelled against the officers, saying that they would soon be in Sweden unless they started to fight. They did begin to fight, and the result was one of the greatest defence victories in military history. Finland did not give in to a great and powerful enemy, but through persistence showed the wish to retain freedom.

The second time Grandpa was moved occurred when we looked at the greyed cottages in the area. He said: “Do you children comprehend what a good country Finland is and how strongly our independence was fought for.” At that time I realised very concretely what my grandfather wanted me to do. I had just sold my company and daydreamed about a little lighter work. That wasn’t what he wished. He taught me in his own way to understand that our younger generation’s Winter War is the building of this native land, making it an even better place to live. Each of us should be the entrepreneurs of our own life, and should build our country with the skills each of us has been given. We should bear responsibility for the future and for future generations, and we must not leave our pals behind.

Finland has previously been lifted by hard work, by reforming the structures of society and through cooperation. In today’s Finland, we must be able to reform our economy and our entire society so that Finland would in future remain a robust and egalitarian country. We must ensure the nation’s economic and social sustainability. This effort now calls for everyone’s contribution, and strong cooperation is needed.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Fewer and fewer of us have any personal experience of the war years. For baby boomers, the thread passed through one’s parents, but as the age groups who lived through the wars leave our midst, this thread is breaking. For those born after the war years, the link to the war years runs through their grandparents. On National Veterans’ Day, the nation has been able to pay attention to the men and women who bore the heaviest burden in the difficult war years. Veterans’ Day is a demonstration of honour and gratitude to the entire veteran era, and also to all the organisations working on behalf of veterans.

The legacy of the war years, in a deeply touching way, tells of the nation’s resilience, sacrifice and ability to survive in the face of the threats to our independence and unity. Even by international comparison, making it through the war can be seen as a small northern people’s incredible survival story. Through their work, the same tenacious generation raised Finland to the vanguard of the world’s welfare states.

After the war, care and special services were put into place for disabled veterans and veterans. The services and benefits for the veterans of our wars make up a unique and diverse entity. This is morally important and economically significant. This year, too, the government budget allocates 236 million euros for these special benefits. The imprints of the war are long.

Now that independent Finland will celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary next year, the Government wishes once again to invest in services for our war veterans. The focus is particularly on services that support living at home. The right of all disabled veterans to outpatient social welfare services will become reality from the start of March, when the limit for the degree of disability is removed. Decisions concerning this have already been made.

In addition, the Government wants to ensure that all front-line veterans have the opportunity to get municipal outpatient services adapted to their needs, provided at home free of charge. We want to implement this task of honour in line with the theme of the centenary of independence – Together. Together with veterans’ organisations, so that the organisations would help their members to apply for services. Together with the municipalities, so that they would be activated to provide services to front-line veterans, and would ensure the availability of these services. 

The Government, for its part, will prepare the necessary decisions by autumn, and is prepared to allocate a substantial additional contribution to the costs of providing municipal outpatient services, as from the beginning of next year. Each front-line veteran deserves our full support.

Now that independent Finland will celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary next year, the Government wishes once again to invest in services for our war veterans.

The focus is particularly on services that support living at home. Each front-line veteran deserves our full support. Veterans’ work and achievements are an important aspect of the nation’s spiritual heritage. On behalf of the Government, I thank you, honoured veterans, for your work and your efforts on behalf of the native land we share.

Honoured War Veterans, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The achievements of the veterans of our wars are one aspect of the nation’s spiritual heritage. They have created the basis for the work that younger age groups, in turn, have continued on behalf of the native land. Through your actions and your work, you have earned the gratitude of the whole nation.

History accompanies us and obligates future generations also in the spirit of the lyrics of a well-known song:

We were born with a gift of strength,
That elsewhere is in short supply.
He who chides our homeland as a poor place,
Knows not a thing about grit.
It may bend yet it will spring back again,
Whit of juniper wood, it can withstand all.
It can force a way through solid stone,
It prevails in the hardest of times.

This sky, this land, remain from one generation to the next.

I wish you a valuable Veteran’s Day!