Absolutely Brutal!
The second part of Olivier Norek’s historical novel, Les guerriers de l’hiver, was definitely a change of mood from the first part that I read. Now that the war has officially begun, we are presented with an onslaught of graphic details of violence. It is a hellscape. In one part, a sixteen-year-old boy is killed because the Russians think that he could possibly be a spy. The justification is that it’s better for an innocent boy to be dead than for a spy to still be alive. There is no regard for human life. It is treated as if it has no value. This is how those involved in the war have to think in order to cope with what is happening and to be willing to continue fighting.
Some of these parts were quite disturbing to read, such as when the Finnish captain Salmelo commits suicide. This was the most graphic description of a suicide that I have ever read in a novel. It seems pretty clear that Norek wants to depict the brutality of war in a realistic manner. In some chapters, there are depictions of the battlefield, not excluding any gory details. In one part, a soldier in the Finnish army kills Russian soldiers with a machine gun and immediately starts vomiting afterwards, since he is so repulsed by what he is witnessing, including what he just did. After this incident, he tries to stay up all night and avoid sleeping, since he is terrified of having nightmares, in fear of reliving the horrors from the battlefield. In addition, when commenting on the fact that some of the soldiers from the machine gun unit have developed amnesia due to trauma, a Finnish medic tells the doctor that they’re lucky to not remember anything.
At another point in the narrative, commander Mannerheim is disappointed because a general decided to order troops to retreat from a battle. He then proceeds to write a letter to dismiss the general from his position. The letter states that he is replacing the general because he doesn’t have the correct “philosophy of war”. Mannerheim declares the importance of glory and fame, demonstrating a philosophy of war in which these things must be prioritized. He states that this is a moral obligation. I found this part to be a bit sickening. But I know that this is a realistic depiction of how certain people view war.
Another interesting part of the novel was when the international press started to arrive to cover the preparation for the Olympic Games, which are to take place in Helsinki the following summer. Just three blocks from the upscale hotel where they are staying, there is blood on the streets and piles of ashes where buildings used to be. This contrast between the calm hotel atmosphere, where journalists are having cocktails in a “chic” lounge and chatting about the Olympic Games, and the blood-soaked streets nearby, creates a striking juxtaposition. It’s shocking that people can care more about games than they care about the loss of human life that is going on! Norek describes the journalistic censorship being done by the propaganda officers. The image and perception of Finland on an international scale is what’s most important to them. This made me think of the connection between the Olympic Games and the Tlatelolco massacre that we read about in The Savage Detectives, although the atrocities committed by the Mexican military were much worse than how Norek describes the preparation for the Helsinki Olympics. The Olympic Games will be starting in a couple of days. I can’t help but feel sad about how, throughout history, certain people have valued these games more than they valued human lives.