What is Alternative History?

What is Alternative History? Very simply, the exercise of taking a look at history and asking “what if”? What if an important historical event had gone differently? Could that have changed the world? And if so, how? There’s a whole genre of novels out there that explore alternative history in different ways.

Popular “what if” questions that you may have run into include the ever-favorite “what if the Nazis had won the Second World War?” (“Fatherland” by Robert Harris, which has also been made into a movie and “Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944” by Peter Tsouras being cases in point). Others include “what if the South had won the US Civil War?” (“The Guns of the South” by Harry Turtledove being a case in point). There are many other such examples that are just as interesting.

An Alternative History of the Winter War

However, this Blog is largely dedicated to Finland. And the Alternative History section of this Blog is focused on an Alternative History of the 1939-1940 Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland. In reality, Finland put up a hard-fought resistance to the Soviet invasion that cost the Red Army dearly, but an underfunded military, lack of any substantial concrete support and sheer weight of numbers meant that in the end, Finland would agree to the harsh terms imposed by Stalin.

That these terms did not include outright surrender was a tribute to the stubborn resistance to Soviet aggression put up by the Finnish military and the people of Finland under the military leadership of Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim. These harsh terms and further acts of aggression by the Soviet Union against Finland would lead to a renewal of the fight with the Soviet Union (the Continuation War as it is known in Finland) and towards the tale end of WW2, war between Finland and Germany (the Lapland War). To put Finland’s fight into context, Helsinki was one of only three European capital cities of countries who fought that was not occupied by any enemy (the other two were London and Moscow). That says a lot by itself.

THIS Alternative History is dedicated to the premise that Finland is better prepared to fight the Winter War. And while alternative history is a literary genre, on this Blog I explore the history itself and how events might have turned out differently – the politics, strategy, culture, people and all those other things that define events. As I have written this I have often digressed into exploration of actual Finnish History and culture (and various other aspects of Finland that interest me as I explore the general theme of this alternative history).

Art, Novels, Finnish writers, industrialisation, events and people little known outside of Finland are all explored. I hope you find the end result interesting, and an insight into Finland and its people. And please do feel free to comment, ask questions and debate.

And just as a further note: I started this alternative history off on two different websites – forum.axishistory.com and then www.alternatehistory.com. One of the side effects has been that I’ve ended up fielding a number of questions and inquiries from people going to Finland as visitors – enough inquiries that in the end I decided to start up this Blog (www.alternativefinland.com) to answer those questions to the best of my ability (and also to provide links pointing you to further information on Finland). If my writing leads you to a deeper interest in Finland and its people, I’m happy. And conversely, if my Finland Travel Blog leads you to reading and enjoying my Alternative History of Finland in WW2, then I’m equally as happy.

My alternative history is a work in progress – some sections are more or less complete, some are being worked on, some have not been started. I’m working on the alternative history section on an ongoing basis. If you enjoy what you’ve read so far, please do bookmark me and return. I’d also really appreciate any feedback, comments and questions- and suggestions. When you’re a budding author, it all helps!

Enjoy……………………..Nigel

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