| Information Units |
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Tiedotusjoukot |
| Information Units |
|
Tiedotusjoukot |
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Finnish Propaganda Organization Before the war propaganda issues of the Finnish Armed Forces were brought to a new level in 1934 when an Information Centre [Sanomakeskus] was established in The Ministry of Defence. Between 1937 and 1939 it arranged refresher courses for a total of 68 professional reserve journalists, authors and publicity men who were trained for the information and education duties of military units. Participants of the first refresher course formed their own organization called Propaganda Union [Propagandaliitto ry] which was a volunteer national defence organization. State Information Centre [Valtion tiedotuskeskus, VTK] of The Council of State was formed fefore the Winter War on 11.10.1939 for collecting and delivering internal and international information either directly or via a private Finnish News Agency [Suomen Tietotoimisto, STT]. Its main tasks included also civilian information and propaganda directed to the enemy. It was suspended after the Winter War. At the
same time Information Centre was re-named as Information
Office of the Ministry of Defence [Puolustusministeriön
Tiedostustoimisto]. It concentrated on military
information. A new Propaganda Detachment of the
Supreme HQ (Päämajan propagandaosasto) compiled
official reports on military happenings. It also
delivered photos, films and other news material to the State
Information Centre. During the Winter War Finnish Supreme
HQ didn't have own propaganda units on the front. Finnish Information Organization In 1941 Finnish military propaganda organizations were re-arranged. Propaganda Chief of the Finnish Supreme HQ Capt.(Maj. since 8.10.42) K. Lehmus created a proposal for a new organization. He also visited in Germany in spring 1941 to get familiar with the German propaganda arrangements. New organization was inspired by the German one but it had Finnish characteristics. State Information Centre (Valtion tiedotuskeskus, VKT) was re-established in June 1941 for spreading all national and international information to the mass media. It is handled on page State Report Establishment. A word "propaganda" had because of Soviet actions got a very negative label in Finland meaning only twisted and false information and its further use was dropped. Propaganda administration and all propaganda units were already since late June 1941 named using a word "information" [tiedotus] instead of "propaganda". Even today propaganda means ideologically strongly coloured information in Finland. Information Detachment of the Supreme HQ (Päämajan tiedotusosasto, TtusOs.) was responsible of the official reports, photos, films, propaganda directed towards the enemy, education and entertainment of troops as well as censorship of the field mail. Official reports were composed based on the information received from the Operative Department of the Supreme HQ. The maximum strength of the detachment was 47 persons including female Office Lottas. For the organization of the Information Detachment see the page Organization of the Finnish Supreme HQ 1941 - 1944. Information Officers 1941 - 1942 Information Detachment of the Supreme HQ (TtusOs.) had two Information Officers [tiedotusupseeri] in Karelian Army (Kar.A). They operated as liaison officers and co-ordinated the actions of the information units. The third Information Officer was Maj. G.
Waselius who was a Finnish Information Liaison
Officer with the German troops in Lapland since
summer 1941 until early 1942. Information Units 1941 - 1944 For gaining material from the front special Information Companies (Tiedotuskomppania, TtusK) and a few special detachments were formed under the command of Information Office (Ttus 1) of the Information Detachment of the Supreme HQ. Their tasks were to produce written and broadcasted news and reports, bulletins, photos, film footages, arrange film shows on the front as well as spread Finnish front propaganda among the enemy troops by loudspeakers and leaflets. Spreading of leaflets was used either with special "propaganda mortars", leaving them to suitable places on the front or delivering them to Air Force reconnnaissance units which dropped large amounts of propaganda leaflets during the war. Loudspeaker propaganda (both talked and music) sooner or later caused Soviet counter-measures which usually included severe shooting with all available weapons. It was therefore not very popular among Finnish soldiers. Personnel of the information units consisted completely of professional reservists of whom many were well known already during the war or became famed after the war. Company Chiefs were mostly acknowledged editors-in-chief or highly trained mass media professionals. During the war the number of information companies varied between 8 and 12 including Onega Information Company. Additionally there were 1st Separate Information Platoon and Information Group Lake Ladoga. Units were formed since 18.6.1941. The remaining ones were disbanded on 29.9.1944. Information
Company was organized as follows:
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. Co-Operation with Germans 1941 - 1944 Finns didn't eventually work with especially close co-operation with the Germans who although had a liaison officer in the Information Detachment for exchanging propaganda material incuding for example "UFA-Auslandswochenschau" reports. German propaganda liaison officer in Finland was at first Regierungsrat Waldemar Wünsche followed later by Oberleutnant Sigfrid Taubert. Agreement on exchanging materials with Germans was signed on 17.7.1941. Finnish propaganda material intended for "Deutsche Wochenschau" was at first delivered with diplomatic mail through German Military Attache Oberst Horst Rössing but later with normal air mail. Initially Finns were not satisfied on the way Germans handled Finnish report films because the origin of these was never mentioned. Since the end of 1941 situation became better. In spring 1942 a German reportage intended for international use caused a diplomatic crises between Finland and Germany by claiming that German troops had, with the help of Finns, conquered Suursaari island on the Gulf of Finland although there had not been any German troops in this operation. Chief of the Finnish Information Detachment of the Supreme HQ Major K. Lehmus consulted with German liaison officer Wünsche and gave him Finnish version on happenings. Finns forbade Germans to use incorrect statement anymore. Corrections were made immediately. Finns were forced for co-operation because that was the only way to get new films from Germany. Prior to Hitler's visit to Marshal Mannerheim's 75th birthday on 4.6.1942 German film company Agfa donated 40.000 metres of raw film which was stored for the future use. German "UFA-Auslandswochenschau" reports numbered between 540 - 670 from January 1942 to June 1944 are mostly archived in Finnish Film Archive. These re-worked Finnish versions financed by German UFA as well were re-cut in Finland and lasted only less than half of the duration of the original German ones, usually 10 - 20 minutes, consisting of about 10 footages. Finnish narration written out in Finland based only loosely on the original German manuscript. Narrator was intially UFA's Georg (Yrjö) von Grönhagen and soon latery Finnish Master of Arts V. Suomi. German
report films were forbidden in Finland on 20.9.1944 after
the interim peace agreement between Finland and USSR had
been signed. . |
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© 21.10.2006 Harri Anttonen