Ukraine war and Nato draw tourists to eastern Finland

Ukraine’s war and Finland’s Nato membership have sharply increased international interest in the country’s eastern border and the Winter War, Yle reports.

Visitor numbers at the Raatteen Port Winter War Museum in Suomussalmi have tripled or quadrupled in recent years, according to Minna Torkkola, who runs the museum with her husband, Reima Haapoja. Visitors have come from at least 32 countries this year.

The largest groups have arrived from France, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Sweden. Visitors have also come from New Zealand, Japan and the United States.

The municipality of Suomussalmi says the number of international overnight stays increased by about 56 per cent in 2025 compared with the previous year. Torkkola says the increase at Raatteen Port has been even greater.

Similar developments have been seen in Kuhmo, where the Winter War Museum’s visitor numbers have already exceeded last year’s total.

Comparisons with Ukraine’s war

International interest in Finland has been boosted partly by comparisons between the war in Ukraine and the Winter War. British newspapers including the Daily Mail and The Times have made the comparison.

In both wars, Russia attacked a country considerably smaller than itself, but the conquest did not proceed as expected.

A book by French author Olivier Norek has also attracted international visitors to the region, Torkkola says. Published last year, Winter War Soldiers tells the story of Finland’s Winter War and sniper Simo Häyhä.

Visitors to Suomussalmi are fascinated by the area’s proximity to the Russian border and by Finland’s success in the Winter War, Torkkola says.

“They greatly admire how you can still win when the enemy has ten times as many troops,” she says.

Groups of professional soldiers have also visited Raatteen Port. Nato soldiers have studied the battles along the Raattee Road and considered how the area might be defended today, Torkkola says.

“They are enormously interested in motti tactics,” she says.

Torkkola and Haapoja have presented Raatteen Port in Riga, Latvia, and Gdansk, Poland. The museum was invited to a conference of military museums in Gdansk, where only 12 museums were selected. The participants included museums in Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor.

Second World War memories remain strong

Zuzana Martakova, a visitor from the Czech Republic, believes foreign visitors are drawn to the border region by the clash between European and Russian cultures.

She also considers Raattee Road interesting because of the Czech Republic’s own history. After the Second World War, Czechoslovakia became a satellite state of the Soviet Union.

“Russia and the Soviet Union are still very strongly present, especially in the minds of older people and those who experienced the war through their parents or grandparents,” Martakova says.

Torkkola says visitors view the events of the Winter War through the lens of their own experiences. One of her most memorable encounters was with a German woman who felt ashamed of German actions during the Second World War.

Torkkola said she was able to tell the woman that Germany had learned from its past, before pointing towards Russia and saying that Russia had not.

Torkkola and Haapoja have run Raatteen Port since 2019. They are now retiring.