Borderlands and Battles: A Finnish Town's Cold War Story (333)

Timo takes us to the remote Finnish border town of Kuusamo. He paints a vivid picture of a childhood overshadowed by his grandparent’s memories of their home lost during World War II and their proximity to the Soviet Union.

As a child, he was fascinated by the invisible line that marked the end of the world— the heavily guarded border with the USSR. Timo recounts a tense encounter with border guards while visiting his grandparents, and his meeting with a Soviet escaper.

He travels to Moscow and Eastern Europe as a young man which further fuels his curiosity about life on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Timo recalls the austere streets of Prague to the bureaucratic maze in Budapest and a harrowing night at the Romanian border.

Timo’s book “Tanks & Roaches” is only currently available in Finnish, Estonian and Slovak but can be purchased via our episode extras page here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode333/

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00:00 Intro

01:26 Timo's early life

04:41 Timo's grandparents' experiences of World War II

08:59 Incidents of people coming over the border

08:56 Estonian man's escape

28:32 Timo's trip to Moscow with his father in 1977

32:03 Finns remaining in areas handed over to the Soviet Union

39:34 Visits to Prague, Hungary and Romania

41:34 First Impressions of Prague

43:18 The challenges of Hungarian visitor registration

45:49 Trouble getting into Romania from Hungary

54:37 Polish smugglers on the train

59:04 Timo's fascination with Estonia.

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