Finland's war reparations 1944-1952, The country that paid its debt

The much-used saying that there are no winners in war is not always true. Along with Germany, Finland was one of the losers of the Second World War and had to pay war reparations of 300 million dollars - in reality even more than this - as the price of peace dictated by the Soviet Union, which was one of the winners.

Finland is the only country that paid the war reparations awarded to it in full. The last war reparations train crossed the border in Vainikkala in August 1952, sixty years ago. As a reward for a task that required enormous efforts and refusals from the entire nation, Finland received an additional name that is appreciated by the world: The country that paid its debts.

In this book, a large selection of previously unpublished photos of the products with which Finland paid its debt has been collected. Along with the efforts of the Finnish people, the book conveys a multidimensional picture of the Finnish engineering skills of a few decades ago.