''Finlands sak är vår'' (English: ''The Finnish cause is ours'') is the title of a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

book written by journalists

Olof Lagercrantz Olof Gustaf Hugo Lagercrantz (10 March 1911 – 23 July 2002) was a Swedish writer, critic, literary scholar (PhD 1951) and publicist (editor-in-chief of ''Dagens Nyheter'' 1960–1975). Life and career Lagercrantz was born in Stockholm, Swede ...

and Karl-Gustaf Hildebrand. It appeared in December 1939, at the outbreak of the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

. Its print run was 600,000 copies, and it spread throughout Sweden. The book's title was adopted as a campaign motto by the Finland committee. The sentence was coined by Swedish foreign minister

Christian Günther Christian Ernst Günther (5 December 1886 – 6 March 1966) was Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Hansson III Cabinet. The unity government was formed after the Soviet attack on Finland in November 1939, the Winter War, and it was d ...

. The campaign sought volunteers to fight with Finland against the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

invasion, and resulted in 10,000 applicants, of which 8,000 eventually were sent to Finland. In addition the campaign provided economic aid, clothing assistance and medical personnel. Many Swedish cultural personalities and journalists participated in the campaign. The campaign was financed by large Swedish companies as well as the

Swedish Trade Union Confederation The Swedish Trade Union Confederation ( ; literally "The National Organisation in Sweden"), commonly referred to as LO (), is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-c ...

References

Winter War Sweden in World War II 1939 non-fiction books Finland–Sweden relations {{Europe-poli-book-stub