Erkki Hautamäki

Erkki Hautamäki (born 1930) is a Finnish 'Councilor of Education' - 'opetusneuvos' in Finnish -, a 'major of the reserve' for the Finnish Defense Forces, a historian and a researcher who has - foremost - focused in the history of the Finnish Wars during World War II and the Soviet war plans related to World War II.

From 1970 to 1990 Hautamäki served as the headmaster of Vuokatin Urheiluopisto, the 'Sports Educational Center of Vuokatti', in Eastern Finland.

In the 1960s, Hautamäki served in a special task force at the 'Main Headquarters of the Finnish Defense Forces'. The Councilor of Education Hautamäki has published a book, 'Suomi myrskyn silmässä' ("Finland in the Eye of a Storm"), in 2005, in which both the pre-Winter War and the post-Winter War Soviet invasion plans on Finland are discussed and analyzed in detail.

Hautamäki's book brings forth details and information about the last Finnish wars, which were not discussed in the Finnish main media - nor elsewhere - during the Cold War period, due to the sensitive and friendly Finnish-Soviet relations, in particular.

In interpreting the part of the Finnish history in question and in preparing his book, "Finland in the Eye of a Storm", Hautamäki has utilized information from the so-called "File S32" of the Marshal of Finland Mannerheim, which has been classified as "secret".

For the book - the part I, of II - Hautamäki has also researched extensively a large amount of documents pertaining to Marshal Mannerheim's private statements and writings, his private correspondence with his friends, colleagues and enemies in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, as well as various types of other related documents.

According to Hautamäki, the evidence available shows that the Continuation War was triggered by the continued Soviet determination to occupy Finland.

Based on Hautamäki's findings, the Soviet Union did not only intend to occupy Finland, but Finland was just a part of a much greater Soviet invasion plan of Europe.

Hautamäki's book has helped to change the historiography of the war times in a significant way. Up to quite recently, there were mainly just hypothesis available, as there was only secondary evidence available of the documents that describe the Soviet war plans and operations, and their consequences. The Swedish version of Erkki Hautamäki’s book was examined by scientists at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. The book's introduction was co-written by Colonel, M.A. Erkki Nordberg. Until his retirement in 2006, Nordberg served as the Chief of the Department of Education at the Main Headquarters of the Finnish Defense Forces. Professor Kent Zetterberg, a teacher at the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences, was the second writer.

Works

 * Suomi myrskyn silmässä - "Finland in the Eye of a Storm" -, 2005 (In Swedish: Finland i stormens öga, 2004)