On November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union, without a prior declaration of war,
invaded the neighboring, frozen territory of Finland, thus marking the beginning
of the so-called Winter War, three months after the start of World War II. At
one point, drawn by a column of smoke, the Finnish unit came upon the bodies of
all the Soviet soldiers in the unit, dismembered and mutilated.
The massacre.
The Red Army began fighting on the frozen battlefields of the small Finnish
nation against a small but tenacious local army that, aided by the wintry
weather and the local terrain, would cause the invaders quite a few
headaches.
The Soviets immediately organized a military operation to attack northern
Finland, where defenses were weaker. The objective was to capture the port
of Petsamo, which would give the Russians the key to capturing Finland’s
capital, Helsinki; however, before reaching Petsamo, the Soviets first had
to cross the Ivalo area.
The Soviet division that had been sent to that location was advancing
through the frozen fields of that forested region when it received a warning
from several local residents, who told them they should travel only along
the highway to reach the town of Ivalo or an open, exposed area as quickly
as possible to spend the night there, emphasizing that under no
circumstances should they camp in the woods, because otherwise they would
never see the light of day again.
The Soviet colonel in charge of the invading division, believing the warning
was a ruse designed to lure the Russians along the road into one of the many
common Finnish ambushes, did the exact opposite and led his men into the
middle of a dense forest in the Ivalo area to spend the night. That would be
the last time they were seen alive.
The next day, a Finnish unit, drawn by a column of smoke, approached the
site where the Soviet division had camped, only to find the bodies of all
the Soviet soldiers in the unit, dismembered and mutilated. Scattered across
the snow, which had turned red, amid a desolate landscape, were human organs
and limbs and numerous bullet casings, along with a strong smell of
gunpowder. But the strangest discovery of all was the flayed skin of one of
the Soviet soldiers, violently torn from his body and hung from a tree
branch like a macabre trophy.
Los rostros aterrados que todavía tenían algunos de los cadáveres indicaban
que, supuestamente, habían sido atacados por una entidad ominosa y
desconocida.
Theories.
Animals.
At first, it was thought that the Soviet soldiers had been attacked by a
pack of bears, wolves, lynxes, or foxes. However, this theory does not
explain the discovery of the flayed hide draped over a branch, and besides,
killing the animals would not have been that difficult for a platoon of
armed and trained soldiers.
The Surma.
Since then, local residents have claimed that the Surma, a “terrifying
monster” from Finnish folklore that represents sudden and violent death,
takes the form of a giant dog with a serpent’s tail, and whose gaze can turn
its victims to stone, was responsible for the Ivalo massacre.
According to Finnish folklore, Surma is the guardian of the gates of
Tuonela, the Finnish underworld, and his job is to prevent souls from
escaping. According to ancient Finnish legends, Surma could be summoned by
dedicating a poem to him, with the aim of eliminating a person or group of
people in the most brutal way possible.
The Piru.
There has also been speculation that the perpetrator of the Ivalo massacre
was Piru, an evil spirit that dwells in the forests of Finland. Unlike
Surma, however, Piru takes pleasure in subjecting his victims to games of
wits, torturing them if they lose.
Mottis.
Proposed by the Soviets, the “Mottis” theory holds that a small unit of
Finnish soldiers would silently infiltrate (usually on skis) through the
forests until they flanked an enemy column. They would then open fire until
they broke through the column, and withdraw. They would then counterattack
and break through the enemy ranks again, until they managed to breach the
Red Army’s lines. To instill fear, they flayed the soldier and draped his
skin over a branch, took a photograph, and delivered it, along with the tale
of the monster, to their generals to persuade them to withdraw from Finland.
The problem with this theory is that Finnish forces were only a few days
away from the area, and those who discovered the scene were not sufficiently
equipped to defeat an entire Soviet division; furthermore, the Finns denied
having engaged in combat in that area.
Cannibalism.
Ultimately, the most plausible explanation offered by the Red Army for the
Ivalo massacre would be that the soldiers ran out of food and turned on each
other, resorting to cannibalism. It is known that the situation in Finland
was critical; supplies took a long time to arrive, and the bitter cold
claimed many lives. There had already been reports of cannibalism and
attacks among soldiers in the Karelia region, so it would not be so
far-fetched for the same thing to have happened in Ivalo.
However, this theory does not explain the large amount of supplies found at
the camp, nor the soldier's flayed skin hanging from the branch.
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