WITNESSarchive

W–015 · Documentary photograph and sources

A Body Beside a Forest Road

A story about the Winter War attributes a particular tactic to Finnish soldiers: they supposedly stood frozen bodies beside roads to frighten advancing Red Army troops. This photograph is also associated with the war, fought from 30 November 1939 to 13 March 1940. It shows a body, usually identified online as a Soviet serviceman, set upright in the snow.

1. Beside a forest road

A frozen body, described in later publications as that of a Soviet serviceman, stands in the snow beside a forest road; a truck is behind it. The photographer, place and exact date remain unknown.
A frozen body, described in later publications as that of a Soviet serviceman, stands in the snow beside a forest road; a truck is behind it. The photographer, place and exact date remain unknown.
Provenance and sources for frame 1

The photographer, exact place and day have not been established. The available file appeared in an early Blogspot publication and later at Rare Historical Photos under a broad “Finnish Archives” label. No primary catalogue record for this particular exposure has been found. Displayed file: 900 × 1145 pixels. The original catalogue record has not been located. Full image record in Russian.

rarehistoricalphotos.comfinna.fifinna.fiView image file

Rare Historical Photos repeats the intimidation story. The available digital copy traces back to an earlier Blogspot post and was later reproduced with the credit “Finnish Archives.” Neither a photographer nor an archival number was supplied. That credit has not made it possible to reconstruct the shooting; the exact place and date are unknown.

Pictures of frozen Red Army soldiers do survive in Finnish military collections. Among the thousands of Winter War images in the Military Museum’s catalogue are photographs with such captions. Similar scenes also appeared in newsreels: describing Taistelun tie, filmed from autumn 1939 to March 1940, Finland’s National Audiovisual Institute mentions an “enemy frozen in a sitting position.”

That description shows that military cameramen filmed the frozen dead. It does not connect the newsreel scene to the person in this photograph. No archival record for the frame has been found; the dead person’s name, unit and circumstances of death are unknown. Nor is it known how the body came to stand this way. The claim that Finnish soldiers deliberately displayed bodies to intimidate an enemy remains unverified.