Jarosław Suchoples' will give a lecture about the Memorial for the “Opponents of Fascism” erected in Helsinki in 1963

On 12 February at 16:15, Jakobi 2–114, Associate Professor at the University of Warsaw and former Polish Ambassador to Finland Jarosław Suchoples will speak about the Memorial for the “Opponents of Fascism” erected in Helsinki in 1963. The Lecture will be held in English and is part of the International History Seminars. Everybody interested in the topic is welcome.

This lecture examines a monument erected in 1963 at Malmi Cemetery in Helsinki commemorating seventeen individuals identified as “Opponents of Fascism” who died between 1939 and 1944. Although officially portrayed as defenders of democracy, archival evidence indicates that those commemorated were Soviet agents who were executed or killed during the Continuation War (1941–1944). The lecture explores the historical, political, and ideological contexts surrounding the monument’s creation, tracing continuities from the Finnish Civil War of 1918 through interwar repression and wartime radicalisation. It argues that the memorial embodies contested narratives of patriotism and treason, functioning as a symbolic site of memory for the Finnish radical left and reflecting shifts in commemorative culture during the era of post-war Finlandization. By situating the monument within broader debates on historical memory and identity politics, the presentation demonstrates how material culture mediates unresolved conflicts in Finnish national historiography.

Jarosław Suchoples received his MA from the University of Gdańsk, Poland, in 1993. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Helsinki (2000). In 2000-2001, he was an Analyst of the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw, Poland. From 2001 to 2002, he was a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Political Science of the University of California, Berkeley. Between 2003 and 2013, he lectured at the Willy Brandt Centre for German and European Studies in Wrocław, Poland, the Nordeuropa-Institut of Humboldt University in Berlin and Free University Berlin, Germany, and at the universities in Olsztyn and Szczecin in Poland. In 2013-2015, he was an Associate Professor at the Institute of Malaysian and International Affairs (IKMAS) of the National University of Malaysia (UKM). In 2017, he returned to Finland, this time as Ambassador of Poland. In 2019-2023, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Currently, Suchoples is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Europe of the University of Warsaw, Poland. He is involved in a variety of projects on the History and Memory of World War One, World War Two and the Cold War. Dr Suchoples visits Tartu with the Erasmus+ program.

You can follow the event on Teams.

You can join Facebook event here.

The event is part of International History Seminars, and is guided by the motto: “national history cannot be understood without the framework of international history” (Hans Rothfels, “Zeitgeschichte als Aufgabe,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 1, 1953).