Two “M”s in the North: Montanelli and Malaparte in Finland

Abstract

<p>Indro Montanelli (1909–2001) and Curzio Malaparte (1898–1957) were in Finland during<br>World War II, the former as a witness (and envoy) of the “winter war” fought against the<br>Soviet Union by Finland (which had won independence from Russia in 1917), the latter<br>in the years of the “war of continuation”, when hostilities between the two countries<br>continued in the more complex picture of the second phase of the conflict, that is, after<br>Germany had attacked the Soviet Union. Most of their correspondence and annotations,<br>collected in volume, immediately became, for many readers, the representation of an<br>unequal clash between the small but well-prepared army of Finland (David) and the<br>populous ranks of the Red Army (Goliath). In this article, Antonio Sciacovelli highlights,<br>on the basis of his analysis of their writings, how their images of the Finns, the environment<br>and the particular situation of those years were conveyed to Italian readers, in the<br>“story” of the war events.<br></p>