The cornerstone of unity

74 CARING FOR DISABLED WAR VETERANS 
After World War II there were nearly 100,000 permanently disabled war veterans in a country of 4 million 
inhabitants. Altogether more than 200,000 Finns were wounded during the war. Ongoing compensation has 
been granted under a special act of parliament (Military Injury Act 1948) to more than 95,000 veterans suffering 
from permanent war injuries. 
After World War II the Finnish state had limited resources to provide care for disabled war veterans. The 
greatest problems were caring for the dependants of around 94,000 fallen soldiers, the resettlement of half a 
million refugees from Karelia and the other areas lost during the war (innovation no. 66), and the payment of war 
reparations to Russia. Our government wanted to be very meticulous in fulfilling the peace treaty clause 
concerning war reparations between Finland and the Soviet Union in order to avoid occupation by or other 
pressures from her former enemy. It was for this reason that the Disabled War Veterans’ Association had to 
create the system and build or buy the institutes for the care of its members by itself. Moreover, the association 
also had to finance itself by collecting money and soliciting donations, and by running businesses of its own. 
This was how the Kauniala Disabled War Veterans’ Hospital started 1946. The association still runs the hospital 
today together with the City of Vantaa. 
The rehabilitation system for disabled Finnish war veterans is highly esteemed internationally. On a 
worldwide scale, it was exceptional for a disabled war veterans’ organisation to plan, create, partly finance and 
build the system and institutions for its own severely disabled members immediately after the war, when the 
state lacked sufficient resources to do it itself. The care and post-care of disabled war veterans has in many 
ways set the tone of Finnish social policy. 
Finns think of the Winter War (1939
–1940), the Continuation War (1941–1944) and the Lapland War (1944–
1945) as defensive campaigns, so the sacrifices made in these wars are highly valued in the community. Before 

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the Winter War disabled people in Finland had a poor status, but the positive attitude towards disabled war 
veterans was extended to include other disabled people. The Act on the Care of Disabled Civilians (1948) was 
drafted just after the war ended. 
The path of disabled war veterans from war hospitals to convalescence and then on to returning to working 
life is one of the finest Finnish survival stories. Earlier, it would have been unthinkable for a severely disabled 
person to work and earn his living but the disabled war veterans themselves did not want to remain dependent 
on charity, and the fact was that the country needed all these people to work. They showed great resilience and 
generally managed to get along just as well as any able-bodied person. 
Ordinary disabled rank-and-
file war veterans founded the Disabled War Veterans’ Association of Finland after 
the Winter War in 1940, strongly supported by Marshall Mannerheim, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed 
Forces. The organisation came into being at a time when young disabled men considered their position and 
future very uncertain, but they were bound together in a spirit of brotherhood born of their terrible experiences, 
both on the battlefield and in war hospitals. 
The disabled war veterans themselves and their organisation provided the necessary services through 
developing new operations models and taking care of their implementation. Responsibility for financing the care 
was then transferred whenever possible to the state, which should have handled it from the very beginning. This 
is contrary to the government and municipalities’ current practice of transferring the provision of health and 
social services to the so-
called ‘third sector’ or private organisations. 
Soon after the Winter War the Disabled Wa
r Veterans’ Association joined forces with other organisations to 
initiate the vocational rehabilitation of disabled war veterans by setting up training courses and providing job 
placement services. Since the state had no plans for organising their long-term care, the association established 
the Kauniala treatment centre for veterans with spinal injuries, two treatment centres for those with brain injuries, 
and a vocational training centre for those suffering from warinduced tuberculosis. The Finnish Red Cross took 
care of the vocational training of veterans who had been blinded. The association founded a rehabilitation centre 
for war amputees in the 1950s, and training veterans to walk again and amputee veterans to use prostheses 
was later extended to include general rehabilitation aimed at helping veterans manage their daily lives. All these 
activities posed certain economic risks for the association, but it managed to carry them out successfully. 
Neither social boundaries nor differences of opinion have disrupted the work of the association; its 
membership has included all disabled war veterans, irrespective of their political or other opinions. The 
association has also accepted veterans with minor injuries as members, and they have been able to contribute 
to helping their severely injured comrades. Today the widows and spouses of disabled war veterans also belong 
to the association. All in all it has become an organisation whose members, who represent different social circles, 
have always maintained a strong spirit of solidarity. 
There are still 2,500 disabled war veterans alive in Finland today (January 2017). Over 70 % of them live at 
home, despite an average age of 93. The association’s most important tasks today include improving their 
members’ statutory treatment and compensation cover, as well as providing counselling services. 
Nowadays the association, as an active voluntary organisation, is especially committed to providing support 
to help disabled war veterans, their spouses and widows to continue living at home by arranging home-help 
services and repairs to dwellings that are in poor condition. About 2,000 disabled war veterans, spouses and 
widows receive home care through the association’s assistance project. This service includes daily household 
chores, gardening and outdoor work, and running errands, and social interaction is also an essential part of the 
service. The assistance project employs approximately 250 people with a history of long-term unemployment. 
Veli-Matti Huittinen 
– Emeritus director of
the Kauniala hospital for disabled war veterans