Aimo Koivunen and a small group of Finnish ski troops set camp
in a snow-covered forested area for a brief rest after a long night patrol.
Before they could settle, the white calmness of the Finnish countryside
was suddenly shattered by the sound of Soviet gunfire. The Finnish troopers jumped to their
feet and hastily packed as an entire Soviet platoon began to enclose them.
In a desperate dash across the woods, Koivunen led his countrymen away from the Soviet forces, but
the enemies went after them and an ardent pursuit across the frozen wasteland ensued. Koivunen and
his comrades knew the region well, but crippling exhaustion soon took hold of them.
Now, with the Soviets at his heels, the young trooper was about to collapse.
That’s when he remembered he was holding Pervitin,
a German drug that allowed soldiers to stay alert for days at a time.
As he skied downhill, he tried to pour a pill into his mitten-covered hand,
but the entire lot fell at once and Koivunen swallowed the whole batch of 30 methamphetamines.
Koivunen was then able to lead the way as his men continued their excruciating escape attempt.
But suddenly, the trees and his comrades began to shift
into strange shapes as he abruptly drifted in and out of consciousness.
One of World War 2’s strangest meth-fueled misadventures was about to begin…
The Strange Case of Finland
In contrast to most of the other European countries involved in World War 2,
the Finnish didn’t choose a side at first; instead, they were fighting for their land.
As Adolf Hitler assaulted Poland in September of 1939, Britain and France threatened Germany with
war if it did not withdraw immediately from the Eastern European country.
Amid the geopolitical chaos, Joseph Stalin took advantage of
the situation and launched his own attack on Finland, correctly assuming that the
Western Allies would be too busy dealing with Germany to help the Nordic nation.
The assault would devolve into the brutal Winter War.
As the situation unfolded, the British and French talked about sending an expeditionary
force into Finland to help them repel the Soviet invasion. However, Germany blocked any attempts to
do so by invading Norway and Denmark, cutting the Allies from a direct path into Finland.
After months of valiant fighting against overwhelming odds,
and despite inflicting humiliating losses to the Soviet Union, Finland was forced
to sue for peace and cede a significant part of its territory to the Soviets.
A few months later, Germany launched its ambitious Operation Barbarossa to obliterate
the Soviet Union, and Finland decided to fight side by side with the German forces.
The nation saw in the mighty Wehrmacht a way to
avenge the horrors of the Winter War and take their land back from Stalin.
Nevertheless, Finland never entirely fell into the clasp
of the German war machine and refused to sign the Tripartite Pact. Instead,
they signed a less formal agreement known as the Anti-Comintern Pact.
With it, Finland remained the only democratic ally of Germany in World War 2,
but the Finnish never allowed Hitler to use their army for his own purposes.
Enraging The Allies
During the summer of 1941, the Finnish began taking back their territories from the Soviets,
including Eastern Karelia, a region that had never belonged to them.
As Germany marched over the Soviet Union and Finland kept regaining its territories,
Stalin asked Britain for help in reaching a peace deal with Finland. Stalin was willing to
cede some of the regions they had captured if Finland desisted from its aggressive efforts.
However, the Finnish government refused and pushed their advantage, leading
Britain to declare war on them in December of 1941 and enraging the rest of the Western Allies.
Operation Barbarossa soon lost steam, and after the debacle at Stalingrad, Finland’s hopes for
defeating the Soviet Union and recovering its territories seemed ever more unlikely.
Even so, the nation continued to support Germany.
By 1944, the Finnish had been forced into a defensive position as the Red
Army prepared a major offensive against them.
In addition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for Finland to cut ties with Nazi Germany.
Nevertheless, Finnish president Risto Ryti had given Hitler his personal guarantee that
Finland would not negotiate peace with Stalin as long as he was president; as such, the war raged
on, but this time it was the Soviets’ time to assault Finland and dash towards Berlin.
By now, the Finnish had realized their pact with Germany was a losing deal, but one they
were forced to uphold. In exchange for their unwavering allegiance, the Finnish received
an endless supply of German weapons, metals, and even psychoactive combat-enhancing drugs…
The Nazi Super Drug
As Nazi Germany began its devastating and abrupt Blitzkrieg over Europe, the Wehrmacht armies
were fueled by more than blind nationalism and the desire to avenge the treatment of their Fatherland
after World War 1. They were also driven by a novel drug that had taken Germany by storm.
Despite Nazi ideology frowning upon most drug use, labeling it as a sign of personal weakness
and a symbol of social decay, there was one significant exemption: methamphetamines.
In contrast to other recreational drugs used to escape one’s reality,
meth was seen as a productive tool for the ideal German man who sought to accomplish
every single one of his goals as a part of an emerging Aryan society.
As far back as the 1930s, meth brands such as Pervitin were widely advertised
with catchy slogans such as “Germany, awake!”
They were also sold to the public without the need for a prescription.
Despite its horrific side effects, overdosing risks, and addictive qualities,
Pervetin was sold as a harmless supplement for the German overachiever, and even boxed
chocolates spiked with the drug could be easily obtained at any local grocery store.
As the German High Command prepared for the incoming war, Pervitin was immediately seen
as a possible advantage. Dr. Otto Ranke, director of the Research Institute of Defense Physiology,
knew from personal experience that the drug could be useful,
with people able to work for up to 50 hours without any noticeable fatigue.
Ranke eventually conducted experiments on military officers, and the results were so
impressive that he described Pervitin as: (QUOTE): “An excellent substance
for rousing a weary squad…We may grasp what far-reaching military significance
it would have if we managed to remove the natural tiredness using medical methods.”
After notable results during the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and
the conquest of Poland in 1939, one thing was clear: Blitzkrieg was fueled by Speed.
Then, as the war dragged on and other countries learned about the German drug
advantage, they, too, began their own chemically-enhanced soldier experiments.
As such, when Finland joined the Germans to fight the Soviet Union in 1941,
the Wehrmacht was happy to share its drug supply with its newfound ally…
Desperate Chase
By 1944, the Soviets had gained the upper hand in the battle in the East by systematically pushing
back the Germans and violently forcing them to abandon all the territories they had gained.
Meanwhile, the gigantic Red Army forces assembling near
the Finnish border indicated an attack was coming.
On April 20, fresh layers of heavy snow covered the landscape as far as the eye could see.
It was the third day of patrol for Aimo Koivunen and his small group of Finnish ski troops tasked
with trailing across the frozen Arctic Circle to identify possible Soviet incursions.
After an exhausting ski patrol, the men were tired and their bodies were spent.
As such, they entered a heavily wooded area in the frozen Finnish wilderness to rest and recover,
but only a few minutes after setting up camp, they were startled by the ominous sound of rifle fire.
Alarmed but not wanting to hurry into a trap,
the Finnish troopers sent a few scouts to investigate the source of the sound.
They soon learned that there was an entire Soviet platoon closing in on them. Out of
time and options, the Finish servicemen abandoned what was left of their gear and ran to escape.
Koivunen then led the men through the dense woods in a desperate dash to escape the forest before
the Soviet pincer enclosed them inside. Their complete understanding of their surroundings,
as well as their ski prowess, allowed them to barely escape the Soviet trap.
Nevertheless, the Soviets continued their pursuit, with the frozen mountainsides deep
within the Finnish wilderness the only witnesses of the fierce chase.
Lifesaving Overdose
Displaying a formidable will to survive, the Finnish soldiers pushed their bodies to the
limit and managed to leave the Soviets several miles behind. Even so, the chase continued.
Koivunen was especially drained; he had spent the last three days on guard duty and had slept
very little. His body was suddenly shutting down even as he continued skiing down a mountainside.
The young man began slowly dragging behind his comrades, drowsing off as he realized
he would be captured by the Red Army if he didn’t do something about it.
Suddenly, he remembered he was holding the entire unit’s batch of Pervitin.
Exhausted and confused, he opened the tin containing the meth pills, but he struggled
to separate one pill from the rest with his mitten-covered hands. After a few seconds
of futile attempts, he poured the whole batch into his hand and popped them into his mouth.
At first, nothing happened. But after a few minutes,
a reinvigorating blast engulfed Koivunen’s body, and he felt full of energy.
The soldier quickly dashed back to the front of the line of fugitives
and immediately began to guide his comrades. He felt energized and capable of anything.
However, other less favorable effects began to appear within a few minutes.
Koivunen began to sweat profusely, his extremities started to shake violently,
and soon, the focus he had gained shifted into a hazy state of confusion.
He then began to drift in and out of consciousness as he skied along with his men,
who eventually noticed that something was seriously wrong. His comrades then stopped
him and started asking him questions, but the words coming out of his mouth made no sense.
Realizing he was severely intoxicated,
the Finnish soldiers took away Koivunen’s ammunition, but with the Soviets at their
heels, they were forced to continue the escape along with an overdosed soldier.
Wild Trip
Although Koivunen’s mental ability was severely impaired, he felt the urge to continue moving
as fast as possible. He even disregarded the instructions of his teammates, and soon everything
around him began to shift and distort. Even his men seemed to transform into all sorts of strange
and unfathomable objects as he continued to ski away from the shifting blobs as fast as he could.
As time passed, the massive quantity of drugs inside Koivunen’s body continued to
erupt through his system, making his symptoms even more dramatic.
He suddenly found himself alone in the middle of the frozen wilderness
and assumed he had sped so far ahead of his comrades that he had completely lost them.
The highly intoxicated man was now alone, with no food, no ammunition,
and the knowledge that Soviet enemies could lurk anywhere. However, the sharp lapses
of consciousness gradually decreased, which made him realize his situation’s precarity.
His body was still in rampaging mode, with a heartbeat beyond 200 beats per minute,
and he decided to continue running, completely forgetting about food,
rest, or water as he continued his mad dash across the Finnish landscapes.
On more than one occasion, he ran into Soviet patrols that attacked him on the spot.
With no way to fire back, Koivunen was forced to flee repeatedly,
tapping into his seemingly endless supply of grit to escape amid even the most horrid bullet storms.
Frantic, intoxicated, confused, and inebriated with adrenaline,
Koivunen suddenly skied over a landmine. And to make matters worse,
the blast started a fierce forest fire that spread into a nearby Soviet encampment.
The severely injured and disoriented soldier
was now forced to crawl through the snow to escape the growing flames…
Pushing Through
The Finnish man miraculously survived the landmine detonation and jumped into a ditch,
where he stayed idle for several days, hoping someone would come to his rescue.
Koivunen lay delirious as uncountable hours passed,
and when he suddenly regained consciousness, he realized he had to move to avoid freezing.
Fueled by nothing but the meth still running through his veins and the
instinctive desire to survive, he got back on his feet and continued skiing.
More days passed, and the effects of the drug began to slowly subside. Soon, Koivunen
remembered he needed to eat, as the sharp hunger pains in his abdomen became abruptly apparent.
The soldier ate snow and gnawed on pine buds to keep the pains at bay. One day,
the still meth-fueled soldier managed to catch a Siberian jay in the wilderness, which he ate raw.
Throughout the ordeal, Koivunen continued to ski, prevailing against subzero temperatures,
Soviet patrols, body injury, and starvation. Finally, he made it back to friendly territory,
almost two weeks after he had lost the rest of his unit.
When Finnish soldiers spotted him, he was rushed to a local hospital. Koivunen had skied for almost
300 miles, dropped to 94 pounds, and continued to present a heart rate of 200 beats per minute,
signaling that he was still suffering the effects of the drug after two weeks.
Despite Germany and its allies' frequent usage of Pervitin and the series of overdosing cases
on the battlefield, the shocking ordeal Koivunen endured was like nothing else.
Ultimately, the soldier survived to see his country make a peace deal with Stalin
and turn its guns against Nazi Germany in a defiant assault known as the Lapland War.
The man who survived a brutal Soviet ambush and weeks-long pursuit thanks
to an overdose of meth lived well into his 70s…
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