The protagonists, Kalle Ryhmy and Second Lieutenant Ville Romppainen were no action heroes, but down-to-earth rogue forest warriors, who would fight principally with cunning, and disliked the pompous brass and the bureaucracy.
Always accompanied by Ryhmy's tomcat Mörökölli ("Bogeyman"), their secret weapon was a log of wood, for striking the enemy to knock him out instead of killing.
After the war, the British- and Soviet-run Allied Control Commission required the Ryhmy ja Romppainen series removed from public libraries, because in them Soviet soldiers were depicted as lazy, dirty, involuntary and stupid.
On the other hand, Pulla does not treat the Finnish higher command with silk gloves: they are represented as bureaucratic, slow-witted and officious.
One of the most famous propaganda claims in the book series was that according to Soviet doctrine, skis are suitable only for highway traffic.