TK company
Soldiers working in the companies were called TK men (Finnish: TK-miehet), whose civilian professions usually were journalists, teachers or advertisers.
[4] The Finnish Propaganda Association was founded in 1937, with members including Jaakko Lepo, V. K. Latvala, Sulo Kolkka, Pekka Tiilikainen, Enzio Sevón, Armas J. Pulla, Olavi Paavolainen, Mika Waltari, Ralph Enckell, Göran Stenius, Kalle Lehmus, Ilmari Turja, Eino Honko and Arvi Kivimaa.
[4] In early October 1939 a propaganda department of the military headquarters and a state information centre were founded.
[4] The information activity of the Winter War belonged to the propaganda department of the military headquarters.
It said that the mission of the information companies was:[9] to liven and inform the public behind the frontline, through the use of writings, photographs and films, the activity of the army at the frontline and at rest up to the activity of the service troops, and to make the entire people feel connected with the army battle activity daily and thus strengthen the people's will to win the war; to gather appropriate propaganda material of frontline conditions to spread abroad; to spread propaganda to the enemy in immediate connection to the frontline; to take care of the entertainment of our own troops for example by showing films and writing magazines, distributing newspapers and magazines to the troops of the army; to provide guidance for foreign reporters sent to the frontline.TK images were pictures, drawings, paintings, photographs or films created by TK men or TK photographers.
There were also numerous social democratic reporters among them, but although Olavi Paavolainen tried to convince the chief of the 1st information company Martti Haavio that known leftist socialists artist Tapio Tapiovaara and author Jarno Pennanen should be enlisted as TK men, they were not selected.
[10] In wartime TK men participated in producing propaganda material of the war and its official documentation.
The negatives and paper photographs were archive in the photography department of the military headquarters, where they remain to this day.
TK-valokuvaus 1941–1944 (1983) that there were "about fifty" TK photographers in the service of the Finnish Defence Forces during the Continuation War.
All war photography material made and published during wartime activity was considered TK images.
Pioneers of TK-photographers included Osvald Hedenström, Kauko Kivi and Pekka Kyytinen as well as Paavo Jänis from Varkaus.
[8] Osvald Hedenström tells about his time at the Vyborg frontline: "I had an army Leica with me, which had a 400 mm Telyt and a stand.
Basic cameras included Zeiss Ikon Contax, Leica, Rolleflex and Plaubel Makina.
As well as propaganda, the photographers recorded military history, in particular ethnological subjects after the conquest of East Karelia.
The photographs also show soldiers ranging from generals to privates, from frontline commanders to military runners, both in battle and in free time.
The document Göringin sauva (2010) directed by Pia Andell describes Felix Forsman's secret mission to Germany.
[17] There is a DVD publication named Jatkosota ilmassa suomalaisissa TK-filmeissä (2013) about the material by the TK photographers on aerial warfare.
[20] Olavi Paavolainen, who had been transferred to the information department of the military headquarters during the Continuation War, was responsible for the actions of the frontline illustrators.
In the beginning of the war, frontline illustrators received little attention, for example Suomen Kuvalehti only published its first TK drawings in October 1941.
Many of the best drawings were made in East Karelia, when the artists concentrated on recording the culture and landscape of the conquered areas.
Some artists avoided exaggeration and stuck to realism, while some made a conscious effort to further the heroic myth.
[6] TK men moved on the frontline according to instructions by the military headquarters, all the way from Lapland to the shores of Lake Onega (Ääninen).
Photography of sports competitions was also forbidden during positional war so that the people at home would not get the wrong image of the conditions on the frontline.
The people at home were attempted to be protected from the reality of the war, and censored texts were too horrible to be read by them.
