History Characters / TheUnknownSoldier

* BadassBoast: He usually behaves very correctly and prudently, but when drunk: Koskela Suomesta! Syö rautaa ja paskantaa kettinkiä! ("Koskela from Finland! Eats iron and shits out chain!")

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: How much do the men hate their boss? Enough to walk past him and throw mockery at him while he's laying helplessly on the road, wounded, while the enemy is approaching.

* MoralEventHorizon: For the men, him killing [[spoiler:Viirilä]]. After that, they don't even bother to save him when he's wounded, but walk past him. Ultimately Rokka drags him out of the immediate danger, but then leaves him to his fate and tells him he has set himself outside society and as far as Rokka is concerned, can stay there.

* WideEyedIdealist: He gets somewhat better during the course of the story, but his blue eyed idealism never quite leaves him, and at each suitable moment makes a return. [[spouler:Ultimately it's the overtly nationalistic, militaristic idealism of the era, which Kariluoto embraces and personifies, that drives him and the other fallen to their pointless deaths.]]

* WideEyedIdealist: He gets somewhat better during the course of the story, but his blue eyed idealism never quite leaves him, and at each suitable moment makes a return. Ultimately it's the nationalistic idealism of the era, which Kariluoto embraces and personifies, that drives him and the other fallen to their pointless deaths.

* StandYourGround: Is shred by Karjula for pulling the battalion away from its hopeless positions, and commanded to keep the new positions no matter what. Tries to do so, even though it leads to his death, and even though the situation is so hopeless that even his HeroicSacrifice can't help it and the positions are lost no matter what.

* YouAreInCommandNow: When the Soviets outflank the battalion and kill Major Sarastie, Kariluoto is left in charge of the now dangerously cut-away battalion in danger of getting encircled entirely.

The characters haven't been organized by importance, but rather by their position in the military organization the story follows. As their positions and ranks naturally [[FieldPromotion change during the war]], they're listed as whom and where they end up. To read about the main characters first, go to '"The 3rd platoon (Koskela's platoon)".

Warning: death spoilers are unmarked here!

* FamousLastWords: ''"Stop! Where is the man going?" "To Inari, to fuck wolves".'' BANG!

* spoiler:ForgottenFallenFriend: While the others had known him for over a year, after seeing his dead body and being terrified by it, the others never mention him again. The narrator however does bring his death up twice later, in both cases in relation to the NewMeat joining the platoon. When Hauhia imagines to himself all the adventures the squad's machine gun has already seen, the narrator recalls back to the actual "adventures" it has been to, including Kaukonen's face hitting it as he dropped dead, to emphasize how naive and misguided Hauhia is. When Hauhia himself then dies and his NewMeat friends see his body, the narrator compares the emotions they go through to the experience the older soldiers had when they saw Kaukonen's body.]]

* BecomingTheMask: He's constantly in-character of his made up comic role. He slips out of it only once, briefly, when carrying the dying Ukkola. The narrator speculates that he has been playing he role for so long he no longer knows how to act otherwise.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The only time his facade drops for even a minute is when he's helping to carry the mortally wounded Ukkola on stretchers. He tries to comfort Ukkola by reminiscing his own time in the military hospital and tells others to be more careful to not to cause more pains to Ukkola.

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Not so because he would have done something particularly awesome, simply because of how damn awesome he looked while dying. He's standing upright when an enemy machine gun shoots him through with eleven bullet - as many as a man can be hit with before he drops dead to the ground. It's said it's one of the most handsome deaths the men see.

Young officer from a right wing civil servant family background. At the beginning of the story he's a 20 years old student and a member of the Academic Karelia Society - an elitist, nationalist, quasi-fascist activist organization founded by the academics and students of the Helsinki University, that had great influence in the intellectual and military life of the day. Originally aspired to become a lawyer, but changes it to career in the army. Starts the war as a 2nd lieutenant, ranks up to captain. Is first the leader of the 4th platoon of the 3rd rifle company, later on gets promoted to the leader of the company. Fills in temporarily as the battalion leader after Sarastie's death.

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: He has a dire need to be part of something greater and to gain honor in achieving high, idealistic goals. So he ends up accepting the militaristic ideals of his era and social circles, but the reality of war makes him constantly waver in what to believe in and what to want. Ultimately he dies without answers to the problems of life, as confused and lost as he ever was.

* HonorBeforeReason: He knows [[StandYourGround Karjula is wrong]] and [[RunOrDie Koskela is right]], but he can't bring himself to do the right thing. In this sense he's braver than he's emotionally mature and independent - for him it's easier to die in battle at someone else's command, than give up something essential of his worldview and ideals.

* TheLastStand: When the whole battalion is in mortal danger, its temporary new leader Kariluoto first leaves his old platoon, the 4th, into reserve. The men know it's because of their closer friendship to him. When all fails, Kariluoto finally calls the 4th into a final last attempt to assault the enemy and cut a way back to their own troops. It fails, and Kariluoto dies together with the last remnants of the old guard.

* AteHisGun: After being shot through the lung, far away from any field hospital or proper care, he suffers for many hours until finally ends his own life with Sihvonen's rifle.
* BlessedWithSuck: He's particularly physically fit athlete. It only serves to make his death all the more slow and gruesome. He won't even lose his consciousness, as both he and his stretcher carriers wish.
* BodyHorror: His lungs are punctured by bullets and he slowly drowns in his own blood.
* ADeathInTheLimelight: He's a side character mentioned here and there during the story, but gets a long, memorable death sequence.

* LastRequest: The dying Ukkola begs the others that once he's finished, they should try to [[DueToTheDead give him some kind of burial]] instead of just [[BodyHorror leaving his body to lie and rot under the open sky]]. Then upon a second thought, he reasons that it won't really matter. [[TearJerker They bury him anyway.]]
* OneLastSmoke: As he's being carried on a stretcher, slowly dying, he tells his friends who are carrying him that if he makes it, then they must all get drunk together one more time.
* SoleSurvivor / LastOfHisKind: The last survivor of Kariluoto's old 4th which left to war three years earlier. It dies with him.

* MakeAnExampleOfThem: When the battalion has collapsed into chaotic flight, Karjula first tries to command the men to StandYourGround. As it fails and everyone ignores him, Karjula shoots Viirilä dead as a "traitor" and threatens to do the same to everyone who doesn't obey.

* WidowWoman: What she'll become.

''(this is a work in progress!!)''

* MakeAnExampleOfThem: Kills Viirilä in front of the others to make an example of him. It has the opposite effect.

* MoralEventHorizon: For the men, him killing Viirilä. After that, they don't even bother to save him when he's wounded, but walk past him. Ultimately Rokka drags him out of the immediate danger, but then leaves him to his fate and tells him he has set himself outside society and as far as Rokka is concerned, can stay there.

* LaserGuidedKarma: It doesn't take many minutes for him to die after mistreating Kotilainen.

* {{Gorn}}: Gets a direct hit from ''a tank''.
* {{Irony}}: Wishes for war. Dies immediately in the first battle.

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Is given command of the machine gun company after [[FatherToHisMen Kaarna's]] death.

Company's new Staff Sergeant after Korsumäki's death. Over 40 years old.

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Becomes the new Staff Sergeant after Korsumäki's death. It's a similar change for the worse as Lammio taking over Kaarna's position. Or arguably even worse, as while Lammio is at least competent at his job, Sinkkonen fails to do his duties, causing the company to suffer.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Survives the war. In the final scene, he's [[BookEnds once again walking around the camp site, calling for people to come to listen to the radio to hear some minister talking about the political situation.]]

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Has special friendship and sympathy for horses. When he's offered a ride on a cart, he prefers to walk and says the horse has enough to pull already. When the driver causes the cart to get stuck in a hole due to his own lack of attention and lashes the horse, Mäkilä stops him and lectures him for not being more careful. When he's bringing food to the frontline under artillery fire, he comforts the scared horse pulling the cart. A grenade then kills both him and the horse and next one pours soil on them, as if to bury them in a shared grave.

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Is cut in half by a grenade.

* DrivenToSuicide: While it's nothing too apparent, as he keeps it all so well to himself, Koskela is actually heavily depressed for various reasons. In the end he all but [[SuicideMission commits a suicide]]. Or at least Rokka believes he did indeed consciously end his life by putting himself into a hopeless spot from where couldn't have been saved anymore.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Dies destroying a tank with a satchel charge. However, it also doubles as SenselessSacrifice, as his last heroic deed fails to stop the Soviet assault and the positions are lost anyway.

* EyeScream: Hietanen has both of his eyes torn out by a shrapnel and gets blinded.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Hietanen is very upset when he realizes the others left Lehto behind wounded. Later on when he's severely wounded and under enemy fire himself, he uses his last moments to try to help the other wounded into safety. His last words are ''"I'll come soon. I won't leave you."''

A Winter War veteran called from reserve to supplement the platoon after the first battles. Is first placed in the 2nd squad, but is given the leadership of the 1st squad after Lehto's death. Rokka is originally from the Isthmus of Karelia, but lost his home farm and had to become an internal refugee with his family due to Karelia being lost to the Soviet Union in the Winter War. At least over 30 years old.

* AteHisGun: He's wounded fatally, paralyzed and left behind by his own into the dark, far away from any proper medical aid. For him there's only one question left: where's my rifle? Unfortunately for him, it's all two meters away from him, and he has to drag his tormented, paralyzed body to it with his hands. The pain of doing so is so great he passes out a number of times before he finally reaches the rifle. Once it's in his mouth, he ends his life without any regrets nor fear.

* BornUnlucky: Rokka belives him that have been this.

* DarknessEqualsDeath: Is sent by Lammio deep into the darkness of the forest to look for a rifle platoon that was *supposed* to be there. He and his squad find nobody, only silent darkness full of threat. Sweat runs down his sides from the fear of it all, but his pride doesn't let him turn around and return to Lammio without any news. So he keeps walking further and further... only to walk straight into the enemy line and be shot.

* TheDeterminator: Can force himself into anything with mere willpower... such as, to slowly drag his paralyzed body to his rifle... By his body, Koskela says as if an eulogy that it was good that this particular death happened to Lehto, who was the most capable of them to go through it.
* DyingAlone / TogetherInDeath: The loneliness of his death is noted with horror by the other characters. However, unbeknown to him, Riitaoja had been very close, and they die at the same time. The others lay their bodies side by side and cover them with their greatcoats, and leave them to lie peacefully together in the forest.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Kaarna asks him, is he really willing to walk the whole road and live outside the herd, making himself an outlaw without the protection of law. Lehto answers that as long as they kill him without torture, he doesn't care. He is left behind by his comrades and dies in torturing pain, finding release only through his own hand.

* DyingAlone / TogetherInDeath: Runs away in terror when Lehto is shot and gets separated from the others. He cowers miserably in fear behind a lonely barn, to gain comfort from this object made by other human being. Doing so he misses the others, who tried to look for him but couldn't find him, and so continue on without him, thinking he has returned to their own troops on his own. Riitaoja would indeed want to do so, but he had dropped the cartridge while running, and doesn't dare to return to Lammio without it. So he, despite his terror, sneaks back into the dark forest, to where they were when the enemy opened fire. He hears Lehto's pained cries and tries to call out to him, but is shot as well. The others lay their bodies side by side and cover them with their greatcoats, and leave them to lie peacefully together in the forest.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: One of the few characters to survive the war.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Rokka knows already years in advance that he will go through the war without a scratch - he's so crooked not even a bullet can hit him.

* BoomHeadshot: Justified, as he was otherwise in cover, and rose his head a bit too much to be able to aim better.
* ForgottenFallenFriend: While the others had known him for over a year, after seeing his dead body and being terrified by it, the others never mention him again. The narrator however does bring his death up twice later, in both cases in relation to the NewMeat joining the platoon. When Hauhia imagines to himself all the adventures the squad's machine gun has already seen, the narrator recalls back to the actual "adventures" it has been to, including Kaukonen's face hitting it as he dropped dead, to emphasize how naive and misguided Hauhia is. When Hauhia himself then dies and his NewMeat friends see his body, the narrator compares the emotions they go through to the experience the older soldiers had when they saw Kaukonen's body.
* SacrificialLamb: Narrator follows him and his thoughts during the first two battle scenes, more so than many of the characters that are going to survive the sequence. He is shown being part of the team and well familiar to the others . It's all to create a shock effect when he abruptly dies, and to illustrate that AnyoneCanDie.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The other characters who survive the opening battle and get to have more scenes all prove to have very colourful, memorable personalities. It implies that perhaps all the people who die without getting to tell their stories would have been just as interesting to know.

* YouShallNotPass: Stays behind to hold off the Soviet charge while the other Finns flee.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Survives the war.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: After fearing constantly for three years, manages to be one of the few to survive the whole war.

* SacrificialLamb: The story has seemingly calmed down as the war has slowed down into relatively quiet trench warfare of frozen fronts. Hauhia reminds of the severity of the situation, which only seems peaceful.
* YounGun or TheGunfighterWannabe: We never find out which one he would have become, as he dies before he can really prove or disprove himself. He would really have wanted to grow into a heroic soldier, but his first mistake was his last.

* PlayingCardMotifs: Dies during card came. He's still holding two aces and queens in his hand when the others find him. They wonder the game and someone says with that hand he would have went all in with his place in heaven. Another one replies that the devil had an even better hand.
* PutOnABus > BackForTheDead: Is met for the first time early to the story, before the war has begun. Then disappears from the narrative, only to be brought back to die.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Has no time to get characterization.

The original leader of the platoon. A veteran of the Winter War, after which he was promoted from being a reserve NCO to commissioned officer. Starts the war as 2nd Lieutenant. Temporarily fills in as a company leader when needed, and near the end as the battalion leader. 28 years old at the beginning of the war. Comes from the province of Tavastia Proper, the muncipality of Urjala - the same as where Linna himself was from. He is of relatively poor smallholding farmer background, and in the Finnish Civil War his family was on the (losing) side of the Reds. Features also in Linna's other famous story, the ''Under the North Star'' novel trilogy, which tells the story of his family.

The leader of the 1st half-platoon, later on acts as the platoon leader when Koskela is away. Starts as Corporal ("Under-sergeant"). From the province of Finland Proper, near the city of Turku. Comes from a smallholding home.

The original leader of the platoon, and one of the most central characters in the novel. A veteran of the Winter War, after which he was promoted from being a reserve NCO to commissioned officer. Starts the war as 2nd Lieutenant. Temporarily fills in as a company leader when needed, and near the end as the battalion leader. 28 years old at the beginning of the war. Comes from the province of Tavastia Proper, the muncipality of Urjala - the same as where Linna himself was from. He is of relatively poor smallholding farmer background, and in the Finnish Civil War his family was on the (losing) side of the Reds. Features also in Linna's other famous story, the ''Under the North Star'' novel trilogy, which tells the story of his family.

The original leader of the platoon, and one of the most central characters in the novel. A veteran of the Winter War, after which he was promoted from being a reserve NCO to commissioned officer. Starts the war as 2nd Lieutenant. Temporarily fills in as a company leader when needed, and near the end as the battalion leader. 28 years old at the beginning of the war. He is of relatively poor smallholding farmer background, and in the Finnish Civil War his family was on the (losing) side of the Reds. Comes from the province of Tavastia Proper, the muncipality of Urjala - the same as where Linna himself was from. Features also in Linna's other famous story, the ''Under the North Star'' novel trilogy, which tells the story of his family.

* BecomeTheMask: He's constantly in-character of his made up comic role. He slips out of it only once, briefly, when carrying the dying Ukkola. The narrator speculates that he has been playing he role for so long he no longer knows how to act otherwise.

* FearlessFool
* FutureBadass
* NewMeat

* NaiveNewcomer
* NewMeat
* SacrificialLamb

* WeHardlyKnewYe: Gets no characterization at all.

* NervesOfSteel
* ReturningWarVet
* SeenItAll
* TheStoic

* TheQuietOne: Has relatively few lines, and pretty much none that open the discussion. Rather, he's always there, in the background of the scene, as a silent presence. He's nicknames ''Ville Vaitelias'' (Silent Billy) by the others.

* Buttmonkey: His sole purpose in the story is to suffer.

* EarnYourHappyEnding
* PintSizedPowerhouse
* TheQuietOne

* TheStoic

* ClassClown

* TheJester
* ObfuscatingStupidity
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness
* {{Satire}}

* CombatAndSupport: Their role is to give support to the rifle platoons during attack, and to hold back the enemy charges during defense.

* CombatAndSupport: Their role is to give support fire for the rifle platoons during attack, and to hold back the enemy charges during defense.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: They're quite the colourful group - and ''noisy - with all walks of life represented. [[TheyFightCrime Together, they fight the Soviets!]]

* TalkativeLoon: Not only all his dialogue is pure nonsense, he also bursts out into speech seemingly completely randomly, while eating as well as during the heat of battle. Such as, in the middle of a hair-risingly intense attack with Rokka: ''"What's 'cat' in French? It's 'dark meow'!"

* ThePollyanna: Goes through all the death, loss and suffering without losing his optimistic outlook and ability to find mirth in small everyday things.

* VerbalTic: Begins many of his sentences with "vaan" (something like "but", "rather".

* ImStandingRihghtHere: Yells at Koskela for his perceived faults, such as him choosing to save the men instead of saving the equipment. Then he remembers that they're right in front of the said men. He reacts by starting to yell at the men too.

* WorkingManHero: They all come from the lower social classes. They harbor the typical "herraviha" or "lord hatred" - distrust and often disrespect of those coming from upper classes. They don't take them quite seriously and assume them to know less about life than the rank and file.

* YouShallNoPass: Stays behind to hold off the Soviet charge while the other Finns flee.

* NewMeaT

* NationalSteteotypes: Witty and talkative like Karelians - and eastern Finns in general - are assumed to be.

* TheBigGuy

* TheReliableOne

* NationalStereotypes: Subverts stereotypes about Karelians.

* ManipulativeBastards: Knows just how to push Kariluoto's buttons.

* PlayingCardMotifs
* PutOnABus > BackForTheDead
* WeHardlyKnewYe

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* DisappearedDad
* OrphansOrdeal
* TheWoobie

* MeetCute: How Hietanen meets Vera. The day after Petrozavodsk is occupied by the Finns, Hietanen is investigating the houses with rifle in hand, when all of the sudden he walks upon Vera, who is looking at his pointed rifle with her beautiful eyes. Vera brings this memory up later on, to Hietanen's embarrassment.

* MatingDance: Subverted. [[IDidnMeanToTurnYouOn She didn't mean to turn Hietanen on.]]

* MyGirlBackHome

* MyGirlBackHome

* ButOnABus > BackForTheDead

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* NationalSterotypes: Subverts stereotypes about Karelians.

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