Introduction from Miikka:  I got first involved with uniforms years ago when our neighbour died. He was a veteran for two wars, serving as a (reserve) NCO in Winter war and as a reserve officer in the Continuation war.  His widow showed me that this veteran had all his decorations, uniforms and other gear saved and stored. She also told me, that after she died,  I could get all that since they didn’t have any children. The Vet never told us kids about the war and what he did there. He was quite highly decorated so he had done something brave but there was nobody to tell about it anymore.   

After she died, I got the vet’s decorations as a wedding present from the relatives, but unfortunately there was no last will about the uniforms and other stuff and those went to auction. At the auction time I was completely broke and couldn’t afford to bid enough for the lot. Then after a year or so I ran into those uniforms on one display I went to see. I spoke with the owner and I tried to buy those from him but no luck. Time passed and then I ran across that collector again and I was told that he traded those uniforms to a small museum.  He had the belt, boots & map case left and I got a chance to buy those from him.   

I went to that museum and negotiated with the owner and managed to buy and trade for all the stuff that was in his museum from this vet’s estate. It was not cheap since I had to buy stuff from dealers to make the trade. But I was happy, I had now all our neighbour's wartime garments & equipment in my possesion! You can see most of those on this page. So this was the story of my first uniform and then I started to study this subject. And a few times I was lucky being in the right place at the right time when a collector decided to ”reduce” his collection or change area of collecting and I got well maintained sets to add to my own collection. 

It has always been my goal to get identified uniforms if possible. It’s nice to know that someone identified wore those during those tough years of war. And of course I always study carefully what this person did and where he was assigned, fighting etc. during the war. And when uniforms are sold, those normally come without any badges or decorations. I want to make those look like the original owner had, ie.  correct ribbon bar and badges etc. in place. This can be an  interesting task since it’s not always easy to find photos or information, especially from reserve officers, about how uniform was decorated. 

It’s sad to hear about estates where uniforms were found and burnt or destroyed to rags. This still happens in quite a big scale since ”normal people” don’t appreciate these pieces of history that much. Luckily the knowledge about this area of collecting is getting better and dealers that are buiyng whole estates are not thrashing uniforms anymore. But this, of course, means also that prices are getting higher. But still, it’s good that these garments are saved for future generations so that our kids and grandkids can someday see that camo uniform and green(!) fur cap was not always the uniform that was used for example here in Finland at winter time! 

 I hope you enjoy the pictures and learn something new!

 -Miikka Teräs