What happens when a person accidentally downs 30 methamphetamine pills while on the run from the Red Army you might ask, and I’m glad you did, because Finnish soldier Aimo [Yes, Aimo is his name-o] Koivunen went on just such a documented trip. In fact, his is the first recorded story of a soldier surviving a methamphetamine overdose while engaged in combat.
Who was Aimo?
Born October 17, 1917, in Alastaro, Finland, Aimo Allan Koivunen grew up to rise in the Finnish military ranks to the position of corporal in the Finnish Army during the Continuation War against the Soviet Union, one of three side wars Finland participated in during WWII. Koivunen was a member of an elite ski patrol unit whose operations proved crucial for Finnish forces crossing the snowy and treacherous terrain of the Lapland Forest, which covers areas of Northern Eurupe such as parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.
The Lapland’s consist primarily of vast wilderness and of boreal forest areas known for its thriving cold climate trees: spruce, pine, and birch. The Lapland War lasted from 1944-1945 and its main goal was to force German forces out of northern Finland. The Moscow Armistice [signed September 19, 1944, between Finland and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom] required Finland to expel German troops from the country.
The Accident
While deep in the Lapland forest on a snowy March 18 in 1944, Corporal Koivunen and his patrol suddenly came under attack by Soviet forces.
As enemy combatants closed in, the Finns immediately scattered on their skis.
Remaining in the lead, Koivunen was faced with the difficult task of going first and setting a path of escape through unchartered snow for his unit. With anxiety and cold ripping at him, exhaustion set in—first in Koivunen’s powerful legs. Soon, his muscles were cramping, and the Red Army was gaining ground behind him, when Koivunen remembered he carried magic pills, Pervitin.
Military grade and cooked up by the Germans, Pervitin is a form of methamphetamine that was given to soldiers to help them stay awake and alert. Signs of an overdose include death, hallucinations, delirium, and loss of consciousness—all symptoms we can probably agree are not helpful while on the run in the snow from enemy combatants in freezing temperatures.
At the time of the ambush, as corporal, Koivunen was in possession of his unit’s entire supply of Pervitin—30 tablets—each tablet enough to function as a single dose for one man for one full day.
His hands wrapped inside layers of thick winter mittens, Koivunen could not get just one pill to tap out, so in the fog of war, Koivunen made the fateful decision to toss back all thirty pills!
The trip
After sleeping off a fun night, most of us don’t wake up and decide to embark on a nearly 248 mile pleasure ski through advancing Soviet forces, but then again, most of us aren’t Corporal Aimo Koivunen. Over the next two weeks Koivunen chartered a wild, drug-fueled ride that included a couple of exploding landmines, accidental cabin fire, and his outlasting negative 20-degree temperatures waiting on help to re-arrive. All told, he traveled roughly 250 miles across the frozen wilderness of Lapland.
With the Pervitin now flowing through his veins, Koivunen suddenly began skiing very fast, then faster—until his unit fell behind. Like being carried on Red Bull’s proverbial wings, the corporal outskied his patrol and his Soviet pursuers. When Koivunen finally slowed, he found himself approximately 62 miles off course without food, ammunition, or shelter.
After a brief siesta, he opted to keep skiing.
In his influenced state, and believing he reached a Finnish camp, Koivunen inadvertently coasted into a Soviet encampment. Suprised to see a crazed looking Finn on skis appearing unceremoniously before them, the understandably shocked Soviets took a few moments to get their wits about them before giving chase.
Like the gingerbread man, Koivunen soon out-skied them as well, next arriving at an abandoned cabin in the woods. Deciding to make camp, Koivunen built a fire and tucked in for the night.
A few hours later, he awoke to the smell of smoke—the cabin was on fire!
Stumbling out into the cold night lit by the flames orange glow, Koivunen again mounted his skis, this time under a hail of ash and ember.
Mistaking the North Star for the glow of another camp, Koivunen again skied recklessly in, this time finding an abandoned German encampment. While there, he skied over a landmine which threw him off his skis and destroyed his right foot. Later, doctors would record the wound as shredded flesh and splintered bone.
Broken, bleeding, half naked, and still under the effects of Pervitin, Corporal Koivunen crawled into a ditch where he sought refuge from the frigid temperatures and prying eyes of the enemy.
Remaining in the ditch for over a week, the Finnish skier survived on pine buds and a Siberian jay that legend has it Koivunen caught with his bare hands and consumed raw.
And he waited for rescue.
Found by Finnish soldiers, the party attempting to rescue the corporeal ran afoul of another landmine. Overwhelmed and injured themselves, Koivunen’s rescuers begged him to hang on, promising to return.
They did, and Corporal Aimo Koivunen arrived at a Finnish military hospital weighing 94 pounds with a heart rate of 200 beats per minute—over double the human body’s normal rate!
Koivunen went on to survive and recover. He married a woman named Elsa, settled in Central Finland, had nine children, and spent his days as a seemingly innocuous civilian.
Thirty-four years after Koivunen’s accidental wild trip occurred, public interest was again revived in 1978 when a Finnish veterans’ magazine held a competition for interesting WWII stories. After submitting a short story of his harrowing tale, Koivunen’s was selected and printed as a second-place winner.
Legacy of a life well lived
Koivunen’s amusing and heroic tale provides impactful insight into how soldiers around the globe are placed in extreme conditions and the guinea pig testing of stimulants on service men and women conducted in militaries around the globe.
Proving God often has plans we know nothing about, Corporal Aimo Allan Koivunen survived his ordeal to pass away at the age of 71, peacefully in his bed at home in Jyväskylä, Finland.