ABSTRACT
The Start of My Studies There is a picture on the wall of my study which depicts a snowy winter landscape with a horse pulling a modest sleigh in which I often sat as a child. Cars and electricity were rare in the countryside where I lived in the 1940s. My father was away at war, defending Finland against the Soviet Union. In spite of the war, I had a safe childhood; my mother tried to protect me and my two sisters against adults’ horrors and sorrows.
