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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Please do not plagiarize. If you would like to use this information in a print or electronic publication, please ask me for permission first and cite this page as:
Knapp, Robbin D. 2008. "Finnish English: M". In Robb: Finnish English. Jul. 18, 2008.

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Mmanagement by perkele
See perkele, management by.
motti New!motti n.
from motti "firewood": a tactic used by the Finns during the Russo-Finnish Winter War (1939-1940), so-called because the opposing troops were surrounded or cut off like a stack of firewood. The original meaning of motti is a tight pile (one cubic meter) of firewood with vertical wooden poles on two sides. The logs can't 'escape' from a motti. The word was then used in a military sense meaning a situation in which the enemy is tightly surrounded in a small area and cannot escape. This entry suggested by Otso Havu. Thanks also to Kimmo Jääskeläinen.
  • "In spite of this pressure, the Russian 54th held its position at the isthmus of Sauna Lake, surrounded by their enemy in a motti until they were saved by the peace." Eloise Engle & Lauri Paananen, The Winter War: The Soviet Attack on Finland 1939-1940, 1973, p. 108.
  • "A typical tactic was to halt long columns of approaching armor and motorized troops on narrow, poor roads and attack their flanks and rear, cutting them off from support – a practice the Finns called motti or 'logging' tactics." Carl Conetta, Charles Knight and Lutz Unterseher, "Defensive Military Structures in Action: Historical Examples", Confidence-Building Defense: A Comprehensive Approach to Security & Stability in the New Era, May 1994.
  • "During the early fighting the Finns developed their celebrated motti (literally, a bundle of sticks) tactics. The mottis were small, tight encirclements suited to the heavily forested Finnish terrain. In one of the later battles the personnel of a single Soviet division was trapped in 10 separate mottis." Jesper Ramskov Jensen, "Early Campaigns", World War II Main Article, 2000.
  • "Finn forces rushed to the area quickly built up from constant harassment attacks, which greatly limited Soviet movement, to vicious local road cutting and blocking attacks which created isolated pockets of Soviet forces (which the Finns termed 'mottis,' from the Finn word for a cord of firewood, cut and left in measured piles to be collected later)." Michael R. Evans, "The White Death: The Battle for Suomussalmi (7 Dec 1939 to 8 Jan 1940)", May 23, 1997.

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