Olivier Norek
French crime writer and former police officer who served 17 years in Paris and worked in humanitarian operations; author of The Winter Warriors about Finland's Winter War and the sniper Simo Häyhä.
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Apr 4, 2026 • 48min
The country that defied an empire
Olivier Norek, a former Paris policeman turned crime writer and humanitarian, recounts the Winter War and the legend of Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä. He describes living a winter in Lapland, Mannerheim’s village-based defence, Finland standing alone against the Red Army, Soviet attempts to hunt the White Death, and how that 105-day struggle shaped wider twentieth-century geopolitics.
