Simo Häyhä

Early life, family and education Simo Häyhä was born on 17 December 1905 in the Kiiskinen hamlet of the Rautjärvi municipality in the Viipuri Province of southern Finland. His father, Juho Häyhä, was the owner of the Mattila farm, while his mother, Katriina (née Vilkko), was a loving and hard-working farmer's wife. Not keen to hog the spotlight, he usually stood at the back in group photos during his youth, until his later successes forced him to take centre stage.

In 1925, at age 19, Häyhä began his 15-month compulsory military service in the Bicycle Battalion 2 in Raivola, Viipuri Province. He attended the Non-Commissioned Officer School and served as a conscript officer in the Bicycle Battalion 1 in Terijoki. However, he did not receive formal sniper training until 1938, a year before the war, at a training centre in Utti.

Winter War service

Häyhä served as a sniper in the Finnish Army during the Winter War against the Soviet Union. He operated in the 6th Company of Infantry Regiment 34 (, or JR 34) under Lieutenant Aarne Juutilainen during the Battle of Kollaa. The winter of 1939–40 was one of the coldest on record in Finland. During the battle, temperatures ranged from . Häyhä wore all-white camouflage, while Soviet troops were not issued camouflage uniforms for most of the war, making them easily visible in snowy conditions. The lack of winter camouflage reflected broader disorganisation within the Red Army following the purges of military leadership ordered by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the late 1930s.

Finnish sources state that Häyhä was nicknamed "The White Death" by the Red Army (, ; ; ). During the war, the "White Death" was one of the leading themes of Finnish propaganda. Finnish newspapers frequently featured the invisible Finnish soldier, thus creating a hero of mythical proportions. His kill count as a sniper was based on his own reporting, with the confirmation of his comrades, and only those who were verified to be dead were counted. No count was taken when several snipers shot at the same target. Enemy soldiers killed with a submachine gun with Häyhä as a group leader were not counted.

Häyhä's division commander Antero Svensson credited him with 219 confirmed kills with a rifle and an equal number of kills by submachine gun, when he awarded Häyhä with an honorary rifle on 17 February 1940. On 21 December 1939, Häyhä achieved his highest daily count of 25 kills.

Some of Häyhä's figures are from a Finnish Army document, counted from the beginning of the war, 30 November 1939: 22 December 1939: 138 sniper kills in 22 days 26 January 1940: 199 sniper kills (61 in 35 days) 17 February 1940: 219 sniper kills (20 in 22 days) Complicating matters further is the use of Häyhä's achievements as a tool of propaganda: the Finnish press built a hero's myth around Häyhä at the early stage of the war.

Firearms and tactics Häyhä used his issued Civil Guard rifle, an early series SAKO M/28-30, serial number 35281, Civil Guard number S60974. It was a Finnish Civil Guard variant of the Mosin–Nagant rifle known as "Pystykorva" ( due to the front sight's resemblance to the head of a spitz-type dog) chambered in the Finnish-designed Mosin–Nagant cartridge 7.62×53R.

Injury Häyhä after being promoted to second lieutenant in 1940. He was disfigured after being shot in the face by a Red Army soldier earlier that year. On 6 March 1940, just a week before the end of the war, Häyhä was severely wounded when an explosive bullet fired by a Red Army soldier tore through his face and shattered his lower left jaw. After the battle, as he appeared to be dead, he was placed on a pile of corpses. Someone later noticed his foot moving and he was removed from the pile and taken to hospital.

Rumours of Häyhä's death spread throughout Finland and the Soviet Union. He regained consciousness a week later, on 13 March, the day peace was declared. Reading about his own death in a newspaper, he sent a letter to the paper to correct the misunderstanding. Häyhä spent the Continuation War on the home front, tending to his farm.

Shortly after the Winter War, on 28 August 1940, Finnish Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim promoted Häyhä straight from alikersantti (the lowest military rank of a non-commissioned officer) to vänrikki (the first military rank of an officer). In 1941, Häyhä was also nominated as a Knight of the Mannerheim Cross, the most distinguished Finnish military honour. However, due to administrative reasons, the knighthood was not granted, as the cross was not awarded to anyone solely for achievements in the Winter War. He also received the Cross of Kollaa medal, one of the first seven made of silver. Häyhä's cross was numbered four, following Marshal Mannerheim, President Kyösti Kallio, and Häyhä's division commander, Colonel Antero Svensson.

The Kollaa and Simo Häyhä Museum is located in the village of Miettilä at Rautjärvi, in a former infirmary. The museum, opened in 1983, covers the Battle of Kollaa, and features a special permanent exhibition dedicated to the life of Simo Häyhä.

In the 2004 Suuret suomalaiset (Great Finns) television show and poll, which determined the 100 greatest Finns of all time, Häyhä was ranked 74th.

Post-war life After the war, Häyhä spent his free time hunting. Häyhä with his dog Kille in 1961. It took several years for Häyhä to recuperate from his wound. Beyond farming, he had a deep passion for hunting, Häyhä's gravestone in the Ruokolahti Church graveyard, with the inscription: "Home – Religion – Fatherland" Häyhä was known as a modest man who never boasted of his wartime achievements. He rarely spoke of the war or his experiences. In an Independence Day interview with Helsingin Sanomat in December 2001, shortly before his 96th birthday, Häyhä opened up about his war experiences.

Häyhä spent his last years in a war veterans' nursing home in Hamina, where he died on 1 April 2002, aged 96. He was buried in his home town of Ruokolahti.

In popular culture

Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton composed the song "White Death" in honour of Häyhä, which was released in 2010 on their album Coat of Arms. Scottish black/thrash metal band Achren's three-song The White Death EP from 2014 is dedicated entirely to Häyhä, right down to the cover art. Japanese metal band To Mega Therion has made a song called "Simo Hayha", which appears on the 2015 Yog = Sothoth album.

In 2011, Philip Kaufman began filming HBO's Hemingway & Gellhorn (first airdate 28 May 2012), which features Martha Gellhorn (played by Nicole Kidman) reporting from Finland during the Winter War. In this section, Steven Wiig portrays Häyhä, leading a group of Finnish soldiers to shelter.

A film about Häyhä called The White Death, directed by David McElroy and written by James Poirier, has also been planned since 2017, but the progress of this production has remained unclear. In 2025, it was announced that director and screenwriter Toni Kurkimäki was working on a film about Häyhä, simply titled Häyhä, Filming is scheduled to begin in the North Savo and Kainuu regions in January 2027.

According to Jalmari Helander, who wrote and directed the script for the 2022 action film Sisu, and its 2025 sequel, the films are partly inspired by Häyhä's legendary reputation.

U.S. author Arna Bontemps Hemenway has written a short story about Häyhä, called "Wolves of Karelia", which was published in the August 2019 issue of The Atlantic magazine. Häyhä also appears in the 2024 novel Les Guerriers de l'hiver by Olivier Norek.

Häyhä's story has been adapted in two manga, He also appears in the manga Record of Ragnarok (, Shūmatsu no Warukyūre) by Shinya Umemura and Takumi Fukui, in which he is depicted as a fighter for humanity.

"Red Baron vs. White Death", the ninth episode of the seventh season of Epic Rap Battles of History, which aired on 12 December 2025 on YouTube, featured Häyhä (played by Lloyd Ahlquist) battling another historical war legend, Manfred von Richthofen (played by Peter Shukoff), known as the "Red Baron".