The average Finnish soldier looked at matters much differently. He knew, in his bones, that on a man-to-man basis he was worth several of his opponents. His ancestors, as far back as recorded Finnish history existed, had fought Russians on this same soil and usually won. The Finn knew what he was fighting for and why. His stereotyped view of the Russian soldier was not flattering: Ivan was stupid, lazy, dirty, incapable of initiative and mentally oppressed by the same forest environment that was second nature to him the Finns. To be sure, the Finnish soldier was aware of the numerical odds against him, but he rendered those odds less terrible by cracking jokes about them: "They are so many, and our country is so small, where will we find room to bury them all?"