Pervitin is the name of a drug that soldiers consumed during World War II for its stimulating and euphoric effects, basically composed of methamphetamine. It was commonly used in the Wehrmacht but also in other armies (including the Allies), either under that name or other commercial names. Pervitin helped soldiers cope with the harshness of life on the front lines, much like tobacco or alcohol. But it had its risks, as experienced firsthand in 1944 by a Finnish soldier named Aimo Koivunen.
As mentioned, Pervitin wasn’t the only drug supplied to troops; there were also Isophan and some not manufactured under legal license, such as cocaine or morphine. But the former, manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Temmler and distributed under the initials OBM, were prescribed when deemed necessary to stay awake and at the recommended dosage of a maximum of two tablets. Additionally, they were highly effective antidepressants and appetite suppressants – both of which were used post-war.
However, the reason for their acceptance, apart from helping soldiers stay awake and endure pain, was that they could save lives in specific situations. This was demonstrated in 1942 when an exhausted German contingent, pursued by Soviet forces, overcame the crisis – and the expected death – thanks to Pervitin. Consequently, nobody considered these substances harmful and they were often equated with coffee, hence around thirty-five million tablets were dispensed during the war; and not just among soldiers, as it is known that Rommel was a regular consumer.
That was the context of the episode experienced by Aimo Allan Koivunen in the spring of 1944. Born on October 17, 1917, into a family of five children in Alastaro, a small village in southwest Finland, he witnessed the wartime events that shook the country in 1939. One was the Winter War, arising from the Soviet invasion that began on November 30 with the aim of regaining sovereignty over Finnish territory lost in 1917 during the revolution. The Finns managed to maintain their independence, albeit at the cost of losing ten percent of their territory and suffering significant economic deterioration.
A decisive factor in the course of that conflict was the formation of jägers, Germanophile volunteers who fought in World War I for the German Empire and then, during the Finnish Civil War in 1918, integrated into the Suojeluskunta or White Guard, contributing to the final victory of the valkoiset (White, conservative) faction over the punaiset (Red, social democrat). The jägers, deeply nationalist, advocated for Greater Finland by conducting armed incursions into the Soviet Union that forced the signing of a non-aggression pact.
Although that agreement held until the outbreak of the Winter War, it was fragile because the Karelian Isthmus – the border – was too close to Leningrad and constituted a likely passage for an invasion, hence Moscow demanded its surrender and, upon refusal, hostilities broke out. The conflict lasted about a hundred days but overlapped with the German invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II, known in those regions as the Continuation War. As a result of all this, Finland aligned with the Axis.
Thus, on March 15, 1944, Aimo Koivunen was assigned to a ski patrol tasked with reconnaissance around Kandalaksha (Kantalahti in Finnish), a Russian city on the Kola Peninsula, at the mouth of the Niva River, where a German-Finnish offensive had been launched in 1941 for control of its strategic railway. For three days, the mission went smoothly, but on March 18, the patrol was discovered.
The Soviets surprised the skiers on Kaitatunturi hill, attempting to encircle them. The Finns managed to break the siege and flee through the snow, closely followed, with constant gunfire exchanges. Koivunen became separated from his comrades, and although he managed to keep his distance from his pursuers, fatigue gradually took its toll on him. He eventually reached a state of exhaustion, faced with two options: surrender and likely be killed, or resort to Pervitin.
He wasn’t a regular user, but this wasn’t a normal situation either. While still sliding through the snow on his skis, he tried to take out a tablet. He couldn’t. Balancing, maintaining speed, thick gloves, and bullets flying around weren’t conducive to taking it, so without stopping, he opened the bottle and poured its contents into his hand before putting it in his mouth.
Each container held about thirty tablets, and although it’s reasonable to assume Koivunen couldn’t ingest them all, some might have been lost. Nevertheless, he took a dose far exceeding the recommended amount; much too high.
Of course, the drug did its job, and the young soldier immediately regained strength, intensified his pace, and outpaced the Soviet soldiers. However, with such a large amount of amphetamines in his system, side effects soon emerged that almost did the job his pursuers couldn’t.
The euphoria turned into delirium, his vision blurred, and everything started spinning until he lost consciousness. He woke up in the morning, half-buried in the snow (which ironically helped camouflage him), still under the effects of the overdose: tremors, fleeting hallucinations, palpitations, general discomfort… Over the following days, he alternated between phases of vigor and decline, and despite the grip of sleep, he couldn’t rest, so exhaustion affected him more and more.
All this combined with other adverse factors, such as being far from his lines without supplies and enduring extreme temperatures, up to twenty degrees below zero. This situation lasted for two weeks, during which he had to evade new enemy patrols and was injured by a mine he stepped on, whose explosion was likely cushioned by the snow (or perhaps it was defective). Unable to continue, he dug a trench as best he could to hide and rest. He remained in it for seven days, feeding on berries and a Siberian jay (a corvid bird) he managed to catch, although he had to eat it raw.
Finally, he was found by a Finnish patrol who transported him to a field hospital. The doctors had to treat him thoroughly for several reasons. Firstly, because he had lost so much weight that he weighed only forty-three kilos on the scale; secondly, because his heart rate exceeded two hundred beats per minute. In other words, the overdose was still present and would take some time to completely disappear with the right treatment. This treatment must have been successful, as Aimo Koivunen lived until 1989.
The truly curious thing, apart from it being the first documented case of amphetamine overdose in combat, is that the decision he made can be considered correct. The amount ingested was brutal, even excessive, but it did save his life: when those soldiers found him, he was over four hundred kilometers from Kandalaksha, the point where his escape began.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on November 30, 2018. Puedes leer la versión en español en Aimo Koivunen, el soldado finlandés que protagonizó el primer caso documentado de sobredosis por Pervitin en combate
Sources
Miska Rantanen, Finland History: Amphetamine Overdose In Heat Of Combat | Norman Ohler, El gran delirio. Hitler, drogas y el III Reich | Geoffrey Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich | Elaine A. Moore, The Amphetamine Debate: The Use of Adderall, Ritalin and Related Drugs for Behavior Modification, Neuroenhacement and Anti-Aging Purposes | David Campbell, Finnish Soldier vs Soviet Soldier: Winter War 1939–40 | Wikipedia
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