Hope there are some Finnish historians out here. This is an x-post from r/history. I'll just copy my post from there to here. My question is if this particular story is true or not? And if it is true, a link to a source, please.

"I don't completely remember this story, but here is what I do. I heard this years ago from a retired Army officer. This happened sometime around the 16th or 17th century. A Russian army of 3000 men advanced through Finland (or Sweden at the time) during the winter. Opposing them was a Finnish army some 500 strong. They were armed mostly with pikes, swords and axes, but had about a dozen early black powder guns. The Russion force, obviously, was better armed.

The battle took place on a narrow forrest road. The Russian army was in marching order, the line a mile or so long and was not expecting a confrontation. They had no skies or other equipment to operate effectively in deep snow. The Finnish force used this to their advantage.

They surrounded the front of the enemy column. The guns aimed at the officer in the first rank. The Finnish commander stood alone on the road and told the Russian to turn around or die. The Russians laughed and asked by what force. Then the Finnish commander jumped down and the guns blew one single volley. The front rank was decimated, the officers dead. At this point the column was in disarray. Those in the back pushing forward and those in the front stopping. Then the rest of the Finnish force struck to the sides from the forest. In the chaos that followed, the Russians could not effectively fight back. Result of the battle was the destruction of the Russian force with over 50% losses. The Finnish lost two dozen men.

Again I'm not sure if this is true. I have no source for this, but if someone finds something it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post.

Oh, I just remembered. The nearby river was named Blood Creek or something similar after this battle"