Artifacts, maps, photographs and videos can be viewed both indoors and outside the main building. They tell the stories of the wars of 1939 to 1945, of the fates of evacuees, and of the post-war period. 

The focus of the exhibition is on the battles fought in Ilomantsi in the late summer of 1944. This is appropriate because the closest engagements occurred at Sikrenvaara, only 1.5 kilometres from the location of the building where Finnish forces blunted a Red Army assault on Hattuvaara in the early morning of 30 July 1944. 

Even the building materials of Combatant’s House emanate war history. The heavy timbers were hewn of logs hauled from the battlegrounds east of Hattuvaara. Some of them still show scars from shell fragments. 

Outside the main building in a purpose-built weather shelter is Finland's second largest display of artillery guns. The array includes twelve pieces that were fired in anger in Ilomantsi, some of them captured from the enemy. 

Inside is a comprehensive collection of military equipment, some of which were used by Red Army soldiers. One section of the display is dedicated to Lotta Svärd, a Finnish women’s volunteer auxiliary service that was disbanded at the request of the Allied Control Commission in the fall of 1944. In 1943, the last confirmed membership figure showed 172,755 so-called ‘Lottas’, and 221,613 including ‘Junior Lottas’. 

Also of interest is the small display on the career of Lauri Törni, a renowned soldier and Knight of the Mannerheim Cross, whose company saw action in Ilomantsi in August 1944. Törni fought under three flags. In 1954, he joined the United States Army as Larry Thorne and served until his death in a helicopter crash in Vietnam in 1965. 

The exhibitions and cafeteria are open in summer only.