Background of the Winter War
Encyclopedia
The background of the Winter War covers the period before the outbreak of the Winter War
between Finland
and the Soviet Union
in 1939–1940, stretching from Finland's Declaration of Independence
in 1917 to the Soviet-Finnish negotiations in 1938–1939. Before its independence, Finland was an autonomous grand duchy
inside Imperial Russia. During the ensuing Finnish Civil War
, the Red Guards
, supported by the Russian Bolshevik
s, were defeated. Fearful of Soviet designs, during the 1920s and 1930s, the Finns were constantly attempting to align themselves with Scandinavia
n neutrality, particularly with regard to Sweden
. Furthermore, the Finns engaged in secret military co-operation with Estonia
in the 1930s.
While during the late 1920s and early 1930s relations with the Soviet Union became normalized to a degree, from 1938 on, the Soviets, anxious that Finland could be used as a springboard for an invasion, started negotiations to conclude a military agreement. At the same time, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
's desire to recover the territories of Tsarist Russia
lost during the chaos of the October Revolution
and the Russian Civil War
made Finland an obvious target. Due to the nature of Soviet demands, which included the installation of Soviet military facilities on Finnish soil, these negotiations went nowhere.
In August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany
signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, in which Eastern European countries were divided into spheres of interest; Finland belonged to the Soviet sphere of interest. In October 1939, Stalin gained control of the Baltic states
and turned his sights on Finland, confident that control could be gained without great effort. The Soviet Union demanded territories on the Karelian Isthmus
, the islands of the Gulf of Finland
and a military base near the Finnish capital Helsinki
, similar to the demands presented in the previous years. The Finns again refused, and the Red Army
attacked on 30 November 1939. Simultaneously, Stalin set up a puppet government for the Finnish Democratic Republic
, headed by the Finnish communist Otto Wille Kuusinen.
Finland had been the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom
for centuries until 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars
, when Imperial Russia
conquered and converted it into an autonomous buffer state
within the Russian Empire
to protect Saint Petersburg
, the imperial capital. Finland enjoyed wide autonomy and its own Senate
until the turn of the century, when Russia began attempts to assimilate Finland
as part of a general policy to strengthen central government and unify the Empire by Russification
. These attempts ruined relations and increased the support of Finnish movements vying for self-government.
The outbreak of the First World War gave Finland a window of opportunity to achieve this. The Finns sought aid from both the German Empire
and the Bolshevik
s to that end, and on 6 December 1917, the Senate of Finland declared the country's independence
. The new Bolshevik Russian government was weak, and soon the Russian Civil War
would break out. Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin
could spare no troops or attention for Finland, and consequently, Soviet Russia recognized the new Finnish government just three weeks after the declaration of independence. In 1918, the Finns fought a short civil war
, where the pro-Bolshevik Red Guards
were armed by 7,000 to 10,000 Russian troops stationed in Finland.
After the First World War, an inter-governmental organization, the League of Nations
was founded. The League's goals included preventing war
through collective security
and settling disputes between countries through negotiation and diplomacy. Finland joined the League in 1920.
In 1920s and 1930s Finland was politically diverse. The Communist Party of Finland
was declared illegal in 1931, and the far-right Patriotic People's Movement
(IKL) had a minor presentation of fourteen seats in the 200-seat parliament. The middle ground, occupied by Conservatives, Liberals
, Agrians
and Swedish People, tended to cluster with the Social Democratic Party
, whose leader, Väinö Tanner
, was a strong proponent of the parliamentary system. By the late 1930s the Finnish export-oriented economy was growing, the country had almost solved its "right-wing problem" and Finland was preparing for the 1940 Summer Olympics
.
During the closing stages of World War I, German-trained Finnish Jäger troops
played a key role in the Finnish Civil War
, while the German Baltic Sea Division
also intervened late in the civil war. Jäger troops were volunteers from German-influenced circles, such as university students. This participation in the Finnish struggle for independence created close ties with Germany, but after the German defeat in the World War, Scandinavian relations became more important and the main goal of the Finnish foreign policy.
Finnish-German relations cooled after the National Socialists rose to power in 1933 – Finns admired Imperial Germany, not the radical and anti-democratic Nazi regime. Finnish conservatives did not accept the state violence and anti-church policies of the Nazis. Still, there was sympathy for German aims to revise the Treaty of Versailles
, although the official Finnish policy was reserved, especially after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia
. Finland even recalled its ambassador for a short period. Finnish Nazis and ultranationalist parties such as the IKL
achieved only minor support in several elections, especially in the aftermath of the failed Mäntsälä rebellion
in 1932.
the Åland Islands
and later supported the local movement that wanted to secede from Finland and join the islands to Sweden. The dispute was resolved by the League of Nations
in 1921 and the Åland remained Finnish, but were granted autonomy. Other obstacles to closer relations were the ongoing language strife on the status of the Swedish language
in Finland. Sweden had also opposed the upper-class resistance movement against Russification. As a result, young Finnish men received their military training in Germany, generating the Jäger Movement
. Nevertheless, Finnish–Swedish relations improved considerably before the Winter War.
Finland sought security guarantees from the League of Nations, but did not have high expectations. Sweden was a one of the founding members of the League, and consequently framed its military policies based on the League's principles of disarmament and sanctions. In the mid-1920s the Finns established a special planning committee, called the Committee of Erich after its chairman Rafael Erich
, which consisted of top politicians and officers, with the aim of exploring a possible military collaboration of Finland with other nations. The prime goal was co-operation with the Scandinavian countries, amongst which Sweden was the most important prospective partner.
The Finnish and Swedish militaries engaged in wide-ranging co-operation, but it was more focused on the exchange of information and defence planning for the Åland islands than on military exercise
s or materiel. The Finnish objective was to commit the Swedes by establishing a military-political joint venture in the Åland: if the Swedes would undertake to assist Finland in fortifying the islands, then an important and useful precedent might be set. The Government of Sweden
was aware of the military co-operation, but carefully avoided committing itself to Finnish foreign policy.
Finnish–Estonian relations were closest diplomatically after the Estonian Freedom War in the 1920s, but cooled afterwards. Military relations however remained close. From the Finnish point of view, the close relations with Estonia did not exclude the Scandinavian neutrality policy. Nevertheless, the military relations
were top secret
, and the countries held joint military exercises. The central aim was to prevent the Soviet Baltic Fleet
from freely using its strength in the Gulf of Finland
against either country. Estonia also sought public security guarantees and signed the Baltic Entente
in 1934 with Latvia
and Lithuania
.
had been a significant trading partner since the 18th century, and the Finns worked to improve the relations for the next two decades. In the 1930s Finland purchased Thornycroft
torpedo boats from the United Kingdom, and also refrained from buying bomber aircraft from Germany because of British protests, purchasing instead modern Bristol Blenheim
s, which later served successfully during the Winter War.
Relations with France
were important after World War I and in the 1920s, as France played a leading role in the new European security arrangements. In the 1930s France started to fear the rise of Nazi Germany and initiated a rapprochement
with the Soviet Union, which strained Franco-Finnish relations. However, during the Winter War France was one of the most important suppliers of military materiel
.
' military operation plan against the Soviet Union was named Venäjän keskitys ("Russian Concentration"; VK) in the 1920s. In the latest 1934 plan, the Finns saw two possible scenarios. In the VK1 scenario, the Soviets would mobilize all along their western border, and would deploy only limited forces against Finland. In this case the Finns would make counterattacks across the border. The VK2 scenario envisaged a much more unfavourable situation for the Finns. The main defense line would be on the Karelian Isthmus
, the Finnish forces would repel Soviet attacks in favourable positions, and destroy the enemy by counterattack
s. In the Winter War, the VK2 scenario was flexible and its basis proved correct, but the Finnish General staff badly underestimated the numerical superiority of the Red Army
.
Finland had a limited defence budget after its independence and especially in the 1930s. Consequently, the Finnish Defence Forces were lacking military materiel in almost all branches. Much of the military's materiel was outdated, and even proved unsuitable for the field during the Winter War. During the Winter War the material situation improved, but it still lagged behind the more modern and well-equipped Red Army.
The relationship between the Soviet Union
and Finland had been tense — a legacy of the two periods of forced Russification
at the turn of the century and the failed Soviet-backed socialist rebellion in Finland
, as well as incursions by groups of Finnish nationalists – the Viena expedition
in 1918 and the Aunus expedition
of 1919 – into Russian East Karelia
.
On 14 October 1920, Finland and Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Tartu
, confirming the new Finnish-Soviet border as the old border between the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland
and Imperial Russia proper. In addition, Finland received Petsamo
, with its ice-free harbour on the Arctic Ocean
. The treaty did not prevent the Finnish government from allowing volunteers to cross the border to support the East-Karelian Uprising in 1921 however, nor expatriate Finnish communists from causing disturbances
in Finland. In 1923 both countries signed the Border Peace Agreement, which normalized the border.
In 1928, the Soviet Union began collectivization in Ingria
. During the collectivization and ethnic cleansing
, the Soviets captured, killed and deported Ingrian peasants, provoking widespread criticism by the Finnish media in 1930. Two years later, the nationalist Lapua Movement
unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the Finnish government in the Mäntsälä rebellion
.
Nevertheless, during the 1930s, the diplomatic climate between Finland and the Soviet Union gradually improved. From the 1920s, the Soviet Union had offered different non-aggression pacts with Finland but they were all rejected. Now the offer was renewed as part of a series of agreements with the countries on the Soviet Union's western border. In 1932, the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Finland, re-affirmed in 1934 for ten years.
Relations between the two countries remained largely de minimis
however. While foreign trade in Finland was booming
, less than one percent of it was with the Soviet Union. In 1934, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations, and later accepted other "progressive forces" beside Communist parties
. This change in Soviet attitudes, as well as internal politics in Finland, enabled a short thaw in relations in 1937.
was disappointed at the Soviet Union's inability to foment a successful revolution in Finland, and furthermore, the Bolsheviks struggle with national sentiments inside the Soviet Union. In 1923, Stalin proclaimed that the main danger in national relations was Great-Russian chauvinism. He started the policy of Korenizatsiya
, indigenisation, to promote national communist cadres for every nationality. However, from 1937 Stalin encouraged Russian chauvinism, implying the Russians were politically and culturally superior. The Soviet diplomacy turned towards the recovery of the territories of the Tsarist state
. The Soviet Union used the Comintern
to announce a doctrine where bourgeoisie
equaled Fascism
, and that Communism
was the natural agency of the proletariat
. In practice, this meant that anything other than Communism would be considered anti-Soviet and fascist. The Soviet foreign policy was a mixture of the ideology of world revolution and the traditional concerns of Russian national security.
During the Stalin era
, the Soviet agriculture production collapsed causing famines in 1932–1933. Official output numbers of industrial production were used as propaganda to portray the Soviet Union as an economic miracle. Soviet propaganda also used cross-border comparisons with Finland, to represent the country as a "vicious and reactionary Fascist clique". The Finnish Marshal C.G.E. Mannerheim
and the leader of the Finnish Social Democrat Party Väinö Tanner
were particular hate figure
s. Stalin gained near-absolute power in 1935–1936, leaving only army as self-governing, but its officers also became the target of purges during the Great terror
in 1937–1938.
In the late 1930s, Stalin's Soviet Union was no longer satisfied with the status quo
in its relations with Finland. This came as a result of a change in Soviet foreign policy, which now pursued the aim of recovering the provinces of Tsarist Russia lost during the chaos of the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War. The Soviets considered the old Empire to have had an optimal balance of security and territory, and their thoughts were shaped by a historical precedent: as the Treaty of Nystad
of 1721 was intended to protect Tsarist Saint Petersburg
from the Swedes, the re-acquisition of Finland would protect the now Bolshevik Leningrad
from the rising power of Nazi Germany. While in 1938 Sweden was no longer a major threat against Russia, the Soviets had not forgotten the role that the Finnish-controlled Åland islands had played as a base of operations for the German Expeditionary Force in the Finnish Civil War.
In April 1938, a junior diplomatic official named Boris Yartsev contacted the Finnish foreign minister Rudolf Holsti
and prime minister Aimo Cajander
, stating that the Soviets did not trust Germany and war was considered possible between the two countries. In such a war Germany might use Finland as a base for operations against the Soviet Union. The Red Army would not wait passively behind the border, but would rather "advance to meet the enemy". If Finland were to fight against Germany, then the Soviet Union would offer all possible economic and military assistance. The Soviets would also accept the fortification of Åland islands, but demanded "positive guarantees" on Finland's position.
The Finns assured Yartsev that Finland was committed to a policy of neutrality, and the country would resist any armed incursion. Yartsev was not satisfied with the reply, given Finland's military weakness. He suggested that Finland could cede, or lease, some islands in the Gulf of Finland
along the seaward approaches to Leningrad
, a suggestion the Finns rejected. Earlier in the mid-1930s, the Soviet ambassador in Helsinki, Eric Assmus
, and the Leningrad Bolshevik party leader Andrei Zhdanov
, had presented a similar proposal.
Negotiations continued during autumn 1938. The Soviets reduced their demands: a Red Army
operation was not an option anymore and the focus was shifted on securing the Gulf of Finland. The Soviets wanted to be informed of key elements of the Finnish–Estonian Gulf blockade
, the secret military plan against the Baltic Fleet
. Furthermore Yartsev suggested that the Finns fortify the Suursaari island, but that the Soviets would take care of its defence. During the negotiations, Rudolf Holsti resigned as foreign minister, although not for reasons associated with the negotiations, and his place was taken by Eljas Erkko
. Holsti was rather anti-German, so the resignation set off rumours, quickly qualled by the Finnish government, that he had been forced to resign by a Finnish government sympathetic to the Germans. The Finns attempted to appear even-handed, and the interior ministry issued an order banning the extreme-right IKL. The ban was reversed by the Finnish courts as being unconstitutional. Many years later, the minister in charge at that time, Urho Kekkonen
, admitted that this was a simple gesture, to suggest to Moscow that Finland did not harbour a German fifth column
.
By the winter of 1939, the Soviets further reduced their demands and sent Boris Stein to negotiate. Stein and Erkko met five times. Erkko rejected the Soviet proposals, saying that the Soviet demands would mean the end of the Finnish neutrality policy and displease the Germans. When the chairman of the Finnish Defense Council C.G.E. Mannerheim
was informed of the negotiations, he opined that Finland should give up the Suursaari islands because their defence would anyway be impossible during a war, but his arguments did not persuade the majority of the Finnish government. Stein departed Helsinki empty-handed on 6 April.
The Finns had many reasons to turn down the Soviet proposals. Finland had started negotiations for a military co-operation with Sweden, and the Finns had great hopes for the joint Finnish–Swedish defense for the Ålands islands and did not want to jeopardize these negotiations. In addition, the violent collectivization, purges
, show trials and executions in Stalin's Soviet Union had given the country a bad reputation. Furthermore, most of the Finnish Communist leadership in the Soviet Union was executed during the Great Purge. The Soviet Union did not therefore seem to be a reliable contracting party. The Soviet envoys sent to negotiate with Finns were officially of relatively low rank, but as Väinö Tanner put it later, the Finns assumed rightly that they represented of some higher organ of State, probably the Soviet secret police NKVD
.
and Romania
were divided into spheres of interest, with Finland falling to the Soviet sphere of interest.
In the immediate aftermath of the Pact, the Scandinavian countries and Finland were relieved. The Germans and Soviets were now allies, and there was no German threat against the Soviet Union. But shortly afterwards, Germany invaded Poland
and Great Britain and France declared war against Germany. Next, the Soviets invaded eastern Poland
, and later Moscow requested that the Baltic states
allow the establishment of Soviet military bases and the stationing of troops on their soil. The government of Estonia accepted the ultimatum
, signing the corresponding agreement in September, while Latvia and Lithuania followed in October.
under the guise of "additional refresher training
". The Finnish government did not send the foreign minister, but its ambassador in Stockholm, J.K. Paasikivi
. This was done on purpose, to limit his powers as a negotiator. In Moscow, Paasikivi met both Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov
and Stalin.
The Soviets demanded that the frontier between the USSR and Finland on the Karelian Isthmus be moved westward to a point only 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Viipuri, Finland's second-largest city, to the line between Koivisto
and Lipola
. In addition, the Finns would have to destroy all existing fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. Finland should also cede to the Soviet Union the islands of Suursaari, Tytärsaari, and Koivisto in the Gulf of Finland. In the north, the Soviets demanded the Kalastajansaarento peninsula. Furthermore, the Finns should lease the Hanko Peninsula
to the Soviets for thirty years, and permit the Soviets to establish a military base
there. In exchange the Soviet Union would cede Repola
and Porajärvi from Eastern Karelia, an area twice as large as the territories demanded from the Finns.
The Soviet offer divided the Finnish government. The foreign minister Eljas Erkko and the defence minister Juho Niukkanen
rejected the offer, backed by the president Kyösti Kallio
. J.K. Paasikivi and C.G.E. Mannerheim, together with Väinö Tanner – who was later appointed one of the Finnish negotiators – wanted to accept the Soviet offer.
The Finns relied on military assistance from Sweden, and Eljas Erkko took part in the Stockholm assembly of Scandinavian leaders between 18 October and 19 October. There, Erkko met the Swedish foreign minister Rickard Sandler
in private, and Sandler assured him that he would persuade the Swedish government to assist Finland during a possible war. During the actual war, however, Sandler failed in this task and resigned. Finland was totally isolated by a German and Soviet blockade, and attempted in October to obtain arms and ammunition in absolute secrecy by enlisting the German arms dealer Josef Veltjens
.
On 31 October, Molotov announced the Soviet demands in public, during a session of the Supreme Soviet. The Finns made two counteroffers – the first in 23 October and the second on 3 November. In both offers Finland would cede the Terijoki area to the Soviet Union, which was far less than the Soviets had demanded. The Finnish delegation returned home on November 13, taking for granted that the negotiations would continue in the future.
near the Finnish border in 1938–1939. Finnish students and volunteers had spent the late summer 1939 improving the defensive structures across the Karelian Isthmus. On the Soviet side of the border, penal labour
worked hard in order to add some density to sparse road and rail networks. In summer 1939 was an important phase of Soviet planning, told by Aleksandr Vasilevsky
and Kirill Meretskov
in their memoirs. The Supreme Council of War ordered the Commander of Leningrad Military District Merestkov to draft an invasion plan, instead of Chief of Staff Boris Shaposhnikov
. The plan was adopted in July. Necessary assault troop deployments and commands were not initiated until October 1939, though operational plans made in September called for the invasion to start in November. Stalin however was certain that the Finns would change their opinion under Soviet pressure and cede the demanded territories.
The invasion plans were laid down by the Soviet General Staff under Boris Shaposhnikov and Alexander Vasilevsky. The Soviet timetable was clearly and rigidly defined, with little or no margin for error. The key date was 21 December, Stalin's sixtieth birthday. By then, the Finnish capital Helsinki would have been "freed of the Fascist oppression". Andrei Zhdanov
had already commissioned a celebratory piece from Dmitri Shostakovich
, entitled "Suite on Finnish Themes
" to be performed as the marching bands of the Red Army would be parading through Helsinki.
On 26 November, the Soviets staged the shelling of Mainila
, an incident in which Soviet artillery shelled area near the Russian village of Mainila and then announced that a Finnish artillery attack had killed Soviet soldiers. The Soviet Union demanded that the Finns apologize for the incident and move their forces 20–25 kilometres from the border. The Finns denied any responsibility for the attack and rejected the demands, calling for a joint Finnish-Soviet commission to examine the incident. The Soviet Union claimed that the Finnish response was hostile, and used it as an excuse to withdraw from the non-aggression pact.
. The shelling of Mainila
was a casus belli
of the Soviet Union as it had withdrawn from non-aggression pacts on 28 November. Earlier, Nazi Germany had staged a similar incident
to have an excuse to withdraw from the nonaggression pact with Poland. Later, the Soviet Union would used the Orzeł incident to challenge the neutrality of Estonia.
Later, the Finnish statesman J.K. Paasikivi commented that the Soviet attack, without a declaration of war
, violated three different non-aggression pacts: the Treaty of Tartu of 1920, the Non-aggression Pact between Finland and the Soviet Union signed 1932 and again in 1934, and further the Charter of the League of Nations. The invasion was judged as illegal by the League of Nations, which expelled the Soviet Union on December 14. Following the Soviet attack, C.G.E. Mannerheim was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces. Furthermore the Finnish government changed as Risto Ryti
was appointed the new prime minister and Väinö Tanner as foreign minister.
On 1 December, the Soviet Union created a new government for Finland, henceforth to be called the Finnish Democratic Republic
. It was a puppet regime headed by O. W. Kuusinen, and became known as the "Terijoki Government", since the village of Terijoki was the first place "liberated" by the Red Army. The puppet regime was unsuccessful, and it was quietly discarded during the winter of 1940. Contrary to Soviet expectations, from the beginning of the conflict, the working-class Finns stood behind the legal government. This national unity against the Soviet invasion was later called the "spirit of the Winter War
".
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
between Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in 1939–1940, stretching from Finland's Declaration of Independence
Finland's declaration of independence
The Finnish declaration of independence was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on 6 December 1917. It declared Finland an independent and sovereign nation state rather than an autonomous Russian Grand duchy.-Revolution in Russia:...
in 1917 to the Soviet-Finnish negotiations in 1938–1939. Before its independence, Finland was an autonomous grand duchy
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian czar as Grand Prince.- History :...
inside Imperial Russia. During the ensuing Finnish Civil War
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
, the Red Guards
Red Guards (Finland)
The Red Guards formed the army of Red Finland during the Finnish Civil War in 1918. The combined strength of the Red Guard was about 30,000 at the beginning of the Civil War, and peaked at 90,000-120,000 during the course of the conflict....
, supported by the Russian Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s, were defeated. Fearful of Soviet designs, during the 1920s and 1930s, the Finns were constantly attempting to align themselves with Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n neutrality, particularly with regard to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Furthermore, the Finns engaged in secret military co-operation with Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
in the 1930s.
While during the late 1920s and early 1930s relations with the Soviet Union became normalized to a degree, from 1938 on, the Soviets, anxious that Finland could be used as a springboard for an invasion, started negotiations to conclude a military agreement. At the same time, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's desire to recover the territories of Tsarist Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
lost during the chaos of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
and the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
made Finland an obvious target. Due to the nature of Soviet demands, which included the installation of Soviet military facilities on Finnish soil, these negotiations went nowhere.
In August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, in which Eastern European countries were divided into spheres of interest; Finland belonged to the Soviet sphere of interest. In October 1939, Stalin gained control of the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
and turned his sights on Finland, confident that control could be gained without great effort. The Soviet Union demanded territories on the Karelian Isthmus
Karelian Isthmus
The Karelian Isthmus is the approximately 45–110 km wide stretch of land, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva . Its northwestern boundary is the relatively narrow area between the Bay of Vyborg and Lake Ladoga...
, the islands of the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
and a military base near the Finnish capital Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, similar to the demands presented in the previous years. The Finns again refused, and the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
attacked on 30 November 1939. Simultaneously, Stalin set up a puppet government for the Finnish Democratic Republic
Finnish Democratic Republic
The Finnish Democratic Republic was a short-lived government dependent on and recognised only by the Soviet Union. It nominally operated in those parts of Finnish Karelia that were occupied by the Soviet Union during the Winter War....
, headed by the Finnish communist Otto Wille Kuusinen.
First steps of the Republic
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
for centuries until 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, when Imperial Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
conquered and converted it into an autonomous buffer state
Buffer state
A buffer state is a country lying between two rival or potentially hostile greater powers, which by its sheer existence is thought to prevent conflict between them. Buffer states, when authentically independent, typically pursue a neutralist foreign policy, which distinguishes them from satellite...
within the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
to protect Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, the imperial capital. Finland enjoyed wide autonomy and its own Senate
Senate of Finland
The Senate of Finland combined the functions of cabinet and supreme court in the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1816 to 1917 and in the independent Republic of Finland from 1917 to 1918....
until the turn of the century, when Russia began attempts to assimilate Finland
Russification of Finland
The policy of Russification of Finland was a governmental policy of the Russian Empire aimed at limiting the special status of the Grand Duchy of Finland and possibly the termination of its political autonomy and cultural uniqueness...
as part of a general policy to strengthen central government and unify the Empire by Russification
Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
. These attempts ruined relations and increased the support of Finnish movements vying for self-government.
The outbreak of the First World War gave Finland a window of opportunity to achieve this. The Finns sought aid from both the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
and the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s to that end, and on 6 December 1917, the Senate of Finland declared the country's independence
Finland's declaration of independence
The Finnish declaration of independence was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on 6 December 1917. It declared Finland an independent and sovereign nation state rather than an autonomous Russian Grand duchy.-Revolution in Russia:...
. The new Bolshevik Russian government was weak, and soon the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
would break out. Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
could spare no troops or attention for Finland, and consequently, Soviet Russia recognized the new Finnish government just three weeks after the declaration of independence. In 1918, the Finns fought a short civil war
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
, where the pro-Bolshevik Red Guards
Red Guards (Finland)
The Red Guards formed the army of Red Finland during the Finnish Civil War in 1918. The combined strength of the Red Guard was about 30,000 at the beginning of the Civil War, and peaked at 90,000-120,000 during the course of the conflict....
were armed by 7,000 to 10,000 Russian troops stationed in Finland.
After the First World War, an inter-governmental organization, the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
was founded. The League's goals included preventing war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
through collective security
Collective security
Collective security can be understood as a security arrangement, regional or global, in which each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and agrees to join in a collective response to threats to, and breaches of, the peace...
and settling disputes between countries through negotiation and diplomacy. Finland joined the League in 1920.
In 1920s and 1930s Finland was politically diverse. The Communist Party of Finland
Communist Party of Finland
The Communist Party of Finland was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944.SKP did not participate in any elections with its own name. Instead, front organisations were used...
was declared illegal in 1931, and the far-right Patriotic People's Movement
Patriotic People's Movement (Finland)
Patriotic People's Movement, abbreviated to IKL), was a Finnish nationalist and anti-communist political party. IKL was the successor of the previously banned Lapuan liike...
(IKL) had a minor presentation of fourteen seats in the 200-seat parliament. The middle ground, occupied by Conservatives, Liberals
National Progressive Party (Finland)
The National Progressive Party was a liberal political party in Finland from 1918 to 1951. The party was founded December 8 1918, after the Finnish Civil War, by the republican majority of the Young Finnish Party and the republican minority of the Finnish Party...
, Agrians
Centre Party (Finland)
The Centre Party is a centrist and Nordic agrarian political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the Social Democratic Party , the National Coalition Party and the True Finns , and currently has 35 seats in the Finnish Parliament...
and Swedish People, tended to cluster with the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party of Finland
The Social Democratic Party of Finland is one of the three major political parties in Finland, along with the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party. Jutta Urpilainen is the current SDP leader. The party has been in the Finnish government cabinet for long periods and has set many...
, whose leader, Väinö Tanner
Väinö Tanner
Väinö Tanner was a pioneer and leader in the cooperative movement in Finland, and Prime Minister of Finland from 1926 to 1927....
, was a strong proponent of the parliamentary system. By the late 1930s the Finnish export-oriented economy was growing, the country had almost solved its "right-wing problem" and Finland was preparing for the 1940 Summer Olympics
1940 Summer Olympics
The anticipated 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad and originally scheduled to be held from September 21 to October 6, 1940, in Tokyo, Japan, were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II...
.
Finnish–German relations
Finnish Jäger troops
The Jäger Movement were volunteers from Finland trained in Germany as Jägers during World War I. Supported by Germany to enable a Finnish sovereign state, it was one of many means by which Germany intended to weaken Russia and to cause Russia's loss of western provinces and...
played a key role in the Finnish Civil War
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
, while the German Baltic Sea Division
Baltic Sea Division
The Baltic Sea Division was a 10,000 man German military unit commanded by Rüdiger von der Goltz. During the Finnish Civil War, in April 1918, it landed at Hanko and moved towards Helsinki and Lahti. The Baltic Sea Division quickly took back Helsinki from the Social Democrats of Finland, who had...
also intervened late in the civil war. Jäger troops were volunteers from German-influenced circles, such as university students. This participation in the Finnish struggle for independence created close ties with Germany, but after the German defeat in the World War, Scandinavian relations became more important and the main goal of the Finnish foreign policy.
Finnish-German relations cooled after the National Socialists rose to power in 1933 – Finns admired Imperial Germany, not the radical and anti-democratic Nazi regime. Finnish conservatives did not accept the state violence and anti-church policies of the Nazis. Still, there was sympathy for German aims to revise the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, although the official Finnish policy was reserved, especially after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's pretext for this effort was the alleged privations suffered by...
. Finland even recalled its ambassador for a short period. Finnish Nazis and ultranationalist parties such as the IKL
Patriotic People's Movement (Finland)
Patriotic People's Movement, abbreviated to IKL), was a Finnish nationalist and anti-communist political party. IKL was the successor of the previously banned Lapuan liike...
achieved only minor support in several elections, especially in the aftermath of the failed Mäntsälä rebellion
Mäntsälä rebellion
The Mäntsälä rebellion was a failed coup attempt by the Lapua Movement to overthrow the Finnish government.On February 27, 1932 some 400 armed members of the Suojeluskunta militia interrupted a meeting of Social Democrats in Mäntsälä with small arms fire...
in 1932.
Finnish–Swedish co-operation
After the 1917 Finnish independence and the Civil War, the other Scandinavian countries would have been the best candidates for a political alliance. Swedo-Finnish cooperation represented a rich vein of shared history in the culture of both nations, and the Swedish-speaking Finns had a common language with Swedes. During the Civil War, however, Sweden briefly occupiedÅland crisis
The Åland crisis was one of the first issues put up for arbitration by the League of Nations on its formation. The Åland Islands' population's demand for self-determination was not met and sovereignty over the islands was retained by Finland, but international guarantees were given to allow the...
the Åland Islands
Åland Islands
The Åland Islands form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. They are situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia and form an autonomous, demilitarised, monolingually Swedish-speaking region of Finland...
and later supported the local movement that wanted to secede from Finland and join the islands to Sweden. The dispute was resolved by the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
in 1921 and the Åland remained Finnish, but were granted autonomy. Other obstacles to closer relations were the ongoing language strife on the status of the Swedish language
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
in Finland. Sweden had also opposed the upper-class resistance movement against Russification. As a result, young Finnish men received their military training in Germany, generating the Jäger Movement
Finnish Jäger troops
The Jäger Movement were volunteers from Finland trained in Germany as Jägers during World War I. Supported by Germany to enable a Finnish sovereign state, it was one of many means by which Germany intended to weaken Russia and to cause Russia's loss of western provinces and...
. Nevertheless, Finnish–Swedish relations improved considerably before the Winter War.
Finland sought security guarantees from the League of Nations, but did not have high expectations. Sweden was a one of the founding members of the League, and consequently framed its military policies based on the League's principles of disarmament and sanctions. In the mid-1920s the Finns established a special planning committee, called the Committee of Erich after its chairman Rafael Erich
Rafael Erich
Rafael Waldemar Erich was a Finnish politician from the National Coalition Party, Professor, diplomat, and Prime Minister of Finland ....
, which consisted of top politicians and officers, with the aim of exploring a possible military collaboration of Finland with other nations. The prime goal was co-operation with the Scandinavian countries, amongst which Sweden was the most important prospective partner.
The Finnish and Swedish militaries engaged in wide-ranging co-operation, but it was more focused on the exchange of information and defence planning for the Åland islands than on military exercise
Military exercise
A military exercise is the employment of military resources in training for military operations, either exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat...
s or materiel. The Finnish objective was to commit the Swedes by establishing a military-political joint venture in the Åland: if the Swedes would undertake to assist Finland in fortifying the islands, then an important and useful precedent might be set. The Government of Sweden
Government of Sweden
The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden is the supreme executive authority of Sweden. It consists of the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers appointed by the Prime Minister. The Government is responsible for their actions to the Riksdag, which is the legislative assembly...
was aware of the military co-operation, but carefully avoided committing itself to Finnish foreign policy.
Secret military co-operation with Estonia
Finnish–Estonian defense cooperation
Finnish–Estonian defence cooperation began in 1930 with a secret military cooperation pact between Finland and Estonia against the threat of the Soviet Union...
were top secret
Top Secret
Top Secret generally refers to the highest acknowledged level of classified information.Top Secret may also refer to:- Film and television :* Top Secret , a British comedy directed by Mario Zampi...
, and the countries held joint military exercises. The central aim was to prevent the Soviet Baltic Fleet
Baltic Fleet
The Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet - is the Russian Navy's presence in the Baltic Sea. In previous historical periods, it has been part of the navy of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union. The Fleet gained the 'Twice Red Banner' appellation during the Soviet period, indicating two awards of...
from freely using its strength in the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
against either country. Estonia also sought public security guarantees and signed the Baltic Entente
Baltic Entente
The Baltic Entente was based on Treaty of Understanding and Collaboration signed between Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia on September 12, 1934 in Geneva. The main objective of the agreement was joint action in foreign policy. It also included mutual commitments to support each other politically, and...
in 1934 with Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
.
Relations with the United Kingdom and France
After the collapse of Imperial Germany in November 1918, the Finns sought new political partners. The United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
had been a significant trading partner since the 18th century, and the Finns worked to improve the relations for the next two decades. In the 1930s Finland purchased Thornycroft
Thornycroft
Thornycroft was a United Kingdom-based vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977.-History:Thornycroft started out with steam vans and lorries. John Isaac Thornycroft, the naval engineer, built his first steam lorry in 1896...
torpedo boats from the United Kingdom, and also refrained from buying bomber aircraft from Germany because of British protests, purchasing instead modern Bristol Blenheim
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
s, which later served successfully during the Winter War.
Relations with France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
were important after World War I and in the 1920s, as France played a leading role in the new European security arrangements. In the 1930s France started to fear the rise of Nazi Germany and initiated a rapprochement
Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance
The Franco–Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance was a bilateral pact between the two countries with the aim of containing Nazi Germany's aggression in 1935. It was pursued by Louis Barthou, who was the French Foreign Minister but he was assassinated before negotiations were finished...
with the Soviet Union, which strained Franco-Finnish relations. However, during the Winter War France was one of the most important suppliers of military materiel
Materiel
Materiel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....
.
Finnish defence plans
The Finnish Defence ForcesFinnish Defence Forces
The Finnish Defence Forces are responsible for the defence of Finland. It is a cadre army of 15,000, of which 8,900 are professional soldiers , extended with conscripts and reservists such that the standard readiness strength is 34,700 people in uniform...
' military operation plan against the Soviet Union was named Venäjän keskitys ("Russian Concentration"; VK) in the 1920s. In the latest 1934 plan, the Finns saw two possible scenarios. In the VK1 scenario, the Soviets would mobilize all along their western border, and would deploy only limited forces against Finland. In this case the Finns would make counterattacks across the border. The VK2 scenario envisaged a much more unfavourable situation for the Finns. The main defense line would be on the Karelian Isthmus
Karelian Isthmus
The Karelian Isthmus is the approximately 45–110 km wide stretch of land, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva . Its northwestern boundary is the relatively narrow area between the Bay of Vyborg and Lake Ladoga...
, the Finnish forces would repel Soviet attacks in favourable positions, and destroy the enemy by counterattack
Counterattack
A counterattack is a tactic used in response against an attack. The term originates in military strategy. The general objective is to negate or thwart the advantage gained by the enemy in attack and the specific objectives are usually to regain lost ground or to destroy attacking enemy units.It is...
s. In the Winter War, the VK2 scenario was flexible and its basis proved correct, but the Finnish General staff badly underestimated the numerical superiority of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
.
Finland had a limited defence budget after its independence and especially in the 1930s. Consequently, the Finnish Defence Forces were lacking military materiel in almost all branches. Much of the military's materiel was outdated, and even proved unsuitable for the field during the Winter War. During the Winter War the material situation improved, but it still lagged behind the more modern and well-equipped Red Army.
Diplomatic relations
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Finland had been tense — a legacy of the two periods of forced Russification
Russification of Finland
The policy of Russification of Finland was a governmental policy of the Russian Empire aimed at limiting the special status of the Grand Duchy of Finland and possibly the termination of its political autonomy and cultural uniqueness...
at the turn of the century and the failed Soviet-backed socialist rebellion in Finland
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
, as well as incursions by groups of Finnish nationalists – the Viena expedition
Viena expedition
The Viena expedition was a military expedition in March 1918 by Finnish volunteer forces to annex White Karelia from Bolshevist Russia. It was one of the many "kinship wars" fought near the newly independent Finland during the Russian Civil War...
in 1918 and the Aunus expedition
Aunus expedition
The Aunus expedition was an attempt by Finnish volunteers to occupy parts of East Karelia in 1919, during the Russian Civil War. Aunus is the Finnish name for Olonets Karelia...
of 1919 – into Russian East Karelia
East Karelia
East Karelia , also rendered as Eastern Karelia or Russian Karelia, is a name for the part of Karelia that since the Treaty of Stolbova in 1617 has remained Christian Orthodox under Russian supremacy. It is separated from the western part of Karelia, called Finnish Karelia or historically Swedish...
.
On 14 October 1920, Finland and Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Tartu
Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Finnish)
The Treaty of Tartu between Finland and Soviet Russia was signed on 14 October 1920 after negotiations that lasted for four months. The treaty confirmed the border between Finland and Soviet Russia after the Finnish civil war and Finnish volunteer expeditions in Russian East Karelia. Ratifications...
, confirming the new Finnish-Soviet border as the old border between the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian czar as Grand Prince.- History :...
and Imperial Russia proper. In addition, Finland received Petsamo
Pechengsky District
Pechengsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the five in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It is located to the northwest of the Kola Peninsula on the coast of the Barents Sea and borders with Finland in the south and southwest and with Norway in the west, northwest, and north...
, with its ice-free harbour on the Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
. The treaty did not prevent the Finnish government from allowing volunteers to cross the border to support the East-Karelian Uprising in 1921 however, nor expatriate Finnish communists from causing disturbances
Pork mutiny
The Pork mutiny was an incident in Northern Finland in 1922. On February 2 a group of armed Red Guard members crossed the Finnish-Soviet border near Kuolajärvi and Savukoski. They advanced to a logging yard owned by Kemijoki Oy...
in Finland. In 1923 both countries signed the Border Peace Agreement, which normalized the border.
In 1928, the Soviet Union began collectivization in Ingria
Ingria
Ingria is a historical region in the eastern Baltic, now part of Russia, comprising the southern bank of the river Neva, between the Gulf of Finland, the Narva River, Lake Peipus in the west, and Lake Ladoga and the western bank of the Volkhov river in the east...
. During the collectivization and ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
, the Soviets captured, killed and deported Ingrian peasants, provoking widespread criticism by the Finnish media in 1930. Two years later, the nationalist Lapua Movement
Lapua Movement
The Lapua Movement , was a Finnish radical nationalist and anti-communist political movement founded in and named after the town of Lapua. After radicalisation it turned towards far-right politics and was banned after a failed coup-d'état in 1932...
unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the Finnish government in the Mäntsälä rebellion
Mäntsälä rebellion
The Mäntsälä rebellion was a failed coup attempt by the Lapua Movement to overthrow the Finnish government.On February 27, 1932 some 400 armed members of the Suojeluskunta militia interrupted a meeting of Social Democrats in Mäntsälä with small arms fire...
.
Nevertheless, during the 1930s, the diplomatic climate between Finland and the Soviet Union gradually improved. From the 1920s, the Soviet Union had offered different non-aggression pacts with Finland but they were all rejected. Now the offer was renewed as part of a series of agreements with the countries on the Soviet Union's western border. In 1932, the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Finland, re-affirmed in 1934 for ten years.
Relations between the two countries remained largely de minimis
De minimis
De minimis is a Latin expression meaning about minimal things, normally in the locutions de minimis non curat praetor or de minimis non curat lex .In risk assessment it refers to a level of risk that is too small to be concerned with...
however. While foreign trade in Finland was booming
Boom and bust
A credit boom-bust cycle is an episode characterized by a sustained increase in several economics indicators followed by a sharp and rapid contraction. Commonly the boom is driven by a rapid expansion of credit to the private sector accompanied with rising prices of commodities and stock market index...
, less than one percent of it was with the Soviet Union. In 1934, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations, and later accepted other "progressive forces" beside Communist parties
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
. This change in Soviet attitudes, as well as internal politics in Finland, enabled a short thaw in relations in 1937.
Stalin and the protection of Leningrad
After the Russian civil war, Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
was disappointed at the Soviet Union's inability to foment a successful revolution in Finland, and furthermore, the Bolsheviks struggle with national sentiments inside the Soviet Union. In 1923, Stalin proclaimed that the main danger in national relations was Great-Russian chauvinism. He started the policy of Korenizatsiya
Korenizatsiya
Korenizatsiya sometimes also called korenization, meaning "nativization" or "indigenization", literally "putting down roots", was the early Soviet nationalities policy promoted mostly in the 1920s but with a continuing legacy in later years...
, indigenisation, to promote national communist cadres for every nationality. However, from 1937 Stalin encouraged Russian chauvinism, implying the Russians were politically and culturally superior. The Soviet diplomacy turned towards the recovery of the territories of the Tsarist state
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. The Soviet Union used the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
to announce a doctrine where bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
equaled Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, and that Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
was the natural agency of the proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
. In practice, this meant that anything other than Communism would be considered anti-Soviet and fascist. The Soviet foreign policy was a mixture of the ideology of world revolution and the traditional concerns of Russian national security.
During the Stalin era
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, the Soviet agriculture production collapsed causing famines in 1932–1933. Official output numbers of industrial production were used as propaganda to portray the Soviet Union as an economic miracle. Soviet propaganda also used cross-border comparisons with Finland, to represent the country as a "vicious and reactionary Fascist clique". The Finnish Marshal C.G.E. Mannerheim
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War, Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defence Forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, and a Finnish statesman. He was Regent of Finland and the sixth President of Finland...
and the leader of the Finnish Social Democrat Party Väinö Tanner
Väinö Tanner
Väinö Tanner was a pioneer and leader in the cooperative movement in Finland, and Prime Minister of Finland from 1926 to 1927....
were particular hate figure
Hate figure
A hate figure is a person, normally in the public eye, who is widely disliked. The public's hatred for that person may be because of horrific acts but also sometimes may be unexplained ....
s. Stalin gained near-absolute power in 1935–1936, leaving only army as self-governing, but its officers also became the target of purges during the Great terror
Great Terror
Great Terror may refer to:* Reign of Terror , a period of extreme violence during the French Revolution, last weeks of which are sometimes referred to as the Red Terror or Great Terror...
in 1937–1938.
In the late 1930s, Stalin's Soviet Union was no longer satisfied with the status quo
Status quo
Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...
in its relations with Finland. This came as a result of a change in Soviet foreign policy, which now pursued the aim of recovering the provinces of Tsarist Russia lost during the chaos of the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War. The Soviets considered the old Empire to have had an optimal balance of security and territory, and their thoughts were shaped by a historical precedent: as the Treaty of Nystad
Treaty of Nystad
The Treaty of Nystad was the last peace treaty of the Great Northern War. It was concluded between the Tsardom of Russia and Swedish Empire on 30 August / 10 September 1721 in the then Swedish town of Nystad , after Sweden had settled with the other parties in Stockholm and Frederiksborg.During...
of 1721 was intended to protect Tsarist Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
from the Swedes, the re-acquisition of Finland would protect the now Bolshevik Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
from the rising power of Nazi Germany. While in 1938 Sweden was no longer a major threat against Russia, the Soviets had not forgotten the role that the Finnish-controlled Åland islands had played as a base of operations for the German Expeditionary Force in the Finnish Civil War.
Negotiations from 1938 to early 1939
Rudolf Holsti
Eino Rudolf Woldemar Holsti was a Finnish politician, journalist and diplomat. He was the Foreign Minister of Finland 1919–1922 and 1936–1938 and a member of the Finnish Parliament 1913–1918 representing the Young Finnish Party...
and prime minister Aimo Cajander
Aimo Cajander
Aimo Kaarlo Cajander was, outside of botany, best known as Prime Minister of Finland up to the Winter War....
, stating that the Soviets did not trust Germany and war was considered possible between the two countries. In such a war Germany might use Finland as a base for operations against the Soviet Union. The Red Army would not wait passively behind the border, but would rather "advance to meet the enemy". If Finland were to fight against Germany, then the Soviet Union would offer all possible economic and military assistance. The Soviets would also accept the fortification of Åland islands, but demanded "positive guarantees" on Finland's position.
The Finns assured Yartsev that Finland was committed to a policy of neutrality, and the country would resist any armed incursion. Yartsev was not satisfied with the reply, given Finland's military weakness. He suggested that Finland could cede, or lease, some islands in the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
along the seaward approaches to Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, a suggestion the Finns rejected. Earlier in the mid-1930s, the Soviet ambassador in Helsinki, Eric Assmus
Eric Assmus
Eric Assmus was a Soviet diplomat. He had German descent.Preceded by Boris Shtein, Assmus was an ambassador in Finland from 1935 to 1937. He contacted the Finnish prime minister Toivo Kivimäki on 15 June 1935 stating that "in case of a military conflict in the Mainland Europe, the Soviet Union...
, and the Leningrad Bolshevik party leader Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
, had presented a similar proposal.
Negotiations continued during autumn 1938. The Soviets reduced their demands: a Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
operation was not an option anymore and the focus was shifted on securing the Gulf of Finland. The Soviets wanted to be informed of key elements of the Finnish–Estonian Gulf blockade
Finnish–Estonian defense cooperation
Finnish–Estonian defence cooperation began in 1930 with a secret military cooperation pact between Finland and Estonia against the threat of the Soviet Union...
, the secret military plan against the Baltic Fleet
Baltic Fleet
The Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet - is the Russian Navy's presence in the Baltic Sea. In previous historical periods, it has been part of the navy of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union. The Fleet gained the 'Twice Red Banner' appellation during the Soviet period, indicating two awards of...
. Furthermore Yartsev suggested that the Finns fortify the Suursaari island, but that the Soviets would take care of its defence. During the negotiations, Rudolf Holsti resigned as foreign minister, although not for reasons associated with the negotiations, and his place was taken by Eljas Erkko
Eljas Erkko
Juho Eljas Erkko was a Finnish politician and journalist. He was a foreign minister and negotiated with the Soviet Union before the Winter War started...
. Holsti was rather anti-German, so the resignation set off rumours, quickly qualled by the Finnish government, that he had been forced to resign by a Finnish government sympathetic to the Germans. The Finns attempted to appear even-handed, and the interior ministry issued an order banning the extreme-right IKL. The ban was reversed by the Finnish courts as being unconstitutional. Many years later, the minister in charge at that time, Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen , was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland and later as the eighth President of Finland . Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen...
, admitted that this was a simple gesture, to suggest to Moscow that Finland did not harbour a German fifth column
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
.
By the winter of 1939, the Soviets further reduced their demands and sent Boris Stein to negotiate. Stein and Erkko met five times. Erkko rejected the Soviet proposals, saying that the Soviet demands would mean the end of the Finnish neutrality policy and displease the Germans. When the chairman of the Finnish Defense Council C.G.E. Mannerheim
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War, Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defence Forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, and a Finnish statesman. He was Regent of Finland and the sixth President of Finland...
was informed of the negotiations, he opined that Finland should give up the Suursaari islands because their defence would anyway be impossible during a war, but his arguments did not persuade the majority of the Finnish government. Stein departed Helsinki empty-handed on 6 April.
The Finns had many reasons to turn down the Soviet proposals. Finland had started negotiations for a military co-operation with Sweden, and the Finns had great hopes for the joint Finnish–Swedish defense for the Ålands islands and did not want to jeopardize these negotiations. In addition, the violent collectivization, purges
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, show trials and executions in Stalin's Soviet Union had given the country a bad reputation. Furthermore, most of the Finnish Communist leadership in the Soviet Union was executed during the Great Purge. The Soviet Union did not therefore seem to be a reliable contracting party. The Soviet envoys sent to negotiate with Finns were officially of relatively low rank, but as Väinö Tanner put it later, the Finns assumed rightly that they represented of some higher organ of State, probably the Soviet secret police NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
.
Soviet–German alliance
On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Nominally, the pact was a non-aggression treaty, but it included a secret protocol in which the independent countries of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
were divided into spheres of interest, with Finland falling to the Soviet sphere of interest.
In the immediate aftermath of the Pact, the Scandinavian countries and Finland were relieved. The Germans and Soviets were now allies, and there was no German threat against the Soviet Union. But shortly afterwards, Germany invaded Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
and Great Britain and France declared war against Germany. Next, the Soviets invaded eastern Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...
, and later Moscow requested that the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
allow the establishment of Soviet military bases and the stationing of troops on their soil. The government of Estonia accepted the ultimatum
Ultimatum
An ultimatum is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance. An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series of requests...
, signing the corresponding agreement in September, while Latvia and Lithuania followed in October.
Soviet demands in late 1939
On 5 October the Soviet Union invited Finland to negotiations in Moscow. The Finnish government did not hasten to comply, like the Estonian government had earlier. Unlike the Baltic countries, the Finns started a gradual mobilizationMobilization
Mobilization is the act of assembling and making both troops and supplies ready for war. The word mobilization was first used, in a military context, in order to describe the preparation of the Prussian army during the 1850s and 1860s. Mobilization theories and techniques have continuously changed...
under the guise of "additional refresher training
Refresher training
Refresher training is a form of updating military knowledge of the reservist troops. After one has completed the conscription service, he or she can be called for refresher training for some amount of days.-Refresher training in the Finnish Defence Forces:...
". The Finnish government did not send the foreign minister, but its ambassador in Stockholm, J.K. Paasikivi
Juho Kusti Paasikivi
Juho Kusti Paasikivi was the seventh President of Finland . Representing the Finnish Party and the National Coalition Party, he also served as Prime Minister of Finland , and was generally an influential figure in Finnish economics and politics for over fifty years...
. This was done on purpose, to limit his powers as a negotiator. In Moscow, Paasikivi met both Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
and Stalin.
The Soviets demanded that the frontier between the USSR and Finland on the Karelian Isthmus be moved westward to a point only 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Viipuri, Finland's second-largest city, to the line between Koivisto
Primorsk, Leningrad Oblast
Primorsk is a coastal town in Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, and the largest Russian port on the Baltic. It is located on the Karelian Isthmus, west of St. Petersburg, at the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland, near Birch Islands, protected as a sea bird sanctuary...
and Lipola
Khiytola
Khiytola is a settlement in Lahdenpohja district of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, and the railroad junction of the Vyborg–Joensuu and Saint Petersburg–Hiitola railroads. Before the Winter War it was a municipality of the Viipuri province of Finland....
. In addition, the Finns would have to destroy all existing fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. Finland should also cede to the Soviet Union the islands of Suursaari, Tytärsaari, and Koivisto in the Gulf of Finland. In the north, the Soviets demanded the Kalastajansaarento peninsula. Furthermore, the Finns should lease the Hanko Peninsula
Hanko Peninsula
The Hanko Peninsula , also spelled Hango, is the southernmost point of mainland Finland. The soil is a sandy moraine, the last tip of the Salpausselkä ridge, and vegetation consists mainly of pine and low shrubs...
to the Soviets for thirty years, and permit the Soviets to establish a military base
Military base
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...
there. In exchange the Soviet Union would cede Repola
Repola
Repola is a parish in the Republic of Karelia of the Russian Federation by the Finnish border. In 1926 the parish had a population of 1465.After Finland's declaration of independence the parish became an issue in Finnish-Russian relations when its population held a vote in August 1918 to join...
and Porajärvi from Eastern Karelia, an area twice as large as the territories demanded from the Finns.
The Soviet offer divided the Finnish government. The foreign minister Eljas Erkko and the defence minister Juho Niukkanen
Juho Niukkanen
Juho Niukkanen was a Finnish politician prior to, during, and after the Winter War. He was a member of parliament 1917–1932 and 1936–1954, and represented the Agrarian Party . He served as a minister in many cabinets...
rejected the offer, backed by the president Kyösti Kallio
Kyösti Kallio
Kyösti Kallio was the fourth President of Finland . He was a prominent leader of the Agrarian League, and served as Prime Minister four times and Speaker of the Parliament six times.-Early life:...
. J.K. Paasikivi and C.G.E. Mannerheim, together with Väinö Tanner – who was later appointed one of the Finnish negotiators – wanted to accept the Soviet offer.
The Finns relied on military assistance from Sweden, and Eljas Erkko took part in the Stockholm assembly of Scandinavian leaders between 18 October and 19 October. There, Erkko met the Swedish foreign minister Rickard Sandler
Rickard Sandler
Rickard Johannes Sandler was a Swedish Social Democratic politician. He served asMinister without Portfolio in the Swedish government from 10 March 1920 to 30 June 1920, Minister for Finance from 1 July 1920 to 27 October 1920, Minister without Portfolio from 13 October 1921 to 19 April 1923,...
in private, and Sandler assured him that he would persuade the Swedish government to assist Finland during a possible war. During the actual war, however, Sandler failed in this task and resigned. Finland was totally isolated by a German and Soviet blockade, and attempted in October to obtain arms and ammunition in absolute secrecy by enlisting the German arms dealer Josef Veltjens
Josef Veltjens
Josef "Seppl" Veltjens Pour le Mérite, Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, Iron Cross was a World War I fighter ace credited with 35 victories...
.
On 31 October, Molotov announced the Soviet demands in public, during a session of the Supreme Soviet. The Finns made two counteroffers – the first in 23 October and the second on 3 November. In both offers Finland would cede the Terijoki area to the Soviet Union, which was far less than the Soviets had demanded. The Finnish delegation returned home on November 13, taking for granted that the negotiations would continue in the future.
Military preparations
The Soviet Union had started an intensive rearmamentRearmament
Rearmament is the third album by American singer-songwriter Happy Rhodes, released in 1986.-Overview:Rhodes' first four albums were not conceived and recorded as album releases, but were a gathering together of songs recorded at Cathedral Sound Studios from 1984 to 1986...
near the Finnish border in 1938–1939. Finnish students and volunteers had spent the late summer 1939 improving the defensive structures across the Karelian Isthmus. On the Soviet side of the border, penal labour
Penal labour
Penal labour is a form of unfree labour in which prisoners perform work, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence which involve penal labour include penal servitude and imprisonment with hard labour...
worked hard in order to add some density to sparse road and rail networks. In summer 1939 was an important phase of Soviet planning, told by Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky was a Russian career officer in the Red Army, promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1943. He was the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces and Deputy Minister of Defense during World War II, as well as Minister of Defense from 1949 to 1953...
and Kirill Meretskov
Kirill Meretskov
Kirill Afanasievich Meretskov was a Soviet military commander. Having joined the Communist Party in 1917, he served in the Red Army from 1920. During the Winter War, he was responsible for penetrating the Mannerheim Line as commander of the 7th Army...
in their memoirs. The Supreme Council of War ordered the Commander of Leningrad Military District Merestkov to draft an invasion plan, instead of Chief of Staff Boris Shaposhnikov
Boris Shaposhnikov
Boris Mikhailovitch Shaposhnikov was a Soviet military commander.-Biography:Shaposhnikov was born at Zlatoust, near Chelyabinsk in the Urals. He joined the army of the Russian Empire in 1901 and graduated from the Nicholas General Staff Academy in 1910, reaching the rank of colonel in the...
. The plan was adopted in July. Necessary assault troop deployments and commands were not initiated until October 1939, though operational plans made in September called for the invasion to start in November. Stalin however was certain that the Finns would change their opinion under Soviet pressure and cede the demanded territories.
The invasion plans were laid down by the Soviet General Staff under Boris Shaposhnikov and Alexander Vasilevsky. The Soviet timetable was clearly and rigidly defined, with little or no margin for error. The key date was 21 December, Stalin's sixtieth birthday. By then, the Finnish capital Helsinki would have been "freed of the Fascist oppression". Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
had already commissioned a celebratory piece from Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
, entitled "Suite on Finnish Themes
Suite on Finnish Themes
The Suite on Finnish Themes or Seven Arrangements of Finnish Folk Songs is a suite composed in 1939 for soloists and chamber ensemble in seven movements by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
" to be performed as the marching bands of the Red Army would be parading through Helsinki.
On 26 November, the Soviets staged the shelling of Mainila
Shelling of Mainila
The Shelling of Mainila was a military incident on November 26, 1939, where the Soviet Union's Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila , declared that the fire originated from Finland across a nearby border and claimed losses in personnel...
, an incident in which Soviet artillery shelled area near the Russian village of Mainila and then announced that a Finnish artillery attack had killed Soviet soldiers. The Soviet Union demanded that the Finns apologize for the incident and move their forces 20–25 kilometres from the border. The Finns denied any responsibility for the attack and rejected the demands, calling for a joint Finnish-Soviet commission to examine the incident. The Soviet Union claimed that the Finnish response was hostile, and used it as an excuse to withdraw from the non-aggression pact.
The Red Army assaults
On 30 November, Soviet forces invaded Finland with 27 divisions, totalling 630,000 men, bombed civilian boroughs of Helsinki and quickly reached the Mannerheim LineMannerheim Line
The Mannerheim Line was a defensive fortification line on the Karelian Isthmus built by Finland against the Soviet Union. During the Winter War it became known as the Mannerheim Line, after Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. The line was constructed in two phases: 1920–1924 and...
. The shelling of Mainila
Shelling of Mainila
The Shelling of Mainila was a military incident on November 26, 1939, where the Soviet Union's Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila , declared that the fire originated from Finland across a nearby border and claimed losses in personnel...
was a casus belli
Casus belli
is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while means bellic...
of the Soviet Union as it had withdrawn from non-aggression pacts on 28 November. Earlier, Nazi Germany had staged a similar incident
Gleiwitz incident
The Gleiwitz incident was a staged attack by Nazi forces posing as Poles on 31 August 1939, against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany on the eve of World War II in Europe....
to have an excuse to withdraw from the nonaggression pact with Poland. Later, the Soviet Union would used the Orzeł incident to challenge the neutrality of Estonia.
Later, the Finnish statesman J.K. Paasikivi commented that the Soviet attack, without a declaration of war
Declaration of war
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
, violated three different non-aggression pacts: the Treaty of Tartu of 1920, the Non-aggression Pact between Finland and the Soviet Union signed 1932 and again in 1934, and further the Charter of the League of Nations. The invasion was judged as illegal by the League of Nations, which expelled the Soviet Union on December 14. Following the Soviet attack, C.G.E. Mannerheim was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces. Furthermore the Finnish government changed as Risto Ryti
Risto Ryti
Risto Heikki Ryti was the fifth President of Finland, from 1940 to 1944. Ryti started his career as a politician in the field of economics and as a political background figure during the interwar period. He made a wide range of international contacts in the world of banking and within the...
was appointed the new prime minister and Väinö Tanner as foreign minister.
On 1 December, the Soviet Union created a new government for Finland, henceforth to be called the Finnish Democratic Republic
Finnish Democratic Republic
The Finnish Democratic Republic was a short-lived government dependent on and recognised only by the Soviet Union. It nominally operated in those parts of Finnish Karelia that were occupied by the Soviet Union during the Winter War....
. It was a puppet regime headed by O. W. Kuusinen, and became known as the "Terijoki Government", since the village of Terijoki was the first place "liberated" by the Red Army. The puppet regime was unsuccessful, and it was quietly discarded during the winter of 1940. Contrary to Soviet expectations, from the beginning of the conflict, the working-class Finns stood behind the legal government. This national unity against the Soviet invasion was later called the "spirit of the Winter War
Spirit of the Winter War
The Spirit of Winter War is the national unity which is credited with having saved Finland from disintegrating along class and ideological lines under the Soviet invasion during the Winter War of November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940....
".
See also
- Causes of World War IICauses of World War IIThe main causes of World War II were nationalistic tensions, unresolved issues, and resentments resulting from the World War I and the interwar period in Europe, plus the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s....
- Timeline of the Winter WarTimeline of the Winter WarThe timeline of the Winter War is a chronology of events leading up to, culminating in, and resulting from the Winter War. The war began when the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 and it ended 13 March 1940.- Prelude :...
- Background of the occupation and annexation of the Baltic statesBackground of the occupation and annexation of the Baltic statesThe background of the occupation and annexation of the Baltic states covers the period before the first Soviet occupation on 14 June 1940, stretching from independence in 1918 to the Soviet ultimatums in 1939–1940. The Baltic states gained their independence during and after the Russian revolutions...