What Triggered the Soviet-Finnish War in 1939?
Historical events cannot be considered outside the context of time, experts remind. 85 years ago, the Soviet-Finnish war began, which lasted 105 days. In foreign historiography it is customary to blame the USSR for aggression, but the beneficiary of the war was not the Soviet side. Why the conflict actually began and what countries that want to solve problems with Russia by force need to remember in the FederalPress article.
Finland’s Historical Tensions Before the Soviet-Finnish War
Dangerous neighbor
On November 30, 1939, the Soviet-Finnish war began, or, as it is called in the West, the “Winter War,” which lasted 105 days until March 12, 1940. This conflict was at least the third Finnish-Soviet conflict since 1917, despite the fact that the Soviet government assisted the Finns in gaining independence.
Experts note the historical continuity of Western policy tools to contain their opponents. For the so-called “aggression”, sanctions were imposed on the USSR – it was expelled from the League of Nations and prohibited from supplying aircraft equipment and materials for the aircraft industry, including aluminum, molybdenum and aviation gasoline, to the country.
The nature of the conflict was closely connected with the personality of Karl Mannerheim – it was he who repeatedly made territorial claims against the USSR over several decades. In the spring of 1918, Mannerheim published the “Oath of the Sword,” in which he expressed claims to the territory of White Sea Karelia, which later extended to Soviet territory up to the Urals.
Finland did not intend to coexist peacefully with the USSR – in the period from 1921 to 1922, the country’s government tried to initiate revolts in Soviet Karelia, but these attempts were unsuccessful.
Finnish Nationalism and Its Role in the Soviet-Finnish War
The fight against Finnish nationalism
Finnish nationalism, which at that time already had a clear Russophobic character, became a serious problem for the USSR. Mannerheim’s troops, who took Vyborg in the spring of 1918, carried out a massacre of Russian residents of the city, including opponents of the Reds. According to historical data, between three and five thousand Russians became victims of Finnish nationalists.
After the occupation of Soviet Karelia in the summer of 1941, the authorities unleashed terror against civilians – everyone who was not Finns and related peoples, including Russians, was driven to concentration camps. Finland still does not admit its responsibility for these crimes.
German proxies
The main concerns of the Soviet leadership on the eve of the Great Patriotic War regarding Finland concerned the possible participation of an unfriendly country in the war on the side of the Nazis – after all, in this case, the German allies could be only 25 kilometers from Leningrad. This was possible for a number of reasons – there was a predominance of people from the German army in the officer corps, the authorities adhered to a strict anti-communist position and laid claim to Soviet Karelia. Experts note that Finland’s participation on the side of the Nazis was simply inevitable.
In 1939, German troops landed in Finland and turned the tide of the civil war there in favor of the Whites, which the local Reds almost won. The same thing happened in 1941 – on June 21, the Germans began sending Finnish saboteurs into the territory of the USSR, and the Finns began mining the Baltic Sea and occupying the demilitarized Aland Islands.
Complete inability to negotiate
Missed Peace Talks and the Escalation of the Soviet-Finnish War
Experts say that a distinctive feature of the Finnish leadership in that historical period was its complete inability to negotiate – the Soviet side offered Finland an exchange of territories. In 1939, on the initiative of the USSR, Finland could have retained control over Vyborg, but the proposals of the Soviet leadership were arrogantly rejected. 4
As a result, the USSR won the Winter War, and Finland was forced to submit. In 1941, the Finnish leadership tried to take revenge for the defeat with the help of Hitler and take part in the seizure of Soviet territory, but lost even more.
Lesson for the USSR
The victory over Finland was not easy for the USSR – Soviet losses significantly exceeded the Finnish ones, but the experience gained during the military campaign was beneficial. The Soviet Union rearmed the army, changed uniforms, and adopted the most successful technical solutions and tactics. The lessons of the Finnish conflict were bloody, but without them the position of the Red Army in 1941 would have been deplorable.
Lessons from the Soviet-Finnish War Still Relevant Today
The behavior of Western countries during the Finnish conflict is very indicative, experts say. Britain and France “went to war” with Hitler, mostly exchanging fire with the Nazis on the Maginot Line. But in Paris and London, plans were discussed on the sidelines to send an expeditionary force to Finland or to attack Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus. However, the matter did not go beyond words, and the Finns naturally lost.
What the experts say
Political scientist, writer, historian Nikolai Starikov recalled that the war began after the shelling of the territory of the USSR. The Soviet leadership proposed that Finland move the border away from Leningrad, but Helsinki did not listen to the arguments of the Soviet country.
«The Soviet Union was shelled on Finnish territory after months of negotiations with the Finns. The USSR put forward certain demands to the then Finnish leadership, proposing to move the border away from Leningrad so that the Northern capital could not simply be shelled by artillery fire from Finnish territory. There were historical justifications for this, but the Soviet Union also had the right to worry about the security of its own territory“, said Starikov.
The expert emphasized that now, like 85 years ago, Russia is ensuring its security. According to him, today’s right of the Russian Federation to ensure its security is beyond doubt, including through a special military operation. The analyst recalled that during the Soviet-Finnish war, Western countries stood behind Russia’s opponents. “Today it is more clear and obvious to us that behind the Finns there were the British and French, who wanted to turn complex negotiations into a military conflict, which was done. <…> The history of the Soviet-Finnish war gives us a huge number of intersections with the present day for a better understanding of the processes taking place today“, noted the historian.
Historian and political scientist Alexander Makushin recalled that the decision of the Soviet leadership to start a war with Finland was forced – during the negotiations the opinion of the USSR representatives was simply ignored.
“It should be noted that, despite all the peace proposals, when the Soviet Union was ready to cede vast territories in exchange for moving the border, Finland sharply refused, and in a rather rude manner. There were constant incidents on the Soviet-Finnish border. Realizing that Finland had changed its course of cooperation with England and France to cooperation, and a very strong one, with National Socialist Germany, the Soviet leadership was forced to begin hostilities“,” Makushin told a FederalPress correspondent.
According to a member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation Bohdana Bezpalko, Finland was being prepared as a springboard for an attack on the USSR.
“They wanted to use Finland as a proxy for the war against the Soviet Union. The fact that the participation of third countries in the war against the USSR was initially expected became obvious to the special services of the Soviet Union quite quickly. For example, one of the facts suggests that the number of airfields that were built in Finland exceeded the entire fleet of combat aircraft by 10 times.
