Winter War 75th Anniversary

Today marks the 75th anniversary of one of the greatest underdog stories in history. I am of course referring to the Winter War that occurred between Finland and the Soviet Union. A conflict that marked the end of the 1930's and ushered in the brutal conflict that would dominate the 1940's and change Europe and the world forever.

Now some of you may not be familiar with the Winter War so let me give you the basic rundown. If you don't like history then...go and watch something stupid on YouTube.

Since the Finnish War of 1809 Finland was under the control of the Russian Empire and for the most part the Russian's were fairly lenient ruler's. That being said Finland still did not fair as well as a free nation. The famine of 1866 killed 15% of the population and despite being granted universal suffrage by the Russians in 1906 this did not stop the desire for independence that was growing throughout the country at the beginning of the 20th century. Finland got their chance for independence in 1917 during the Russian Revolution and without going into all the details Finland managed to gain it's independence from Russia. However, immediately following their independence Finland was engulfed by a civil war between the Whites (Those who wanted a Republic) and the Reds (Those who wanted a Socialist government) Ultimately the Whites won the war with the help of Imperial Germany and Finland as we know it today created as a presidential republic.

Things stayed fairly stable in Finland for the next 20 years while the rest of Europe changed dramatically. Hitler had come to power in Germany and Stalin had taken control of the Soviet Union. Once of Stalin's goals was to create a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and the rest of Europe. Basically by conquering numerous countries he could use them as a shield to stop an invading army from easily reaching Moscow or any other major city. This was one of the main reasons behind Stalin's pact with Hitler to take half of Poland for himself. However, there was another issue that Stalin had. The city of Leningrad was only 30 kilometers from the Finnish border which concerned Stalin greatly. As such he demanded that Finland move it's border 30 kilometers back and dismantle all fortifications in the area. Finland refused and negotiations between the two countries quickly broke down. The situation continued to escalate until on November 26th 1939 an artillery attack supposedly from Finland (Later revealed to have been launched from within the Soviet Union to give the Soviet's a "casus belli" so they could break their non-aggression pact with Finland) hit a Soviet border outpost killing four men. The flames of war had been ignited.

The Soviet army invaded Finland on the 30th of November 1939 with 21 divisions equaling a total strength of some 450,000 men. The Soviet's also launched a massive aerial bombing campaign against Helsinki.

Fortunately for the Finn's they were well prepared for war. While they did not possess many tanks or aircraft the densely forested terrain of their homeland and innate knowledge of it's geography gave them numerous tactical advantages as they waged a guerrilla war against the invading Russian forces.

One of the best advantages the Finn's had against the Russian's was leadership and common sense. The Soviet army was based on a top down system of leadership. Therefore no one could do anything until it had been passed up and then back down the chain of command. Before the war Stalin had gone on one of his notorious purges, resulting in almost all of his most skilled officers being executed. This left the Russian army with only mediocre officers at best to lead it's armies.

The Russians had been expecting a short war, as short as three days by some estimates. And although many Russians had winter clothing not every unit was as lucky. Unfortunately for them it turned out to be one of the coldest winter's Finland had ever had with temperatures dropping as low as -43 degrees Celsius.

Most Finns were also accomplished hunters and skiers. This resulted in the Finns having far greater mobility than their Russian adversaries and far better marksmanship. In fact one Finnish sniper, Simo Häyhä, killed over 542 Russians throughout the course of the war. Giving him the highest kill count of any sniper in history in only three months of fighting.

Most of the fighting in the war occurred along the Karlelian Isthmus where the head of the Finnish army, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, had constructed a massive fortification called the Mannerheim line. Unlike the ill fated French Maginot Line the Mannerheim line actually managed to hold back the waves of Russian troops. Many sent forward using World War I tactics where they marched headlong across open fields straight into a hail of bullets from Finnish machine guns. Those who refused or tried to run were shot by Soviet political officers. In fact many Finnish machine gun operators killed so many Russians in such a short time that they had to be relieved after only a few hours due to combat stress (What we now know as PTSD)

The Finns also devised several innovative and in some cases rather hilarious methods of fighting the Russians. As I mentioned earlier the Finns had very few tanks and very few anti tank weapons. As a result they created what has become known throughout the world as the Molotov Cocktail. The Finnish soldiers would throw the weapon onto the air intake of Russian tanks, giving the vehicle crews one of two options, suffocate inside the vehicle, or leave and be shot by the Finns. The name of the weapon actually has a very interesting connotation. At the time the Russians were dropping massive cluster bombs on Finnish cities. To avoid being labeled as war crimes the Russians reported that they were not bombs but canisters containing food for the starving Finnish population. The Finns, always with a good sense of humor, took to calling these bombs Molotov Breadbaskets after Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov. And as a result the name Molotov Cocktail came to be.

Although, what is considered to have been the greatest advantage the Finns had was not weaponry, tactics, or knowledge. It was Sisu. Sisu is a Finnish word that literally translates as guts in English. Determination, a will to carry on and see things through to the end and never surrender.

Despite all of these advantages that the Finns had they were still woefully outnumbered and outgunned. They only had enough ammunition for two months of fighting and only enough fuel for half a month. Fortunately Finland received some support from various Scandinavian countries as well as the UK and France but it just wasn't enough. Interestingly enough a large amount of supplies came from Nazi Germany which would ultimately lead to another, far more sinister development later on.
The Finns continued to fight on bravely but the sheer weight of the Russian horde bearing down on them was too much to handle and they desperately sought assistance. At this time Hitler had just commenced his invasion of Norway and Denmark, sparking WWII. France and Britain were gearing up for war with Hitler but at the same time they were looking at Finland as something they could use to their advantage.

You see, most of the iron ore that Hitler needed to build his war machines came from the massive iron deposits in Sweden. Now before anyone get's on Sweden for doing that just remember that if they hadn't Hitler probably would have invaded and taken the ore for himself. Hell, the US was selling all sorts of military equipment to Nazi Germany right up until the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

At any rate France and Britain began preparing an expeditionary force to help the Finns win their war against the Soviet's. They believed that if they helped Finland then Finland would side with them and allow them to use it as a staging ground to stop the flow of iron from Sweden to Germany.

However, the war ended before this could happen. By February the Finns were running desperately short on supplies and the Russians had regrouped and reformed their leadership and had managed to push through the Mannerheim Line. On March 7th a Finnish peace delegation arrived in Stockholm to negotiate with the Russian delegation and on March 12th a cease fire was signed.
Finland ultimately wound up having to cede large chunks of it's territory along the Soviet border. That being said, they had only gained this territory at great cost.

The final death count for the Soviet's after only three months of fighting:

126,875 dead or missing
188,671 wounded, concussed or burned
5,572 captured
3,543 tanks
261–515 aircraft
323,000 total casualties

A truly crushing blow to be sure. One unnamed Finnish soldier is quoted as saying "The Russians have taken just enough territory to bury their dead"

The results of the war were far reaching. The Red Army was humiliated and Hitler had seen how ineffective the League of Nations was at doing anything to bring peace. He also took note of the poor performance of the Red Army. Which is believe by many to have greatly influenced his decision to break his peace accord with Stalin.

As for the Finns they were beaten and mostly forgotten. They had a huge war debt to pay off and slowly got to work rebuilding their country. However, peace would not last. Only 18 months later Finland would side with Germany in the invasion of the Soviet Union in an attempt to regain it's lost territory. Finland would again lose but it would again be a Pyrrhic victory for the Soviets.
The Cold War continued to be a period of tension between the two countries and even to this day there is a very large military presence on both sides of the border. Ready to finish what both sides started over seventy years ago. So I leave you with this line from the song "White Death" by the band Sabaton about the Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä that I believe embodies the courage and strength of the Finnish people:

"Hundreds of kills/a man and his rifle/embody the Sisu of Finns/stay out of sight and cover your head/when he pulls the trigger you're dead"


Well thanks for listening to me ramble. If you read the whole thing and got to the bottom I thank you for taking the time to read what I have written.

I would also like to thank and for being such great friends and for initially sparking my interest in Finland. I just love your country so much and I can't get enough of it. Thanks for all the support.

Also if I made any mistakes or left anything out that is relevant let me know. I kind of grazed over a lot of topics so that I didn't flood everyone with information.