The Winter War


Less than three months after Germany invaded Poland, the Russian army attacked Finland. Stalin feared that Hitler might attack Russia via Finland and set about shutting this option down.


The Soviets began leaning on their diminutive neighbour demanding valuable land and strategic islands for a naval base. Finland refused, having declared its independence from Russia after the 1917 revolution and being highly critical of communism


Russia attacked on November 30th 1939 with an army of 450,000 men, organised in 23 divisions.


Lead by General Mannerheim, Finland managed to mobilized just 160,000 men – many of whom had to use their own weapons and wore civilian clothing due to shortages.


Finland was also aided by supplies from Britain and France and volunteers from Norway and Sweden.


The Finns repelled the Russian attacks with superior winter warfare skills. They utilised guerrilla warfare tactics, attacking on skis with petrol bombs - hence the euphemism ‘Molotov Cocktail’.


During the harsh Baltic winter, the weather plummeted to minus 40° Celsius. Outnumbered by three-to-one, the Finns held out until March 1940.


Russian might finally wore the Finnish army down and, on March 12th 1940, the Finns signed the Moscow Peace Treaty - effectively handing Russia one tenth of Finland.


It is estimated that 127,000 Russian soldiers and 27,000 Finns lost their lives during the conflict and nearly 500,000 people were displaced from their homes by the peace treaty.