The armistice that ended Finland’s Winter War with Russia was signed on March 12, 1940, and hostilities ended across the front on March 13th.
On November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union had attacked Finland by land, air and sea.
Stalin was confident that the “liberation operation” against the Finns would be a piece of cake.
However, the Finns did not collapse. The first month was a disaster for the Soviets, as the Finnish Air Force shot down Russian planes while white-clad Finnish ski troops decimated Red Army infantry. Some Western observers thought the Finns were winning.
But Carl Gustav Mannerheim, the Finnish commander-in-chief, knew better. He knew Finland’s only hope lay with aid from the West.
In February 1940, while the allies and America dithered, Stalin brought in a new commander, Semyon Timoshenko, for a new Soviet assault which ultimately included more than half a million men, plus 4,000 tanks and 3,000 aircraft. Timoshenko launched an offensive on the main Finnish defense line, the Mannerheim Line, with a massive artillery barrage, firing 300,000 shells in 24 hours.
Miraculously, the exhausted Finns held out for another month. In the meantime, their government had begun secret negotiations with Stalin.
The British and French were preparing an expeditionary force to help the Finns and at the same time secure Norwegian ports for Swedish iron ore, and open a Scandinavian front to draw Germany’s attention away from France. But by early March, the Finnish situation had become untenable.
An armistice was signed on March 12, 1940. On March 13, Finnish Foreign Minister Tanner announced its crushing terms to a traumatized nation. Finland had to give up 10 percent of its territory, leading to the evacuation of more than 400,000 Karelians.
But Finland was not occupied, or “liberated,” as the Soviets initially described their “special operation”. The Finns retained their independence and democratic way of life.
Comparisons with the war in Ukraine are inevitable, and there are many similarities.
How long the Ukrainians hold out against Russia remains to be seen. But even though the West–(today, NATO)– was not be able to provide direct military assistance to Finland in 1939–40, it should be remembered that what drove Stalin to the negotiating table was the threat of Western intervention.
Russia did not want a showdown with the West then, and it does not want one now.
Ulla Jordan 