I'm working on researching the
political and diplomatic background of the Finnish Winter War of
1939-1940. I've got what I *think* is a handle on it at this point,
based on some reading I've been doing. I'm going to summarize my
thoughts here, minus dates and names and many specifics, and I could really use some input on where I am wrong
or mistaken or if I'm totally off base. :)
The time: 1938-39
The players:
The USSR
Stalin anticipated war with Germany.
Unique among European powers at the time, Stalin could see Europe and
the League of Nations unraveling in front of him as Hitler
consolidated his power and got concessions from the Allies, most
notably and pointedly with the Munich talks. When the Allies, with
Russia conspicuously absent from the table, basically gave
Hitler Czechoslovakia (one of the USSR's few friendly border
nations), Stalin knew that he couldn't count on them for support
against Germany. He was on his own. To that end, first, he managed
to secure a non-aggression treaty with Germany (which both parties
knew was something of a time-delayed joke). In this treaty Stalin
gained the "zone of influence" that the Allies had
repeatedly denied him in their earlier talks. Given a new, free-er
hand in the region, he took the opportunity to make his borders
secure. His method for this was to create a "buffer zone"
of nations, specifically the Baltics, that would engage into "mutual
assistance" treaties with him for use in case of German
aggression. Stalin, importantly, considered Finland a "Baltic"
state, thus inside his zone of influence, and one whose border was
frighteningly close to Leningrad proper, and one who had a "special"
relationship with Germany already.
Germany
Germany and Finland had a sort of
strange kinship after WWI. It was popular in Finland to look upon
Germany as a "big brother" in terms of resisting Soviet
encroachment, and this notion was even more popular in the USSR. In
any case, Hitler had every intention of invading the USSR. To that
end, prompting the Finns with subtle encouragement to antagonize the
Reds was useful. I have not found anything to suggest that Germany
actively sought the use of Finnish territory for aggression against
Russia, but it is understandable that Stalin assumed they would.
Finland
In 1938-39 Finland found herself in a
state of almost willful ignorance of European international
relations, especially when compared to her giant Bear of a neighbor.
The Olympics were set to be held in Helsinki in 1940, and a lot of
national treasure and time was being devoted to that endeavor.
Finland considered herself a "Scandinavian" nation (as
starkly opposed to a "Baltic" one) and clung to the
traditional ideals of "Scandinavian Neutrality." For this
reason, almost alone, the Finnish leaders seemingly ignored the storm
clouds rolling over Europe. The Finns believed that in the event of
Soviet aggression they would have not only the French and British
backing their play, but even possibly Germany, and therefore that
Stalin wouldn't dare to press his luck there. Over the course of
these two years, all those hopes unraveled and the Finns found
themselves facing the USSR more or less alone.
How it went down:
Throughout 1938 there had been
low-level talks between a strange Russian minister in Finland and
Finnish leaders about certain security issues. Essentially, the USSR
wanted a few small islands and a base on Finnish soil, along with an
agreement to lend all necessary military aid including Soviet forces,
to defend against international aggression. They said they were
worried that a belligerent nation would either invade Finland and use
her as a base for attack or would topple the Finnish government and
replace it with one friendly enough to achieve the same purpose, and
that Finland needed Soviet help to prevent this. (Germany was not
mentioned in these talks, but it's pretty clear that's who the
Russians were worried about.) Of extra concern was the proximity
(about 30km) of the Finnish border to Leningrad.
Finland was suspicious of these
requests. They were highly sensitive to the idea of Soviet troops on
their soil –– they had only been independent of Imperial Russia for a
few decades, after all, and had fought a bloody civil war to avoid
communist rule. They saw little chance that if Soviet "aid"
were rendered it would ever leave their soil, and their sovereignty
and independence would be lost. Finland's consistent reply to these
Soviet probes was that Finland's Scandinavian neutrality would
prevent not only agreement to the proposed terms, but also negate the
need for such precautions. The Finns argued that their government
enjoyed strong popular support, an outright attack was unlikely
because of their neutrality, and that because of their neutrality
they could not allow any foreign troops on Finnish territory,
especially in peacetime.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed
Aug. 1939 and things started to get serious in Finland. Germany was
no longer a possibly polarizing force on the Soviet issue. Finland
watched as Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania (the "other"
Baltic states) accepted terms from the USSR that were almost
identical to the ones proposed to Finland (and would later become
little more than Soviet satellites with puppet governments). Germany
invaded Poland and drew Britain and France into the war. Suddenly,
Finland was alone.
Talks between Finland and the USSR
began to break down. The Finns began to consider certain concessions,
a few small islands in the Bay of Finland, for one, but still
wouldn't allow a Soviet base on Finnish territory. Toward the end of
the talks, Stalin himself basically pleaded
with the Finnish delegates to accept his terms for “mutual
assistance.” He and Molotov hinted at “other measures” which
could be taken to achieve their goals, but the Finns still didn't
believe that they would be invaded. Exactly why they felt this way
still isn't clear to me.
They
were proved wrong, of course, after a phony border incident involving
an artillery barrage that couldn't have come from the Finnish side of
the border but that killed several Russian soldiers. (The Finns had
removed their artillery to a distance far enough from the Russians to
prevent such an event.) The huge columns of Soviet men and mechanized
equipment that had been staging on the border for weeks rolled across
and into what would become a three-month bloodbath, leading to the
Russians gaining little more than they had asked for before the
fighting, but the Finns maintaining their sovereignty.
You left out the part of Poland invaded by the Soviet Union...
And remember Finland was part of Russia until it split off after WWI during the Russian Red/White war.
So the Soviets did have a claim on the country. Personally I am surprised that Stalin didn't take Finland in 1946. Maybe too worried about the Americans invading. Plus Finland majorly rolled over to the Soviets after WWII.
Originally Posted By SS109:
And remember Finland was part of Russia until it split off after WWI during the Russian Red/White war.
So the Soviets did have a claim on the country. Personally I am surprised that Stalin didn't take Finland in 1946. Maybe too worried about the Americans invading. Plus Finland majorly rolled over to the Soviets after WWII.
The Soviets actually ended up paying the Finns quite a bit in reperations when all was said and done.
