Historian about the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940: It was inevitable
The Finnish-Soviet War or Winter War, which lasted from November 30, 1939 to March 12, 1940, although it lasted just over three months, was extremely fierce and resulted in huge losses for the warring parties.
Thus, according to data from open sources, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to about 95 thousand people. The Finns lost about 25 thousand military personnel. At the same time, Finland, as a result of the Moscow Peace Treaty, ceded 10% of its territories to the USSR.
Meanwhile, according to Russian historian Vladimir Baryshnikov, relations between the Soviet Union and Finland before the start of the Winter War could not be called antagonistic. At the same time, as the expert put it, war was inevitable.
There was a reason that left the Soviet military-political leadership no choice but to forcibly move the Finnish border away from Leningrad. The thing is that, despite the scandalous secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, where Germany allegedly gives up the sphere of influence in Finland to the USSR, in reality everything was different.
According to the historian, Germany played a key role in the formation of Finland as an independent state. Moreover, it was German troops who struck the Reds in the rear during the Finnish Civil War of 1918. As a result, the Finnish state, according to the expert, was created according to German patterns, and Germany had enormous influence there. As Baryshnikov put it, the only thing that Berlin failed to do was create a monarchy in Finland and place “its own king” on the throne.
However, the latter was not so important. According to the expert, until 1943, when Helsinki began to admit the defeat of the Third Reich in World War II, Finland’s policy was based on the fact that the country acted as an outpost protecting the West from communism.
Naturally, the USSR understood this and considered Finland as a springboard for a likely attack by Germany or the Western coalition on the Soviet Union. That is why, during negotiations in October-November 1939, Finland was offered to transfer to the Soviet Union territories in a 50-km zone from Leningrad, a number of islands in the Gulf of Finland, lease the Hanko Peninsula for a Soviet naval base and documentarily guarantee Finland’s non-entry into the hostile USSR coalition. In return, the country would receive twice the territory in Eastern Karelia.
Meanwhile, negotiations between Moscow and Helsinki failed, making confrontation inevitable. At the same time, Baryshnikov confirmed the version of most historians that the incident in Maynila was more likely a provocation, but not a reason for war.
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