Published 30 November, 2009, 11:21 Edited 30 November, 2009, 16:18
It was a war
one of the sides involved would rather forget, while the other fights
to keep the memory alive. Finns are commemorating the 70th anniversary
of the start of the Winter War against the Soviet Union.After months of ultimatums, on November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland.
With a sizeable advantage in manpower, tanks and aircraft, the Red Army command expected victory within weeks.
“We could not understand why. The Soviet Union was so big, so why would they take something from us?” says Lars Loflund, Finnish war veteran.
Just months earlier, the Soviet Union and Germany had signed a
non-aggression pact, which contained a secret protocol dividing North
and East Europe into spheres of influence. Finland fell under the
USSR's.
That fitted in with Stalin's plan to expand the Soviet border from its second city of Leningrad. However, the Soviet Union had underestimated the Finns.
The Finnish Commander, General Mannerheim, had ordered the construction of a powerful line of fortifications. Although poorly equipped, the defenders knew the rugged terrain, and were better prepared for the plunging temperatures.
“In the conflict zone there were no roads, no settlements – just forests and lakes. Nothing to get your bearings from”, says Viktor Lavskiy, Russian War Veteran, adding, “The soldiers and the equipment were not ready, and the reconnaissance was insufficient.”
As losses mounted, the Soviets pumped more and more troops into the theater of conflict to finally break through the Finnish fortifications. Despite making inroads, the cost of the war was proving too high for the USSR.
On March 12, 1940, it accepted the offer of a ceasefire less than six months after the first shots were fired. While Finland ceded around a tenth of its territory, it retained its independence.
It had been a short but bloody war. Twenty-five thousand Finns were lost, but the number of Soviet casualties was up to five times bigger.
“During Soviet times, people were reluctant to even mention this war. It was difficult, not particularly successful, and however you try to spin it, the Soviet Union was the aggressor,” says Aleksandr Golubev, Historian from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In Helsinki, commemorations of the Winter War are everywhere. Local celebrities chose the city’s biggest mall to hand out badges in support of the few surviving veterans.
“These guys saved us and that is why we live in Finland today,” Mati Vatanen, singer with the Leningrad Boys, told RT.
There are exhibitions which remember the fallen, though the mood is solemn, not defiant.
Lars Loflund, one Finnish war veteran, believes there was nothing wrong with the Russian people. It was the system that was wrong.
After World War II, Finland would go on to become one of the USSR’s closest partners in the West.
Despite the passage of time, it is clear that in Finland, the Winter War is forever frozen into the nation's conscience.
Although Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact and legally (de jure) was not a part of the Axis, it was Axis-aligned in its fight against the Soviet Union. The common term used in that kind of relationship is co-belligerence. Finland signed the revived Anti-Comintern Pact of November 1941. Finland lost the Kola peninsula due to the war and about 30 per cent of its economy.
The Soviet Army did poorly in Finland due to Stalin's purges of the officer corps. This purge also negatively affected the performance of the Russian Armed Forces against the Nazis in the first two to three years of World War 2.
Although Stalin liquidated tens of thousands of officers and Communist Party members, he did not perceive himself as a military leader and let his generals make the military decisions.
Hitler, on the other hand, thought he was more able than his field marshals and made some terrible military blunders that led to the defeat of the Third Reich.
source: http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-11-30/finland-soviet-war-anniversary.html#
That fitted in with Stalin's plan to expand the Soviet border from its second city of Leningrad. However, the Soviet Union had underestimated the Finns.
The Finnish Commander, General Mannerheim, had ordered the construction of a powerful line of fortifications. Although poorly equipped, the defenders knew the rugged terrain, and were better prepared for the plunging temperatures.
“In the conflict zone there were no roads, no settlements – just forests and lakes. Nothing to get your bearings from”, says Viktor Lavskiy, Russian War Veteran, adding, “The soldiers and the equipment were not ready, and the reconnaissance was insufficient.”
As losses mounted, the Soviets pumped more and more troops into the theater of conflict to finally break through the Finnish fortifications. Despite making inroads, the cost of the war was proving too high for the USSR.
On March 12, 1940, it accepted the offer of a ceasefire less than six months after the first shots were fired. While Finland ceded around a tenth of its territory, it retained its independence.
It had been a short but bloody war. Twenty-five thousand Finns were lost, but the number of Soviet casualties was up to five times bigger.
“During Soviet times, people were reluctant to even mention this war. It was difficult, not particularly successful, and however you try to spin it, the Soviet Union was the aggressor,” says Aleksandr Golubev, Historian from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In Helsinki, commemorations of the Winter War are everywhere. Local celebrities chose the city’s biggest mall to hand out badges in support of the few surviving veterans.
“These guys saved us and that is why we live in Finland today,” Mati Vatanen, singer with the Leningrad Boys, told RT.
There are exhibitions which remember the fallen, though the mood is solemn, not defiant.
Lars Loflund, one Finnish war veteran, believes there was nothing wrong with the Russian people. It was the system that was wrong.
After World War II, Finland would go on to become one of the USSR’s closest partners in the West.
Despite the passage of time, it is clear that in Finland, the Winter War is forever frozen into the nation's conscience.
Although Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact and legally (de jure) was not a part of the Axis, it was Axis-aligned in its fight against the Soviet Union. The common term used in that kind of relationship is co-belligerence. Finland signed the revived Anti-Comintern Pact of November 1941. Finland lost the Kola peninsula due to the war and about 30 per cent of its economy.
The Soviet Army did poorly in Finland due to Stalin's purges of the officer corps. This purge also negatively affected the performance of the Russian Armed Forces against the Nazis in the first two to three years of World War 2.
Although Stalin liquidated tens of thousands of officers and Communist Party members, he did not perceive himself as a military leader and let his generals make the military decisions.
Hitler, on the other hand, thought he was more able than his field marshals and made some terrible military blunders that led to the defeat of the Third Reich.
source: http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-11-30/finland-soviet-war-anniversary.html#
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_powers#Finland Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
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