ABSTRACT
At the end of December, Stalin recalled Meretskov and his staff to the Kremlin to reprimand them and to discuss the future course of the war. Stalin was particularly furious with the situation on the Karelian Isthmus where the 7th Army’s plans for a third offensive had been frustrated by the Finnish counteroffensive:
The authority of the Red Army is a guarantee of the USSR’s national security. If we struggle for a long time against such a weak opponent this will stimulate the anti-Soviet forces of the imperialists.1
