ABSTRACT
A massive artillery barrage began at 6:50 am. Just over an hour later, hundreds of Russian tanks supported by infantry crossed the Soviet border with Finland and advanced toward the Finnish lines. The few Finns in forward positions fled before the assault could reach them, panicked by the great show of force. It was indeed an impressive display of military strength. The Russian offensive extended along the entire Finnish-Soviet border. Russian planes also attacked Helsinki, the Finnish capital, meeting virtually no resistance. The air strike underscored Russian superiority. In fact, the odds appeared overwhelming, the disparity in numbers so great, that it seemed pointless for the Finns to resist the onslaught. Yet, in a matter of days, the Russian attack faltered and then stopped. Whole columns were halted by lone snipers. Fast-moving Finnish ski troops then harassed and assaulted the stalled vehicles or attacked Russian soldiers at night as they huddled around huge fires. Russian tanks milled about allowing Finnish soldiers to creep up and destroy them with mines or “Molotov Cocktails.” These setbacks occurred at every point of contact and so often that it soon became clear that the Russian soldiers were not executing a preemptive attack, but fighting for their lives. Preemption had taken an unexpected
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The Soviet Union confronted Finland in a separate war fought in the midst of World War II. This isolated clash arose from the non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia. Signed in August 1939, the two powers dismembered Poland the next month. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader, now believed he had a free hand to settle security issues on the northeast border of the USSR. After subjugating the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, he turned his attention to Finland in October 1939. Finland was to come into the Soviet orbit and bolster Russia’s national defense. The Finns refused to yield to Russian requests for territorial concessions and security guarantees, and the two sides prepared for war. The fighting erupted at the end of November, as the Soviets unleashed their massive ground attack designed to quickly subdue the upstart Finns. Initial success was fleeting, and the Soviet ground troops soon found themselves in a desperate struggle against a determined and capable enemy. A severe winter set in, adding to Russian miseries and increasing the chances of a spectacular Finnish victory. However, massive Russian reinforcements five weeks later pushed the Finns to exhaustion and they agreed to a settlement in mid-March 1940. The Russians won this winter war of 1939, a victory that created more problems for them in the next stage of World War II. When Germany attacked the USSR in June 1941, Finland was a willing ally of the Third Reich.
