Germany, the Soviet Union and Finland changed their roles more than once during the Second World War. At first, the USSR was an ally of Germany and an enemy of the Finnish state. Then Moscow and Berlin became enemies, and Finland became an ally of Germany. And at the end of the war, Stalin and Mannerheim united against Hitler.
Until the end of the 1930s, only the most scanty funds for defense were allocated in Finland. There were no exercises, and there were no tanks or aircraft at all. In 1931, the Defense Council was created, and Karl Mannerheim was invited to head it. Under his leadership, a plan was developed to modernize old and build new fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. But in 1934, the Finnish government refused to allocate funds for the army, and an enraged Mannerheim resigned.
Only in 1938, the country's budget finally provided for the costs of strengthening the border. Karl Mannerheim again became the commander of the armed forces. However, by 1939, Finland remained a country with a small army, armed with only light weapons and a few cannons left over from the collapse of the Russian Empire.
In 1939, events began to develop rapidly. Germany and the USSR signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, dividing among themselves the spheres of influence in Europe. Finland, under these agreements, found itself in the Soviet zone of interests.
In September, Germany and the USSR occupied Poland. At the same time, the Soviet Union sent its troops into the Baltics.
Against this background, the tone of the negotiations between Finland and the USSR, which began in 1938, changes dramatically. Soviet diplomats are switching from persuasion to the language of ultimatums. Under the pretext of eliminating the danger for Leningrad, the Finns are required to transfer vast territories of the Karelian Isthmus (where, by the way, more than 400 thousand people lived) with all the indecisive borders. In Helsinki, these conditions were considered absolutely unacceptable. And on November 30, Soviet troops crossed the border of Finland. This conflict is called the Winter War.
According to the plans of the Soviet command, three days were given to break through the Finnish defense. Using an overwhelming advantage in tanks, artillery and aircraft, the Red Army had to complete the defeat of Finland in two weeks.
However, the very first days of the war were a shock for the Soviet generals. Thousands of Red Army men died in frontal attacks, and there was no progress. The invasion of the Soviet 8th Army from the areas north of Lake Ladoga to bypass the Mannerheim Line ended in complete disaster. The divisions of the Red Army in the forests of Karelia were surrounded and defeated.
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One of the most unpleasant surprises for the Soviet command was the methods of fighting the Finnish soldiers with tanks. Lacking modern anti-tank artillery, the Finns quickly mastered the production of Molotov cocktails. Soon the Molotov cocktail brand became famous all over the world.
By the end of December, on the entire front line on the Karelian Isthmus, the Red Army troops stopped attempts to break through. But the Soviet command did not abandon its aggressive plans. The number of troops was increased to 760 thousand people. Throughout January 1940, energetic preparations were made for a more competent assault on the enemy's defense. In particular, 81 guns of more than 200 mm caliber were delivered to the front line to destroy concrete bunkers. These divisions were named "Artillery of Destruction". On February 1, a powerful artillery barrage began. Every day, 12 thousand shells fell on the Finnish fortifications. Soon, most of the pillboxes turned into ruins. But the Finns fought to the death and continued to defend themselves fiercely. And yet the overwhelming preponderance of the Red Army began to show itself.
By February 17, Red Army tanks broke through the first line of defense. Mannerheim gave the order to retreat. The Finnish troops continued their desperate resistance on the second line. But, slowly moving forward, the Soviet divisions reached the approaches to Vyborg by the end of February. Finland's forces were melting. There was nowhere to wait for help. France and England were shackled by the war with Germany. The United States remained neutral.
Small countries like Sweden could provide mostly humanitarian aid. There was a threat of complete occupation of the country.
And Mannerheim demanded that his government urgently start peace negotiations.
In early spring, the Finnish authorities announced their readiness to fulfill all the conditions of the Soviet Union. And on March 7, a delegation from Finland arrived in Moscow. The Kremlin unexpectedly quickly agreed to sign a peace treaty.
Such a pliability of the Stalinist leadership at the final stage of the war was explained by the monstrous losses of the Red Army. Moreover, most of all the Soviet generals were saddened not by the death of tens of thousands of soldiers, but by the huge losses in equipment. Failed three thousand tanks and 600 aircraft. These incredible figures in the fight against a weakly armed enemy demanded a rigorous assessment. And at the same time they generated a persistent myth about the inaccessibility of the fortification of the Mannerheim Line, which only the mighty Red Army could overcome.
Finland did not harbor any illusions that now the Soviet Union would leave its northern neighbor alone. By the summer of 1940, the USSR increased its military presence in the Baltic States, then in an ultimatum form demands the resignation of the governments and soon annexes Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. At the same time, Moscow is putting forward new demands on Finland. In particular, the resignation of the Prime Minister and the cession of territories with nickel mines in the north of the country.
Finland is forced to make a choice. Either a military alliance with Germany, which defeated France and captured Norway, or the threat of occupation by the Soviet Union. The Finnish government hesitates to make a decision. For many months, negotiations have been underway with both Moscow and Berlin. Germany promises to help reclaim the lost territories, and the Soviet Union demands new concessions. In addition, the Germans are ready to supply new weapons, and Stalin's diplomats insist on the demilitarization of Finland.
Under these conditions, by the beginning of 1941, Mannerheim made a choice in favor of an alliance with Hitler. In the spring, plans for joint actions were agreed upon in the event of a war against the USSR. But there was no consensus among the Finnish leadership about the fate of Leningrad. Many in the Finnish government were convinced of a quick victory for the Germans and were seriously planning to draw a new border along the Neva. But Mannerheim did not share this optimism. He was against the storming of the city, protected from the north by the powerful line of the Karelian fortified area.
Until the very end of the war, the cautious Finns never signed an agreement on a military alliance with the Germans.
On June 22, Germany launched a full-scale invasion of the Soviet Union. But not a single shot was fired from Finland that day. Mannerheim, in his memoirs, later assured that he tried to insist in parliament on the neutrality of his country. However, on June 25, about 300 Soviet bombers carried out an air raid on Finnish cities and military installations. These bombings were repeated for six days in a row. President Risto Ryti said that Finland has again become a victim of aggression and open war is inevitable.
On June 29, the Finnish army began fighting. But until the end of July, battles were fought mainly in the north by the forces of the German expeditionary corps. Moreover, he could not achieve much success. The Finns began their operation on the Karelian Isthmus only on 31 July. The Soviet command had a whole month to prepare the defense. But nothing was done. The Finns quickly suppressed the scattered pockets of resistance of the Red Army and began to encircle the Soviet divisions. On the way to Leningrad right up to the old border there was no one to resist. On September 4, the Finns reached the borders of the Karelian fortified area and stopped.
The situation was different to the north of Lake Ladoga. There, the Finnish units continued their successful offensive far beyond the old border. They captured Petrozavodsk and stopped only on the line of the Svir River and the shores of Lake Onega.
Soon Mannerheim gave up active hostilities. To Hitler's demands for new attacks, he evasively replied that Finland's forces were limited, and the Russian defense was very strong. Moreover, Mannerheim already in September 1941 took an absolutely incredible step. is he
began the partial demobilization of his soldiers. The fact is that in Finland there was an acute problem of food shortages. And thousands of people were needed much more for the harvest than on the front lines.
Mannerheim's role in the dramatic blockade of Leningrad is controversial. On the one hand, the Finnish offensive closed the encirclement of a huge city from the north.
On the other hand, the Finns did not take any active action to interrupt the Road of Life, the only thread connecting Leningraders with the mainland. All the way from Leningrad to the shores of Lake Ladoga passed through the territory that was located north of the Neva and was in the zone of responsibility of the Finnish army. Hundreds of thousands of residents were evacuated along the Road of Life and food was delivered to the dying city.
By the end of 1941, it became clear that the lightning war plan had failed. At the same time, the United States and Britain, which had previously expressed support for the idea of returning the lands seized by the Soviet Union, demanded that Finland retreat from the "extra" territories. But by the fall of 1941, tens of thousands of German troops were stationed in the north of the country.
And the Finnish leadership could not ignore this factor.
On December 6, Great Britain officially declared war on Finland.
As a result, a split occurred in Helsinki. Some parliamentary deputies and generals believed that the idea of a "Greater Finland" would doom the country to a catastrophic defeat, while another part of the ruling elite insisted on war "to the bitter end." The debate and the search for a diplomatic way out of this situation continued throughout 1942. The party of "peace at any cost" began to win after the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad.
Finnish diplomats began negotiations with the Soviet side in 1943. In Helsinki, they began to take certain steps demonstrating the abandonment of the previous pro-German policy. Manner Game disbanded the Finnish SS battalion, and Ryti removed all Greater Finland supporters from the government.
But the next successes of the Red Army at the end of 1943 made Stalin intractable. He began to put forward completely unrealistic conditions for the conclusion of peace, and by the spring of 1944 the negotiations were at an impasse.
On June 10, Soviet troops began an assault on the Finnish fortifications on the Karelian prethmus. In bloody battles, the Red Army overcame the first two lines of defense, but by August the offensive was exhausted. The Soviet attacks from Petrozavodsk were more successful. But the Finns were not going to give up. They managed to stop the advance of the Red Army. The front has stabilized.
The decisive and skillful resistance of the Finnish soldiers, as well as the heavy losses of Soviet troops, led to the fact that Stalin renounced some of the previous ultimatums. And then in the actions of Mannerheim, who until August demanded that the troops "hold on to the end", an unexpected change occurred. He managed to achieve the resignation of President Ryti and took over the full power in the country. By the end of August, the main conditions for Finland's withdrawal from the war were agreed. On September 4, hostilities on the Soviet-Finnish front ceased.
However, a powerful German group remained in the north of the country. More than 150 thousand German soldiers were not going to voluntarily leave Finland. And again Mannerheim makes a completely unexpected decision.
He orders the Finnish units to move north and begin hostilities against yesterday's allies. Subsequent events were called the Lapland War. The fighting continued until April 1945. True, the Finns acted very carefully, preferring to push the Nazis towards the border with Norway.
For their part, the Germans, angry with Finland's betrayal, turned the northern territories of the country into a scorched desert. The city of Rovaniemi was razed to the ground. About 100 thousand civilians were left without a roof over their heads.
In the spring of 1945, the shots stopped on Finnish soil. A difficult period of restoration of the country began, which, despite the final military defeat, was able to maintain its independence.
