FINLAND 19141945

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FINLAND 1914-1945

• Jakub umala

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The Independent Republic and Civil War
(19171918)

• On December 6, 1917, shortly after the
  Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Finland declared
  its independence. The independence was approved
  by Bolshevist Russia but the Civil Wars that
  followed in Russia and in Finland and activist
  expeditions, including the ones to White Karelia
  and Aunus, complicated relations.In 1918, the
  country experienced a brief but bitter Civil War
  that coloured domestic politics for many years.
  The Civil War was fought between "the Whites",
  who gained support from Imperial Germany, and
  "the Reds", supported by Bolshevist Russia. The
  Reds consisted mostly of leftist propertyless
  rural and industrial workers who, despite
  universal suffrage in 1906, felt that they lacked
  political influence. The white forces were mostly
  made up of bourgeoisie and wealthy peasantry,
  politically more to the right. Eventually, the
  Whites overcame the Reds. The deep social and
  political dividing line and mutual enmity between
  the Reds and Whites remained.

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MG8 in Helsinky
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• Unburied bodies after Tempere battle

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The Inter-war era (19181939)

• Despite the Declaration of Independence calling
  Finland a Republic after the Civil War, the
  parliament, cleared of its Social Democrat
  members, voted with a narrow majority to
  establish the Kingdom of Finland. Frederick
  Charles of Hesse, a German prince, was elected
  King, putatively with the name "Väinö I of
  Finland", with Pehr Evind Svinhufvud and General
  Mannerheim serving as Regents. However, Germany's
  defeat in World War I meant that the idea was
  abandoned. Finland instead became a Republic,
  with Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg elected as its first
  President in 1919.
• The FinnishRussian border was agreed upon in the
  Treaty of Tartu in 1920, largely following the
  historic border but granting Pechenga (Finnish
  Petsamo) and its Barents Sea harbour to Finland.
• Finnish democracy survived the upsurge of the
  extreme right and financial crisis during the
  early '30s. However, legislators reacted against
  Communism and the relationship between Finland
  and the Soviet Union remained tense.

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THE WINTER WAR

• The Winter War (Finnish Talvisota, Swedish
  Vinterkriget, Russian ?????? ?????, also known
  as the Soviet-Finnish War or the Russo-Finnish
  War) broke out when the Soviet Union attacked
  Finland on November 30, 1939, three months after
  the start of World War II. Because the attack was
  judged completely illegal, the Soviet Union was
  expelled from the League of Nations on December
  14. Soviet leader Josef Stalin had expected to
  conquer the whole country by the end of 1939, but
  Finnish resistance frustrated the Soviet forces,
  who outnumbered the Finns 41 in men, 1001 in
  tanks and 301 in aircraft. Finland held out
  until March 1940, when the Moscow Peace Treaty
  was signed ceding about 10 of Finland's
  territory (excluding its population) and 20 of
  its industrial capacity to the Soviet Union.
• The results of the war were mixed. Although the
  Soviet forces finally managed to break through
  the Finnish defence, neither the Soviet Union nor
  Finland emerged from the conflict unscathed.
  Soviet losses on the front were tremendous, and
  the country's international standing suffered,
  especially following its earlier attack on
  Poland. Even worse, the fighting ability of the
  Red Army was put into question, a fact that some
  argue contributed to Hitler's decision to launch
  Operation Barbarossa.

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THE WINTER WAR

• Finally, the Soviet forces did not accomplish
  their primary objective of conquest of Finland,
  but gained only a secession of territory along
  Lake Ladoga. The Finns retained their sovereignty
  and gained considerable international goodwill.
• The March 15 peace treaty thwarted Franco-British
  preparations to send support to Finland through
  northern Scandinavia (the Allied campaign in
  Norway) which would also have hindered German
  access to northern Sweden's iron ore. Germany's
  invasion of Denmark and Norway on 9 April 1940
  (Operation Weserübung) then diverted the
  attention of the world to the struggle for
  possession of Norway. The Winter War is
  considered by some a military disaster for the
  Soviet Union. However, Stalin did learn from this
  fiasco and realized that political control over
  the Red Army was no longer feasible. After the
  Winter War, the Kremlin initiated the process of
  reinstating qualified officers and modernizing
  its forces, a crucial decision that would enable
  the Soviets to eventually resist the German
  invasion.

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• Finnish soldiers during Winter war

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• Finnish ski troops

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• Finnish gas mask (1930)

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WORLD WAR (1939-1945)

• During World War II, Finland fought the Soviet
  Union twice in the Winter War of 19391940 and
  in the Continuation War of 19411944 in
  accordance with Operation Barbarossa in which
  Germany invaded the Soviet Union. This was
  followed by the Lapland War of 19441945, when
  Finland forced the Germans out of northern
  Finland. After the wars there were land mine
  clearance operations in Karelia and Lapland plus
  the enormous task of naval mine clearance in the
  Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea during
  19441950. The mines in Lapland especially slowed
  down the rebuilding and caused casualties.
• Treaties signed in 1947 and 1948 with the Soviet
  Union included obligations, restraints, and
  reparations on Finland vis-à-vis the Soviet Union
  as well as further Finnish territorial
  concessions (cf. the Moscow Peace Treaty of
  1940). Finland ceded most of Finnish Karelia,
  Salla, and Pechenga, which amounted to 10 of its
  land area, 20 of industrial capacity and 400,000
  evacuees, mainly women and children. Establishing
  trade with the Western powers, such as the Great
  Britain, and the reparations to the Soviet Union
  caused Finland to transform itself from a
  primarily agrarian economy to an industrialised
  one. Even after reparations were fulfilled,
  Finland continued to trade with the Soviet Union
  in the framework of bilateral trade. Ultimately,
  the Soviet Union had a national debt to Finland.
  Russia assumed the debt after the dissolution of
  the Soviet Union and cleared it in 2006.

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• Focker D.XXI planes of the Finnish Air Force
  during World War II.

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THE END
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