Thus, Stalin was blamed not only for the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, but also for the fact that Finland was "forced" to enter into an alliance with Nazi Germany to resist the "aggression" of the Soviet Union.
Many books and articles denounced the Soviet Mordor, which attacked little Finland. They called absolutely fantastic numbers of Soviet losses, reported heroic Finnish machine gunners and snipers, nonsense Soviet generals and much more. Any reasonable reasons for the actions of the Kremlin were completely denied. They say that the irrational malice of the "bloody dictator" is to blame.
In order to understand why Moscow went to this war, it is necessary to remember the history of Finland. Finnish tribes for a long time were on the periphery of the Russian state and the Swedish kingdom. Some of them became part of Russia, became "Russians". The fragmentation and weakening of Russia led to the fact that the Finnish tribes were conquered and subjugated by Sweden. The Swedes pursued a colonization policy in the traditions of the West. Finland did not have administrative or even cultural autonomy. The official language was Swedish, it was spoken by the nobility and the entire educated population.
Russia, having taken Finland from Sweden in 1809, in fact, gave the Finns statehood, allowed them to create the main state institutions to shape the national economy. Finland received its own authorities, currency and even an army as part of Russia. At the same time, the Finns did not pay general taxes and did not fight for Russia. Finnish, while maintaining status Swedish, received the position of the state. The authorities of the Russian Empire practically did not interfere in the affairs of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The Russification policy in Finland was not carried out for a long time (some elements appeared only in the late period, but it was already too late). The resettlement of Russians in Finland was actually prohibited. Moreover, the Russians living in the Grand Duchy were in an unequal position in relation to the local residents. In addition, in 1811, the Vyborg province was transferred to the Grand Duchy, which included the lands that Russia recaptured from Sweden in the 18th century. Moreover, Vyborg was of great military and strategic importance in relation to the capital of the Russian Empire - Petersburg. Thus, the Finns in the Russian “prison of peoples” lived better than the Russians themselves, who bore all the hardships of building an empire and defending it from numerous enemies.
The collapse of the Russian Empire gave Finland its independence. Finland thanked Russia by first entering into an alliance with Kaiser's Germany, and then with the powers of the Entente. On the eve of World War II, Finland was in a hostile position towards Russia, leaning towards an alliance with the Third Reich.
For most Russian citizens, Finland is associated with a “small cozy European country”, with civilians and cultural residents. This was facilitated by a kind of "political correctness" in relation to Finland, which reigned in the late Soviet propaganda. Finland, after the defeat in the war of 1941-1944, received good lesson and made the most of its proximity to the vast Soviet Union. Therefore, in the USSR they did not remember that the Finns attacked the USSR three times in 1918, 1921 and 1941. They chose to forget about this for the sake of good relations.
Finland was not a peaceful neighbor of Soviet Russia. The separation of Finland from Russia was not peaceful. The Civil War began between the white and red Finns. White was supported by Germany. The Soviet government refrained from large-scale support for the Reds. Therefore, with the help of the Germans, the White Finns prevailed. The victors created a network of concentration camps, unleashed the White Terror, during which tens of thousands of people died (during the hostilities themselves, only a few thousand people died on both sides). In addition to the Reds and their supporters, the Finns "cleaned up" the Russian community in Finland. Moreover, the majority of Russians in Finland, including refugees from Russia who fled from the Bolsheviks, did not support the Reds and the Soviet government. Former officers of the tsarist army, their families, representatives of the bourgeoisie, intellectuals, numerous students, the entire Russian population indiscriminately, women, old people and children were exterminated. Significant material values belonging to the Russians were confiscated.
The Finns were going to put a German king on the throne of Finland. However, Germany's defeat in the war led to Finland becoming a republic. After that, Finland began to focus on the powers of the Entente. Finland was not satisfied with independence, the Finnish elite wanted more, claiming Russian Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, and the most radical figures made plans to build a "Great Finland" with the inclusion of Arkhangelsk, and Russian lands up to the Northern Urals, Ob and Yenisei (Urals and Western Siberia considered the ancestral home of the Finno-Ugric language family).
The leadership of Finland, like Poland, was not satisfied with the existing borders, preparing for war. Poland had territorial claims to almost all its neighbors - Lithuania, the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Germany, the Polish lords dreamed of restoring a great power "from sea to sea". This is more or less known in Russia. But few people know that the Finnish elite raved about a similar idea, the creation of a "Greater Finland". The ruling elite also set the goal of creating a Greater Finland. The Finns did not want to get involved with the Swedes, but they claimed Soviet lands, which were larger than Finland itself. The appetites of the radicals were boundless, stretching all the way to the Urals and further to the Ob and Yenisei.
And for starters, they wanted to capture Karelia. Soviet Russia was torn apart by the Civil War, and the Finns wanted to take advantage of this. So, in February 1918, General K. Mannerheim declared that "he would not sheathe his sword until East Karelia was liberated from the Bolsheviks." Mannerheim planned to seize Russian lands along the line of the White Sea - Lake Onega - the Svir River - Lake Ladoga, which was supposed to facilitate the defense of new lands. It was also planned to include the region of Pechenga (Petsamo) and the Kola Peninsula into Greater Finland. They wanted to separate Petrograd from Soviet Russia and make it a "free city" like Danzig. May 15, 1918 Finland declared war on Russia. Even before the official declaration of war, Finnish volunteer detachments began to conquer Eastern Karelia.
Soviet Russia was busy fighting on other fronts, so she did not have the strength to defeat her arrogant neighbor. However, the Finnish attack on Petrozavodsk and Olonets, the campaign against Petrograd through the Karelian Isthmus failed. And after the defeat of the white army of Yudenich, the Finns had to make peace. From July 10 to July 14, 1920, peace negotiations were held in Tartu. The Finns demanded that Karelia be handed over to them, the Soviet side refused. In the summer, the Red Army drove the last Finnish detachments out of Karelian territory. The Finns kept only two volosts - Rebola and Porosozero. This made them more accommodating. There was no hope for Western help either; the Entente powers had already realized that the intervention in Soviet Russia had failed. On October 14, 1920, the Tartu Peace Treaty was signed between the RSFSR and Finland. The Finns were able to get the Pechenga volost, the western part of the Rybachy Peninsula, and most of the Sredny Peninsula and the islands, west of the boundary line in the Barents Sea. Rebola and Porosozero were returned to Russia.
This did not satisfy Helsinki. The plans for the construction of "Greater Finland" were not abandoned, they were only postponed. In 1921, Finland again tried to solve the Karelian issue by force. Finnish volunteer detachments, without declaring war, invaded Soviet territory, the Second Soviet-Finnish War began. Soviet forces in February 1922, the territory of Karelia was completely liberated from the invaders. In March, an agreement was signed on the adoption of measures to ensure the inviolability of the Soviet-Finnish border.
But even after this failure, the Finns did not cool down. The situation on the Finnish border was constantly tense. Many, remembering the USSR, imagine a huge mighty power that defeated the Third Reich, took Berlin, sent the first man into space and made the entire Western world tremble. Like, how little Finland could threaten the huge northern "evil empire." However, the USSR 1920-1930s. was a great power only in terms of territory and its potential. The real policy of Moscow then was extra-cautious. In fact, for quite a long time, Moscow, until it got stronger, pursued an extremely flexible policy, most often giving in, not climbing on the rampage.
For example, the Japanese plundered our waters near the Kamchatka Peninsula for quite a long time. Under the protection of their warships, Japanese fishermen not only fished out all the living creatures worth millions of gold rubles from our waters, but also freely landed on our shores to repair, process fish, obtain fresh water etc. Before Khasan and Khalkin Gol, when the USSR gained strength thanks to successful industrialization, received a powerful military-industrial complex and strong armed forces, the red commanders had strict orders to contain Japanese troops only on their territory, without crossing the border. A similar situation was in the Russian North, where Norwegian fishermen fished in the internal waters of the USSR. And when the Soviet border guards tried to protest, Norway took warships to the White Sea.
Of course, in Finland they no longer wanted to fight the USSR alone. Finland has become a friend of any power hostile to Russia. As the first Finnish Prime Minister Per Evind Svinhufvud noted: "Any enemy of Russia must always be a friend of Finland." Against this background, Finland made friends even with Japan. Japanese officers began to come to Finland for training. In Finland, as in Poland, they were afraid of any strengthening of the USSR, since their leadership based their calculations on the fact that a war of some great Western power with Russia was inevitable (or a war between Japan and the USSR), and they would be able to profit from Russian lands . Inside Finland, the press was constantly hostile to the USSR, conducted almost open propaganda for attacking Russia and seizing its territories. On the Soviet-Finnish border, all kinds of provocations constantly took place on land, at sea and in the air.
After the hopes for an early conflict between Japan and the USSR did not come true, the Finnish leadership headed for a close alliance with Germany. The two countries were linked by close military-technical cooperation. With the consent of Finland, a German intelligence and counterintelligence center (the Cellarius Bureau) was created in the country. His main task was to carry out intelligence work against the USSR. First of all, the Germans were interested in data on the Baltic Fleet, formations of the Leningrad Military District and industry in the northwestern part of the USSR. By the beginning of 1939, Finland, with the help of German specialists, built a network of military airfields, which was capable of receiving 10 times more aircraft than the Finnish Air Force had. Very indicative is the fact that even before the start of the war of 1939-1940. The identification mark of the Finnish Air Force and armored forces was the Finnish swastika.
Thus, by the beginning of the big war in Europe, we had a clearly hostile, aggressive-minded state on the northwestern borders, whose elite dreamed of building a “Great Finland at the expense of Russian (Soviet) lands and was ready to be friends with any potential enemy of the USSR. Helsinki was ready to fight with the USSR both in alliance with Germany and Japan, and with the help of England and France.
The Soviet leadership understood everything perfectly and, seeing the approach of a new world war, sought to secure the northwestern borders. Of particular importance was Leningrad - the second capital of the USSR, a powerful industrial, scientific and cultural center, as well as the main base of the Baltic Fleet. Finnish long-range artillery could bombard the city from its border, and ground troops get to Leningrad in one jerk. The fleet of a potential enemy (Germany or England and France) could easily break through to Kronstadt, and then to Leningrad. To protect the city, it was necessary to move the land border on land, as well as to restore the distant line of defense at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, having received a place for fortifications on the northern and southern shores. The largest fleet of the Soviet Union - the Baltic, was actually blocked in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. The Baltic Fleet had a single base - Kronstadt. Kronstadt and Soviet ships could be hit by long-range guns coastal defense Finland. This situation could not satisfy the Soviet leadership.
With Estonia, the issue was resolved peacefully. In September 1939, an agreement on mutual assistance was concluded between the USSR and Estonia. A Soviet military contingent was introduced into the territory of Estonia. The USSR received the rights to create military bases on the islands of Ezel and Dago, in Paldiski and Haapsalu.
It was not possible to agree with Finland in an amicable way. Although negotiations began in 1938. Moscow has tried literally everything. She offered to conclude an agreement on mutual assistance and jointly defend the Gulf of Finland zone, give the USSR the opportunity to create a base on the Finnish coast (Hanko Peninsula), sell or lease several islands in the Gulf of Finland. It was also proposed to move the border near Leningrad. As a compensation Soviet Union offered much larger territories of Eastern Karelia, preferential loans, economic benefits, etc. However, all proposals met with a categorical refusal from the Finnish side. It is impossible not to note the instigating role of London. The British told the Finns that it was necessary to take a firm stand and not succumb to pressure from Moscow. This encouraged Helsinki.
Finland began a general mobilization and evacuation of the civilian population from the border areas. At the same time, left-wing activists were arrested. Incidents have become more frequent at the border. So, on November 26, 1939, there was a border incident near the village of Mainila. According to Soviet data, Finnish artillery shelled Soviet territory. The Finnish side declared the USSR to be the culprit of the provocation. On November 28, the Soviet government announced the denunciation of the Non-Aggression Pact with Finland. On November 30, the war began. Its results are known. Moscow solved the problem of ensuring the security of Leningrad and the Baltic Fleet. We can say that only thanks to the Winter War, the enemy was not able to capture the second capital of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.
Finland is currently drifting towards the West, NATO again, so it is worth keeping a close eye on it. The "cozy and cultured" country can again recall the plans of "Great Finland" up to the Northern Urals. Finland and Sweden are thinking about joining NATO, and the Baltic states and Poland are literally turning into advanced NATO springboards for aggression against Russia before our very eyes. And Ukraine is becoming a tool for war with Russia in the southwestern direction.
The history of the Finnish state dates back to 1917. A month and a half after the October Revolution, on December 6 (19), 1917, the Finnish Parliament, under the leadership of Per Evind Svinhufvud, approved the declaration of state independence of Finland. Already in 12 days - on December 18 (31), the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Republic adopted the Decree recognizing the independence of Finland, signed personally by V. I. Lenin. The prerequisites for Finnish statehood were formed precisely in the Russian Empire. The Grand Duchy of Finland became part of Russia after the Russo-Swedish War of 1808-1809. Finland enjoyed wide autonomy, having its own bank, post office, customs, and since 1863 also the official Finnish language. It is the Russian period that becomes the time of the heyday of the national self-consciousness of the Finns, the heyday of Finnish culture, the Finnish language. On such favorable soil, the ideas of the brotherhood of the Finno-Ugric peoples, the ideas of the independence of the Grand Duchy of Finland and the unification of the Finno-Ugric peoples around it are formed.
It was these ideas that the leaders of Finland tried to put into practice after the collapse of the Russian Empire. Most of us are aware of the intervention of the troops of the Entente countries - France and Great Britain, during civil war. However, the Finnish intervention on Northwestern Front remains, as a rule, an unknown page of history.
Declaration of Independence of Finland Decree of the Council of People's Commissars recognizing the independence of Finland
However, even then the Soviet government planned to start a socialist revolution in Finland through the hands of its Finnish supporters. The uprising broke out in Helsinki on the evening of January 27, 1918. The same date is also considered the date of the start of the Finnish Civil War. On January 28, the entire capital, as well as most of the cities of Southern Finland, were under the control of the Red Finns. On the same day, the Council of People's Deputies of Finland (Suomen kansanvaltuuskunta) was created, headed by the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, Kullervo Manner, and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic was proclaimed ( Suomen sosialistinen tyoväentasavalta).
Front line in February 1918
The attempt of the Red offensive in the northern direction failed, and in early March the Whites, under the command of General Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, went over to the counteroffensive. March 8 - April 6 there is a decisive battle for Tampere, in which the Reds are defeated. Almost at the same time, the Whites are victorious on the Karelian Isthmus near the village of Rautu (the current village of Sosnovo). During the Civil War military aid the white Finns are constantly provided by Swedish volunteers, and after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty on March 3 with Soviet Russia intervention is also carried out by the troops of Kaiser's Germany. March 5 German troops land on the Åland Islands, April 3 expeditionary corps numbering about 9.5 thousand people under the command of General Rüdiger von der Goltz lands on the Hanko Peninsula, where he hits the back with red and begins an attack on Helsinki, which was taken on April 13. On April 19, Lahti was taken by the White Finns, and the Red groups were thus cut. On April 26, the Soviet government of Finland fled to Petrograd, on the same day the White Finns took Viipuri (Vyborg), where they carried out mass terror against the Russian population and the Red Guards who did not have time to escape. The civil war in Finland was actually over, on May 7, the remnants of the red units were defeated on the Karelian Isthmus, and on May 16, 1918, a victory parade was held in Helsinki.
But in the meantime, the Civil War in Russia had already flared up ...
Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army General
Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim
Having gained independence, and waging war with the Red Guards, the Finnish state decided not to stop at the borders of the Grand Duchy of Finland. At that time, among the Finnish intelligentsia, the ideas of Panfilanism, that is, the unity of the Finno-Ugric peoples, as well as the ideas of Great Finland, which were supposed to include the territories adjacent to Finland inhabited by these peoples, gained great popularity - Karelia (including the Kola Peninsula), Ingria (neighborhood of Petrograd) and Estonia. Russian empire collapsed, and new ones arose on its territory public entities, sometimes considering a significant expansion of their territory in the future.
Thus, during the Civil War, the Finnish leadership planned to expel Soviet troops not only from Finland, but also from the territories, the accession of which was planned in the near future. So February 23, 1918 on railway station Antrea (now Kamennogorsk) Mannerheim pronounces the "Oath of the Sword", in which he mentions: "I will not sheathe my sword ... until the last warrior and hooligan of Lenin is expelled from both Finland and Eastern Karelia." War on Soviet Russia was not declared, but since mid-January (that is, before the start of the Finnish Civil War), Finland has been secretly sending to Karelia partisan detachments, whose task was the actual occupation of Karelia and assistance to the Finnish troops during the invasion. Detachments occupy the city of Kem and the village of Ukhta (now the village of Kalevala). On March 6, in Helsinki (occupied at that time by the Reds), the Provisional Karelian Committee was created, and on March 15, Mannerheim approved the Wallenius Plan, aimed at the invasion of Finnish troops into Karelia and the capture Russian territory along the line Pechenga - Kola Peninsula - White Sea - Vygozero - Lake Onega - Svir River - Lake Ladoga. Parts of the Finnish army were to unite at Petrograd, which was supposed to be turned into a free city-republic controlled by Finland.
Russian territories that were supposed to be annexed according to the Wallenius plan
In March 1918, by agreement with the Soviet government, British, French and Canadian troops landed in Murmansk in order to prevent the invasion of the White Finns. Already in May, after the victory in the Civil War, the White Finns begin an offensive in Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. On May 10, they attempted to attack the polar ice-free port of Pechenga, but the attack was repulsed by the Red Guards. In October 1918 and January 1919, Finnish troops occupied the Rebolsk and Porosozersk (Porayarvi) volosts in the west of Russian Karelia, respectively. In November 1918, after the surrender of Germany in the First World War, the withdrawal of German troops from Russian territory begins, and the Germans lose the opportunity to assist the Finns. In this regard, in December 1918, Finland changes its foreign policy orientation in favor of the Entente.
Areas occupied by the area are shown in light yellow.
Finnish troops as of January 1919
The Finns are striving to create a state of the Finno-Ugric peoples in another direction. After the withdrawal of German troops from the Baltic states, Soviet troops attempt to occupy this region, but they meet resistance from the already formed troops of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - young states (Lithuania declared itself the successor to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), proclaimed during the German occupation. They are assisted by the troops of the Entente and the Russian white movement. At the end of November 1918, the Red Guards took Narva, which was part of the young Estonian Republic, after the capture of Narva, the Estland Labor Commune was proclaimed there ( Eesti Töörahwa Kommuuna ) and formed the Soviet government of Estonia, headed by Viktor Kingisepp. Thus began the Estonian War of Independence ( Eesti Vabadussõda). The Estonian army, led by Major General Ernest Pydder (on December 23, he transferred his powers to Johan Laidoner), retreats towards Reval (Tallinn). The Red Army occupied Dorpat (Tartu) and about half of the territory of Estonia and by January 6 was 35 kilometers from Tallinn. On January 7, the Estonian army launches a counteroffensive.
Ernest Pydder Johan Laidoner Viktor Kingisepp
Tartu was taken on January 14, Narva on January 19. In early February, units of the Red Army were finally forced out of Estonia. In May, the Estonian army is advancing on Pskov.
The allies of the Estonian army fought mainly in their own interests. The Russian White movement used the Estonian army (as well as other national armies that arose on the territory of Russia) as a temporary ally in the fight against the Bolsheviks, England and France fought for their own geopolitical interests in the Baltics (back in the middle of the 19th century, before Crimean War, British Foreign Secretary Henry Palmerston approved a plan for separating the Baltic states and Finland from Russia). Finland sent a volunteer corps of about 3.5 thousand people to Estonia. Finland's aspirations were to first drive the Reds out of Estonia, and then make Estonia part of Finland, as a federation of Finno-Ugric peoples. At the same time, Finland did not send volunteers to Latvia - Latvians do not belong to the Finno-Ugric peoples.
But back to Karelia. By July 1919, in the Karelian village of Ukhta (now the town of Kalevala), with the assistance of Finnish detachments that secretly penetrated there, a separatist North Karelian state was formed. Even earlier, on the morning of April 21, 1919, the Finnish troops, who had already occupied, as mentioned above, Reboly and Porosozero, crossed the Finnish-Russian border in the Eastern Ladoga region and in the evening of the same day occupied the village of Vidlitsa, and two days later - the city of Olonets, where a puppet Olonets government is created. On April 25, the White Finns go to the Yarn River, finding themselves 10 kilometers from Petrozavodsk, where they meet resistance from parts of the Red Army. The rest of the White Finnish detachments at the same time force the Svir and go to the city of Lodeynoye Pole. Anglo-French-Canadian troops were approaching Petrozavodsk from the north; the defense of Petrozavodsk lasted two months. At the same time, Finnish troops with smaller forces were conducting an offensive in North Karelia, using the North Karelian state to try to tear away the whole of Karelia.
On June 27, 1919, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive, occupying Olonets by July 8, and knocking the Finns out of the border line. However, the world did not settle on this. Finland refused to negotiate peace, and Finnish troops continued to occupy part of North Karelia.
On June 27, just on the day the defense of Petrozavodsk ended, the Finnish units under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Yurie Elfengren crossed the border on the Karelian Isthmus and found themselves in close proximity to Petrograd. However, they occupy territories inhabited mainly by Ingrian Finns, who at the beginning of June raised an anti-Bolshevik uprising, having become dissatisfied with the surplus appropriations carried out by the Bolsheviks, as well as punitive operations, which were a response to the population's evasion from mobilization into the Red Army. The Finnish troops meet resistance from the Red Army, in particular, the Finnish Red Army detachments, formed from the Red Finns who fled from Finland after the defeat in the Civil War, enter the battle with them. Two days later, Finnish troops retreat beyond the border line. On July 9, in the border village of Kiryasalo, the Republic of Northern Ingria is proclaimed, the head of which is a local resident Santeri Termonen. In September 1919, the Finnish units crossed the border again and held the territory of Northern Ingria for about a year. The republic becomes a state controlled by Finland, and in November, Yurie Elfengren himself takes the post of Chairman of the State Council.
Flag of the North Karelian State Flag of the Republic of Northern Ingria
Postage stamp of the Olonets government Postage stamp of the Republic of Northern Ingria
From September 1919 to March 1920, the Red Army completely liberates Karelia from the interventionist troops of the Entente, after which it begins to fight the Finns. On May 18, 1920, Soviet troops took the village of Ukhta without a fight, after which the government of the North Karelian state fled to Finland. By July 21, the Red Army had liberated most of Russian Karelia from Finnish troops. In the hands of the Finns, only the Rebolsk and Porosozersk volosts remained.
Yourie Elfengren North Ingrian Regiment in Kirjasalo
In July 1920, in the Estonian city of Tartu (where a peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Estonia was signed five months earlier), peace negotiations between Soviet Russia and Finland begin. Representatives of the Finnish side demand the transfer of Eastern Karelia. The Soviet side, in order to secure Petrograd, demands half of the Karelian Isthmus and an island in the Gulf of Finland from Finland. Negotiations last four months, but on October 14, 1920, the peace treaty was nevertheless signed. Finland as a whole remained within the borders of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Soviet Russia handed over to Finland the ice-free port of Pechenga (Petsamo) in the Arctic, thanks to which Finland gained access to the Barents Sea. On the Karelian Isthmus, the old border was also left, drawn along the Sestra River (Rayajoki). The Rebolsk and Porosozersk volosts, as well as Northern Ingria, remained with Soviet Russia, and the Finnish troops were withdrawn from these territories within a month and a half.
Finnish occupation of Karelia. The territories occupied at different times (dates of occupation are indicated) are allocated
light yellow color.
The Treaty of Tartu was intended to end hostilities between Russia and Finland. However, peace did not come here either. The Finnish leadership regarded it as a temporary truce and did not plan to give up its claims to Karelia at all. Finnish nationalist circles perceived the Treaty of Tartu as shameful and longed for revenge. Not even two months had passed since the signing of peace, when on December 10, 1920, the United Karelian Government was created in Vyborg. Further, the Finns used the same tactics as in 1919 - during the summer of 1921 they sent partisan detachments to the territory of Soviet Karelia, which gradually occupied the border villages and engaged in reconnaissance, as well as carried out agitation and arming the local population and thus organized the Karelian national insurrection. In October 1921, in Soviet Karelia, on the territory of the Tungudskaya volost, an underground Provisional Karelian Committee was created ( Karjalan Valiaikainen hallitus), headed by Vasily Levonen, Hjalmari Takkinen and Osipp Borisainen.
On November 6, 1921, Finnish partisan detachments begin an armed uprising in Eastern Karelia, on the same day the Finnish army, led by Major Paavo Talvela, crosses the border. Thus, the Finnish intervention in the Russian Civil War resumes, although in the North-West the Civil War had already ceased by that time (not counting Kronstadt uprising 1921). The Finns counted on the weakness of the Red Army after the Civil War and a fairly easy victory. Leading the offensive, the Finnish detachments destroyed communications and destroyed Soviet authorities in all settlements. New detachments were sent from Finland. If at the beginning of the war the number of Finnish troops was 2.5 thousand people, then by the end of December the figure approached 6 thousand. There were detachments formed from the participants of the Kronstadt uprising, who fled to Finland after it was suppressed. On the basis of the Provisional Karelian Committee, the puppet North Karelian state was recreated, which was again planted in the village of Ukhta, occupied by Finnish troops. In Finnish historiography, these events are called the "East Karelian uprising" ( Itakarjalaisten kansannosu), and it is reported that the Finns came to the aid of the Karelian brothers, who voluntarily raised an uprising against the Bolsheviks who oppressed them. In Soviet historiography, what was happening was interpreted as "a bandit kulak uprising financed by the imperialist circles of Finland." As you can see, both points of view are politicized.
Soviet poster dedicated to the Finnish intervention in 1921
On December 18, 1921, the territory of Karelia was declared under a state of siege. The Karelian Front was restored, headed by Alexander Sedyakin. Additional units of the Red Army were transferred to Karelia. Red Finns who fled after the Finnish Civil War to Soviet Russia are fighting in the ranks of the Red Army. The Finnish revolutionary Toivo Antikainen formed a ski rifle battalion, which in December 1921 carried out several raids on the rear of the White Finns. The battalion of the Petrograd International Military School, commanded by the Estonian Alexander Inno, also distinguished himself.
Light yellow color shows the territory occupied
White Finns as of December 25, 1921
On December 26, Soviet units strike from the side of Petrozavodsk, and after a week and a half they occupy Porosozero, Padany and Reboly, and on January 25, 1922 they occupy the village of Kestenga. On January 15, in Helsinki, Finnish workers hold a demonstration in protest against the "Karelian adventure" of the White Finns. On February 7, the troops of the Red Army enter the village of Ukhta, the North Karelian state dissolves itself, and its leaders flee to Finland. By February 17, 1922, the Red Army finally knocks the Finns out of the state border line, military operations actually stop there. On March 21, an armistice was signed in Moscow.
Paavo Talvela. Finnish major, leader
East Karelian operation
Alexander Sedyakin. Commander of Karelian Toivo Antikainen. Finnish creator
front of the Red Army and the head of the defeat of the ski battalion of the Red Army
White Finnish troops
On June 1, 1922, a peace treaty was concluded in Moscow between Soviet Russia and Finland, according to which both parties were obliged to reduce the number of border troops.
Award for participation in the war
against the White Finns in 1921-1922.
After the spring of 1922, the Finns no longer crossed the Soviet border with weapons. However, peace between neighboring states remained "cool". Finland's claims to Karelia and the Kola Peninsula not only did not disappear, but vice versa, they began to gain even more popularity and sometimes turn into more radical forms - some Finnish nationalist organizations sometimes promoted the idea of creating Greater Finland to the Polar Urals, which also had to enter the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Cis-Urals and the Volga region. A rather powerful propaganda acted in Finland, as a result of which the Finns formed the image of Russia as the eternal enemy of Finland. In the 1930s, the government of the USSR, observing such unfriendly political rhetoric from its northwestern neighbor, sometimes expressed concerns about the security of Leningrad, just 30 kilometers from which the Soviet-Finnish border passed. In Soviet propaganda, however, a negative image of Finland is also being formed as a "bourgeois" state, headed by an "aggressive imperialist clique" and in which the working class is allegedly oppressed. In 1932, a non-aggression pact was concluded between the USSR and Finland, however, even after that, relations between the two states remain very tense. And at a critical moment, a detonation occurred - in 1939, when the Second World War had already flared up, the tension of interstate relations resulted in the Soviet-Finnish (Winter) War of 1939-1940, which was followed in 1941 by Finland's participation in the Great Patriotic War in alliance with Nazi Germany. The establishment of good-neighborly relations between the USSR and Finland, unfortunately, cost a lot of losses.
This public organization of local historians and historians made a significant contribution to the study of Finno-Ugric subjects, the history of Russia in the 20th century. One of the active leaders of the Moscow branch of the Society for the Study of the Komi Territory (MO OIKK) was Professor Vasily Ilyich Lytkin, who later became a well-known Finno-Ugric scholar. It is unlikely that Lytkin knew about this, but, as it became known today, there were other rather strange approaches to studying the subject in Finno-Ugric studies...
By order of the Fuhrer
December 1941. Fierce battles between our troops and the Nazis are taking place on a vast territory from Leningrad to the Crimea. The fate of Moscow is being decided. The Germans are standing 30 kilometers from the Kremlin. The German Nazi Army "Center" is commanded by Field Marshal Fedor von Bock (unusual for a hereditary German military Russian name with Greek roots) ...
In December 1941, von Bock receives a very strange directive from Hitler. The Fuhrer categorically forbids him any shelling and air bombardment in a five-mile zone along the Oka River, starting from Ryazan and towards Murom. Moreover, this directive requires von Bock to provide reliable cover for a special search and archaeological group, which will be thrown into the forests of the Ryazan region. The group was sent by the Ahnenerbe organization, the purpose of the search was not disclosed.
Graphic symbol of the Ahnenerbe unit
Goths in Ryazan?
What could the Nazis look for in Ryazan land? Most likely, the "Ahnenerbe" (the so-called German Society for the Study of Ancient Germanic History and Heritage of Ancestors), which methodically plundered the cultural values of the occupied countries and subjected these values to analysis from the point of view of Nazi racial theory and the German-Scandinavian mythology adopted by the Nazis, abandoned a special archaeological group to study the Oka chain of mounds that stretch along the Oka from Ryazan to Murom itself. There were precedents for such research during the occupation Leningrad region. Also known is the purposeful activity of "Ahnenerbe" in three regions of the USSR - in the Crimea, on the Kola Peninsula and in the Ryazan region. But the thing is that the peoples of the Finno-Ugric group have been living on the territory of the modern Ryazan region since ancient times to this day ... Perhaps the special group "Ahnenerbe" was going to look in the mounds of the Ryazan region for traces and random connections of the descendants of the Aryans, Germans, with local pre-Slavic tribes?
Was there a military alliance?
In any case, the excavations of Russian archaeologists around 2005 at the site of the settlement of Old Ryazan, which is 60-70 kilometers from modern Ryazan, established the “Ryazan-Oka” tribes that once lived there (as the researchers called them), which belonged to the Volga-Finnish branch Finno-Ugric peoples - this is evidenced by their material culture. In the process of ethnogenesis, they could capture part of the Ugric tribes, the ancestors of modern Hungarians. The Ryazano-Oktsy were not natives of Poochye. They came here shortly before the beginning of our era. From the point of view of archeology, their arrival can be traced very well. And it also characterizes the new settlers well.
The local tribes of the so-called Gorodets culture (they are considered the ancestors of the Mordovians, also a Volga-Finnish people) in this zone of the Oka were, as it turned out, barbarously exterminated. Collective burials, or, more simply, pits with chopped up remains, accompany almost every Gorodets settlement. There is a layer of ash on the places of settlements - they were burned, and no one else lived there. Aggressive aliens have taken control of the vast territory of Poochi - almost from modern borders Moscow region to Kasimov ...
... Scientists suggest that the Ryazan-Oka inhabitants came to the Oka from the east. But throughout their almost thousand-year history, they were closely connected with the south, with the German tribes of the Goths. At the beginning of the 1st millennium, the Goths roamed the Don, from where they later left for Western Europe. There are many Gothic elements in the national costume of the Ryazan-Oktsy. Their weapons largely copy the German ones, and the crowns of the ancestral princelings repeat the patterns of the crowns of the early Gothic kings. There is even an assumption about the military alliance of the Ryazan-Oktsy and the Goths - that they were a kind of northern phalanx of the military Gothic empire, which kept half of Eastern Europe at bay ...
Lost in the Ryazan forests
... The Ryazan-Oktsy have a clearly visible military elite, into which from the 4th-5th centuries. AD women began to enter. Some of the women were buried with weapons and a horse bridle, leaving no room for an ambiguous understanding of their occupation. These representatives of the fair sex fought on an equal footing with men, which, according to archaeologists, was caused by a difficult military-political situation. However, by the end of the seventh century there are no such burials anymore - life has changed, and the Ryazan-Oka women returned to their former occupations.
Concluding the description of the “Nazi approach” in the search for cultures related to the Goths in the Ryazan region, it should be noted that the fate of all those involved in this case in December 1941 turned out to be tragic: the Ahnenerbe special group, abandoned in the dead of winter behind enemy lines, disappeared in the Ryazan forests. Fedor von Bock, who went to offer his services to the new government in the last days of the war, died during an air raid.
However, we also know a different - bright - approach to the study of Finno-Ugric peoples as one of the main ethnic pillars of the Russian superethnos. Perhaps the last significant representative of this approach, we can name our fellow countryman - an outstanding Soviet Komi poet, translator, linguist, Finno-Ugric scholar, Doctor of Philology, Academician of the Finnish Academy of Sciences (1969), laureate of the State Prize of the Komi ASSR. Kuratov, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR and Komi ASSR Vasily Ilyich Lytkin. The long life of this ascetic of science was filled with a considerable number of hardships and victories. It is also remarkable that during his professional maturity in 1949-1959. Vasily Ilyich held a professorship at the Ryazan Pedagogical Institute.
In the 18th century, a Catholic priest from Hungary, Janos Shainovich, discovered a relationship between the languages of several Finno-Ugric peoples. Now the Finno-Ugric "family" has 24 peoples, three of them - Hungarians, Estonians and Finns - have created independent states. 17 peoples live on the territory of Russia. Some of them are endangered. Several nationalities have disappeared altogether.
Finno-Ugric peoples in Russian chronicles
Anthropologists consider the Finno-Ugric peoples to be the oldest permanent residents of Europe and the oldest surviving peoples living in North-Eastern Europe. In the northeast of Russia, Finno-Ugric tribes lived even before the colonization of these lands by the Slavs. The tribes interacted peacefully - the territories were large, and the population density was low. The Tale of Bygone Years mentions such tribes as Chud, Merya, Vesya, Muroma. In the 800s, there are still no Russians in the annals, but there are a number of Slavic tribes: Krivichi, Slovenes.
The Varangians collected tribute from the Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes living in the northeast. Chud and Merya later participated in the campaign of Prince Oleg against Byzantium. Detachments gathered for other campaigns. For example, representatives of the Chud participated in Vladimir's campaign against the Polotsk prince Rogvolod. The Russians called the Finns "wonder".
Since the XII century, according to the chronicle, there has been a gradual assimilation of the Finno-Ugric peoples. For the chroniclers, they are no longer so much independent tribes as part of the Russian people. In fact, the tribal structure persisted, although it faded into the background. Around this time, the further expansion of the Russians to the northeast began. There are reports of conflicts with local tribes. For example, "Yaroslav fought with the Mordovians, on the 4th day of March, and Yaroslav was defeated."
In the late introduction to The Tale of Bygone Years, presumably created in 1113, data on the places of residence of the Finno-Ugric tribes are systematized: “And on Beloozero sits all, and on Lake Rostov - Merya, and on Lake Kleshchina - also Merya. And along the Oka River, where it flows into the Volga, there are Muroma speaking their own language, and Cheremis speaking their own language, and Mordovians speaking their own language.
The Izhora as a tribe has been mentioned in the annals since the 13th century, although, along with the Vod, they have inhabited the northwestern part of the present Leningrad region since ancient times. They fought together with the Novgorodians. In 1240, an Izhorian elder discovered a flotilla of Swedes and reported this to Prince Alexander Nevsky. Then the Izhors were close to the Karelians. The disunity occurred in 1323, when, after the signing of the Orekhovets peace treaty, the territory of the Karelians went to Sweden, and the Izhora remained in the possession of Novgorod.
The Izhora Upland is named after the Finno-Ugric people - the area south of the Neva and the Izhora River.
What did the Finno-Ugric peoples of the northeast do?
Arriving on the territory of the Finno-Ugric peoples, the Slavs quickly began to build cities. Among the Permian, Volga-Finnish and small Baltic-Finnish peoples, urban culture did not develop. They - representatives of the agrarian culture - were engaged in agriculture, hunting and fishing, weaving baskets, making pottery.
Life in the villages for a long time helped to preserve originality in clothing, food, construction of dwellings. Marriages were mostly concluded between their own, their languages were preserved.
Holidays were also celebrated within the people. As they said, "without noise and quarrel, and if someone is noisy or squabbling, then they drag him into the water and dip him so that he is humble." They had their own customs. So, at the Izhora, immediately after the wedding, the young people separated and went to celebrate with their relatives. Apart. They only met the next day.
The Izhora and Vod tribes retained their language until the middle of the 20th century. Ethnographers of that time noted that the Izhors did not speak Russian well, although they had Russian names and surnames. There was even writing based on the Latin alphabet, but in 1937 the publication of books was discontinued.
Izhora is one of the most singing Finno-Ugric peoples. They have saved over 125,000 songs. One of the main songwriters was Larin Paraske, who knew 1152 songs and more than 32 thousand poems.
Gradually, the Russian Finno-Ugric peoples adopted the Orthodox faith. So, the baptism of the Karelians took place in 1227. Many Christian terms in the Baltic-Finnish languages are of East Slavic origin.
For a long time, Orthodoxy among the Finno-Ugric peoples (for example, among the Izhora) existed on a par with paganism. In 1354, Archbishop Macarius informed Prince Ivan Vasilyevich that Chuds, Korelas, and Izhoras still had "bad idol prayer places." Until now, paganism has survived only among the Mari and Udmurts. Some northern peoples still practice shamanism.
recent history
Many Finno-Ugric peoples voluntarily assimilated with the Russians: they moved to cities, went to work in factories and workshops, women went to nannies. But until the 1920s, more than 90% of the Izhora were rural residents.
After the revolution, many Finno-Ugric peoples were granted national autonomy. There was even the Karelian-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (despite the fact that Karelians and Finns in that territory were about 20%). During the Soviet-Finnish war, many Finno-Ugric peoples moved to Finland. And during World War II, Izhors were sent to work in Finland forcibly.
In 1944, the Soviet authorities deported most of the returning Izhors to the Yaroslavl, Pskov, and Novgorod regions. Not all have returned to their original places of residence. The same fate befell the representatives of the Vod people.
In total, more than half a million Russian Finno-Ugric peoples were assimilated in the 20th century. According to the 2010 census, 266 Izhora now live in Russia. Once a large and strong Vod tribe now consists of about 60 people, and there are only a few who speak the Vot language. And for some, it is not native - people learn it in order to preserve it. Votic writing did not exist, but folklorists recorded songs and incantations.
In the former Vodka villages between Narva and Kingisepp (and to the east of it), only Russians have long lived. Only the names of settlements remind of the Votic heritage.
Probably, the number of representatives of disappearing nationalities is greater, but many already record themselves as Russians. If the trends continue, soon many small Finno-Ugric peoples and their languages will disappear forever.
It was considered that the war with only one ІІІ Reich is too easy. The Soviet leadership decided on a pre-emptive strike against Finland.
On June 25, 1941, peaceful Finnish cities (including Helsinki) were bombed. In response, in the evening of the same day, the Finnish parliament decided to start fighting against the Red Army to repel Soviet aggression.
Thus began another attempt by the dictatorship of the "proletarian internationalists" to return the territory that previously belonged to the USSR to the rule of the USSR.
The formal reason for the Soviet aggression was the occupation by the Finnish troops of the demilitarized zone - the Aland Islands. As always, the Kremlin did not bother with the rationale for its actions, voicing the first version that came to mind. The fact is that the Åland Islands are located between Sweden and Finland. It would seem - what does the USSR have to do with it?
But people who believed in the dogmas of Marx believed and still believe that they are superior to all mankind in intellectual terms. That is why the Communists are sincerely convinced that all of humanity must sacredly believe their every word. And whoever does not believe is either an enemy, or is not capable, due to his stupidity, to comprehend all the wisdom of Marxism-Stalinism.
For the same reason, the leadership of modern Russia, brought up within the framework, believes that propaganda nonsense like: “proletarian internationalism”, “infringement of the rights of Russian speakers” and the like is a sufficient basis for starting a war for a “world revolution”, “the victory of world communism”, "greatness of Russia", "Russian world", etc. Is it worth it, knowing the Kremlin's worldview, to be surprised that the Aland Islands are the "sacred lands" of the Moscow leaders?
the day before
The fighting, which began in 1941, was the beginning of the fourth Soviet-Finnish war. The first three wars ended unsuccessfully for the Soviet: the Kremlin failed to establish its puppet regime in Finland, nor to occupy the country.
After the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, Soviet-Finnish relations heated up to the limit. In accordance with the collusion of the Nazis and the Communists, the lands of all Eastern Europe were divided between III Reich and the USSR.
Fulfilling the pact, the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic countries and part of Poland in 1939. However, in Finland, the Stalinist hordes encountered a powerful rebuff. As a result of fierce fighting and huge losses, the USSR managed to annex only some areas of Finnish territory.
Having received only a small part, instead of the whole country, the Kremlin continued to prepare for the capture of Suomi. Almost immediately after the conclusion of the peace Soviet-Finnish agreement (March 1940), on March 31, 1940, the Stalinist regime announced the creation of the Karelian-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic. A few days later, Finnish was declared the official language of the Karelian-Finnish SSR. Of course, the newly-made "republic" was soon to announce the reunification of the Karelian-Finnish people, and the Red Army - to bring the decision to life.
Such scenarios have been tested by the Bolsheviks since the October Revolution. On the territory controlled by the Bolsheviks, communist governments were created for the states that appeared after the overthrow of the autocracy. Then the Red Army of the RSFSR (as the Bolsheviks called Russia) began an invasion of independent states with the aim of "triumph of the world revolution."
It is noticeable that the Kremlin strategists do not shine with originality - Russia repeats similar scenarios in our time in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.
The Finnish government understood perfectly well what the Stalinists wanted and how it could be resisted. Seeking support, Suomi turned to Sweden and the UK. The USSR managed to prevent the military alliance of Finland and Sweden, while England itself was in a rather difficult situation due to the war with Germany.
Having soberly assessed the alignment of forces in Europe, the Finnish government came to the conclusion that the only ally that could provide real assistance in the event of a second attack by Stalin's Russia was Germany.
Berlin appreciated the fighting efficiency of the Finnish army and the selfless courage with which the Finns defended their independence in the "Winter War" of 1939-1940. The countries entered into a military alliance. It should be noted that it was thanks to the Soviet threatreplenished with the only democratic legal state - Finland.
The USSR was actively preparing for a new war. By June 1941, along the Finnish border, the Soviets concentrated 20 divisions of the Red Army: 8 on the Karelian Isthmus, 7 in Eastern Karelia, 5 in the Arctic.
The Finns also did not sit idly by. On June 9, 1941, partial mobilization was announced, and on June 17, full mobilization. Then, in June of the 41st, Suomi provided military bases to the German armed forces. The following arrived in Finland from the Reich: 14 minelayers (June 14, port in Turku), 10 Luftwaffe fighters (June 15, Luostari airfield), 17 torpedo boats (June 18, Helsinki), 36th mountain corps (June 18, Salla area), 3 reconnaissance aircraft (June 18, Rovaniemi), 3 reconnaissance aircraft (June 20, Luotenjarvi airfield).
The tension in Soviet-Finnish relations was so great new war became inevitable. And she was not slow to strike immediately after the start of the Soviet-German war. The day after the outbreak of hostilities III Reich against the USSR, Molotov (the official party nickname of Scriabin, unofficially his comrades-in-arms in the CPSU (b) called him "Iron Ass") summoned the Finnish Charge d'Affaires Hyunninen. Molotov demanded a report - which side would Finland be on, did she want to fight the USSR and Great Britain, and why did Finnish planes fly over Leningrad? Hünninen parried Molotov's questions with the question: "Why did the USSR fire on Finnish ships?" Everyone remained at the opinion, the compromise could not be reached.
The course of the war
Based on the situation, Stalin, who, according to the assurances of Soviet-Russian historians, was allegedly in prostration in the first week of the Soviet-German war, gave the order to start hostilities against Finland. For the dry-handed Kremlin paranoid, the Wehrmacht's rapid offensive and the rampant drape of the "indestructible and legendary" Red Army on the Soviet-German front were not enough. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, or, as Osip Mandelstam aptly put it, “a rabble of thin-necked leaders,” decided to attack Finland.
On June 24, 1941, the embassy of the Soviets hastily left Finland. On June 25, Soviet aviation, treacherously, without declaring war, went to bomb Finnish cities and airfields. According to Stalinist propaganda, 41 Finnish planes were destroyed as a result of the raid. At the same time, Finnish air defense shot down 23 enemy aircraft.
On the same evening, the Finnish parliament voted for active armed resistance to yet another Russian-Bolshevik aggression. Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim, a veteran of previous wars with the USSR, was appointed Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Finland.
Knowing Mannerheim well, he did not bother about how to save face for the Kremlin leaders, and immediately went on the offensive. He knew that the Russians could successfully fight only if at least one of three conditions was met: a sudden blow to the back of a peaceful state, a huge numerical and technical superiority, and the presence of strong allies. In this situation, the Soviets had powerful allies (the United States and Great Britain), which saved the country of the Soviets from complete defeat in the war with Germany.
On July 1, Great Britain bombed Petsamo, where the Wehrmacht was advancing. In response, Finland withdrew its ambassador from London. England soon withdrew its ambassador from Helsinki. Great Britain warned that if the Finns liberated the lands inhabited by the Finno-Ugric peoples, but until 1939 they were not part of Suomi, England would be forced to declare war on Finland. The note of the British government was taken into account in Helsinki.
On July 10, 1941, in response to the perfidious attack of the USSR, the Finnish army launched an offensive against the positions of the communists. In August of the same year, the Finns managed to develop success and liberate a number of cities: Sortavala (August 16), Kexholm (August 21), Vyborg (August 29), Terioki (August 31). As of September 2, the territory annexed by the Stalinists as a result of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 was completely cleared of Russian-Bolshevik invaders.
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| Finnish fighters go to the state border of Finland in 1939. Photo 2 September 1941 |
The Finnish army stopped its advance 30 km from Leningrad. On September 4, 1941, Mannerheim officially notified the German allies of the non-participation of the Finnish army in the storming of Leningrad.
The confrontation of a small Finnish state with a huge empire of Evil did not leave indifferent the inhabitants of neighboring states. The Swedes, to fight the Russian-communist aggressors, formed a one and a half thousandth volunteer battalion, which was headed by Hans Berggren. Two and a half thousand Estonian volunteers also came to the aid of Finland.
On September 22, Great Britain reminded Helsinki that it was ready for the resumption of friendly relations, provided that Finland did not participate in the war with the USSR and the withdrawal of Finnish troops beyond the borders of 1939.
On October 1, Petrozavodsk was liberated from communist occupation. Mannerheim forbade his aviation to fly over Leningrad.
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| Finnish army in Petrozavodsk. October 1, 1941 |
On November 6, 1941, a positional war began on the Soviet-Finnish front. On November 28, Great Britain presented Suomi with an ultimatum - to stop all hostilities against the Soviet until December 5.
On December 2, the Finnish army occupied the Soviet military base on the Hanko Peninsula, and on December 5, it liberated Medvezhyegorsk. For failure to comply with the requirements of the ultimatum, the British Empire declared war on Finland on December 6. On the same day, the Finns blocked the work of the White Sea Canal by capturing the village of Povenets. But, in general, the Finnish government took into account the wishes of London, and did not carry out attacks on Karelia, Ingermanland and others.
In general, by the end of 1941, the Soviet-Finnish front had stabilized. Until 1944, the Finns did not offensive operations, and the Soviet did not have a sufficient preponderance of forces to significantly change the situation at the front. Summer 1944 Soviet army went on the offensive. Finland began negotiations with the USSR, which ended with the conclusion of a peace treaty on September 4, 1944. Suomi pledged to withdraw all German troops from its territory.
III Reich did not agree with this proposal, as a result of which a new, Lapland war began, in which the armed confrontation between Germany and Finland continued until the spring of 1945.
The Soviet of Deputies and its allies took into account that Finland did not use all of its military power in the war against the USSR. As a result, Leningrad, Arkhangelsk and a number of other strategically important territories remained under the control of the Stalinist regime.
This is probably why Suomi was not occupied by the USSR, the puppet communist regime was not imposed on the country. And yet, until the final collapse of the USSR in 1991, Finland tacitly remained in the zone of geopolitical influence of Moscow.
During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1941-1944, Finland lost 61 thousand soldiers killed. The losses of the USSR are unknown, due to the secrecy of the data, but according to the most conservative estimates, more than 100 thousand mobilized people died. The borders of the two states remained within the limits of 1940, with the exception of the almost deserted region of Petsamo occupied by the Soviets. 
Territories occupied by the Finnish army during the fighting in 1941-1944. The map shows the borders of Finland before and after the war of 1939-1940.
Why the Stalinist camarilla unleashed the fourth war with Finland, and acquired another enemy in a very difficult military situation, is not known. Probably the driving force of the USSR was.
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