Finland in World War II

Finnish ski troops in Northern Finland in January 1940.

The military history of Finland during World War II covers the history of Finland from 1939 to 1945. Finland fought three wars: the Winter War alone against the Soviet Union, the Continuation War with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, and the Lapland War against Germany. In the end, Finland managed to defend its independence and democratic constitution but had to cede nearly 10% of its territory, including its second largest city, Viipuri, to the USSR.

Background

The Grand Duchy of Finland, as the country was named until 1917.

Finland's concessions in the Winter War.

In 1809, Russia conquered Finland from Sweden in the Finnish War. Finland entered a personal union with the Russian Empire as a grand duchy with extensive autonomy. During the Russian rule the country generally prospered. However, in the early twentieth century Russia tightened its grip on Finland, causing wide-spread resentment. When revolution broke out in Russia in 1917, Finland declared independence. In 1918, the Finnish Civil War broke out between the generally right-wing government supporters and left-wing rebels. The war ended with the victory of the government forces, supported by Germans, and the expulsion of Russian troops.

During the inter-war period, the relationship between Finland and the Soviet Union was tense. Some elements in Finland maintained the dream of "Greater Finland" which included the Soviet-controlled part of Karelia. The proximity of the Finnish border to Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) caused worry in the Soviet leadership.

In 1938, negotiations started between Finland and the Soviet Union concerning the safety of Leningrad. No agreement was reached. In 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret clause of the agreement, Finland was part of the Soviet sphere of influence. In November 1939, the Soviet Union accused the Finnish army of the shelling of the village of Mainila. On November 30, the Soviet Union attacked Finland.

Course of the war

Winter War

Main article: Winter War

The Soviet forces arrayed against Finland greatly outnumbered the Finnish army. The Red Army enjoyed over a twofold advantage in the number of troops and even greater advantage in equipment, including a virtually complete air supremacy. The Soviet leadership also established a puppet regime of Finnish Democratic Republic in an occupied border town in the hope that this would encourage the former "reds" of the Finnish Civil War to defect or to rebel. The time needed for the defeat of Finland was estimated as two to four weeks.

The war, however, unfolded very differently. The country united against the aggressor and the puppet regime failed to have a noticeable effect. The Finnish army was fighting on their home turf in winter conditions with which they were very familiar. The high morale of Finnish troops, their flexible and creative strategies, the difficult terrain and harsh weather caused significant problems for the Red Army. The Soviets were routed in several key battles, the Battle of Suomussalmi being a classic example. The war lasted for months rather than weeks, casualties mounted and the international prestige of the Soviet Union suffered. Finland negotiated for aid from Great Britain, France and Sweden. The two major powers sent some material aid, the most important being modern fighters that arrived just as the war was ending. Great expectations had been placed on Sweden as many hoped they would join the war on Finland's side. In the end aid was limited to material, money and volunteers. Despite sending 1/3 of its meagre force of fighters and the largest volunteer contingent from a single country during the 20th century the high early expectations have created resentment in Finland noticeable in the countries otherwise close relations to this day.

By March 1940, sheer exhaustion led to the situation where both parties were willing to negotiate for a peace treaty. The Finnish Army was running out of even the most basic material, and the Soviet Union wanted to end the costly war that had become an international embarrassment. Nevertheless, Finland was the loser and in the Moscow Peace Treaty, the Finns had to make significant territorial concessions.

Interim peace

Main article: Interim Peace

The period of peace following the Winter War was widely regarded as temporary even when peace was announced in March 1940. A period of frantic diplomatic efforts and rearmament followed. The Soviet Union kept up intense pressure on Finland, thereby hastening the Finnish efforts to improve the security of the country.

Defensive arrangements were attempted with Sweden and Great Britain, but the political and military situation in the context of the Second World War rendered these efforts fruitless. Finland therefore turned to Nazi Germany for military aid. As the German offensive against the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) approached, the cooperation between the two countries intensified. German troops arrived in Finland and took up positions, mostly in Lapland.

Operation Barbarossa began on June 22, 1941. On June 25, the Soviet Union launched a massive air raid against Finnish cities, after which Finland declared war and also allowed German troops stationed in Finland to begin offensive warfare. The resulting war was to be called the Continuation War.

Continuation War

Relative strengths of Finnish, German and Soviet troops at the start of the Continuation War in June 1941.

The village of Ivalo, destroyed by Germans.

Main article: Continuation War

During the summer and autumn of 1941, the Finnish army was on the offensive, retaking the territories lost in the Winter War. However, the Finnish army also advanced further, especially in the direction of Lake Onega, (east from Lake Ladoga), leading to the occupation of Russian East Karelia (it never had been a part of Finland - or even, before 1809, of Sweden-Finland). This caused Great Britain to declare war on Finland on December 6. The German and Finnish troops in Northern Finland were less successful, failing to take the Russian port city of Murmansk.

In September 1941, the Finnish army took defensive positions. This led to a long period of relative calm in the front line, lasting until 1944. During this period, especially after the major German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, intermittent peace negotiations took place. These negotiations did not lead to any settlement.

On March 16^th, 1944, the president of the United States of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt, called for Finland to disassociate itself from Nazi Germany.

On June 9, 1944, the Red Army launched a massive attack against Finland. The fact that the enemy had vast numerical superiority, and had managed to surprise the Finnish army, led to a retreat approximately to the same positions as the Finns were holding at the end of the Winter War. Eventually the Soviet offensive was fought to a standstill (see Battle of Tali-Ihantala) while still tens or hundreds of kilometres in front of the main Finnish line of fortifications, the Salpa Line.

The dire situation in 1944 had led to Finnish president Risto Ryti giving Germany his personal guarantee that Finland would not negotiate peace with the Soviet Union for as long as he was the president. In exchange Germany delivered weapons to the Finns. However, after the Soviet invasion was halted, Ryti resigned. Due to the war, elections could not be held, and therefore the Parliament selected Mannerheim, the Finnish commander-in-chief, as president and charged him with negotiating a peace.

The Finnish front had become a sideshow for the Soviet leadership, as they were in a race to reach Berlin before the Western Allies. This, and the heavy casualties inflicted on the Red Army by the Finns, led to the withdrawal of most troops from the Finnish front. On September 4, 1944 a ceasefire was agreed, and the Moscow armistice was signed on September 19. In the armistice agreement Finland was obliged to expel German troops from the country. This led to the Lapland War.

Moscow armistice

Main article: Moscow armistice

The Moscow armistice was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 19 September 1944 ending the Continuation War, though the final peace treaty was not to be signed until 1947 in Paris.

The conditions for peace were similar to those previously agreed in the 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty, with Finland having to cede parts of Karelia, part of Salla and islands in the Gulf of Finland. The new armistice also handed the whole of Petsamo over to the Soviet Union. Finland also agreed to legalize communist parties and ban fascist organizations. Finally the armistice also demanded that Finland must drive German troops away from its territory, which was the cause of the Lapland War.

Lapland War

Main article: Lapland War

The Lapland War was fought between Finland and Nazi Germany in Lapland, the northernmost part of Finland. The main strategic interest of Germany in the region were the nickel mines in the Petsamo area.

Initially the warfare was cautious on both sides, reflecting the previous allied nature of the two sides, but by the end of 1944 the fighting intensified. The Germans adopted a scorched earth policy, and proceeded to lay waste to the entire northern half of the country as they retreated. Some 100,000 people lost their homes, adding to the burden of post-war reconstruction. The actual loss of life, however, was not catastrophic. Finland lost some 1,000 troops and Germany about 2,000. The Finnish army expelled the last of the foreign troops from their soil in April 1945.

Post-war

The war had caused great damage to infrastructure and the economy. From the autumn of 1944, the Finnish army and navy performed many mine clearance operations, especially in Karelia, Lapland and the Gulf of Finland. The sea mine clearance lasted until 1950. The mines caused many military and civilian casualties, particularly in Lapland.

As part of the Paris Peace Treaty, Finland was classified as a belligerent and fascist power. The Soviet Union imposed heavy war reparations on Finland and took the Porkkala area near the Finnish capital Helsinki as a military base. The reparations were initially thought to be crippling for the economy, but a determined effort was made to pay them. They were actually paid off years in advance, in 1952. Porkkala was returned to Finnish control in 1956.

In subsequent years the position of Finland was unique in the Cold War. The country was heavily influenced by the Soviet Union, but retained democracy and a market economy. Finland entered into the YYA Treaty with the Soviet Union, which in theory guaranteed mutual assistance, but the Soviet Union largely respected Finland's wishes to remain uninvolved in the Cold War. Arms purchases were balanced between East and West until the fall of the Soviet Union.

Assessment

Finland and Nazi Germany

During the Continuation War (1941-1944) Finland was co-belligerent with Nazi Germany, and dependent on food, fuel and armament shipments from Germany. The country did, however, retain a democratic form of government. During the war Germany and Finland were united by a common enemy, the Soviet Union, yet Finland kept her army outside the German command structure despite numerous attempts to tie them more tightly together.

Finnish Jews were not persecuted, and even among extremists of the Finnish Right they were highly tolerated, as many leaders of the movement came from the clergy. Of approximately five hundred Jewish refugees, eight were handed over to the Germans, a fact for which Finnish prime minister Paavo Lipponen issued an official apology in 2000. The field synagogue operated by the Finnish army was probably a unique phenomenon in Europe.

Approximately 2600 to 2800 Soviet prisoners of war were exchanged for 2100 Fennic prisoners of war from Germany. In November 2003 , the Simon Wiesenthal Center submitted an official request to Finnish President Tarja Halonen for a full-scale investigation by the Finnish authorities of the prisoner exchange In the subsequent study by professor Heikki Ylikangas it turned out that about 2000 of the exchanged prisoners joined the Wehrmacht, but among the rest there were about 500 political officers or politically dangerous persons, who most likely perished in concentration camps. Based on the a list of names, there were about seventy Jews among the extradited, although they were apparently not extradited based on ethnic grouping.

When the Finnish Army occupied Russian East Karelia between 1941 and 1944, several concentration camps were set up for Russian civilians. The first camp was set up on 24 October 1941, in Petrozavodsk. Around 4,000 of the prisoners perished due to malnourishment, 90% of them during the spring and summer of 1942.

During World War II, Finland was in many ways a unique case. It was the only country which fought against both sides of the conflict under the same leadership. It was the only European country which bordered the Soviet Union in 1939 and was still unoccupied in 1945. Of all the European countries fighting in World War II, only three European capitals were never occupied: Moscow, London and Helsinki. It was also a country which sided with Germany, but in which native Jews (and most refugees) were safe from persecution.

Finnish policy during WWII

Finnish policy during WWII could be seen as a series of miscalculations, a stunning example of cunning planning, or a simple case of driftwood going with the flow. All three interpretations have their merits.

There is probably very little Finland could have done to prevent the Winter War without losing independence. Several politicians, such as Paasikivi and Kekkonen, have argued that different foreign policies in Finland during the decade before World War II could have averted the Winter War. The fact that the country survived was more a matter of martial prowess than skillful diplomacy, as Finland was completely isolated from potential allies.

The Continuation War was certainly based on the assumption that Germany would triumph over the Soviet Union. This incorrect assessment proved to be costly for the country. On the other hand, refusal to join with Germany against the Soviets might have led to German occupation and subsequently to Soviet occupation and possible annexation in a manner similar to the Baltic States. The Finnish ceasefire with the Soviet Union in 1944 required both hard fighting in the frontline (see Battle of Tali-Ihantala) and skillful diplomatic manoeuvres. Also timing was extremely important. An earlier ceasefire would have meant that Germany would have been able to retaliate. On the other hand, continuing to fight for too long would have risked Soviet occupation of Finland. In this respect the ceasefire was perfectly timed.

There were around 97,000 casualties including 2,000 civilian casualties. Territorial losses mounted to some 10% of the surface area of the country, and included Viipuri, the 'second city' after Helsinki. Finland retained a democratic form of government. Finland came out of the war with relatively minor damage to its then small industrial sector due to inefficiency of the Soviet bombing campaigns and the fact that fighting was limited up to Viipuri in South-Eastern Finland and to the least industrialized parts of the country along the Eastern border and Lapland, regardless of the reasons leading to this.

See also

• Finland
• History of Finland
• Participants in World War II
• Finnish Air Force
• List of WWII Finnish Tanks and Armours

External links

• An essay about Jews in Finland during WWII
• Axis History Factbook — Finland
• The Battles of the Winter War Finnish women were taught to shoot while on skis
• Jaeger Platoon: Finnish Army 1918-1945 Web Site