"What if they never fought the Winter War, or how..." Topic
7 Posts
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Tango01  | 20 Oct 2025 4:41 p.m. PST |
… could they not?
"In general, it is felt abroad that Finland suffered injustice in the Winter War. The opinion was the same then and is still the same now. It doesn't hurt foreigners, but it did hurt the Finns, the land, the territory was gone and a quarter of the people had to be taken to the road. No-one gave, but sympathy.
Since the Soviet Union's threat(s) on Finland did not end after March 1940, Finland did not disarm its army and considered the peace only a thin one. There were also clear indications, soon after the Winter War, e.g. the Loss of France and the Battle of Britain would widen the war in Europe. Of course, when it was only a year and a half after the previous war, Finland wanted its own land, the lost territory back. Since Finland had just been left alone, to fight against the eastern enemy in the Winter War, they did not want to experience the same thing again right away. The new war brewing on the horizon, between Germany and the Soviet Union, it was also understood in the North. Germany, waging war against the Soviet Union, Finland might regain the lost land…"
link
Armand |
| Murvihill | 21 Oct 2025 5:37 a.m. PST |
I think the Soviets might be in a different position in 1941. IIRC they reorganized based on Winter War lessons learned, and so were theoretically better prepared for war against Germany, but were also in the midst of the reorganization and that would not have been ongoing had they not learned the lessons of the Winter War. |
| Tango01 | 22 Oct 2025 4:32 p.m. PST |
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| Andy ONeill | 23 Oct 2025 10:21 a.m. PST |
The winter war gave pretty much everyone the impression the soviet army were ineffective. That impression was particularly significant for hitler. Maybe he wouldn't have been quite so eager to head east in 1941 without the fiasco in Finland. |
| Tango01 | 23 Oct 2025 4:21 p.m. PST |
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 piper909 | 23 Oct 2025 10:56 p.m. PST |
I have always been in sympathy with the Finns, who were defending their sovereignty in 1939-40 but were crushed by overwhelming numbers -- then sought an alliance of convenience with Germany in 1941 to regain their lost territory. Finland lost on both occasions but they still managed to maintain their independence, at the cost of much suffering and loss of land. A brave and admirable nation. What's always interesting to me are the "What If?…" scenarios for WWII had Finland stayed in the Winter War longer. Some Allied forces were in process of being shipped to Finland -- could France and Britain have gone to war with the USSR in 1940? How would that have changed the course of the war? Stalin was pursuing a parallel campaign of imperial conquest, after all, that created a conflict with the West as much as Nazism did. |
| Tango01 | 24 Oct 2025 5:04 p.m. PST |
Quite interesting What If…
Armand
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first saw these figures, he was dreading painting them...
