In October 1939, when his father Stalin could not bear it anymore and decided to launch a military operation against his neighbor to the west, everyone in the room felt that the Soviet army would not need much effort to solve this unknown enemy.
Only General Shaposhnikov, the General Staff of the Soviet Army, disagreed.
He believed that to solve this stubborn enemy, the Soviets would need to deploy 45 divisions and a large number of tanks, heavy artillery and fighters, and even on this scale, it would take months for the Soviets to effectively break up the enemy's resistance and force it to agree to the Soviet conditions, even if the Soviets prayed that the West would sit idly by and not provide them with large-scale assistance.
Father Ci's judgment scoffed at the general's judgment, he was full of confidence in the Soviet army, and with such a strong army, it was possible to destroy and solve the enemy without spending a lot of manpower and material resources, and Father's view was of course also shared by most of the Soviet leadership.
The story that followed surprised the father, and the general's judgment was fulfilled one by one in this war, and the Soviet army really sent 600,000 troops in the war to barely win the war and sign the contract.
And after that, this neighbor recaptured the territory occupied by the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union was overwhelmed.
And this neighbor, who made the USSR suffer so much, was the small Nordic power Finland.
So what caused this Soviet-Finnish war, and why did the Soviet Union, which claimed to be the strongest in Eurasia, lose territory despite such heavy losses? Where does Finland's strength come from?
Stemming from self-defense
In 1917, the February Revolution and the October Revolution took place in Russia, overthrowing the Tsarist rule and the fall of the Russian Empire.
Finland, as a former Russian vassal state, took the opportunity to become independent, and the newly established Russian Soviet power was facing internal and external troubles, so it had to agree to Finland's independence.
On the other hand, the reluctant Soviet Union continued to plot against the Red regime in Finland in an attempt to overthrow Finland. However, this red force was not as lucky as the Chinese Communist Party, which was defeated by government forces in the Finnish Civil War, and the Soviet Union and Finland have been at odds ever since.
After the Finnish regime stabilized, the two countries began to negotiate the demarcation of the border. It can be imagined that the border division this time is not clear, and both sides are not satisfied with the division results, in order to maintain peace between the two countries and ensure the stability of the regime, both sides have been patient and did not have an attack.
In 1934, the German mustache was officially crowned prime minister, and its territorial ambitions were clearly revealed.
At this time, Stalin also realized that the Soviet Union had reached the most dangerous moment, and he even made the worst plan for Britain, France and Germany to jointly attack the Soviet Union.
As a result, the need to establish a strategic buffer zone was put on the agenda.
In order to effectively block the Nazi attack, Stalin conspired with the Fuhrer to partition Poland together, and then signed a military alliance agreement with the three Baltic states.
In order to prevent the enemy from coming ashore from the Baltic Sea and launching an attack on its northwest, the Soviet Union had to talk to its neighbor, Finland, which was not very harmonious.
In fact, Leningrad, the second largest city in the Soviet Union, is only more than 30 kilometers from the Soviet-Finnish border, and in the event of a war, this large border city will be reduced to ashes in an instant.
The Soviet Union proposed to Finland to hand over large areas of the barren territory of Lake Onega to Finland, and Finland ceded the territory of the Karelian region on the Soviet-Finnish border to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union leased the Hanko Peninsula for 30 years.
Finland, of course, rejected the unreasonable demands of the Soviet Union, and after many fruitless negotiations between the two sides, Father Father believed that the threat of Nazi Germany was imminent and that decisive military action must be taken to achieve the set goals.
The big war is on the verge.
At this time, the Soviet Union had already completed industrialization, with a total army of nearly 5 million, and a large number of tanks, heavy artillery and other weapons.
Even the Air Force has acquired a certain combat capability.
The small Nordic country of Finland has a total population of 4.5 million, which is not comparable to the number of troops of the Soviet army. In the early stage of the war, the army was only 32,000, and after the expansion, it was only 127,000, and even if the national mobilization was carried out, the potential mobilization personnel were only more than 300,000.
At that time, Finland did not have the function of producing heavy weapons, the Finnish army only had more than 100 anti-tank guns, more than 200 tanks, and all of them were old tanks in World War I, more than 90 aircraft, and the ammunition of these heavy weapons was only enough to last for more than 2 months.
Such a huge disparity in strength plunged most of the Soviet generals into a kind of fanatical optimism, Khrushchev said: As long as we raise our voices a little, Finland will surrender, if we do not work again, we will shoot a shot into the sky, Finland will raise its hands and surrender.
No wonder Stalin scoffed at the battle plan of General Boshnikov's 45 divisions.
The commander of the Leningrad Military District Meretskov redrew the operational plan.
In the new combat plan, the Soviet army will send 4 army groups, with a total strength of about 450,000, equipped with more than 1,000 tanks and more than 800 fighters, even in the new plan formulated by Meretskov, the Soviet army dispatched far more armed forces than the Finnish army.
Almost all the generals believed that the Soviets would capture Helsinki, the capital of Finland, within 2 months and force the Finnish government to sign an armistice with any content, but the outcome of the war was beyond everyone's expectations, and the Soviets were about to pay a heavy price for their arrogance.
Bloody battles in winter
Winter is a friend of Russia, the same Finnish. Finland, with a quarter of its territory within the Arctic Circle, is one of the coldest countries in the world, and the Soviet offensive against the Finnish army also took place in the winter, but this war cost the Soviet Union extremely dearly.
The Soviet Union's 450,000-strong army launched an onslaught on Finland on November 30, 1939, but the expected devastation did not appear, and the Finnish army severely damaged the Soviet army through stubborn resistance.
In the early days of the war, the Soviet army lacked cooperation between the various branches of the armed forces, the various units fought separately, strategic materials were not fully coordinated, and the lower officers and soldiers of the Soviet army only carried out orders mechanically
The Finnish army adopted a policy of harassment, taking advantage of the familiar terrain and weather to raid Soviet troops on skis in the jungle. Moreover, they were separate raids, they would suddenly appear in the Soviet camp, and after a burst of strafing they would quickly disappear into the snow.
With this disparity in strategy, Finland even eliminated two Soviet divisions
The crushing defeat of the Soviet army had to make Stalin think calmly. He revived General Shaposhnikov's proposal and increased his strength to 600,000, equipped with more aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery, and launched another offensive against the Finnish army.
This time, the Soviet army broke through the Finnish defense line with absolute superiority and forced the Finnish government to sign a treaty ceding nearly one-tenth of the territory. The USSR received the coveted buffer zone.
The USSR lost 120,000 in this war, and Khrushchev exaggerated in his memoirs: We lost more than 1 million troops.
The worst thing is that the reputation of the Soviet Union was seriously hit, the League of Nations directly kicked the Soviet Union out of the organization, the United States, Britain and other countries condemned the Soviet Union, quite ironically, the only one who spoke for the Soviet Union was indeed Nazi Germany, and the reinforcements that Britain was preparing to send to Finland were also stopped in Sweden because of Nazi Germany's warnings.
And the poor performance of the Soviet army in the Soviet-Finnish war also made Hitler more confident in his victory over the Soviet Union, in his words: the Soviet Union is like a broken house with leaky wind, kicking a few feet and falling.
Moreover, due to Finland's heroic performance, Hitler was impressed by Finland and decided to unite with Finland and launch aggression against the USSR.
Full of hatred for the Soviet Union, the Finns, unwilling to lose, also quickly fell to Germany, chose to cooperate with Germany, and joined the German camp.
Snow shame
On June 22, 1941, Germany sent 5.5 million troops to attack the Soviet Union, and the Soviet-German War broke out.
After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the Finns looked out at the border areas, but the Soviets, fearing that the pro-German Finns would cause trouble, preemptively bombed Finland.
How can Finland endure this situation?
Of course, choose to join Germany!
But the Finnish hero who successfully resisted the Soviet attack, Marshal Mannerheim, believed that the Germans did not have a good chance of winning, and even if Germany won, Finland was likely to lose its independence and become part of Nazi Germany, which he did not want to see.
But Finland remained cautious in its side with the Germans in order to regain lost territory, but with comradeship, not ally.
Throughout World War II, Finland remained neutral, never wavering or speculating.
In 1941, with the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, the Finnish army sent 100,000 troops to fight along the border demarcated in 1940, and the second phase of the Soviet-Finnish War began.
The Finnish army fought along the "Karelian Isthmus" between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga to the outside of Leningrad and dug trenches to garrison.
Finland and the Germans then laid siege to Leningrad for two years.
As a result of the starvation of 1.5 million soldiers and civilians in the city, it was one of the worst sieges in human history, and Finland, like Germany, was indeed responsible for these 1.5 million innocent lives.
Finland knew that the Soviet Union would never let itself go, so during the siege of Leningrad, it was ready to be counterattacked by the Soviet Union.
The Finnish army set up four lines of defense on the narrow "Karelian Isthmus".
Because the terrain here is extremely fragmented, the density of water networks and lakes is rare in the world, and it is a nightmare for mechanized combat. Moreover, the Finnish army built a large number of fortifications on each line of defense, including ravines, bunkers, tunnels, etc., to prevent Soviet tank troops from driving straight in.
But did this really stop the USSR?
The Last Great Patriotic War
In 1943, the Soviet Union finally won the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, Germany was defeated one after another, the Soviet army began to organize a counterattack, and the German Army Group North, which had not moved for two years, was counterattacked by the Soviet army.
In 1944, Stalin carried out a surprise attack and successfully relieved the siege of Leningrad, basically driving the Germans out of Ukraine.
After the victory on the southern front, Stalin finally freed his hand and decided to teach a lesson to the unruly little Finland
Comrade Stalin ordered the Leningrad Front to move north, starting from the Soviet-Finnish border and fighting north along the Karelian Isthmus, again taking the territories recovered by Finland.
Next, the Soviet army had to face the four defensive lines of the Karelian Isthmus, which Finland had painstakingly managed.
After the baptism of the Soviet-German war, the strength of the Soviet army is no longer comparable. They first sent the air force to do tactical reconnaissance, and also sent a large number of spies and scouts to draw maps, and they had a clear understanding of the local terrain and the deployment of the Finnish army.
As a result, the first border and the second line of defense of the Finnish army were quickly pierced. By June 19, in just one week, the Soviets had crushed more than 30,000 Finns and advanced near the third line of defense.
Finland was so frightened that it asked Germany for help, but the Germans were overwhelmed by the Germans, and Army Group Center's 900,000 men had been crushed by the Soviets, and finally reluctantly sent the Kurme Air Detachment, the 303rd Panzer Brigade and the 122nd Infantry Division to Finland.
At this time, the Soviet Union was approaching the third line of defense, and seeing that the defense line was not secure, the Finns were forced to the edge of the cliff.
On June 16, 1944, the savior Germany fell from the sky, and 100 Luftwaffe fighters arrived in Finland, and on June 20, the army arrived.
Nazi German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop flew to Finland and demanded that Finland not allow peace talks or surrender before Germany could come to its aid.
The Finnish government promised the Germans, but did not abandon peace talks with the Soviet Union.
Faced with Finland, which did not surrender, the Soviet Union continued to intensify its offensive and continued to bombard the third line of defense.
At this time, the Finns finally waited for tens of thousands of German reinforcements, which greatly strengthened the defense of the defensive line
The Finns received a large number of anti-tank weapons, and the Soviet artifact T34 tank was massively destroyed.
The Soviets suffered more than 10,000 casualties and more than 200 tanks in this phase of the offensive.
In July, the Soviets prepared to organize a second offensive in an attempt to destroy the third line of defense. The Finnish army actually intercepted the Soviet telegram, so German bombers took to the air ahead of time to bomb the Soviet tanks.
Due to the heavy losses of the first stage, only half of the tank remained.
The Soviet 21st Army abandoned its offensive on 6 July, and the Finnish army successfully kept the enemy out of the country.
In Finland's second defensive battle, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Finland invested a total of 120,000 troops, of which 70,000 Soviet Unions, with 23,000 casualties and more than 300 tanks and more than 100 fighters; Finland-Germany combined forces of 50,000 people, with more than 8,500 casualties and more than 100 tanks, artillery, and fighters combined.
Finland defended sovereignty with its own bravery and the wisdom of small countries, and the USSR and Finland were once again back at the negotiating table.
Finland seems to have "repelled" the Soviet army, but in fact it is very clear about its situation, although it won the Great Patriotic War, as long as the Soviet army goes out, Finland will definitely die.
Stalin warned Finland: "The Soviet Union has the strength to make Finland its own republic and build socialism together."
In the end, Finland accepted the conditions of the Soviet armistice, which included: severing diplomatic relations with its comrade Germany, expelling German troops, ceding land, paying $300 million in reparations, trying war criminals, and disarmament.
After Finland complied with the treaty and withdrew from World War II, Finland began to expel German troops, and even directly exchanged fire with German troops, beating yesterday's comrades.
Nazi Germany was so disappointed that the Führer and Goebbels gave public speeches attacking Finland's treachery.
The Soviet-Finnish border was drawn according to the post-Soviet-Finnish war, and Finland surrendered a large piece of land in the north in exchange for independent sovereign status, and since then entered a half-century of peace, never joining the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union also kept its word and did not embarrass the small country again.
To this day, the Viking nation, with only 5.52 million inhabitants, has been championed by the Global Happiness Report for five consecutive years.
He is strong but not brave, he is economically developed, but he is not a bully, and he is in a treacherous world situation, but he can stand alone. This is the wisdom of small countries, this is the wisdom of Finland.