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Why was the USSR beaten to the fore by Finland? Stalin turned his back, he greatly damaged the vitality of the Soviet Red Army

author:Milion

The story takes place a week before the outbreak of World War II.

A person who was not trusted by Britain and France and a person who was suppressed by Britain and France came together, and they decided to huddle for warmth.

These two people are Big Forest and Little Mustache.

Although the two are in different camps, they have one thing in common: the ambition to expand.

Why was the USSR beaten to the fore by Finland? Stalin turned his back, he greatly damaged the vitality of the Soviet Red Army

As a fan of "Great Russianism", Stalin inherited the genes of Tsarist Russia's territorial expansion and was determined to recover the homeland that once belonged to the empire.

Hitler, for the sake of Germany's survival, was determined to occupy the raw material production areas of Eastern Europe.

The two immediately signed the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, which secretly agreed to divide Eastern Europe equally, and eventually Poland was divided into two by the Soviet Union and Germany, and the three Baltic countries were also included in the Soviet Union.

Less well known is that Finland was also part of the Soviet Union in a secret agreement between the two brothers.

But as a result, the Soviet Union launched two wars and did not take all of Finland, but lost face and returned with a crushing victory.

Why is that?

Why was the USSR beaten to the fore by Finland? Stalin turned his back, he greatly damaged the vitality of the Soviet Red Army

Finland has been looking for fault with the USSR since independence.

The focus was on the fact that the Finnish border was too close to Leningrad (St. Petersburg), the second largest city in the Soviet Union, only 32 kilometers in a straight line, which was a major threat to the Soviet Union.

So the Soviets played rogues, negotiating, threatening or trying to subvert the Finnish government.

Finland feels very wronged, who let us lean on, so what to do?

Stalin said, "It's easy to do, Finland will be incorporated into the Soviet Union without border problems."

Sweden next door is in a hurry, is it me next?

In the face of the rogue behavior of the Soviet Union, Finland has been using the Soviet Union as an imaginary enemy for more than 20 years after its founding, trying to use diplomatic means to deal with this unreasonable neighbor to avoid the bear from biting people.

But the Soviet Union opened its mouth to cut a piece of land to his brother and give Leningrad a strategic buffer zone.

Such rogue conditions are unacceptable to anyone, and besides, there will be a first time and a second, the two countries will always have a borderline, and the Soviet Union will always have a reason.

So in several negotiations since the 30s of the 19th century, both sides broke up unhappily.

So the USSR did not want to pretend, and made up its mind not to move its mouth.

Why was the USSR beaten to the fore by Finland? Stalin turned his back, he greatly damaged the vitality of the Soviet Red Army

On September 1, 1939, the two brothers Ōrinko and Mustache revolted as planned, and the two joined forces to destroy Poland, and Stalin took back half of the Polish territory and the three Baltic brothers.

At this time, Finland, which was only within the plan, had not yet arrived.

This old territory, which was independent from the empire, had long been in Stalin's pocket.

But starting a war for no reason undermines the demeanor of a big country, and you have to find a reason.

On October 5, the Soviet Union sent a text message to Finland: Come to Moscow quickly to negotiate, or bear the consequences.

Finland received the news and flew to Moscow in first class overnight and began a month-long "humiliation journey".

In the negotiations, the Soviet Union revisited the old affairs, and in the name of protecting the security of Leningrad, several small demands were made:

Finland moved the Soviet-Finnish border on the Karelian Isthmus 40 km north;

Finland ceded several islands in the Gulf of Finland and the Rebach Peninsula to the Soviet Union;

Finland leased the Hanko Peninsula to the Soviet Union for 30 years, and the Soviet Union paid 8 million Finnish marks a year;

In total, Finland had to cede 2,761 square kilometers to the Soviet Union.

After these three points, the Soviet Union generously offered to compensate Finland and was willing to hand over to Finland 5,529 square kilometers of land twice the area northwest of Lake Onega that was ceded by Finland.

Why was the USSR beaten to the fore by Finland? Stalin turned his back, he greatly damaged the vitality of the Soviet Red Army

For this reason, Stalin also laughed and said, Lao Tzu is generous enough, I have always taken someone else's, when did it change?

Little Finland, don't be greedy.

The Finnish representative listened to the anger from the heart, and if it were not for the fact that in Moscow, the table would have been lifted long ago.

Where did the USSR want?

The entire Karelian Isthmus, Finland's most important industrial area, also includes Viborg, Finland's second largest city.

Where does Finland get?

5529 square kilometers of woods.

What's more, whether to give or not is still a problem.

The Finns can see that this is a negotiation, this is clearly to find a reason for war.

Stalin said, yes, you see very clearly.

On 12 November, the representative of Finland rejected the Soviet offer to negotiate.

On November 20 , the Soviets created the " Manila Shelling " , promoting that Finland had given the Soviet Union a shot, which Finland denied.

On November 30, Stalin sent 23 divisions totaling 450,000 men to invade Finland, and the "Winter War" broke out.

In February 1940, another 750,000 people were invested in the second phase.

In this four-month war, Finland invested 200,000 troops, and finally defended the Soviet army of 1.2 million, exchanging 100,000 casualties for 500,000 casualties of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union won a crushing victory.

Why was the USSR beaten to the fore by Finland? Stalin turned his back, he greatly damaged the vitality of the Soviet Red Army

Why did the USSR pay such a big price?

The first reason is arrogance and strategic underestimation of the enemy.

Marshal Voroshilov said: "Before the start of the war, we did not have much accurate information about Finnish troops, weapons, combat strength, literacy, etc., and even the fortification of the Karelian Isthmus was poorly understood."

In this case, the Soviet Union, which did not take Finland seriously, considered 500,000 troops to be enough to achieve the goal.

But after the outbreak of the war, they realized that the Finns' tactical literacy and ability to fight alone, as well as Finland's complex terrain, could not be taken by 500,000 people.

So the Soviet Union began to constantly transfer troops into the battlefield, and finally relied on 1.2 million troops, taking advantage of the unequal strength to consume Finland.

The second reason is that winter is coming, the terrain is unknown, and the coordination is not working.

Although the Soviet army also grew up mostly in ice and snow, they encountered one of the three coldest winters in Finnish history.

In the Soviet Union's view, this war could be ended before the harsh winter came, so the winter clothing was not fully prepared, and the Soviet army traveled lightly to prepare for a blitzkrieg.

But winter suddenly hit, and the Soviets crowded the Finnish lakes, rough roads and dense forests, disjointed infantry and tanks, and were defeated one by one by the Finnish soldiers who relied on the terrain.

The Soviets were unable to take care of each other, moved slowly, and their command fell into chaos.

The third reason was the low competence and inexperience of Soviet commanders.

This was the root cause of the crushing victory of the Soviet army, and the Soviet commanders involved in such a war had little ability and experience in commanding the army, did not have the ability and courage to adapt to the situation, and lacked the confidence to win.

Some officers were unable to even establish and maintain order, resulting in large numbers of troops wandering around in the rear.

Why was the USSR beaten to the fore by Finland? Stalin turned his back, he greatly damaged the vitality of the Soviet Red Army

So why did the Soviet commander pull his crotch so much?

Comrade Da Lin Zi has a saying: "Those who can fight, those who can fight, are all destroyed by the Lao Tzu group."

That's right, after a great purge, the officer class of the Soviet Red Army was almost annihilated, and it was directly broken:

"3 of the 5 marshals, 3 of the 4 generals of the 1st Army Group, all of the 12 generals of the 2nd Army Group, 60 of the 67 corps commanders, 136 of the 199 division commanders, and 221 of the 397 brigade commanders were all killed by Stalin."

And the Soviet-Finnish war was the first expedition of the Soviet army after the defeat of the regiment, and the result was a loss of face and a miserable victory.

The Soviet army fought with several times the strength of the enemy, but was once defeated and suffered heavy casualties.

In the end, it took four months to force Finland, which had sent 20 troops and a total population of 3 million, to submit to a truce.

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