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Text: Peng Yibin
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introduction
In November 1939, the Soviet-Finnish War broke out, and the fuse of this war was precisely because Finland rejected the Soviet Union's request for land exchange. The Soviet Union offered to give Finland the land northwest of Lake Onega, and twice as much as Finland exchanged. However, Finland resolutely refused the Soviet Union's demands, and war was on the verge of breaking out.
Why did the Soviet Union insist on exchanging land, and why was it willing to pay twice as much for land? Why did Finland finally refuse such attractive terms?
1. Su Fen's old contradictions
Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden before independence, but in the 18th century, Sweden was defeated by the Russian Empire, and Finland came under Russian control. Later, the Finnish War broke out, and Finland received compensation from the Russian Empire, which created the Grand Duchy of Finland, which had a lot of autonomy due to political and geographical factors.
At the end of the 19th century, Alexander III sought to russify Finland by taking it back from its own hands, which provoked the Finns' desire for independence. After the First World War, Finland took advantage of the chaos to declare independence. At that time, the Bolsheviks were busy negotiating with Germany, so Lenin told Finland that he had agreed in principle to independence.
(War)
But in fact, the new Bolsheviks were not fools, and Lenin preferred to draw Finland into the Soviet Union. Three weeks later, the Soviet Union established a workers' government in Finland, which created a contradiction between the Red Army and the White Army in Finland, and Germany almost took control of the whole of Finland. During the war, the Soviet Union was fighting Poland again, and the situation on the Finnish side was put on hold, but the two sides remained hostile.
Before World War II, Finland was able to avoid a surprise attack by signing a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union due to economic development and a détente in the situation. But Finland, as a buffer state between the fascists and the Soviet Union, was caught between it, and the Soviet Union often wondered if Finland would threaten its security.
(Web image)
The old contradiction between the two rivals soon broke out again.
2. Why did the Soviet Union exchange land with Finland?
After the outbreak of World War II, Germany's military strength expanded rapidly, and it could punch Europe and kick North Africa, and Germany's intentions were also very obvious, Hitler just wanted to attack the Soviet Union. Therefore, the USSR decided to create an eastern line of defense to ensure the security of the USSR. Finland has a special geographical location, and the Soviet-Finnish border is likely to become a breakthrough for Germany, so the Soviet Union wants to push the border line.
(Eastern Defence)
The Gulf of Finland was a special geographical location and was an important part of the line of defense once Stalin took control of the Gulf of Finland. One of the important reasons why the Soviet Union later demanded a land exchange was that Finland was too close to Leningrad. Leningrad, now St. Petersburg in Russia, was the central city of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet-Finnish border is only 32 kilometers from Leningrad, which means that if war breaks out, Leningrad is the first to face threats and there is no room for defense. Whether Finland chose to side with the Soviet Union or Germany was unknown, so Finland's borders were a big threat to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union also knew that Finland could not hand over this part of the land for nothing, so the Soviet Union offered to exchange 5,523 square kilometers northwest of Lake Onega for 2,761 square kilometers of Finland's land in northern Leningrad. The USSR offered twice as much land as a sign of sincerity, but will Finland really agree?
In fact, Finland really chose to refuse. In October 1939, during the negotiations between the two sides, the Soviet Union first persuaded Finland and the Soviet Union to sign a mutual assistance treaty to ensure the security of the Gulf of Finland, and only then did it mention the demand for cession and land exchange. At the same time, the Soviet Union also proposed that Finland would give the Hanko Peninsula concession to the Soviet Union for 30 years, with 8 million Finnish marks per year.
Finland naturally knows what the Soviet Union is thinking, and it is impossible for them to give the Hanko Peninsula concession to the Soviet Union. Because of its geographical location, the Hanko Peninsula was actually a natural barrier for Finland to block the Soviet Union.
Among the land proposed by the Soviets was a 135-kilometer-long and 95-kilometer-deep defensive line, known as the Mannerheim Line, which Finland built to defend against the Soviet Union. So as long as Finland is not stupid, they will not agree, and more importantly, what the Soviet Union wants is their core territory, but in exchange, most of it is extremely cold land and has not been developed much.
In the first two rounds of negotiations, Finland expressed its refusal and unwillingness to sign an economic and military assistance treaty with the Soviet Union. However, Finland also knew that the Soviet Union was gaining momentum now, and finally promised that Finland would not sign a contract with the Soviet Union, but it would not form alliances with other countries, Finland meant very simply, I wanted to be a neutral country.
The Soviet Union still did not give up, they hoped to be able to exchange land, and at the same time hoped that the Soviet Union could get all the troops stationed on the Hanko Peninsula, Finland did not want to open its door wide, so that the Soviet Union, or the former Tsarist Empire, ruled Finland again, so in the end they still rejected the land exchange plan, and the negotiations between the two sides broke down.
(Web image)
Annoyed, the Soviet Union decided to attack Finland first. At that time, the Soviet army attacked the villages on the border, and then said that Finland did it, and then used this to demand an apology from the Finnish government, and withdrew the Finnish army more than 20 kilometers, but Finland refused. The Soviet Union found an excuse to tear up the non-aggression pact previously signed between the two countries.
On November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded the Finnish border, and the Soviet-Finnish War broke out.
(War)
Third, instead of changing land, it will provoke war
There was already a power gap between the Soviet Union and Finland, one was a big country across Asia and Europe, and the other was a small country trying to survive in the cracks. Finland originally hoped to receive assistance from the great powers, but at that time, Germany was preparing to start a war against Western Europe and did not want to directly confront the Soviet Union, so it did not directly intervene.
Britain and France intended to help each other, but Norway and Sweden did not dare to take advantage of it, and Finland could only rely on itself. Finland's army numbered only 127,000, and it was still very short of anti-tank ammunition, and its air force reserves were very low. On the Soviet side, the number of people alone reached 540,000, and there was no shortage of aircraft, artillery, and tanks.
(War)
From November 30 to January 31, 1940, the Soviets launched attacks from four areas, but the Mannerheim Line was indeed a huge barrier, pushing the Soviets across the other side. Finland was mostly in extremely cold weather, and the soldiers took advantage of the terrain to almost successfully block the first few Soviet attacks.
The Soviets intensified reconnaissance and drills, began to take advantage of the weak points of the Finnish defense, and after more than a month of fighting, finally broke through the Mannerheim Line. Beginning on 1 February, the Soviet Union frequently dispatched planes to occupy air supremacy and carry out fire strikes on the Finnish army, and then through three days of operations, it created a breakthrough five or six kilometers deep.
(Warrior)
The Soviets quickly approached the rear defenses of the Finnish army, completed the outflanking of the Finnish army, and directly crossed the Vyborg Bay to capture most of the Vyborg area. On 11 March, the Finnish army was depleted of ammunition and food and isolated, and then had to negotiate peace with the Soviet Union.
Finland not only had to cede more than 40,000 square kilometers of land to itself, but also gave the Hanko Peninsula concession to the Soviet Union for 30 years, and Finland lost too much. This also laid the groundwork for Finland to join the fascist camp and fight back against the Soviet Union.
(War)
Resources
WU Wei. The Border Question Between the Soviet Union and Poland in World War II.CNKI, 1995
How did Finland lose 12% of its territory?[OL].2022.05.24.