Banner on the Soviet front for the Finns, 1942
The banner, a soviet propaganda item specially prepared for the Finns, read: Finland has run out of bread, but the war continues. The photo was taken in June, when the Soviet and Finnish fronts had largely stabilized and the battle turned into trench warfare.
Soviet propaganda attitudes toward Finland changed during the war. It was during the Winter War (1939-1940), when the Soviet Union preached to the Finnish people that they would be liberated from the capitalists who supported Germany. Later in the war (1941-1944), Finland was like an aggressor released by Germany, and Soviet propaganda was more provocative and sarcastic. The Soviet Union abandoned the propagation of socialist ideas to Finland and instead allowed Finnish soldiers to flee on their own before the Red Army arrived.
Frozen Soviet soldiers posed by finns, 1939
In a few cases, Finnish resisters would pose the fallen Russian soldiers as a psychological warfare to scare Soviet soldiers. However, this is rare and there are not many records. In most cases, Russian and Finnish soldiers respected the dead and could even make a temporary ceasefire to give each other the opportunity to retrieve the body and bury it. Both sides will also bury the bodies of their enemies themselves, plant branches on the ground and hang military badges for later generations to find.
The Soviet Union demanded that Finland move its border 25 kilometers behind Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and allowed the Soviet Union to lease the Hanko Peninsula for a period of 30 years, allowing the Soviets to build naval bases. The ultimate goal was to build a buffer zone around Leningrad. After Finland refused, the Winter War began.
Russian spy laughs at his execution, Finland, 1942
A Russian spy laughed at the executioner in Rukajärvi, east of Karelia, November 1942. There are many photographs of Russian prisoners of war and spies in Finland, but they are deliberately hidden by the Finnish Defence Forces. Because there were some pro-Soviet forces in Finnish society, the Finnish side was afraid that these people would use photos to incite others. The photo was not released by the Finnish Ministry of Defence until 2006. The Finnish caption reads: Unknown Soviet intelligence officer shot dead.
This photo is quite interesting, capturing the last moment of a life. In a few seconds, he realized that his life would end, and if he did not die immediately, he would be frozen to death in the icy forest. The smile became his last resistance.
Simon Haye, "White Death" in winter camouflage camouflage, 1940
Simo Häyhä, nicknamed the "White Death," was a Finnish sniper who killed 505 enemies in 100 days during the war against the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1940. Simon played a big role in the war, he used the Mosin Nagant rifle M91 rifle, often wearing a winter camouflage suit, carrying enough dry food and bullets for the day, and then lurking in the snow, killing any Russian troops that came into his sight.
Two Soviet infantrymen were frozen to death in a pit, in 1940
The soldiers sent by the Soviet Union to the Finnish front were from far away, and some soldiers came from the south and had never experienced such cold weather. Coupled with the Finnish destruction of various supply lines, the winter was particularly cold that year. The lack of food and supplies was a major problem, and it could be argued that the Soviets had no experience in fighting in the winter.
Freezing to death is one of the most peaceful ways to die on the battlefield. After the stage of body trembling, the body enters a low temperature state (body temperature is less than 35 degrees), this time the body will have a warm feeling, you will slowly want to sleep, and then the organs in the body will slowly dry up. The reason why there is a warm feeling is because in the cold, the body's blood supply will concentrate around the main organs, making the hands and feet cold. If you are in a frozen state for a long time, the body releases concentrated blood, so that before death, you feel a hot flow throughout your body.