Chapter Eight
the Winter War
On November 30th, 1939, the quiet morning was interrupted by an artillery bombardment from the Finnish side of the border to the Soviet side, killing four and wounding several others. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, intent on defending its territory from reactionary fascist-like government of Finland, invaded the former grand duchy with 450,000 men. The Motherland of Communism was to be protected and secured from any outside threat and while the invasion of Finland was regrettable it was nonetheless necessary.
At least this is what the Soviet Union proclaimed to the world shortly before its soldiers crossed the Soviet-Finnish border. The border incident was quickly proven by Finnish and League of Nation observers to have been a false flag operation carried out by the NKVD to give the USSR a
casus belli for the invasion of Finland. The Soviet claims were quickly deemed hollow and the USSR's international reputation nosedived as a result, with the invasion violating several established treaties and the Covenant of the League of Nations.
Stalin, however, deemed the political relations fallout as an accepted casualty of the strategy he had crafted. He was intent on creating buffer space between the Soviet Union and its perceived enemies, that of the Imperialist Powers of France, Britain, Japan, and the United States, and the Fascist States of Germany and Italy. With Japanese ambitions temporarily checked as a result of the Soviet-Mongolian victory at Khalkhin Gol, Stalin turned his gaze westward. With the Germans stalled out in northern France and southern Norway, the General Secretary believed the time was ripe to create buffer states in eastern Europe so as to ensure the safety of the
rodina, but also too to establish sympathetic governments in neighboring countries. His first target was to be Poland but Stavka, the Soviet General Staff, (those that were not browbeaten yes-men to the Boss) knew the Red Army and Red Air Force were still recovering from the Great Purge and that the Poles would put up a fierce fight that they did not wish to have the Soviet Union entangled with just yet, particularly not with the Polish government swaying several countries to their idea of a defense pact which would be realized as the Intermarium not long after the Soviet invasion of Finland.
Stalin, accepting the current difficulties a massive invasion of Poland and the Baltic States would require, shelved the idea for a later date, and instead focused on the USSR's north-western border. For months throughout 1939 the Soviet government had stated, hinted, and threatened the Finnish government to cede land to the USSR to create a more "historically accurate border" but largely to protect Leningrad and to be the first step in subjugating the Finns to Moscow. These largely failed, miserably so. With the world locked in war, Stalin knew now was the time to strike and thus authorized the false flag operation and the subsequent ground assault.
What was expected to be a two to three week campaign, a "short victorious war" attributed to having come from Stalin himself, instead became a meat-grinder for the unready, ill-equipped and poorly-led Red Army.[1] Casualties amongst men and armor skyrocketed, far exceeding those suffered by the Finnish defenders. Though outclassed in military technology, particularly in tanks, and sheer numbers the Finns nonetheless forced the Soviets to pay the butcher's bill for every meter of ground. The terrain of eastern Finland did not help, for it was mountainous, filled with marshes and lakes, lacking paved roads and frequent rail-lines. This all hampered an already hindered Red Army, slowing their advance to a painful crawl, frustrating the Boss and worrying the Stavka.
Foreign volunteers, from Finnish-descended Americans to Swedish soldiers masquerading as volunteers, flooded into Finland, giving the defending country much needed skilled manpower. It was even rumored that several officers from German mountaineer divisions were dispatched by Hitler to the frontlines so to gauge the Soviet effectiveness and instill a sort of Nordic brotherhood in battle, though this rumor proved to be just that as German officers were sent but only as advisors and observers. For over two months the Finns held the Soviets at bay, limiting their conquests to paltry gains. The 1939-1940 winter was particularly harsh in that area of the world. The Finns were able to weather through it far better than their enemy, as the Red Army reported over sixty thousand casualties from frostbite alone.[3]
From November to January the Red Army had been embarrassed militarily on the international stage and unless changes were made immediately, the Soviet Union would not advance far past the border. Marshal Kliment Voroshilov was replaced with Marshal Semyon Timoshenko who quickly instigated reforms and a more focused military strategy. Voroshilov, for his failures and ineptitude, was shot for "crimes against the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union" despite being a once-favored crony of Stalin.[4] It seemed that not even favoritism would carry far in Stalin's post-purged Russia.
After a month of reformation and resupply, Timoshenko launched several coordinated and focused attacks on the so-called Mannerheim Line, piercing it in half a dozen places. Finnish commander-in-chief, Marshal Mannerheim, ordered Finnish Defense Forces to withdraw westward behind newly constructed defenses. This largely worked, though the Finns suffered dearly in the process. By March the Soviets had advanced steadily in south-eastern Finland and were poised to advance onward towards Helsinki. The Finns for their part were exhausted, their supplies and ammunition stores running critically low, yet they were as resolute as ever to deny the Soviets an easy victory.
As the Spring Thaw turned roads and fields into mud, the Soviet offensive was halted, allowing both sides to resupply and ready itself for the next round of fighting. The Finns, unable to secure much more foreign aid as the war in Norway interfered with transportation, hesitantly approached the Soviets for a ceasefire. Stalin however rebuffed the peace feelers, determined to bring all of Finland under his domain rather than the slivers the Red Army had thus far secured.[5] He knew France and Britain would be unable to send troops or sufficient supplies as the battlefields of France and Norway required all they could field, while the League of Nations continuously proved itself toothless aside from several economic and trade sanctions, which did little other than being a slap on the wrist. The General Secretary authorized Timoshenko to continue offensive actions once the ground had sufficiently dried, which it did so in late May. The next seven weeks saw Finland become slowing consumed by the Red Army, the country crumbling in the face of overwhelming firepower and weight of numbers, though the Soviets would lose tens of thousands of soldiers over the following weeks from fierce resistance. Yet daring and bravery could only go so far in delaying the inevitable. Helsinki’s surrender on June 19th, 1940 sealed Finland’s fate. On June 24th, 1940 the Finnish government sued for peace, surrendering in the hope of preventing needless loss of life.
For five days the Finns attempted to create a peace with honor by accepting pre-war Soviet terms but Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov steadfastly refused. Following Red Air Force bombings of troop convoys and civilian columns evacuating to the Åland Islands and Sweden and northern Norway, the Finnish government agreed to the sign the peace treaty. The Treaty of Helsinki was harsh. Eleven percent of Finnish territory was annexed directly into the USSR, alongside thirty percent of their industry, as well as reparations to be paid for the next five years, stagnating Finnish economic growth. Four hundred and forty-two thousand Finnish men, women and children were relocated from their homes, deported westward into the USSR's newest client state. The Hanko Peninsula, an original pre-war claim, was leased to the Soviet military for a lease of at least fifty years, with an "option" of renewal. But worst of all was that the Finnish government would be forcibly replaced with the Soviet-backed Communist government of Otto Wille Kuusinen. [2] Kuusinen, following the "advice" of Stalin, banned all other political parties in the country, creating a one party totalitarian state mirroring the USSR. Thus was born the Finnish Democratic Republic (frequently referred to by its Finnish initials as SKT), a regime that has been noted in history for its brutality and hardline stance on Stalinist Communism in the years that followed, toeing Moscow's line to the letter, sometimes excessively so.
To add insult to injury Finland was forced to agree to a Red Army garrison of 100,000 men for a period of at least ten years for their “protection from foreign intervention” but was also to ensure that no widespread rebellion erupted under the nose of the despised and unpopular Finnish Communist government. To aid in ensuring a compliant population, the Finnish Democratic Republic created the much feared and oppressive Security Crime Police (TRP in Finnish) that rooted out anti-Communist and reactionary elements in the Finnish populace. By 1944 it was estimated that the TRP had imprisoned and/or killed some 200,000 people. In a country with a population of three and a half million, this number was quite substantial (just over 5% of the population).
Oddly enough, the Winter War did not birth just one nation but two, though the second was a surprise to nearly all.
In the final weeks of the war, as Soviet forces surrounded and then moved into the outskirts of Helsinki, the Swedish military invaded the Åland Islands, landing several thousand soldiers over the course of several days, followed by small military units landing and securing dozens of inhabited islands, though none bore a land road connection with the mainland. The international response was outrage, particularly from the United States which held well over a hundred thousand Americans of Finnish descent. Strangely enough the Finnish government-in-exile, headed by Mannerheim and Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner, was quiet about the whole affair, dispatching a formal protest in writing but nothing more. Local reaction was largely of indifference, and even relief in many ways as the Finns preferred Swedish rule to Soviet. The Swedish rule, however, would be short. When the conference to discuss Finland's surrender and the subsequent treaty was announced, Sweden sent a delegation to partake. The Swedes argued that the Åland Islands (and the scattering of other islands they now occupied) had long been Swedish in culture, with many of the inhabitants ethnically and linguistically Swedish, dating all the way back to the Viking Age. The Swedes argued that these lands were now to be considered Swedish territory to be managed as they saw fit.
Molotov, following orders from the Man of Steel, publicly stated the the Swedes could "do whatever they wished" with the Åland Islands and the other occupied islands. Stalin, with the urging of Stavka and many within the Politburo, did not wish to heighten international tension higher than it already was. A war with Sweden, which would have reciprocated an Entente response of some kind, possibly militarily, would have been ill-advised due to the worn state of the Red Army and Red Air Force in mid-1940. Better for the Soviet military to replenish itself and learn from its mistakes than to tackle on the Entente nations that had thus far kept Germany stalemated in two different campaign theaters. Stalin did envision bringing Sweden under the Comintern's sphere of influence, its strategic positioning to Norway and Denmark were seen as most tempting (not to mention its vast iron ore deposits) which would almost certainly spark a war but one that would be at a later date of his choosing. A scattering of a few hundred sparsely inhabited rocks of little value were deemed not worth the effort. As a result, the Soviet Union recognized Swedish authority over the Åland Islands and other Swedish-occupied islands.
But Sweden had not done all this posturing to expand its territory, but rather something else entirely. Days after the Treaty of Helsinki was signed, the Swedish government announced that it was rescinding its claims on the occupied Finnish territory, returning them to the government-in-exile. Mannerheim and Tanner, the only two aside the Swedish King and a select handful of Swedish ministers, knew of the proclamation, they in fact helped arranged it. It turned out the Åland Affair (as it became to be known) was an elaborate ruse to circumvent the Soviet Union's attempt to conquer and subjugate all of Finland. While the mainland and the islands in the Gulf of Finland became Soviet/SKT controlled, a sliver of Finnish territory in the form of the Åland Islands and hundreds of other islands (less than half were even inhabited year-round) were granted back to the Finnish government-in-exile.
At an official ceremony that took place a day later on Fasta Åland (July 8th, 1940) the Swedish Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, the Duke of Västerbotten, oversaw the official transfer of territory to the Finnish delegation, which was the cause of much celebration and subsequent hangovers the following day. In a speech by Mannerheim, the Republic of Finland was reborn, the newly-returned islands representing a continuation of the old government rather than a successor. As a result, Väinö Tanner became the President of the Republic of Finland (as well as remaining Foreign Minister) while the rest of the cabinet was filled by several government officials that had been able to escape the mainland before the Soviets had sufficiently closed the borders and coastlines. The Åland Republic, a popular nickname to differentiate it from the pre-Winter War Finnish Republic, was beset by a host of challenges, as the islands (particularly the Åland Islands, notably Fasta Åland) were flooded with refugees from the mainland and lacked sufficient food, water and medicine. Sweden, whose reputation was restored once the Åland Affair occurred (also bolstering the nation's international prestige with most nations barring those that belonged to the Comintern), was generous in aid, further supplemented by the United States through the Finnish Republic Restoration Package (FRRP). It was a thirty million dollar relief and aid package that would be renewed three times over the next five years at varying amounts, bringing the total to just under sixty-five million American dollars.[6]
Mannerheim remained as the Marshal of Finland, though he would gain the presidency at a later date. Mannerheim would reform and reinvent the Republic of Finland's military. Due to a much smaller recruitable population (estimates place the number of Finnish citizens living under Åland Republic rule as around one hundred and sixty thousand people, though many Finnish people abroad would return to help rebuild their country though many others emigrated, never to return) Mannerheim advocated very stringent conscription laws. After several months of debate in the rebuilt Parliament, these measures would be approved. A sampling of these new laws was the enforced mandatory conscription from both the male and female halves of the population. Conscription began at the age of 16 (used in tertiary and non-combat roles) up until 20 when the conscript was put on Active Reserve until he/she was 50. Once on Active Reserve the reservist would participate once a month in training (either a week or weekend depending on their specialty and national need) to ensure familiarity with military equipment and protocol. The United States, as part of the FRRP donated significant amounts of military-grade equipment, particularly Jeeps, trucks, aircraft (two hundred of which were Brewster F2A Buffalo fighters), and hundreds of thousands of Springfield M1903 rifles.[7] The Finnish Army and Finnish Air Force were greatly replenished and modernized by the United States. The branch of the Finnish Defense Forces that saw the least attention was that of the Finnish Navy. During the Winter War the Finnish Navy had largely patrolled the waters of south-western by western waters of Finland as icy seas made navigation and combat largely ineffective. Prior to the official surrender of Finland, the Finnish Navy had been ordered by Mannerheim to withdraw to ports in eastern Sweden and 'surrender' them to Swedish authorities. This was quickly overturned following the Åland Affair and the ships were returned to the Finns. The United States did bolster the Finnish Navy with four torpedo boats as well as the Porter-class destroyer the
USS Selfridge which was subsequently renamed to the
Vellamo.[8]
Mannerheim's reforms, as well as the generous and life-saving aid from Sweden and the United States (as well as a dozen other countries though in far smaller amounts), made the Republic of Finland the most militarized and military-first countries in the world. The Republic's first official declaration soon after re-formation was the liberation of the mainland from the Communists and would be a mainstay of national policy for years to come.[9]
Stalin, furious with the farce that was the Åland Affair and how the Winter War as a whole developed, kept a critical eye on the Red Army, ordering political commissars to keep a watchful eye on any officers who might be defeatist or not sufficiently loyal to the Motherland, i.e. Stalin himself. This would ensure the Soviet military was kept on a short leash, subservient to the will of the party and of the dictatorial General Secretary.[10]
Next Chapter: the Norwegian Campaign
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[1] - I do not believe Stalin ever said this. It is a saying I like the ring of however and is the title of one of my favorite books,
The Short Victorious War by David Weber.
[2] - In universe Kuusinen's official title is First Citizen of the Democratic Republic and Chairman of the Finnish Communist Party.
[3] - Historically accurate, which is crazy considering how knowledgeable the Russians are at fighting in terrible winter conditions. Guess this taught them a lesson they used against the Germans in '41/'42.
[4] - Stalin maintains a bit of a Purge mentality going forward.
[5] - In OTL the Winter War ended just prior to the French and British sending forces to Finland. Stalin doesn't want the war to spread. But with France and Britain tied down in France and Norway they can't spare anything but diplomatic disapproval.
[6] - Nearly $1,200,000,000 in today's money, or as I like to think of it, about 12 F-35s...
[7] - The Finns actually used the F2As to incredible effect in OTL's Continuation War, it felt right to include them. The M1903 becomes the official rifle of the Finnish Defense Forces of the Åland Republic as the previous mainstay, the M/27, was a Finnish modified Mosin-Nagant. With the mainland lost, the Finns don't have the industry to build more and replenish their ammunition reserves. So the U.S. gives the Finns a bunch to start with as well as machine tools and money to create factories to build more and to maintain what they have alongside creating sufficient amounts of spare ammo.
[8] - Named after the goddess of the sea, lakes and storms in Finnish mythology. It is not the flagship of the Finnish Navy. That honor belongs to the coastal defense ship
Ilmarinen. I was going to go with the
Farragut-class rather than the
Porter but after some research it was mentioned to be a very top heavy ship which would not do well in eastern Baltic/Bothnian Sea waters. The U.S. FRRP would help build a naval base on Fasta Åland (or possibly elsewhere) to house and maintain the Navy.
[9] - And thus the Republic of Finland, aka the Åland Republic, becomes a mix of OTL Republic of China (Taiwan) and OTL Israel.
[10] - The disastrous display of the Red army in the first month of the Winter War actually saw the loosening of the leash and the reduced influence of commissars. In TTL, the commissar keep their amount of power and influence and the Red Army and Red Air Force are not allowed to be too intuitive or independent, because obviously independent intuition is treason against the people.
