I am surprised that no commentator has yet compared Russia’s current stumbling but savage invasion of its smaller, weaker neighbor Ukraine to the Soviet Union’s disastrous war against tiny Finland in the Winter War of 1939-1940. The Soviet Union thought it needed an enlarged land buffer for its northern city of Leningrad, situated 20 miles from the Finnish border, so it made a nonnegotiable demand that Finland transfer its eastern Karelia region to the Soviets.
When Finland bravely said no, the Soviets attacked with overwhelming force on Nov. 30, 1939, greatly outnumbering the Finns in both men and equipment. This war started only a few weeks after the outbreak of World War II, so other nations’ attentions were focused elsewhere, and Finland had no strong moral or material support like Ukraine now has from NATO. The Soviets expected a quick and easy pushover victory.
But Finland, to Russia’s shock, refused to yield an inch. Skilled and motivated Finnish ski troops in their camouflage white uniforms fought back courageously, with all that they had. Although the Finns were greatly outnumbered in troops, artillery, tanks and aircraft, they outmaneuvered and outfought the Soviets, whose vehicles and soldiers were confined to the narrow, snowbound roads through the forests.
The well-trained Finns, silent and flexible on their skis, and maneuvering and attacking in temperatures as low as minus 45, methodically chopped to pieces the stalled and exposed Soviet columns. A striking example of courage and well-applied small-unit tactics was the Battle of Suomussalmi, in which the Finns lost 2,700 killed and injured, while the Soviets lost 12,073 killed and injured. The Russians lost more soldiers to frostbite than the Finnish lost in total.
The military failure of the vaunted Red Army was so shocking and so complete that its troops were pulled back to change commanders, equipment and tactics. With a nearly unlimited supply of Soviet troops, and with spring coming on, the Finns’ initial advantages were becoming diminished.
Rather than lose more territory and possibly their capital of Helsinki, the Finns finally sued for peace, giving up a large portion of eastern Finland to the Soviet Union; Russia still holds this land today. The Finnish farm families and loggers who had lived in Karelia were re-settled in the remainder of Finland through the generosity and goodwill of their fellow citizens.
The Soviet Union’s tragic underestimation and disdain for the bravery and patriotism of its tiny neighbor are graphically shown by the Winter War’s casualty figures. The war had lasted 105 days. The Finns lost 29,909 killed and 43,567 wounded. The Soviets lost 167,976 killed, and approximately 200,000 wounded.Before invading Ukraine, Russia should have taken a hard lesson from the Red Army’s 1939 attempt to bully and attack a much smaller neighbor that knows it has so much to lose.
— T. E. Meacham
Anchorage
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