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Finland in World War II
Finland participated in the Second World War initially in a defensive war against the Soviet Union, followed by another, this time offensive, war against the Soviet Union acting in concert with Nazi Germany, and then finally fighting alongside the Allies against Germany.
The first two major conflicts in which Finland was directly involved were the defensive Winter War against an invasion by the Soviet Union in 1939, followed by the offensive Continuation War, together with Germany and the other Axis Powers against the Soviets, in 1941–1944. The third conflict, the Lapland War against Germany in 1944–1945, followed the signing of the Moscow Armistice with the Allied Powers, which stipulated expulsion of Nazi German forces from Finnish territory.
The Soviet attempt to conquer Finland in the Winter War was thwarted, and by the end of World War II, Finland remained an independent country. However, Finland ceded approximately 10% of its territory to the Soviet Union, including Viipuri (Finland's second-largest city [Population Register] or fourth-largest city [Church and Civil Register], depending on the census data). Finland was also required to pay out a large amount of war reparations to the Soviet Union and to formally acknowledge partial responsibility for the Continuation War. Finnish political policy during the Cold War was aimed at appeasing the Soviet Union in order to maintain good relations.
In 1809, the Russian Empire seized Finland from Sweden in the Finnish War. Finland entered a personal union with the Russian Empire as a grand duchy with extensive autonomy.
On 6 December 1917, during the Russian Civil War, the Finnish parliament (Suomen Eduskunta) declared independence from Russia, which was accepted by the Bolshevik government of the Soviet Union on 31 December. In January 1918, the Eduskunta ordered General Carl Mannerheim to use local Finnish White Guards to disarm Finnish Red Guards and Russian troops throughout the country, a process which began on 27 January and led to the beginning of the Finnish Civil War.
After the Eastern Front and peace negotiations between the Bolsheviks and Germany collapsed, German troops intervened in the country and occupied Helsinki and Finland. The Red faction was defeated and the survivors were subjected to a reign of terror, in which at least 12,000 people died. A new government, with Juho Kusti Paasikivi as prime minister, pursued a pro-German policy and sought to annex Russian Karelia, which had a Finnish-speaking majority, despite never having been a part of Finland.
After the extinction of the Hohenzollern monarchy on 9 November 1918, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania became independent, German troops left Finland, and British ships patrolled the Baltic Sea. Mannerheim was elected regent by the Eduskunta, and Finnish policy became pro-Entente as the western powers intervened in the Russian Civil War (7 November 1917 – 16 June 1923). Mannerheim favoured intervention against the Bolsheviks but suspicion of the White Russians who refused to recognise Finnish independence led to his aggressive policy being overruled; then, the Bolshevik victory in Russia forestalled Finnish hostilities.
Paasikivi led a delegation to Tartu, in Estonia, with instructions to establish a frontier from Lake Ladoga in the south, via Lake Onega to the White Sea in the north. The importance of the Murmansk railway, built in 1916, led the Soviet delegation to reject the Finnish border proposal, and the treaty of 14 October 1920 recognised a border agreement in which Finland obtained the northern port of Petsamo (Pechenga), an outlet to the Arctic Ocean, and a border roughly the same as that of the former Grand Duchy of Finland. Claims on areas of Eastern Karelia were abandoned and the Soviets accepted that the south-eastern border would not be moved west of Petrograd.
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Finland in World War II
Finland participated in the Second World War initially in a defensive war against the Soviet Union, followed by another, this time offensive, war against the Soviet Union acting in concert with Nazi Germany, and then finally fighting alongside the Allies against Germany.
The first two major conflicts in which Finland was directly involved were the defensive Winter War against an invasion by the Soviet Union in 1939, followed by the offensive Continuation War, together with Germany and the other Axis Powers against the Soviets, in 1941–1944. The third conflict, the Lapland War against Germany in 1944–1945, followed the signing of the Moscow Armistice with the Allied Powers, which stipulated expulsion of Nazi German forces from Finnish territory.
The Soviet attempt to conquer Finland in the Winter War was thwarted, and by the end of World War II, Finland remained an independent country. However, Finland ceded approximately 10% of its territory to the Soviet Union, including Viipuri (Finland's second-largest city [Population Register] or fourth-largest city [Church and Civil Register], depending on the census data). Finland was also required to pay out a large amount of war reparations to the Soviet Union and to formally acknowledge partial responsibility for the Continuation War. Finnish political policy during the Cold War was aimed at appeasing the Soviet Union in order to maintain good relations.
In 1809, the Russian Empire seized Finland from Sweden in the Finnish War. Finland entered a personal union with the Russian Empire as a grand duchy with extensive autonomy.
On 6 December 1917, during the Russian Civil War, the Finnish parliament (Suomen Eduskunta) declared independence from Russia, which was accepted by the Bolshevik government of the Soviet Union on 31 December. In January 1918, the Eduskunta ordered General Carl Mannerheim to use local Finnish White Guards to disarm Finnish Red Guards and Russian troops throughout the country, a process which began on 27 January and led to the beginning of the Finnish Civil War.
After the Eastern Front and peace negotiations between the Bolsheviks and Germany collapsed, German troops intervened in the country and occupied Helsinki and Finland. The Red faction was defeated and the survivors were subjected to a reign of terror, in which at least 12,000 people died. A new government, with Juho Kusti Paasikivi as prime minister, pursued a pro-German policy and sought to annex Russian Karelia, which had a Finnish-speaking majority, despite never having been a part of Finland.
After the extinction of the Hohenzollern monarchy on 9 November 1918, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania became independent, German troops left Finland, and British ships patrolled the Baltic Sea. Mannerheim was elected regent by the Eduskunta, and Finnish policy became pro-Entente as the western powers intervened in the Russian Civil War (7 November 1917 – 16 June 1923). Mannerheim favoured intervention against the Bolsheviks but suspicion of the White Russians who refused to recognise Finnish independence led to his aggressive policy being overruled; then, the Bolshevik victory in Russia forestalled Finnish hostilities.
Paasikivi led a delegation to Tartu, in Estonia, with instructions to establish a frontier from Lake Ladoga in the south, via Lake Onega to the White Sea in the north. The importance of the Murmansk railway, built in 1916, led the Soviet delegation to reject the Finnish border proposal, and the treaty of 14 October 1920 recognised a border agreement in which Finland obtained the northern port of Petsamo (Pechenga), an outlet to the Arctic Ocean, and a border roughly the same as that of the former Grand Duchy of Finland. Claims on areas of Eastern Karelia were abandoned and the Soviets accepted that the south-eastern border would not be moved west of Petrograd.