This battle is considered the clearest, most important, and most significant Finnish victory in the northern half of Finland.

[citation needed] 9th Army[5] North Finland Group[6] On 30 November 1939, Zelentsov leading the Soviet 163rd Rifle Division (the 81st and 662nd Infantry Regiments with tanks and cavalry) left Ukhta and crossed the border near Juntusranta, while the 759th Infantry Regiment and Division reconnaissance battalion crossed at Raate, as the Soviets advanced towards Suomussalmi.

[7] The first extensive fight started on 8 December, when Soviet forces began to attack across the frozen lakes to the west.

Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo was given the command of the Finnish forces and he began immediate counter-measures to regain Suomussalmi.

If the Soviet Union had captured the city of Oulu, the Finns would have had to defend the country on two fronts and an important rail link to Sweden would have been severed.

[12] Ten years later, an article by another historian, Oleg Kiselev, was published, which tracked the dynamics of losses of all formations during the battle.

As a result, he came to this conclusion:[13] The Battle of Suomussalmi is often cited as an example of how a small force, properly led and fighting in familiar terrain, can defeat a vastly numerically superior enemy.