Finland in World War II
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.
Finnish political policy during the Cold War was aimed at appeasing the Soviet Union in order to maintain good relations.
[4] After the Eastern Front and peace negotiations between the Bolsheviks and Germany collapsed, German troops intervened in the country and occupied Helsinki and Finland.
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.
[4] 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).
Claims on areas of Eastern Karelia were abandoned and the Soviets accepted that the south-eastern border would not be moved west of Petrograd.
It was subsequently found that the Soviets had in fact shelled their own village, in order to create a pretext for withdrawal from their non-aggression pact with Finland.
[15] Strategic goals of the Red Army included cutting Finland in half and capturing Petsamo in the north and Helsinki in the south.
[16] The leader of the Leningrad Military District, Andrei Zhdanov, commissioned a celebratory piece from Dmitri Shostakovich, Suite on Finnish Themes, intended to be performed as the marching bands of the Red Army paraded through Helsinki.
A two-pronged attack was launched in this region, with one pincer engaging Finnish forces on the Isthmus while the other went around Lake Ladoga in an attempt at encircling the defenders.
[20] By late December the Soviets had become bogged down, with the two main fronts at a standstill as the Finns counterattacked with greater strength than anticipated.
[21] In the north, the Finns had been pushed back to Nautsi, but with reinforcements, had been able to take the higher ground and halt the Soviet advance south of Petsamo.
[26] The Soviets, using new equipment and materials, also began using the tactic of rotating troops from the reserve to the front, thus keeping constant pressure on the Finnish defenders.
[27] Relative to Finnish resources, the Red Army seemed to have inexhaustible amounts of ammunition and supplies, as attacks were always preceded by barrages, followed by aerial assaults and then random troop movements against the lines.
Finnish military and government leaders came to feel that their only hope of preserving their nation lay in negotiating a peace treaty with Moscow.
The need for a diplomatic solution became even more apparent after Soviet forces broke through the Finnish defensive line on the Karelian Isthmus and moved on towards Viipuri.
It placed heavy demands on Finland, claiming more land for the USSR and imposing significant diplomatic and military sanctions.
Defensive arrangements were attempted with Sweden and the United Kingdom, but the political and military situation in the context of the Second World War rendered these efforts fruitless.
[32] The German and Finnish troops in Northern Finland were less successful, failing to take the Russian port city of Murmansk during Operation Silver Fox.
In September 1943, a few months after Stalingrad, Finland indicated its independence of Germany by not recognizing the puppet Italian Social Republic, proclaimed by the Germans in northern Italy.
Due to the war, elections could not be held, and therefore the Parliament selected the Marshal of Finland Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the Finnish commander-in-chief, as president and charged him with negotiating a peace.
Initially the warfare was cautious on both sides, reflecting the previous cooperation of the two countries against their common enemy, but by the end of 1944 the fighting intensified.
The Soviet Union did not accept this "friendliness" and pressured Finland to take a more active role in pushing the Germans out of Lapland, thus intensifying hostilities.
The Germans adopted a scorched-earth policy, and proceeded to lay waste to the entire northern half of the country as they retreated.
As part of the Paris Peace Treaty, Finland was classified as an ally of Nazi Germany, bearing its responsibility for the war.
The treaty imposed heavy war reparations on Finland and stipulated the lease of the Porkkala area near the Finnish capital Helsinki as a military base for fifty years.
During the Continuation War (1941–1944) Finland's wartime government claimed to be a co-belligerent of Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, and abstained from signing the Tripartite Pact.
Of approximately 500 Jewish refugees, eight were handed over to the Germans, a fact for which Finnish prime minister Paavo Lipponen issued an official apology in 2000.
[42] In the subsequent study by Professor Heikki Ylikangas it turned out that about 2,000 of the exchanged prisoners joined the Russian Liberation Army.
