During the Civil War in Finland, in February 1918, General Mannerheim, the commander of the anti-communist White Guards, wrote his famous Order of the Day, in which he declared that he would not set his sword to the scabbard "until Lenin's last soldier and hooligan is deported from Finland and White Karelia" ("... ennen kuin viimeinen Leninin soturi ja huligaani on karkoitettu niin hyvin Suomesta kuin Vienan Karjalastakin.").
On 10 July 1941, Mannerheim referred to his 1918 declaration in his "Order of the Day" speech to his troops: "... [I]n 1918 during the War of Liberation I stated to the Finnish and Viena Karelians, that I would not set my sword to the scabbard before Finland and East Karelia would be free."
After three days, early on the morning of 25 June, preemptive Soviet air raids were launched on Finnish towns, airfields and industrial centers.
In the Winter War Finland had the sympathy of virtually the whole world (with the exception of Nazi Germany and the aggressor, the Soviet Union).
In the Continuation War, on the other hand, Finland was partly an aggressor in the eyes of some, attacking the Soviet Union alongside the Axis invasion.