Finland in a nutshell
Дмитрий Шеин
All the bravery and good soldiership of Finnish soldiers appeared to be nullified by suicide policy of Finnish government from outbreak of Winter war until armistice at Continuation war.
Please have a look.
The enormous Soviet superiority at least in numbers was clear. So Finns assumed that there is the only possibility to repulse Soviet strike successfully, it's the involvement of great powers in war, so Soviets, fighting at other fronts with powerful enemies, would have neither enough forces to crush Finland nor focus of their interest in destruction of Finland.
But at the same time Finland had no guarantees by any great powers and wasn't involved deeply in negotiations leading directly to obtain such a guarantee in shortest time.
So Soviets put pressure on Finland during Finnish-Soviet negotiations and demanded to cede some territories. Finnish government had the fresh Czech case, when great powers refused to fulfill their guarantees, and the most fresh Pole case ended with WW2, that even guarantees of great powers isn't the sufficient safety guarantee.
It's not the great sacred secret to realize that during Britain-German war Britain would not put too hard pressure on USSR to avoid further Soviet-German convergence, as well as German would not put pressure on Soviets to avoid Allied-Soviet convergence.
But Finns refused to fulfill Soviet demands, so war begins, and Finns realized that all the great powers are just encouraging Finnish bravery in newspapers, but are short of real assistance, not to mention their participation in hostilities. So when Soviets broke Mannerheim line, Finns sued for peace.
So Finns had two possibilities: either to cede some territories, to get Soviet compensation and to avoid victims, or to lose the territories due to war and to suffer losses. They have preferred... yeah.
Next point, the way to Continuation war. Finland got close to Germany. On one hand this position provide Finns with guarantees of great power, on the other hand Finland, being minor power in alliance, by it's own delegated the decision rights to Berlin and got the part of collective responsibility.
So despite Finnish efforts to maintain their relations with Allies they got the war declaration, and second time in a row Finnish fate appeared to be in power of winners
All the bravery and good soldiership of Finnish soldiers appeared to be nullified by suicide policy of Finnish government from outbreak of Winter war until armistice at Continuation war.
Please have a look.
The enormous Soviet superiority at least in numbers was clear. So Finns assumed that there is the only possibility to repulse Soviet strike successfully, it's the involvement of great powers in war, so Soviets, fighting at other fronts with powerful enemies, would have neither enough forces to crush Finland nor focus of their interest in destruction of Finland.
But at the same time Finland had no guarantees by any great powers and wasn't involved deeply in negotiations leading directly to obtain such a guarantee in shortest time.
So Soviets put pressure on Finland during Finnish-Soviet negotiations and demanded to cede some territories. Finnish government had the fresh Czech case, when great powers refused to fulfill their guarantees, and the most fresh Pole case ended with WW2, that even guarantees of great powers isn't the sufficient safety guarantee.
It's not the great sacred secret to realize that during Britain-German war Britain would not put too hard pressure on USSR to avoid further Soviet-German convergence, as well as German would not put pressure on Soviets to avoid Allied-Soviet convergence.
But Finns refused to fulfill Soviet demands, so war begins, and Finns realized that all the great powers are just encouraging Finnish bravery in newspapers, but are short of real assistance, not to mention their participation in hostilities. So when Soviets broke Mannerheim line, Finns sued for peace.
So Finns had two possibilities: either to cede some territories, to get Soviet compensation and to avoid victims, or to lose the territories due to war and to suffer losses. They have preferred... yeah.
Next point, the way to Continuation war. Finland got close to Germany. On one hand this position provide Finns with guarantees of great power, on the other hand Finland, being minor power in alliance, by it's own delegated the decision rights to Berlin and got the part of collective responsibility.
So despite Finnish efforts to maintain their relations with Allies they got the war declaration, and second time in a row Finnish fate appeared to be in power of winners
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