“Molotov cocktails”, destroyed enemy transport columns, corpses of Russian soldiers on the roadsides, pointless bombing of civilian homes. In the Winter War launched by the USSR in November 1939, when it invaded Finland, at least some similarities with Russia invasion of Ukraine this year. Although in reality there is little analogy, one factor should be taken into account at the moment – the ability of Moscow as an aggressor to achieve even partial victory with huge resources without pitying its soldiers. The portal “Delfi” addressed both Latvian and Finnish historians, who explained what parallels we can find and which we can not.
Three days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 21 this year, the President of Finland Sauli Nīniste acknowledged that the Russian threat Ukraine is very reminiscent of the autumn of 1939, when Stalin, the leader of the USSR, threatened independent Finland, which later led to the invasion of Finnish land by the Red Army. “Stalin believed that he would be able to divide the Finnish people, but then he would easily be able to invade our country. But the opposite happened. A few days later, what the Finnish president said unfortunately came true: Russia began invading Ukraine.
It is the USSR-Finland war (also known as the Winter War) that ran from November 1939 to 1940 that has often been compared in recent weeks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The enemy is essentially the same, and the whole world is amazed by the heroic resistance of a smaller country to the great aggressor.
Antero Holmila, a professor of history at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, discussing the parallels between the Winter War and the Ukrainian war in a conversation with Delphi, emphasizes that the comparisons between the two wars are largely emotional. “In both cases, countries that defend their independence cannot be considered militarily superior, so the similarities seem natural.
David v. Goliath
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