The main events of the Soviet-Finnish war 11/30/1939 - 13/3/1940:

	USSR Finland	Beginning of negotiations on concluding a mutual assistance treaty
	Finland	General mobilization announced
		The formation of the 1st Corps of the Finnish People's Army (originally the 106th Mountain Rifle Division) began, which was staffed by Finns and Karelians. By November 26, there were 13,405 people in the corps. The corps did not participate in hostilities
	USSR Finland	Negotiations are interrupted and the Finnish delegation left Moscow
		The Soviet government addressed the government of Finland with an official note, which stated that as a result of artillery shelling allegedly carried out from the territory of Finland in the area of ​​​​the border village of Mainila, four soldiers of the Red Army were killed and eight were wounded
		Announced the denunciation of the Non-Aggression Pact with Finland
		Severing diplomatic relations with Finland
		Soviet troops were ordered to cross the Soviet-Finnish border and begin hostilities
		Troops of the Leningrad Military District (commander commander of the 2nd rank K. A. Meretskov, member of the Military Council A. A. Zhdanov):
		7A advanced on the Karelian Isthmus (9 rifle divisions, 1 tank corps, 3 separate tank brigades, 13 artillery regiments; commander of the 2nd rank army commander V. F. Yakovlev, and from December 9 - the 2nd rank commander of the Meretskov)
		8A (4 rifle divisions; commander of the division commander I. N. Khabarov, from January - commander of the 2nd rank G. M. Stern) - north of Lake Ladoga in the Petrozavodsk direction
		9A (3rd division; commander commander M.P. Dukhanov, from mid-December - commander V.I. Chuikov) - in central and northern Karelia
		14A (2nd Rifle Division; commander of the division commander V. A. Frolov) advanced in the Arctic
		The port of Petsamo was taken in the Murmansk direction
		In the town of Terijoki, the Finnish communists formed the so-called "People's Government", headed by Otto Kuusinen
		The Soviet government signed an agreement on friendship and mutual assistance with the government of the "Finland Democratic Republic" Kuusinen and refused any contacts with the legal government of Finland, headed by Risto Ryti
		Troops 7A overcame the operational zone of obstacles with a depth of 25-65 km and reached the front edge of the main defense line of the "Mannerheim Line"
		USSR excluded from the League of Nations
		The offensive of the 44th Infantry Division from the Vazhenvara area on the road to Suomussalmi in order to assist the 163rd Division surrounded by the Finns. Parts of the division, strongly stretched along the road, were repeatedly surrounded by the Finns during January 3-7. On January 7, the division's advance was stopped, and its main forces were surrounded. Division Commander Brigade Commander A.I. Vinogradov, regimental commissar I.T. Pakhomenko and chief of staff A.I. Volkov, instead of organizing defense and withdrawing troops from the encirclement, fled on their own, abandoning the troops. At the same time, Vinogradov gave the order to leave the encirclement, abandoning equipment, which led to the abandonment of 37 tanks, 79 guns, 280 machine guns, 150 cars, all radio stations, and the entire convoy on the battlefield. Most of the fighters died, 700 people left the encirclement, 1200 surrendered. For cowardice, Vinogradov, Pakhomenko and Volkov were shot in front of the division line
		The 7th Army was divided into 7A and 13A (commander commander V. D. Grendal, from March 2 - commander F. A. Parusinov), which were reinforced by troops
		The government of the USSR recognizes the government in Helsinki as the legal government of Finland
		Stabilization of the front on the Karelian Isthmus
		Finnish attack on the 7th Army was repulsed
		The North-Western Front was formed on the Karelian Isthmus (commander of the army commander of the 1st rank S. K. Timoshenko, member of the Military Council Zhdanov) consisting of 24 rifle divisions, a tank corps, 5 separate tank brigades, 21 artillery regiments, 23 air regiments: - 7A (12 rifle divisions, 7 RGK artillery regiments, 4 corps artillery regiments, 2 separate artillery divisions, 5 tank brigades, 1 machine gun brigade, 2 separate heavy tank battalions, 10 air regiments) - 13A (9 rifle divisions, 6 RGK artillery regiments, 3 corps artillery regiments, 2 separate artillery divisions, 1 tank brigade, 2 separate heavy tank battalions, 1 cavalry regiment, 5 air regiments)
		A new 15A was formed from units of the 8th Army (commander commander of the 2nd rank M.P. Kovalev)
		After artillery preparation, the Red Army began to break through the main line of defense of the Finns on the Karelian Isthmus
		Sumy fortified knot taken
	Finland	The commander of the troops of the Karelian Isthmus in the Finnish army, Lieutenant-General H.V. Esterman is suspended. Major General A.E. was appointed to his place. Heinrichs, commander of the 3rd Army Corps
		Parts of 7A went to the second line of defense
		7A and 13A launched an offensive in the strip from Lake Vuoksa to Vyborg Bay
		Bridgehead captured on the western coast of the Vyborg Bay
	Finland	The Finns opened the locks of the Saimaa Canal, flooding the area northeast of Viipuri (Vyborg)
		The 50th Corps cut the Vyborg-Antrea railway
	USSR Finland	Arrival of the Finnish delegation to Moscow
	USSR Finland	Conclusion of a peace treaty in Moscow. The Karelian Isthmus, the cities of Vyborg, Sortavala, Kuolajärvi, islands in the Gulf of Finland, part of the Rybachy Peninsula in the Arctic went to the USSR. Lake Ladoga was completely within the borders of the USSR. The USSR leased part of the Khanko (Gangut) peninsula for a period of 30 years to equip a naval base there. The Petsamo region, captured by the Red Army at the beginning of the war, was returned to Finland. (The border established by this treaty is close to the border under the Treaty of Nystad with Sweden in 1721.)
	USSR Finland	Assault on Vyborg by the Red Army. Cessation of hostilities

The grouping of Soviet troops consisted of the 7th, 8th, 9th and 14th armies. The 7th Army advanced on the Karelian Isthmus, the 8th - north of Lake Ladoga, the 9th - in northern and central Karelia, the 14th - in Petsamo.

Soviet tank BT-5

Soviet tank T-28

The offensive of the 7th Army on the Karelian Isthmus was opposed by the Isthmus Army (Kannaksen armeija) under the command of Hugo Esterman.

For the Soviet troops, these battles became the most difficult and bloody. The Soviet command had only "fragmentary intelligence data on the concrete strips of fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus." As a result, the forces allocated to break through the "Mannerheim Line" turned out to be completely insufficient. The troops turned out to be completely unprepared to overcome the line of bunkers and bunkers. In particular, there was little large-caliber artillery needed to destroy pillboxes. By December 12, units of the 7th Army were only able to overcome the line support zone and reach the front edge of the main defense zone, but the planned breakthrough of the line on the move failed due to clearly insufficient forces and poor organization of the offensive. On December 12, the Finnish army carried out one of its most successful operations near Lake Tolvajärvi.

Until the end of December, attempts to break through continued, which did not bring success.

The 8th Army advanced 80 km. She was opposed by the IV Army Corps (IV armeija kunta), commanded by Juho Heiskanen.

Juho Heiskanen

Part of the Soviet troops was surrounded. After heavy fighting, they had to retreat.

The offensive of the 9th and 14th armies was opposed by the Northern Finland Task Force (Pohjois-Suomen Ryhm?) under the command of Major General Viljo Einar Tuompo. Its area of ​​responsibility was a 400-mile stretch of territory from Petsamo to Kuhmo. The 9th Army was advancing from the White Sea Karelia. She wedged into the enemy defenses for 35-45 km, but was stopped. The 14th Army, advancing on the Petsamo region, achieved the greatest success. Interacting with the Northern Fleet, the troops of the 14th Army were able to capture the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas, the city of Petsamo (now Pechenga). Thus they closed Finland's access to the Barents Sea.

front kitchen

Some researchers and memoirists are trying to explain the Soviet failures, including the weather: severe frosts (down to -40 ° C) and deep snow up to 2 m. However, both meteorological observations and other documents refute this: until December 20, 1939, on On the Karelian Isthmus, the temperature ranged from +2 to -7°C. Further, until the New Year, the temperature did not fall below 23 ° C. Frosts down to 40°C began in the second half of January, when there was a lull at the front. Moreover, these frosts interfered not only with the attackers, but also with the defenders, as Mannerheim wrote about. There was also no deep snow until January 1940. Thus, the operational reports of the Soviet divisions of December 15, 1939 testify to the depth of the snow cover of 10-15 cm. Moreover, successful offensive operations in February took place in more severe weather conditions.

Destroyed Soviet tank T-26

T-26

An unpleasant surprise was the massive use by the Finns against Soviet tanks of Molotov cocktails, later nicknamed the “Molotov cocktail”. During the 3 months of the war, the Finnish industry produced over half a million bottles.

Molotov cocktail from the Winter War

During the war, the Soviet troops were the first to use radar stations (RUS-1) in combat conditions to detect enemy aircraft.

Radar "RUS-1"

Mannerheim line

The Mannerheim Line (fin. Mannerheim-linja) is a complex of defensive structures on the Finnish part of the Karelian Isthmus, created in 1920-1930 to deter a possible offensive strike from the USSR. The line was about 135 km long and about 90 km deep. It is named after Marshal Karl Mannerheim, on whose orders plans for the defense of the Karelian Isthmus were developed back in 1918. On his own initiative, the largest structures of the complex were created.

Name

The name "Mannerheim Line" appeared after the creation of the complex, at the beginning of the winter Soviet-Finnish war in December 1939, when the Finnish troops began a stubborn defense. Shortly before that, in autumn, a group of foreign journalists arrived to get acquainted with the fortification works. At that time much was written about the French Maginot Line and the German Siegfried Line. The son of Mannerheim's former adjutant Jorm Galen-Kallela, who accompanied the foreigners, coined the name "Mannerheim Line". After the start of the Winter War, this name appeared in those newspapers whose representatives examined the structures.

History of creation

Preparations for the construction of the line began immediately after Finland gained independence in 1918, the construction itself continued intermittently until the start of the Soviet-Finnish war in 1939.

The first line plan was developed by Lieutenant Colonel A. Rappe in 1918.

Work on the defense plan was continued by German Colonel Baron von Brandestein (O. von Brandenstein). It was approved in August. In October 1918, the Finnish government allocated 300,000 marks for construction work. The work was carried out by German and Finnish sappers (one battalion) and Russian prisoners of war. With the departure of the German army, the work was significantly reduced and everything was reduced to the work of the Finnish combat engineer training battalion.

In October 1919, a new defensive line plan was developed. It was led by the chief of the general staff, Major General Oskar Enkel. The main design work was carried out by a member of the French military commission, Major J. Gros-Coissy.

According to this plan, in 1920-1924, 168 concrete and reinforced concrete structures were built, of which 114 were machine-gun, 6 artillery and one mixed. Then came a three-year break and the issue of resuming work was raised only in 1927.

The new plan was developed by V. Karikoski. However, the work itself began only in 1930. They took on the greatest scope in 1932, when under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Fabricius, six two-pipe pillboxes were built.

fortifications

The main defensive strip consisted of a system of defense units extended into a line, each of which included several wood-and-earth field fortifications (DZOT) and long-term stone-concrete structures, as well as anti-tank and anti-personnel barriers. The defense nodes themselves were placed on the main defensive line extremely unevenly: the gaps between the individual nodes of resistance sometimes reached 6-8 km. Each defense node had its own index, which usually began with the first letters of the nearby settlement. If the account is kept from the coast of the Gulf of Finland, then the designations of the nodes will follow in this order:

DOT scheme:

"N" - Humaljoki [now Ermilovo] "K" - Kolkkala [now Malyshevo] "N" - Nyayukki [non-existent]
"Ko" - Kolmikeeyala [non-existent.] "Nu" - Hyulkeyala [non-existent.] "Ka" - Karhula [now Dyatlovo]
"Sk" - Summakyla [non-beings.] "La" - Lähde [non-beings,] "A" - Eyyräpää (Leipyasuo)
"Mi" - Muolaankylä [now Mushroom] "Ma" - Sikniemi [not being.] "Ma" - Myalkelya [now Zverevo]
"La" - Lauttaniemi [non-existent] "No" - Noisniemi [now Cape] "Ki" - Kiviniemi [now Losevo]
"Sa" - Sakkola [now Gromovo] "Ke" - Cell [now Portovoe] "Tai" - Taipale (now Solovyovo)

Dot SJ-5, covering the road to Vyborg. (2009)

Dot SK16

Thus, 18 defense units of various degrees of power were built on the main defensive strip. The fortification system also included a rear defensive line that covered the approach to Vyborg. It included 10 defense units:

"R" - Rempetti [now Key] "Nr" - Nyarya [now defunct] "Kai" - Kaipiala [non-existent]
"Nu" - Nuoraa [now Sokolinsky] "Kak" - Kakkola [now Sokolinsky] "Le" - Leviyainen [non-existent]
"A.-Sa" - Ala-Syainie [now Cherkasovo] "Y.-Sa" - Yulia-Syainie [now V.-Cherkasovo]
"Not" - Heinjoki [now Veshchevo] "Ly" - Luyukulya [now Ozernoye]

Dot Ink5

The knot of resistance was defended by one or two rifle battalions reinforced with artillery. Along the front, the knot occupied 3–4.5 kilometers and 1.5–2 kilometers in depth. It consisted of 4-6 strong points, each strong point had 3-5 long-term firing points, mainly machine-gun and artillery, which constituted the skeleton of the defense.

Each permanent structure was surrounded by trenches, which also filled the gaps between nodes of resistance. The trenches in most cases consisted of a communication course with machine-gun nests brought forward and rifle cells for one to three shooters.

Shooting cells were covered with armored shields with visors and loopholes for firing. This protected the shooter's head from shrapnel fire. The flanks of the line rested against the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. The coast of the Gulf of Finland was covered by large-caliber coastal batteries, and in the Taipale region on the shores of Lake Ladoga, reinforced concrete forts with eight 120-mm and 152-mm coastal guns were created.

The basis of the fortifications was the terrain: the entire territory of the Karelian Isthmus is covered with large forests, dozens of small and medium-sized lakes and streams. Lakes and rivers have swampy or rocky steep banks. Rocky ridges and numerous large boulders are found everywhere in the forests. The Belgian general Badu wrote: "Nowhere in the world have natural conditions been so favorable for the construction of fortified lines as in Karelia."

Reinforced concrete structures of the "Mannerheim Line" are divided into buildings of the first generation (1920-1937) and the second generation (1938-1939).

A group of Red Army soldiers inspects an armored cap on a Finnish bunker

The pillboxes of the first generation were small, one-story, for one or three machine guns, they did not have shelters for the garrison and internal equipment. The thickness of the reinforced concrete walls reached 2 m, the horizontal coating - 1.75-2 m. Subsequently, these pillboxes were strengthened: the walls were thickened, armor plates were installed on the embrasures.

Second-generation pillboxes were dubbed by the Finnish press as "million" or millionaire pillboxes, since the cost of each of them exceeded one million Finnish marks. In total, 7 such pillboxes were built. The initiator of their construction was Baron Mannerheim, who returned to politics in 1937, who obtained additional appropriations from the country's parliament. One of the most modern and heavily fortified pillboxes was Sj4 "Poppius", which had loopholes for flanking fire in the western casemate, and Sj5 "Millionaire", with loopholes for flanking fire in both casemates. Both bunkers pierced the entire hollow with flank fire, covering each other's front with machine guns. The bunkers of flanking fire were called the Le Bourget casemate, after the name of the French engineer who developed it, and became widespread already during the First World War. Some pillboxes in the Hottinen area, for example Sk5, Sk6, were converted into casemates for flanking fire, while the frontal embrasure was bricked up. The bunkers of the flanking fire were well-camouflaged with stones and snow, which made it difficult to detect them, in addition, it was almost impossible to break through the casemate with artillery from the front. "Million" pillboxes were large modern reinforced concrete structures with 4-6 embrasures, of which one or two were gun, mainly flanking action. The usual armament of pillboxes were Russian 76-mm cannons of the 1900 model on casemate machines Durlyakher and 37-mm Bofors anti-tank guns of the 1936 model on casemate installations. Less common were 76-mm mountain guns of the 1904 model on pedestal mounts.

The weaknesses of Finnish long-term structures are as follows: inferior quality of concrete in buildings of the first period, oversaturation of concrete with flexible reinforcement, lack of rigid reinforcement in buildings of the first period.

The strong qualities of pillboxes consisted in a large number of embrasures that shot through near and immediate approaches and flanked approaches to neighboring reinforced concrete points, as well as in the tactically correct location of structures on the ground, in their careful camouflage, in rich filling of gaps.

Destroyed bunker

Engineering barriers

The main types of anti-personnel obstacles were wire nets and mines. The Finns installed slingshots, which were somewhat different from Soviet slingshots or Bruno's spiral. These anti-personnel obstacles were supplemented by anti-tank ones. Nadolbs were usually placed in four rows, two meters from one another, in a checkerboard pattern. The rows of stones were sometimes reinforced with barbed wire, and in other cases with ditches and scarps. Thus, anti-tank obstacles turned simultaneously into anti-personnel ones. The most powerful obstacles were at a height of 65.5 at pillbox No. 006 and on Khotinen at pillboxes No. 45, 35 and 40, which were the main ones in the defense system of the Mezhdubolotny and Sumy nodes of resistance. At pillbox No. 006, the wire network reached 45 rows, of which the first 42 rows were on metal stakes 60 centimeters high, embedded in concrete. The gouges in this place had 12 rows of stones and were located in the middle of the wire. In order to undermine the gouge, it was necessary to go through 18 rows of wire under three to four layers of fire and 100-150 meters from the front line of the enemy’s defense. In some cases, the area between bunkers and bunkers was occupied by residential buildings. They were usually located on the outskirts of the settlement and were built of granite, and the thickness of the walls reached 1 meter or more. If necessary, the Finns turned such houses into defensive fortifications. Finnish sappers managed to build about 136 km of anti-tank obstacles and about 330 km of barbed wire along the main defense line. In practice, when in the first phase of the Soviet-Finnish Winter War the Red Army came close to the fortifications of the main defensive zone and began to make attempts to break through it, it turned out that the above principles, developed before the war based on the results of tests of anti-tank obstacles for survivability using the then in service Finnish army several dozen obsolete light tanks "Renault", proved to be untenable in the face of the power of the Soviet tank mass. In addition to the fact that the gouges moved from their place under the pressure of T-28 medium tanks, detachments of Soviet sappers often undermined the gouges with explosive charges, thereby arranging passages for armored vehicles in them. But the most serious shortcoming, of course, was a good view of the lines of anti-tank gouges from the distant artillery positions of the enemy, especially in open and flat areas of the terrain, such as, for example, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Sj defense center (Summa-Jarvi), where 11.02 was. 1940 the main defensive line was breached. As a result of repeated artillery shelling, the gouges were destroyed and there were more and more passages in them.

Between the granite anti-tank gouges there were rows of barbed wire.

Terijoki government

On December 1, 1939, the Pravda newspaper published a message stating that the so-called "People's Government" had been formed in Finland, headed by Otto Kuusinen. In the historical literature, the government of Kuusinen is usually referred to as "Terijoki", since it was, after the outbreak of war, in the city of Terijoki (now Zelenogorsk). This government was officially recognized by the USSR.

On December 2, negotiations were held in Moscow between the government of the Finnish Democratic Republic, headed by Otto Kuusinen, and the Soviet government, headed by V. M. Molotov, at which a Treaty of Mutual Assistance and Friendship was signed. Stalin, Voroshilov and Zhdanov also took part in the negotiations.

The main provisions of this agreement corresponded to the requirements that the USSR had previously presented to the Finnish representatives (transfer of territories on the Karelian Isthmus, sale of a number of islands in the Gulf of Finland, lease of Hanko). In exchange, significant territories in Soviet Karelia were transferred to Finland and monetary compensation was provided. The USSR also undertook to support the Finnish People's Army with weapons, assistance in training specialists, etc. The contract was concluded for a period of 25 years, and if none of the parties announced its termination a year before the expiration of the contract, it was automatically extended for another for 25 years. The treaty came into force from the moment it was signed by the parties, and ratification was planned "as soon as possible in the capital of Finland - the city of Helsinki."

In the following days, Molotov met with official representatives of Sweden and the United States, at which the recognition of the People's Government of Finland was announced.

It was announced that the previous government of Finland had fled and therefore was no longer in charge of the country. The USSR declared in the League of Nations that from now on it would negotiate only with the new government.

RECEPTION TOV. MOLOTOV OF THE SWEDISH ENvoy Mr. WINTER

Accepted Com. Molotov on December 4, the Swedish envoy, Mr. Winter, announced the desire of the so-called "Finnish government" to start new negotiations on an agreement with the Soviet Union. Tov. Molotov explained to Mr. Winter that the Soviet government does not recognize the so-called "Finnish government", which has already left the city of Helsinki and is heading in an unknown direction, and therefore there can be no question of any negotiations with this "government" now. The Soviet government recognizes only the people's government of the Finnish Democratic Republic, has concluded a treaty of mutual assistance and friendship with it, and this is a reliable basis for the development of peaceful and favorable relations between the USSR and Finland.

V. Molotov signs an agreement between the USSR and the Terijoki government. Standing: A. Zhdanov, K. Voroshilov, I. Stalin, O. Kuusinen

The "People's Government" was formed in the USSR from Finnish communists. The leadership of the Soviet Union believed that the use in propaganda of the fact of the creation of a "people's government" and the conclusion of a mutual assistance agreement with it, indicating friendship and alliance with the USSR while maintaining the independence of Finland, would make it possible to influence the Finnish population, increasing the decay in the army and in the rear.

Finnish People's Army

On November 11, 1939, the formation of the first corps of the "Finnish People's Army" (originally the 106th Mountain Rifle Division), called "Ingermanland", which was staffed by Finns and Karelians who served in the troops of the Leningrad Military District, began.

By November 26, there were 13,405 people in the corps, and in February 1940 - 25 thousand military personnel who wore their national uniform (it was sewn from khaki-colored cloth and looked like the Finnish uniform of the 1927 model; allegations that it was a trophy uniform of the Polish army , are erroneous - only part of the overcoats was used from it).

This "people's" army was to replace the occupation units of the Red Army in Finland and become the military backbone of the "people's" government. "Finns" in confederates held a parade in Leningrad. Kuusinen announced that they would be given the honor of hoisting the red flag over the presidential palace in Helsinki. In the Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, a draft instruction was prepared “Where to start the political and organizational work of the communists (note: the word“ communists ”is crossed out by Zhdanov) in areas liberated from white power”, which indicated practical measures to create Popular Front in the occupied Finnish territory. In December 1939, this instruction was used in work with the population of Finnish Karelia, but the withdrawal of Soviet troops led to the curtailment of these activities.

Despite the fact that the Finnish People's Army was not supposed to participate in hostilities, from the end of December 1939, FNA units began to be widely used to solve combat missions. Throughout January 1940, scouts of the 5th and 6th regiments of the 3rd FNA SD carried out special sabotage missions in the 8th Army sector: they destroyed ammunition depots in the rear of the Finnish troops, blew up railway bridges, and mined roads. FNA units participated in the battles for Lunkulansaari and in the capture of Vyborg.

When it became clear that the war was dragging on and the Finnish people did not support the new government, the Kuusinen government faded into the background and was no longer mentioned in the official press. When the Soviet-Finnish consultations began in January on the issue of concluding peace, it was no longer mentioned. Since January 25, the government of the USSR recognizes the government in Helsinki as the legal government of Finland.

Leaflet for volunteers - Karelians and Finns citizens of the USSR

Foreign volunteers

Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, detachments and groups of volunteers from around the world began to arrive in Finland. The most significant number of volunteers came from Sweden, Denmark and Norway (the "Swedish Volunteer Corps"), as well as Hungary. However, among the volunteers were also citizens of many other states, including England and the USA, as well as a small number of Russian White volunteers from the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). The latter were used as officers of the "Russian People's Detachments", formed by the Finns from among the captured Red Army soldiers. But since the work on the formation of such detachments was started late, already at the end of the war, before the end of hostilities, only one of them (numbering 35-40 people) managed to take part in hostilities.

Preparing for the offensive

The course of hostilities revealed serious gaps in the organization of command and control and supply of troops, the poor preparedness of command personnel, and the lack of specific skills among the troops necessary for waging war in the winter in Finland. By the end of December, it became clear that fruitless attempts to continue the offensive would lead nowhere. There was a relative calm at the front. Throughout January and the beginning of February, the troops were strengthened, material supplies were replenished, and units and formations were reorganized. Subdivisions of skiers were created, methods were developed for overcoming mined terrain, obstacles, methods for dealing with defensive structures, and personnel were trained. To storm the Mannerheim Line, the North-Western Front was created under the command of Army Commander 1st Rank Timoshenko and a member of the military council of the LenVO Zhdanov.

Timoshenko Semyon Konstaetinovich Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich

The front included the 7th and 13th armies. Enormous work was carried out in the border regions to hastily build and re-equip communication lines for the uninterrupted supply of the army in the field. The total number of personnel was increased to 760.5 thousand people.

To destroy the fortifications on the Mannerheim Line, the divisions of the first echelon were assigned groups of destruction artillery (AR) consisting of one to six divisions in the main directions. In total, these groups had 14 divisions, in which there were 81 guns with a caliber of 203, 234, 280 mm.

203 mm howitzer "B-4" mod. 1931

Karelian isthmus. Combat map. December 1939 "Black Line" - Mannerheim Line

The Finnish side during this period also continued to replenish the troops and supply them with weapons coming from the allies. In total, during the war, 350 aircraft, 500 guns, more than 6 thousand machine guns, about 100 thousand rifles, 650 thousand hand grenades, 2.5 million shells and 160 million cartridges were delivered to Finland [source not specified 198 days]. About 11.5 thousand foreign volunteers fought on the side of the Finns, mostly from the Scandinavian countries.

Finnish autonomous ski squads armed with machine guns

Finnish machine gun M-31 "Suomi":

TTD "Suomi" M-31 Lahti

Applicable cartridge	9х19 Parabellum
sighting line length
barrel length
Weight without cartridges
Weight of 20-round box magazine empty/loaded
Weight of 36-round box magazine empty/loaded
Weight of 50-round box magazine, empty/loaded
Mass of disk magazine for 40 rounds empty / equipped
Mass of disk magazine for 71 cartridges empty / equipped
rate of fire	700-800 rpm
Muzzle velocity of the bullet
Sighting range	500 meters
Magazine capacity	20, 36, 50 rounds (boxed) 40, 71 (disc)

At the same time, fighting continued in Karelia. Formations of the 8th and 9th armies, operating along the roads in continuous forests, suffered heavy losses. If in some places the achieved lines were held, then in others the troops retreated, in some places even to the border line. The Finns widely used the tactics of guerrilla warfare: small autonomous detachments of skiers armed with machine guns attacked troops moving along the roads, mainly at night, and after the attacks went into the forest, where bases were equipped. Snipers inflicted heavy losses. According to the firm opinion of the Red Army soldiers (however, refuted by many sources, including Finnish), the greatest danger was represented by “cuckoo” snipers who fired from trees. The formations of the Red Army that had broken through forward were constantly surrounded and broke through backwards, often abandoning equipment and weapons.

The Battle of Suomussalmi was widely known, in particular, the history of the 44th division of the 9th army. Since December 14, the division has been advancing from the Vazhenvara area along the road to Suomussalmi to help the 163rd division surrounded by Finnish troops. The advance of the troops was completely unorganized. Parts of the division, strongly stretched along the road, were repeatedly surrounded by the Finns during January 3-7. As a result, on January 7, the division's advance was stopped, and its main forces were surrounded. The situation was not hopeless, since the division had a significant technical advantage over the Finns, but the division commander A. I. Vinogradov, the regimental commissar Pakhomenko and the chief of staff Volkov, instead of organizing defense and withdrawing troops from the encirclement, fled themselves, leaving the troops. At the same time, Vinogradov gave the order to leave the encirclement, abandoning equipment, which led to the abandonment of 37 tanks, more than three hundred machine guns, several thousand rifles, up to 150 vehicles, all radio stations, the entire convoy and horse train on the battlefield. More than a thousand people from among the personnel who left the encirclement were wounded or frostbite, some of the wounded were captured, because they were not taken out during the flight. Vinogradov, Pakhomenko and Volkov were sentenced by a military tribunal to death and shot publicly in front of the division line.

On the Karelian Isthmus, the front stabilized by December 26. Soviet troops began thorough preparations for breaking through the main fortifications of the "Mannerheim Line", conducted reconnaissance of the defense line. At this time, the Finns unsuccessfully tried to disrupt the preparations for a new offensive with counterattacks. So, on December 28, the Finns attacked the central units of the 7th Army, but were repulsed with heavy losses. On January 3, 1940, at the northern tip of the island of Gotland (Sweden), with 50 crew members, the Soviet submarine S-2 under the command of Lieutenant Commander I. A. Sokolov sank (probably hit a mine). S-2 was the only RKKF ship lost by the USSR.

The crew of the submarine "S-2"

On the basis of the directive of the Headquarters of the Main Military Council of the Red Army No. 01447 of January 30, 1940, the entire remaining Finnish population was subject to eviction from the territory occupied by Soviet troops. By the end of February, 2080 people were evicted from the areas of Finland occupied by the Red Army in the combat zone of the 8th, 9th, 15th armies, of which: men - 402, women - 583, children under 16 years old - 1095. All resettled Finnish citizens were accommodated in three settlements of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic: in the Intersettlement of the Pryazhinsky District, in the settlement of Kovgora-Goymay of the Kondopozhsky District, in the settlement of Kintezma of the Kalevalsky District. They lived in barracks and without fail worked in the forest at logging sites. They were allowed to return to Finland only in June 1940, after the end of the war.

February offensive of the Red Army

On February 1, 1940, the Red Army, having brought up reinforcements, resumed the offensive on the Karelian Isthmus along the entire width of the front of the 2nd Army Corps. The main blow was inflicted in the direction of the Sum. Art preparations also began. From that day on, daily for several days, the troops of the North-Western Front under the command of S. Timoshenko brought down 12 thousand shells on the fortifications of the Mannerheim Line. The Finns answered rarely, but aptly. Therefore, Soviet gunners had to abandon the most effective direct fire and conduct from closed positions and mainly in areas, since reconnaissance of targets and adjustment were poorly established. Five divisions of the 7th and 13th armies carried out a private offensive, but could not succeed.

On February 6, the offensive began on the Summa strip. In the following days, the front of the offensive expanded both to the west and to the east.

On February 9, the commander of the troops of the North-Western Front, commander of the first rank S. Timoshenko, sent directive No. 04606 to the troops. According to it, on February 11, after powerful artillery preparation, the troops of the North-Western Front should go on the offensive.

On February 11, after ten days of artillery preparation, the general offensive of the Red Army began. The main forces were concentrated on the Karelian Isthmus. In this offensive, ships of the Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga military flotilla, created in October 1939, operated together with the ground units of the North-Western Front.

Since the attacks of the Soviet troops on the Summa region did not bring success, the main blow was moved to the east, to the Lyakhde direction. In this place, the defending side suffered huge losses from artillery preparation and the Soviet troops managed to break through the defense.

During three days of intense fighting, the troops of the 7th Army broke through the first line of defense of the Mannerheim Line, introduced tank formations into the breakthrough, which began to develop success. By February 17, units of the Finnish army were withdrawn to the second line of defense, as there was a threat of encirclement.

On February 18, the Finns closed the Saimaa Canal with the Kivikoski dam, and the next day the water began to rise in Kärstilänjärvi.

By February 21, the 7th Army reached the second line of defense, and the 13th Army - to the main line of defense north of Muolaa. By February 24, units of the 7th Army, interacting with coastal detachments of sailors of the Baltic Fleet, captured several coastal islands. On February 28, both armies of the Northwestern Front launched an offensive in the zone from Lake Vuoksa to Vyborg Bay. Seeing the impossibility of stopping the offensive, the Finnish troops retreated.

At the final stage of the operation, the 13th Army advanced in the direction of Antrea (modern Kamennogorsk), the 7th - to Vyborg. The Finns offered fierce resistance, but were forced to retreat.

(To be continued)

friend of your enemy

Today, wise and calm Finns can only attack someone in a joke. But three quarters of a century ago, when forced national building continued in Suomi on the wings of independence gained much later than other European nations, you would not be in the mood for jokes.

In 1918, Karl-Gustav-Emil Mannerheim pronounces the well-known "sword oath", publicly promising to annex Eastern (Russian) Karelia. At the end of the thirties, Gustav Karlovich (as he was called while serving in the Russian Imperial Army, where the path of the future field marshal began) is the most influential person in the country.

Of course, Finland was not going to attack the USSR. I mean, she wasn't going to do it alone. The ties of the young state with Germany were, perhaps, even stronger than with the countries of their native Scandinavia. In 1918, when intense discussions were going on in the country that had just gained independence about the form of government, by decision of the Finnish Senate, the brother-in-law of Emperor Wilhelm, Prince Friedrich-Karl of Hesse, was declared the King of Finland; for various reasons, nothing came of the Suom monarchist project, but the choice of personnel is very indicative. Further, the very victory of the “Finnish White Guards” (as the northern neighbors were called in Soviet newspapers) in the internal civil war of 1918 was also largely, if not completely, due to the participation of the expeditionary force sent by the Kaiser (numbering up to 15 thousand people, moreover, that the total number of local "reds" and "whites", significantly inferior to the Germans in combat qualities, did not exceed 100 thousand people).

Cooperation with the Third Reich developed no less successfully than with the Second. The ships of the Kriegsmarine freely entered the Finnish skerries; German stations in the area of ​​Turku, Helsinki and Rovaniemi were engaged in radio reconnaissance; from the second half of the thirties, the airfields of the "Country of a Thousand Lakes" were modernized to receive heavy bombers, which Mannerheim did not even have in the project ... It should be said that subsequently Germany already in the first hours of the war with the USSR (which Finland officially joined only on June 25, 1941 ) really used the territory and water area of ​​​​Suomi for laying mines in the Gulf of Finland and bombing Leningrad.

Yes, at that moment the idea of ​​attacking the Russians did not seem so crazy. The Soviet Union of the 1939 model did not look like a formidable adversary at all. The assets include the successful (for Helsinki) First Soviet-Finnish War. The brutal defeat of the Red Army by Poland during the Western campaign in 1920. Of course, one can recall the successful reflection of Japanese aggression on Khasan and Khalkhin Gol, but, firstly, these were local clashes far from the European theater, and, secondly, the qualities of the Japanese infantry were rated very low. And thirdly, the Red Army, as Western analysts believed, was weakened by the repressions of 1937. Of course, the human and economic resources of the empire and its former province are not comparable. But Mannerheim, unlike Hitler, was not going to go to the Volga to bomb the Urals. The field marshal had enough of one Karelia.

(see the beginning in the previous 3 publications)

73 years ago ended one of the most undisclosed wars in which our state took part. The Soviet-Finnish war of 1940, also called the "Winter" war, cost our state very dearly. According to the lists of names compiled by the personnel apparatus of the Red Army already in 1949-1951, the total number of irretrievable losses amounted to 126,875 people. The Finnish side in this conflict lost 26,662 people. Thus, the loss ratio is 1 to 5, which clearly indicates the low quality of management, weapons and skills of the Red Army. Nevertheless, despite such a high level of losses, the Red Army completed all the tasks, albeit with a certain adjustment.

So at the initial stage of this war, the Soviet government was sure of an early victory and the complete capture of Finland. It was on the basis of such prospects that the Soviet authorities formed the "government of the Finnish Democratic Republic" headed by Otto Kuusinen, a former deputy of the Finnish Sejm, a delegate of the Second International. However, as the hostilities developed, appetites had to be reduced, and instead of the premiership of Finland, Kuusinen received the post of chairman of the presidium of the Supreme Council of the newly formed Karelian-Finnish SSR, which lasted until 1956, and remained the head of the supreme council of the Karelian ASSR.

Despite the fact that the entire territory of Finland was never conquered by Soviet troops, the USSR received significant territorial acquisitions. From the new territories and the already existing Karelian Autonomous Republic, the sixteenth republic was formed within the USSR - the Karelian-Finnish SSR.

The stumbling block and reason for starting a war - the Soviet-Finnish border in the Leningrad region was pushed back 150 kilometers. The entire northern coast of Lake Ladoga became part of the Soviet Union, and this body of water became internal to the USSR. In addition, part of Lapland and the islands in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland went to the USSR. The Hanko Peninsula, which was a kind of key to the Gulf of Finland, was leased to the USSR for 30 years. The Soviet naval base on this peninsula existed at the beginning of December 1941. On June 25, 1941, three days after the attack of Nazi Germany, Finland declared war on the USSR and on the same day Finnish troops began military operations against the Soviet garrison of Hanko. The defense of this territory continued until December 2, 1941. Currently, the Hanko peninsula belongs to Finland. During the Winter War, Soviet troops occupied the Pechenga region, which before the 1917 revolution was part of the Arkhangelsk Territory. After the transfer of this area to Finland in 1920, large reserves of nickel were discovered there. The development of deposits was carried out by French, Canadian and British companies. Largely due to the fact that nickel mines were controlled by Western capital, in order to maintain good relations with France and Great Britain, this site was transferred back to Finland after the Finnish War. In 1944, after the completion of the Petsamo-Kirkines operation, Pechenga was occupied by Soviet troops and subsequently became part of the Murmansk region.

The Finns fought selflessly and the result of their resistance was not only heavy losses of personnel of the Red Army, but also significant losses of military equipment. The Red Army lost 640 aircraft, the Finns knocked out 1800 tanks - and all this with the complete dominance of Soviet aviation in the air and the practical absence of anti-tank artillery among the Finns. However, no matter how exotic methods of combating Soviet tanks the Finnish troops came up with, luck was on the side of the “big battalions”.

The whole hope of the Finnish leadership was in the formula "The West will help us." However, even the closest neighbors provided Finland with rather symbolic assistance. 8,000 untrained volunteers arrived from Sweden, but at the same time, Sweden refused to allow 20,000 interned Polish soldiers who were ready to fight on the side of Finland to pass through its territory. Norway was represented by 725 volunteers, and 800 Danes also intended to fight against the USSR. Another trip was set up by Mannerheim and Hitler: the Nazi leader banned the transit of equipment and people through the territory of the Reich. A couple of thousand volunteers (albeit of advanced age) arrived from Great Britain. In total, 11.5 thousand volunteers arrived in Finland, which could not seriously affect the balance of power.

In addition, the exclusion of the USSR from the League of Nations was supposed to bring moral satisfaction to the Finnish side. However, this international organization was only a pathetic forerunner of the modern UN. In total, it included 58 states, and in different years, for various reasons, such countries as Argentina (withdrew in the period 1921-1933), Brazil (withdrew since 1926), Romania (withdrew in 1940), Czechoslovakia (membership terminated March 15, 1939), and so on. In general, one gets the impression that the countries participating in the League of Nations were only engaged in the fact that they entered or left it. For the exclusion of the Soviet Union as an aggressor, such countries “close” to Europe as Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia were especially actively advocating, but the closest neighbors of Finland: Denmark, Sweden and Norway, on the contrary, declared that they would not support any sanctions against the USSR. Not being any serious international institution, the League of Nations was dissolved in 1946 and, ironically, the chairman of the Swedish Storing (parliament) Hambro, the one who had to read out the decision to expel the USSR, at the final assembly of the League of Nations announced a greeting to the founding countries of the UN , among which were the Soviet Union, still headed by Joseph Stalin.

The deliveries of weapons and ammunition to Filandia from European countries were paid for in hard currency, and at inflated prices, which Mannerheim himself admitted. In the Soviet-Finnish war, profits were received by the concerns of France (which at the same time managed to sell weapons to a promising Nazi ally of Romania), Great Britain, which sold frankly outdated weapons to the Finns. A clear opponent of the Anglo-French allies - Italy sold 30 aircraft and anti-aircraft guns to Finland. Hungary, which then fought on the side of the Axis, sold anti-aircraft guns, mortars and grenades, and Belgium, which after a short time fell under German attack, sold ammunition. The closest neighbor - Sweden - sold Finland 85 anti-tank guns, half a million rounds of ammunition, gasoline, 104 anti-aircraft weapons. Finnish soldiers fought in overcoats made from cloth bought in Sweden. Some of these purchases were paid for with a $30 million loan from the United States. What is most interesting is that most of the equipment arrived “before the curtain” and did not have time to take part in the hostilities during the Winter War, but, apparently, it was successfully used by Finland already during the Great Patriotic War in alliance with Nazi Germany.

In general, one gets the impression that at that time (winter 1939-1940) the leading European powers: neither France nor Great Britain had yet decided with whom they would have to fight in the next few years. In any case, the head of the British Department of the North, Lawrencollier, believed that the goals of Germany and Great Britain in this war could be common, and according to eyewitnesses, judging by the French newspapers of that winter, it seemed that France was at war with the Soviet Union, and not with Germany. On February 5, 1940, the Joint British-French War Council decided to ask the governments of Norway and Sweden to provide Norwegian territory for the landing of the British Expeditionary Force. But even the British were surprised by the statement of the French Prime Minister Daladier, who unilaterally announced that his country was ready to send 50,000 soldiers and a hundred bombers to help Finland. By the way, plans for waging war against the USSR, which at that time was estimated by the British and French as a significant supplier of strategic raw materials to Germany, developed even after the signing of peace between Finland and the USSR. As early as March 8, 1940, a few days before the end of the Soviet-Finnish war, the British Chiefs of Staff Committee developed a memorandum that described the future military operations of the British-French allies against the USSR. The fighting was planned on a wide scale: in the north in the Pechenga-Petsamo region, in the Murmansk direction, in the Arkhangelsk region, in the Far East and in the south - in the region of Baku, Grozny and Batumi. In these plans, the USSR was seen as a strategic ally of Hitler, supplying him with strategic raw materials - oil. According to the French General Weygand, the blow should have been delivered in June-July 1940. But by the end of April 1940, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain admitted that the Soviet Union adhered to strict neutrality and there was no reason to attack. In addition, already in June 1940, German tanks entered Paris, and it was then that the joint French-British plans were captured by Hitler troops.

Nevertheless, all these plans remained only on paper, and for more than a hundred days of the Soviet-Finnish won, no significant assistance was provided by the Western powers. Actually, during the war, Finland was put in a hopeless situation by its closest neighbors - Sweden and Norway. On the one hand, the Swedes and Norwegians verbally expressed all support for the Finns, allowed their volunteers to participate in hostilities on the side of the Finnish troops, and on the other hand, these countries blocked a decision that could really change the course of the war. The Swedish and Norwegian governments refused the request of the Western powers to provide their territory for the transit of military personnel and military supplies, and otherwise the Western Expeditionary Force could not have arrived in the theater of operations.

By the way, Finland's military spending in the pre-war period was calculated precisely on the basis of possible Western military assistance. Fortifications on the Mannerheim Line in the period 1932-1939 were not at all the main item of Finnish military spending. The vast majority of them were already completed by 1932, and in the subsequent period, the gigantic (in relative terms it amounted to 25 percent of the entire Finnish budget) Finnish military budget was directed, for example, to such things as the massive construction of military bases, warehouses and airfields. So the military airfields of Finland could accommodate ten times more aircraft than were at that time in service with the Finnish Air Force. Obviously, the entire Finnish military infrastructure was being prepared for foreign expeditionary forces. Tellingly, the massive filling of Finnish warehouses with British and French military equipment began after the end of the Winter War, and all this mass of goods subsequently fell into the hands of Nazi Germany in almost full volume.

Actually, the Soviet troops began combat operations only after the Soviet leadership received guarantees from Great Britain of non-interference in the future Soviet-Finnish conflict. Thus, the fate of Finland in the Winter War was predetermined by precisely this position of the Western allies. The United States has taken a similar duplicitous stance. Despite the fact that the American ambassador to the USSR, Shteingardt, literally went into hysterics, demanding sanctions against the Soviet Union, expel Soviet citizens from US territory and close the Panama Canal for the passage of our ships, US President Franklin Roosevelt limited himself to imposing a "moral embargo".

The English historian E. Hughes generally described France and Great Britain's support for Finland at a time when these countries were already at war with Germany as a "product of a lunatic asylum." One gets the impression that the Western countries were even ready to enter into an alliance with Hitler only for the Wehrmacht to lead the Western crusade against the USSR. French Prime Minister Daladier, speaking in parliament after the end of the Soviet-Finnish war, said that the results of the Winter War were a disgrace for France, and a “great victory” for Russia.

The events and military conflicts of the late 1930s, in which the Soviet Union participated, became episodes of history in which the USSR for the first time began to act as a subject of international politics. Prior to this, our country was considered as a "terrible child", an unviable freak, a temporary misunderstanding. Nor should we overestimate the economic potential of Soviet Russia. In 1931, at a conference of industrial workers, Stalin said that the USSR was 50-100 years behind the developed countries and that this distance should be covered by our country in ten years: “Either we do it, or we will be crushed.” Even by 1941, the Soviet Union failed to completely eliminate the technological gap, but it was no longer possible to crush us. As the USSR industrialized, it gradually began to show its teeth to the Western community, starting to defend its own interests, including by armed means. Throughout the late 1930s, the USSR carried out the restoration of territorial losses resulting from the collapse of the Russian Empire. The Soviet government methodically pushed the state borders further and further beyond the West. Many acquisitions were made almost bloodlessly, mainly by diplomatic means, but the transfer of the border from Leningrad cost our army many thousands of soldiers' lives. Nevertheless, such a transfer largely predetermined the fact that during the Great Patriotic War the German army got bogged down in the Russian expanses and, in the end, Nazi Germany was defeated.

After almost half a century of constant wars, as a result of the Second World War, relations between our countries have normalized. The Finnish people and their government have realized that it is better for their country to act as an intermediary between the world of capitalism and socialism, and not be a bargaining chip in the geopolitical games of world leaders. And even more so, the Finnish society has ceased to feel like the vanguard of the Western world, designed to contain the "communist hell." This position has led to the fact that Finland has become one of the most prosperous and rapidly developing European states.

"WINTER WAR"

Having signed agreements on mutual assistance with the Baltic states, the USSR turned to Finland with a proposal to conclude a similar agreement. Finland refused. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of this country, E. Erkko, said that "Finland will never make a decision similar to those taken by the Baltic states. If this happens, it will only be in the worst case." The origins of the Soviet-Finnish confrontation are largely due to the extremely hostile, aggressive position of the ruling circles of Finland towards the USSR. Former Finnish President P. Svinhufvud, under whom Soviet Russia voluntarily recognized the independence of its northern neighbor, said that "any enemy of Russia must always be a friend of Finland." In the mid 30s. M. M. Litvinov, in a conversation with the Finnish envoy, stated that "in no neighboring country is there such open propaganda for attacking the USSR and seizing its territory as in Finland."

After the Munich agreement of the Western countries, the Soviet leadership began to show particular perseverance towards Finland. During 1938-1939. negotiations were held, during which Moscow sought to ensure the security of Leningrad by moving the border on the Karelian Isthmus. Instead of Finland, the territories of Karelia were offered, and much larger in size than the lands that were supposed to be transferred to the USSR. In addition, the Soviet government promised to allocate a certain amount for the resettlement of residents. However, the Finnish side stated that the territory ceded to the USSR was insufficient compensation. There was a well-developed infrastructure on the Karelian Isthmus: a network of railways and highways, buildings, warehouses and other structures. The territory transferred by the Soviet Union to Finland was an area covered with forests and swamps. In order to turn this territory into a region suitable for life and economic needs, it was necessary to invest considerable funds.

Moscow did not give up hope for a peaceful resolution of the conflict and offered various options for concluding an agreement. At the same time, he firmly stated: "Since we cannot move Leningrad, we will move the border in order to secure it." At the same time, he referred to Ribbentrop, who explained the German attack on Poland by the need to secure Berlin. On both sides of the border, large-scale military construction was deployed. The Soviet Union was preparing for offensive operations, and Finland - for defensive ones. Finnish Foreign Minister Erkko, expressing the mood of the government, confirmed: "Everything has its limits. Finland cannot accept the offer of the Soviet Union and will defend its territory, its inviolability and independence by any means."

The Soviet Union and Finland did not follow the path of finding a compromise acceptable to them. Stalin's imperial ambitions made themselves felt this time as well. In the second half of November 1939, the methods of diplomacy gave way to threats and saber-rattling. The Red Army hastily prepared for combat operations. On November 27, 1939, V. M. Molotov issued a statement in which he said that “yesterday, November 26, the Finnish White Guard undertook a new heinous provocation by firing artillery fire at a military unit of the Red Army located in the village of Mainila on the Karelian Isthmus.” Disputes over the question of whose side these shots were fired are still ongoing. The Finns already in 1939 tried to prove that the shelling could not have been carried out from their territory, and the whole story with the "Mainil incident" was nothing more than a provocation by Moscow.

November 29, taking advantage of the shelling of their border positions, the USSR terminated the non-aggression pact with Finland. On November 30 hostilities began. On December 1, on Finnish territory, in the city of Terioki (Zelenogorsk), where Soviet troops entered, on the initiative of Moscow, a new "people's government" of Finland was formed, headed by the Finnish communist O. Kuusinen. The next day, an agreement on mutual assistance and friendship was concluded between the USSR and the government of Kuusinen, called the government of the Finnish Democratic Republic.

Events, however, did not develop as well as the Kremlin had hoped. The first stage of the war (November 30, 1939 – February 10, 1940) was especially unfortunate for the Red Army. To a large extent, this was due to the underestimation of the combat capability of the Finnish troops. Break through the Mannerheim Line on the move - a complex of defensive fortifications built in 1927-1939. and stretched along the front for 135 km, and in depth up to 95 km - failed. During the fighting, the Red Army suffered huge losses.

In December 1939, the command stopped unsuccessful attempts to advance deep into Finnish territory. A thorough preparation of a breakthrough began. The North-Western Front was formed, headed by S. K. Timoshenko and a member of the Military Council A. A. Zhdanov. The front included two armies, headed by K. A. Meretskov and V. D. Grendal (replaced in early March 1940 by F. A. Parusinov). The total number of Soviet troops was increased by 1.4 times and brought up to 760 thousand people.

Finland also strengthened its army, receiving military equipment and equipment from abroad. 11,500 volunteers arrived from Scandinavia, the USA and other countries to fight the Soviets. England and France developed their plans for military operations, intending to enter the war on the side of Finland. London and Paris made no secret of their hostile plans towards the USSR.

On February 11, 1940, the final stage of the war began. Soviet troops went on the offensive and broke through the Mannerheim Line. The main forces of the Karelian Army of Finland were defeated. On March 12, after short negotiations, a peace treaty was concluded in the Kremlin. Military operations along the entire front ceased from 12 o'clock on March 13. In accordance with the signed agreement, the Karelian Isthmus, the western and northern shores of Lake Ladoga, and a number of islands in the Gulf of Finland were included in the USSR. The Soviet Union received a 30-year lease on the Hanko peninsula to create a naval base on it, "capable of defending the entrance to the Gulf of Finland from aggression."

The price of victory in the "winter war" was extremely high. In addition to the fact that the Soviet Union as an "aggressor state" was expelled from the League of Nations, during the 105 days of the war, the Red Army lost at least 127 thousand people killed, died of wounds and missing. About 250,000 servicemen were wounded, frostbite, shell-shocked.

The "Winter War" demonstrated major miscalculations in the organization and training of the Red Army troops. Hitler, who closely followed the course of events in Finland, formulated the conclusion that the Red Army was a "colossus with feet of clay" that the Wehrmacht could easily cope with. Certain conclusions from the military campaign of 1939-1940. made in the Kremlin. So, K. E. Voroshilov was replaced by S. M. Timoshenko as People's Commissar of Defense. The implementation of a set of measures aimed at strengthening the defense capability of the USSR began.

However, during the "winter war" and after its end, no significant strengthening of security was achieved in the northwest. Although the border was moved away from Leningrad and the Murmansk railway, this did not prevent Leningrad from being blockaded during the Great Patriotic War. In addition, Finland did not become a friendly or at least neutral country to the USSR - revanchist elements prevailed in its leadership, which relied on the support of Nazi Germany.

I.S. Ratkovsky, M.V. Khodyakov. History of Soviet Russia

LOOK POET

From a shabby notebook

Two lines about a boy fighter

What was in the fortieth year

Killed in Finland on the ice.

Lying somehow clumsily

Childishly small body.

Frost pressed the overcoat to the ice,

The hat flew off.

It seemed that the boy was not lying,

And still running

Yes, the ice held the floor ...

In the midst of a great war cruel,

From what - I will not apply my mind,

I feel sorry for that distant fate,

As if dead, alone

Like I'm lying

Frozen, small, dead

In that war, not famous,

Forgotten, small, lying.

A.T. Tvardovsky. Two lines.

NO MOLOTOV!

With a cheerful song, Ivan goes to war,

but, resting against the Mannerheim line,

he starts to sing a sad song,

How do we hear it now?

Finland, Finland,

Ivan is on his way there again.

Since Molotov promised that everything would be fine

and tomorrow they will be eating ice cream in Helsinki.

No, Molotov! No, Molotov!

Finland, Finland,

the Mannerheim line is a serious obstacle,

and when a terrible artillery fire began from Karelia

he silenced many Ivans.

No, Molotov! No, Molotov!

You lie even more than Bobrikov!

Finland, Finland,

feared by the invincible Red Army.

Molotov already said to look after a dacha,

otherwise the Chukhons are threatening to capture us.

No, Molotov! No, Molotov!

You lie even more than Bobrikov!

Go for the Urals, go for the Urals

there is plenty of room for a Molotov dacha.

We will send the Stalins and their henchmen there,

political officers, commissars and Petrozavodsk swindlers.

No, Molotov! No, Molotov!

You lie even more than Bobrikov!

MANNERHEIM LINE: MYTH OR REALITY?

Good form for supporters of the theory of a strong Red Army that broke into an impregnable line of defense has always been to quote General Badu, who was building the "Mannerheim Line". He wrote: “Nowhere in the world were natural conditions so favorable for the construction of fortified lines as in Karelia. In this narrow place between two bodies of water - Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland - there are impenetrable forests and huge rocks. From wood and granite, and where necessary - from concrete, the famous "Mannerheim Line" was built. The greatest fortress of the "Mannerheim Line" is given by anti-tank obstacles made in granite. Even twenty-five-ton tanks cannot overcome them. In granite, the Finns, with the help of explosions, equipped machine-gun and gun nests, which are not afraid of the most powerful bombs. Where there was not enough granite, the Finns did not spare concrete.”

In general, reading these lines, a person who imagines the real "Mannerheim line" will be terribly surprised. In the description of Badu, some gloomy granite cliffs with gun emplacements carved into them at a dizzying height, over which vultures circle in anticipation of mountains of corpses of the attackers, rise before their eyes. The description of Badu actually fits rather to the Czech fortifications on the border with Germany. The Karelian Isthmus is a relatively flat area, and there is no need to cut into the rocks, simply due to the absence of the rocks themselves. But one way or another, the image of an impregnable castle was created in the mass consciousness and entrenched in it quite firmly.

In fact, the "Mannerheim Line" was far from the best examples of European fortification. The vast majority of the long-term structures of the Finns were one-story, partially buried reinforced concrete buildings in the form of a bunker, divided into several rooms by internal partitions with armored doors. Three pillboxes of the “millionth” type had two levels, three more pillboxes had three levels. Let me emphasize, exactly the level. That is, their combat casemates and shelters were located at different levels relative to the surface, casemates slightly buried in the ground with embrasures and completely buried galleries connecting them with barracks. Structures with what can be called floors were negligible. One under the other - such an arrangement - small casemates directly above the premises of the lower tier were only in two pillboxes (Sk-10 and Sj-5) and a gun casemate in Patoniemi. This is, to put it mildly, unimpressive. Even if we do not take into account the impressive structures of the "Maginot Line", you can find many examples of much more advanced bunkers ...

The survivability of the gouge was designed for tanks of the Renault type, which were in service with Finland, and did not meet modern requirements. Contrary to Badu's claims, Finnish anti-tank gouges showed during the war their low resistance to attacks by T-28 medium tanks. But it was not even about the quality of the Mannerheim Line structures. Any defensive line is characterized by the number of long-term firing structures (DOS) per kilometer. In total, there were 214 long-term structures on the Mannerheim Line for 140 km, of which 134 were machine-gun or artillery DOS. Directly on the front line in the zone of combat contact in the period from mid-December 1939 to mid-February 1940 there were 55 pillboxes, 14 shelters and 3 infantry positions, of which about half were obsolete structures of the first period of construction. For comparison, the "Maginot Line" had about 5,800 DOS in 300 defense nodes and a length of 400 km (density 14 DOS / km), the "Siegfried Line" - 16,000 fortifications (weaker than French ones) on a front of 500 km (density - 32 structures on km) ... And the “Mannerheim Line” is 214 DOS (of which only 8 artillery) on a front of 140 km (average density 1.5 DOS / km, in some areas - up to 3-6 DOS / km).

________________________________________ ______

In Russian historiography, the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, or, as it is called in the West, the Winter War, was actually forgotten for many years. This was facilitated by its not too successful results, and a kind of “political correctness” practiced in our country. Official Soviet propaganda was more than afraid to offend any of the "friends", and after the Great Patriotic War Finland was considered an ally of the USSR.

Over the past 15 years, the situation has changed radically. Contrary to the well-known words of A. T. Tvardovsky about the “unknown war”, today this war is very “famous”. One after another, books dedicated to her are published, not to mention the many articles in various magazines and collections. Here are just a "celebrity" this is very peculiar. The authors, who made it their profession to denounce the Soviet "evil empire", cite in their publications an absolutely fantastic ratio of our and Finnish losses. Any reasonable reasons for the actions of the USSR are completely denied ...

By the end of the 1930s, there was a state clearly unfriendly to us near the northwestern borders of the Soviet Union. It is very significant that even before the start of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. The identification mark of the Finnish Air Force and tank troops was a blue swastika. Those who say that it was Stalin who, by his actions, pushed Finland into the Nazi camp, prefer not to remember this. As well as why the peaceful Suomi needed a network of military airfields built by the beginning of 1939 with the help of German specialists, capable of receiving 10 times more aircraft than the Finnish Air Force had. However, in Helsinki they were ready to fight against us both in alliance with Germany and Japan, and in alliance with England and France.

Seeing the approach of a new world conflict, the leadership of the USSR sought to secure the border near the second largest and most important city in the country. Back in March 1939, Soviet diplomacy probed the issue of transferring or leasing a number of islands in the Gulf of Finland, but in Helsinki they answered with a categorical refusal.

The accusers of the “crimes of the Stalinist regime” like to rant about the fact that Finland is a sovereign country that controls its own territory, and therefore, they say, it was not at all obliged to agree to an exchange. In this regard, we can recall the events that took place two decades later. When Soviet missiles began to be deployed in Cuba in 1962, the Americans had no legal basis to impose a naval blockade of the Island of Freedom, much less to launch a military strike on it. Both Cuba and the USSR are sovereign countries, the deployment of Soviet nuclear weapons concerned only them and fully complied with the norms of international law. Nevertheless, the US was ready to start World War 3 if the missiles were not removed. There is such a thing as a "sphere of vital interests." For our country in 1939, such a sphere included the Gulf of Finland and the Karelian Isthmus. Even the former leader of the Kadet Party, P. N. Milyukov, who was by no means sympathetic to the Soviet regime, in a letter to I. P. Demidov expressed the following attitude towards the outbreak of war with Finland: “I feel sorry for the Finns, but I am for the Vyborg province.”

On November 26, a well-known incident occurred near the village of Mainila. According to the official Soviet version, at 15:45 Finnish artillery shelled our territory, as a result of which 4 Soviet servicemen were killed and 9 wounded. Today it is considered good form to interpret this event as the work of the NKVD. The Finnish side's allegations that their artillery was deployed at such a distance that its fire could not reach the border are taken as indisputable. Meanwhile, according to Soviet documentary sources, one of the Finnish batteries was located in the Jaappinen area (5 km from Mainila). However, whoever organized the provocation at Mainila, it was used by the Soviet side as a pretext for war. On November 28, the government of the USSR denounced the Soviet-Finnish non-aggression pact and recalled its diplomatic representatives from Finland. On November 30, hostilities began.

I will not describe in detail the course of the war, since there are already enough publications on this topic. Its first stage, which lasted until the end of December 1939, was generally unsuccessful for the Red Army. On the Karelian Isthmus, Soviet troops, having overcome the forefield of the Mannerheim Line, reached its main defensive zone on December 4-10. However, attempts to break it were unsuccessful. After bloody battles, the parties switched to positional struggle.

What are the reasons for the failures of the initial period of the war? First of all, in underestimating the enemy. Finland mobilized in advance, increasing the size of its Armed Forces from 37 to 337 thousand (459). Finnish troops were deployed in the border zone, the main forces occupied defensive lines on the Karelian Isthmus and even managed to carry out full-scale maneuvers at the end of October 1939.

Soviet intelligence was also not up to par, which could not reveal complete and reliable information about the Finnish fortifications.

Finally, the Soviet leadership harbored unfounded hopes for the "class solidarity of the Finnish working people." It was widely believed that the population of the countries that had entered the war against the USSR would almost immediately "revolt and go over to the side of the Red Army", that the workers and peasants would come out to greet the Soviet soldiers with flowers.

As a result, the proper number of troops was not allocated for combat operations and, accordingly, the necessary superiority in forces was not ensured. So, on the Karelian Isthmus, which was the most important sector of the front, the Finnish side had in December 1939 6 infantry divisions, 4 infantry brigades, 1 cavalry brigade and 10 separate battalions - a total of 80 settlement battalions. On the Soviet side, they were opposed by 9 rifle divisions, 1 rifle and machine gun brigade and 6 tank brigades - a total of 84 calculated rifle battalions. If we compare the number of personnel, then the Finnish troops on the Karelian Isthmus numbered 130 thousand, the Soviet - 169 thousand people. In general, 425 thousand soldiers of the Red Army acted along the entire front against 265 thousand Finnish troops.

Defeat or victory?

So, let's sum up the results of the Soviet-Finnish conflict. As a rule, such a war is considered won, as a result of which the winner is in a better position than he was before the war. What do we see from this point of view?

As we have already seen, by the end of the 1930s, Finland was a country that was clearly unfriendly to the USSR and ready to enter into an alliance with any of our enemies. So in this regard, the situation has not worsened at all. On the other hand, it is known that an unbelted hooligan understands only the language of brute force and begins to respect the one who managed to beat him. Finland was no exception. On May 22, 1940, the Society for Peace and Friendship with the USSR was established there. Despite the persecution of the Finnish authorities, by the time it was banned in December of that year, it had 40,000 members. Such a mass character indicates that not only supporters of the communists joined the Society, but also simply sane people who believed that it was better to maintain normal relations with a great neighbor.

According to the Moscow Treaty, the USSR received new territories, as well as a naval base on the Hanko Peninsula. This is a clear plus. After the start of the Great Patriotic War, Finnish troops were able to reach the line of the old state border only by September 1941.

It should be noted that if during the negotiations in October-November 1939 the Soviet Union asked for less than 3 thousand square meters. km, and even in exchange for twice the territory, then as a result of the war he acquired about 40 thousand square meters. km without giving anything in return.

It should also be taken into account that in the pre-war negotiations, the USSR, in addition to territorial compensation, offered to reimburse the value of the property left by the Finns. According to the calculations of the Finnish side, even in the case of the transfer of a small piece of land, which she agreed to cede to us, it was about 800 million marks. If it came to the cession of the entire Karelian Isthmus, the bill would have gone to many billions.

But now, when on March 10, 1940, on the eve of the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty, Paasikivi started talking about compensation for the transferred territory, remembering that Peter I paid Sweden 2 million thalers in the Nystadt peace, Molotov could calmly answer: “Write a letter to Peter the Great. If he orders, we will pay compensation.”.

Moreover, the USSR demanded an amount of 95 million rubles. as compensation for equipment removed from the occupied territory and damage to property. Finland also had to transfer to the USSR 350 sea and river vehicles, 76 locomotives, 2 thousand wagons, a significant number of cars.

Of course, during the hostilities, the Soviet Armed Forces suffered significantly greater losses than the enemy. According to the name lists, in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. 126,875 soldiers of the Red Army were killed, died or went missing. The losses of the Finnish troops amounted, according to official figures, to 21,396 killed and 1,434 missing. However, another figure of Finnish losses is often found in Russian literature - 48,243 killed, 43,000 wounded.

Be that as it may, Soviet losses are several times higher than Finnish ones. This ratio is not surprising. Take, for example, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. If we consider the fighting in Manchuria, the losses of both sides are approximately the same. Moreover, often the Russians lost more than the Japanese. However, during the assault on the fortress of Port Arthur, the losses of the Japanese far exceeded the Russian losses. It would seem that the same Russian and Japanese soldiers fought here and there, why is there such a difference? The answer is obvious: if in Manchuria the parties fought in an open field, then in Port Arthur our troops defended a fortress, even if it was unfinished. It is quite natural that the attackers suffered much higher losses. The same situation developed during the Soviet-Finnish war, when our troops had to storm the Mannerheim Line, and even in winter conditions.

As a result, the Soviet troops gained invaluable combat experience, and the command of the Red Army got a reason to think about the shortcomings in the training of troops and about urgent measures to increase the combat capability of the army and navy.

Speaking in parliament on March 19, 1940, Daladier declared that for France “The Moscow Peace Treaty is a tragic and shameful event. For Russia, this is a great victory.”. However, do not go to extremes, as some authors do. Not very big. But still a victory.

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1. Parts of the Red Army cross the bridge to the territory of Finland. 1939

2. Soviet fighter guarding a minefield in the area of ​​the former Finnish border outpost. 1939

3. Artillery crew at their guns in a firing position. 1939

4. Major Volin V.S. and boatswain Kapustin I.V., who landed with a landing force on the island of Seiskaari, to inspect the coast of the island. Baltic Fleet. 1939

5. The soldiers of the rifle unit are attacking from the forest. Karelian isthmus. 1939

6. Outfit of border guards on patrol. Karelian isthmus. 1939

7. Border guard Zolotukhin at the post at the outpost of the Finns Beloostrov. 1939

8. Sappers on the construction of a bridge near the Finnish border outpost Japinen. 1939

9. Fighters deliver ammunition to the front line. Karelian isthmus. 1939

10. Soldiers of the 7th Army are firing at the enemy with rifles. Karelian isthmus. 1939

11. The reconnaissance group of skiers receives the task of the commander before leaving for reconnaissance. 1939

12. Horse artillery on the march. Vyborgsky district. 1939

13. Fighters-skiers on a hike. 1940

14. Red Army soldiers in combat positions in the combat area with the Finns. Vyborgsky district. 1940

15. Fighters for cooking in the woods at the stake in between fights. 1939

16. Cooking lunch in the field at a temperature of 40 degrees below zero. 1940

17. Anti-aircraft guns in position. 1940

18. Signalers for the restoration of the telegraph line, destroyed by the Finns during the retreat. Karelian isthmus. 1939

19. Fighters - signalmen restore the telegraph line, destroyed by the Finns in Terioki. 1939

20. View of the railway bridge blown up by the Finns at Terioki station. 1939

21. Soldiers and commanders talk with the inhabitants of Terioki. 1939

22. Signalers on the negotiating front line in the area of ​​Kemyar station. 1940

23. Rest of the Red Army after the battle in the Kemerya area. 1940

24. A group of commanders and soldiers of the Red Army is listening to a radio broadcast at a radio horn on one of the streets of Terioki. 1939

25. View of the Suoyarva station, taken by the Red Army. 1939

26. Soldiers of the Red Army are guarding a gas station in the town of Raivola. Karelian isthmus. 1939

27. General view of the destroyed Mannerheim Fortification Line. 1939

28. General view of the destroyed Mannerheim Fortification Line. 1939

29. A rally in one of the military units after the breakthrough of the "Mannerheim Line" during the Soviet-Finnish conflict. February 1940

30. General view of the destroyed Mannerheim Fortification Line. 1939

31. Sappers for the repair of the bridge in the Boboshino area. 1939

32. A Red Army soldier lowers a letter into a field mail box. 1939

33. A group of Soviet commanders and fighters inspects the banner of Shutskor recaptured from the Finns. 1939

34. Howitzer B-4 on the front line. 1939

35. General view of the Finnish fortifications at a height of 65.5. 1940

36. View of one of the streets of Koivisto, taken by the Red Army. 1939

37. View of the destroyed bridge near the town of Koivisto, taken by the Red Army. 1939

38. A group of captured Finnish soldiers. 1940

39. Red Army soldiers at the captured guns left after the battles with the Finns. Vyborgsky district. 1940

40. Trophy ammunition depot. 1940

41. Remote-controlled tank TT-26 (217th separate tank battalion of the 30th chemical tank brigade), February 1940.

42. Soviet soldiers on a pillbox taken on the Karelian Isthmus. 1940

43. Parts of the Red Army enter the liberated city of Vyborg. 1940

44. Soldiers of the Red Army on the fortifications in the city of Vyborg. 1940

45. The ruins of the city of Vyborg after the fighting. 1940

46. ​​Soldiers of the Red Army clear the streets of the liberated city of Vyborg from snow. 1940

47. Icebreaking ship "Dezhnev" during the transfer of troops from Arkhangelsk to Kandalaksha. 1940

48. Soviet skiers move to the forefront. Winter 1939-1940.

49. Soviet attack aircraft I-15bis taxis to take off before a sortie during the Soviet-Finnish war.

50. Finnish Foreign Minister Weine Tanner speaks on the radio with a message about the end of the Soviet-Finnish war. 03/13/1940

51. The crossing of the Finnish border by Soviet units near the village of Hautavaara. November 30, 1939

52. Finnish prisoners are talking with a Soviet political worker. The picture was taken in the Gryazovets camp of the NKVD. 1939-1940

53. Soviet soldiers are talking with one of the first Finnish prisoners of war. November 30, 1939

54. Finnish aircraft Fokker C.X. shot down by Soviet fighters on the Karelian Isthmus. December 1939

55. Hero of the Soviet Union, platoon commander of the 7th pontoon-bridge battalion of the 7th Army, Junior Lieutenant Pavel Vasilyevich Usov (right) unloads a mine.

56. The calculation of the Soviet 203-mm howitzer B-4 fires at the Finnish fortifications. December 2, 1939

57. The commanders of the Red Army are considering the captured Finnish tank Vickers Mk.E. March 1940

58. Hero of the Soviet Union Senior Lieutenant Vladimir Mikhailovich Kurochkin (1913-1941) at the I-16 fighter. 1940