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Winter War
Part of World War II
Winter war.jpg
A Finnish machine gun crew during the Winter War
Date 30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940
Location
Eastern Finland
Territorial
changes		 Cession of the Gulf of Finland islands, Karelian Isthmus, Ladoga Karelia, Salla, and Rybachy Peninsula, and rental of Hanko to the Soviet Union
Belligerents
 Finland
Foreign volunteers		  Soviet Union
Flag of Finland.svg Finnish Democratic Republic (A puppet state. Recognized only by USSR.)
Commanders and leaders
Finland Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Soviet Union Joseph Stalin
Soviet Union Kirill Meretskov
Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov
Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko
Finland Otto Wille Kuusinen
Strength
337,000–346,500 men
32 tanks
114 aircraft

425,640–760,578 men
998,100 men (overall)

2,514–6,541 tanks
3,880 aircraft
Casualties and losses
25,904 dead or missing
43,557 wounded
1,000 captured
957 civilians in air raids
20–30 tanks
62 aircraft
70,000 total casualties		 126,875 dead or missing
188,671 wounded, injured or burned
5,572 captured
3,543 tanks
261–515 aircraft
323,000 total casualties

The Winter War (30 November 1939 - 13 March 1940) was a conflict fought between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began when the Soviet Union tried to invade Finland soon after the Invasion of Poland. The Soviet military forces expected a victory over Finland in a few weeks, because the Soviet army had many more tanks and planes than the Finnish army.

However, the Finnish forces resisted both better and longer than expected. One reason the Finnish forces did better is because they had good winter clothes and they wore white coats which camouflaged them in the snow. As well, the Finnish soldiers moved around on skis, which made it easy for them to sneak up on the Soviet soldiers. The Soviet army did not have good winter clothes, and they wore dark green coats, which made them easy to see in the snow.

The defeated Finns had to give up 11% of their country. They tried to get it back in the Continuation War.

Finn ski troops
Finnish ski troops

Related pages


Images for kids

  • Soviet-finnish-nonaggression-pact (protokol 1934)

    The non-aggression pact signed by Aarno Yrjö-Koskinen and Maxim Litvinov, Moscow, 1932

  • A picture of Rybachy Peninsula on a partly cloudy July day. The Soviet Union demanded that Finland cede the peninsula, its northernmost point at the time, along with other areas. The sun is either rising or setting and shines on the long grass at an angle. A body of water, the Barents Sea, fills a quarter of the picture. A gravel road leads to a lone house in the distance.

    Rybachy Peninsula in 2008. The Soviet Union demanded that the peninsula, the northernmost point of Finland at the time, be ceded along with other areas to protect Soviet assets.

  • During additional refresher training, a Finnish soldier is having his breakfast served into a mess kit by another soldier from a steaming field kitchen in the forests of the Karelian Isthmus. More soldiers, two of them visible, are waiting in line for their turn behind him. It is early October and the snow has not set in yet.

    Finnish soldiers gathering breakfast from a field kitchen during "additional refresher training" at the Karelian Isthmus on 10 October 1939

  • Press at Mainila

    29 November 1939, foreign press at Mainila, where a border incident between Finland and the Soviet Union escalated into the Winter War

  • Ladoga Karelia terrain

    Dense forests of Ladoga Karelia at Kollaa. A Soviet tank on the road in the background according to the photographer.

  • Soviet tracks during chase

    Soviet tracks at Kianta Lake, Suomussalmi during a Finnish pursuit in December 1939. Nordic combined skier Timo Murama is pictured.

  • T-26 at Kollaa

    Soviet T-26 Model 1937 "advancing aggressively", as described by the photographer, on the eastern side of Kollaa River during the battle of Kollaa

  • Soviet POWs

    Soviet prisoners of war dressed with new clothes near the Arctic Circle at Rovaniemi in January 1940

  • Four Finnish officers in uniform are sitting and reading Soviet skiing manuals with relaxed looks on their faces. A pile of the books is in front of them on a table and a large drape of Joseph Stalin hangs above their heads on the wall.

    Finnish officers inspecting Soviet skiing manuals gained as loot from the Battle of Suomussalmi

  • Маршал Тимошенко 1940 01

    Soviet commander Semyon Timoshenko in 1940

  • Retreating Finns at Vyborg

    11:45 a.m. on 13 March 1940. Finnish soldiers retreating at Viipuri to the demarcation line.

  • A drawing shows that the Finns ceded a small part of Rybachy Peninsula and part of Salla in the Finnish Lapland; and a part of Karelia and the islands of the Gulf of Finland in the south as well as a lease on the Hanko peninsula in southwestern Finland.

    Finland's territorial concessions to the Soviet Union displayed in red

  • A drawing shows that the Allies had two possible roads into Finland: through Soviet-occupied Petsamo or through Narvik in neutral Norway.

    Franco-British support was offered on the condition their forces could pass freely from Narvik through neutral Norway and Sweden instead of the difficult passage through Soviet-occupied Petsamo

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Guerra de Invierno para niños

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