Soviet-Finnish War

Winter War
Part of World War II
A Finnish machine gun crew during the Winter War
Date 30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940 (3 months, 1 week and 5 days) Location Eastern Finland Result Moscow Peace Treaty Finnish independence protected from Soviet annexation plans Finnish border areas annexed Heavy Soviet military losses; international reputation damaged Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations Hostilities renewed in the Continuation War Territorial changes Cession of the Gulf of Finland islands, Karelian Isthmus, Ladoga Karelia, Salla, and Rybachy Peninsula, and lease of Hanko to the Soviet Union
Belligerents
Soviet Union	Finland Foreign volunteers
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Stalin Kirill Meretskov Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko	Kyösti Kallio Risto Ryti Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Strength
28–58 divisions 425,640 to 760,578 men 1500+ armoured cars. 998,100 men (overall) 2,514–6,541 tanks 3,880 aircraft	250,000–340,000 men 32 tanks 114 aircraft
Casualties and losses
126,875–167,976 dead or missing 188,671 wounded, concussed or burned 5,572 captured 3,543 tanks 261–515 aircraft 321,000-363,000 total casualties	25,904 dead or missing 43,557 wounded 800–1,100 captured 957 civilians killed in air raids 20–30 tanks destroyed 62 aircraft lost 70,000 total casualties

 Finland

The Winter War (Finnish: talvisota, Swedish: vinterkriget, Russian: Зи́мняя война́, tr. Zimnyaya voyna) was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939 (three months after the outbreak of World War II), and ended with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League on 14 December 1939.

The Soviet Union ostensibly sought to claim parts of Finnish territory, demanding—amongst other concessions—that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons, primarily the protection of Leningrad, which was only 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. (Though the border that was "only 32 km (20 mi)" from Leningrad was the end of a narrow finger of coastline about 15 km (9.3 mi) long by 5 km (3.1 mi) wide; most of the Finnish border was more than 50 km (31 mi) from Leningrad.) Finland refused and the USSR invaded the country. Many sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and use the establishment of the puppet Finnish Communist government and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols as proof of this, while other sources argue against the idea of a full Soviet conquest.

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