Spirit of the Winter War

The Spirit of Winter War (Finnish: Talvisodan henki) is the national unity which is credited with having saved Finland from disintegrating along class and ideological lines under the Soviet invasion during the Winter War of November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940.

"The Spirit of Winter War" is significant because it demonstrated that Finnish society had partially healed after the Finnish Civil War of 1918, one of the bloodiest civil wars in European history. After the civil war, legislation and the democratic political process helped to decrease the gaps (in income and other aspects) between different classes of society. During the 1920s and 1930s the Social Democrats had participated in several governments, including the government in power in November 1939.

After the Winter War began, Joseph Stalin set a puppet regime in Terijoki in hopes that Finnish workers would join and assist the Soviet invasion. However, this Terijoki Government, led by a communist leader of the civil war, Otto Wille Kuusinen, received no sympathy from the Finnish labour movement.

Within Finnish society, the international political calculations of both the upper class and the working class had just been upset by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on August 23, 1939. Prior to this act of alliance, many upper and middle class Finns had believed that Germany would eventually aid Finland against the Soviet Union as Imperial Germany had done in 1915–1918, while many workers believed that the Soviet Union was a guarantee for peace and a force against the Third Reich. Now, the socialists witnessed Soviet Union invading Poland instead of fighting against the Third Reich. Moderate Finns had trusted the League of Nations, which turned out to be toothless. So on the eve of war, there was very little trust left in any foreign power—be it socialist internationalism, German military, or help from the western European countries.

During the Winter War in January 1940 the Association of Finnish Industries acknowledged the trade unions as negotiation partners for collective agreements regarding labour. This declaration is referred to as the Betrothal of January.

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