The Russian invasion of Finland in November 1939 came as a bloody shock to the people of the small Baltic state, not least the government which appeared to have misread Joseph Stalin’s intentions.
The location for this terrible saga lies at the easternmost end of the Baltic Sea, between the Gulf of Finland and the huge Lake Ladoga, this is the rugged and very narrow Karelian Isthmus.
Flying over this territory in a light plane reveals its stark and stern beauty, cut laterally by crisp blue lakes, blanketed in an evergreen forest, stubby grey and reddy grey hills pop up here and there.
There was virtually nothing of value here at least at first, no minerals, very little agriculture as the soils are poor. That was going to change when the Finns discovered large deposits of nickel in the Petsamo region and would hand over mining concessions to the British.
The Russians did not like that one little bit.
But it wasn’t minerals that led to Moscow invading their much smaller neighbour, it was the fear of the Germans. This little bit of land was going to be fought over as it had been so often through history.
The Karelian Isthmus is a land bridge between the seething eastward mass of mother Russia and Asia, and the immensity of the Scandinavian Peninsular that swells downward to the west. It’s like a highway for tribal migration, a route for trade, a channel for cultural movements, and a gateway for conquest.
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The Russian invasion of Finland in November 1939 came as a bloody shock to the people of the small Baltic state, not least the government which appeared to have misread Joseph Stalin’s intentions.
The location for this terrible saga lies at the easternmost end of the Baltic Sea, between the Gulf of Finland and the huge Lake Ladoga, this is the rugged and very narrow Karelian Isthmus.
Flying over this territory in a light plane reveals its stark and stern beauty, cut laterally by crisp blue lakes, blanketed in an evergreen forest, stubby grey and reddy grey hills pop up here and there.
There was virtually nothing of value here at least at first, no minerals, very little agriculture as the soils are poor. That was going to change when the Finns discovered large deposits of nickel in the Petsamo region and would hand over mining concessions to the British.
The Russians did not like that one little bit.
But it wasn’t minerals that led to Moscow invading their much smaller neighbour, it was the fear of the Germans. This little bit of land was going to be fought over as it had been so often through history.
The Karelian Isthmus is a land bridge between the seething eastward mass of mother Russia and Asia, and the immensity of the Scandinavian Peninsular that swells downward to the west. It’s like a highway for tribal migration, a route for trade, a channel for cultural movements, and a gateway for conquest.
Episode 9 - The Russians retrain and we meet “The White Death” sniper Simo Hayha.
The Winter War
13 minutes 2 seconds
1 year ago
Episode 9 - The Russians retrain and we meet “The White Death” sniper Simo Hayha.
This is episode 9 and we’re swinging back to the Karelian Isthmus to focus on what was going on through the third week of January 1940.
Earlier in the month the disgraced Soviet Leningrad Military district was reformed and renamed the Northwestern Front and Stalin installed Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko as the commander. He was a hard man, flinty eyes, shaven head, powerful voice — a tough man for a tough job.
Timoshenko was an idealogue but no fool and agreed to lead the Northwestern Front assaults but only if Stalin agreed that he would not be held personally liable for the coming butcher’s bill. Cracking the Mannerheim Line along the Isthmus was going to be challenging after more than a month of battles had shown the Finns to be more than a match for the Red Army.
Timoshenko’s chief of staff was the architect of the Russian victory over the Japanese in Mongolia, Georgi Zhukov. The Leningrad commander Zhdanov was demoted to political commissar of the campaign, without any operational power at all. He had been roundly defeated by the Finns since the start of the Winter War in November 1939 and now his message to the troops on the frontline changed.
Previously Russian propaganda had centred around the narrative that the Finnish working class needed saving, now Zhdanov was going to focus on Russian patriotism and pride instead of the drum-beat of party slogans.
The country had been shamed in the eyes of the world and needed to redeem itself and the Northwestern Front fighters were going to be at the forefront of this reformed war. When the Red Army returned to the Mannerheim line in early February the men were going to be shouting “For the glory of the Fatherland” not “For Stalin”.
While things were looking ominous, there was much for the Finns to savour. One of these was the extraordinary Simo Hayha, the White Death as he became known.
He was a sniper, some say the most lethal sniper to have ever lived. He served with the 6th Company 34th infantry regiment and was based on the Kollaa Front.
Hayha’s confirmed kills of 542 Russians in the space of 100 days has never been eclipsed. He passed the rest of his life hunting and farming, and the White Death died in April 2002 at the age of 97.
The Winter War
The Russian invasion of Finland in November 1939 came as a bloody shock to the people of the small Baltic state, not least the government which appeared to have misread Joseph Stalin’s intentions.
The location for this terrible saga lies at the easternmost end of the Baltic Sea, between the Gulf of Finland and the huge Lake Ladoga, this is the rugged and very narrow Karelian Isthmus.
Flying over this territory in a light plane reveals its stark and stern beauty, cut laterally by crisp blue lakes, blanketed in an evergreen forest, stubby grey and reddy grey hills pop up here and there.
There was virtually nothing of value here at least at first, no minerals, very little agriculture as the soils are poor. That was going to change when the Finns discovered large deposits of nickel in the Petsamo region and would hand over mining concessions to the British.
The Russians did not like that one little bit.
But it wasn’t minerals that led to Moscow invading their much smaller neighbour, it was the fear of the Germans. This little bit of land was going to be fought over as it had been so often through history.
The Karelian Isthmus is a land bridge between the seething eastward mass of mother Russia and Asia, and the immensity of the Scandinavian Peninsular that swells downward to the west. It’s like a highway for tribal migration, a route for trade, a channel for cultural movements, and a gateway for conquest.
