The Winter War of 1939-1940

About the project

The aim of the Project Winter War is to collect those who fought in the war, died in the war (including civilians, and merchant navy) under one umbrella. In total, 26,000+ Finns died (soldiers, civilians, merchant navy) during the Winter War. In order for this Project to succeed as well as possible, we also try to improve the quality of the profiles in Geni. We recommend the following practice:

1. When you add a profile into the project, please make sure that it becomes clear to all the Geni users how a given profile is affiliated with The Winter War. Add the information if necessary. Also, please consider that, if necessary, you would consider the individual profiles in the project to the following projects: Killed in Action, Killed from War Wounds and/or Died as a Prisoner of War.

2. If a person is found in the archives of the database deceased in the three wars 1939-1945, Deceased in the wars of finland 1939-1945 or if there is a base card for him (her) in the digi archives of the nat'l archives collection Kantakortit I-sarjan arkistoyksiköt Cards, please link your profiles to the archives as well. In addition, if you should want to link a profile of a given person to his Geni profile, please feel free to do that. Additionally, if you want to link the person to the databases in Sotapolku (War Path) and Sotasampo.

On the Winter War

The Winter War was a war which has reached legendary proportions. And the Winter War is still subject to an increasing amount of literature, YouTube clips, and what-have-you. These are regarding the war itself, as well as some individuals who scored the title of "badass." Simo Häyhä, aka. The White Death, being probably the most famous / infamous of them.

The groundwork for The Winter War was probably laid on 1917 when Finland, then an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia, claimed her independence in 1917. Also, the civil war between the Whites and the Reds, which followed the next year, in 1918 contributed to this.

Finland has, often times, and erroneously, been accused of siding with Hitler. Only Hitler had allied Germany with Stalin with Soviet Union. In the secret minutes of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact Eastern Europe were divided to the spheres of interest and, according to the pact, Finland was classified to belong to the Soviet sphere of interest. As a consequence, the Soviet Union started harassing Finland with demands, mostly regarding geographic areas down in the Karelian Isthmus (below in green), islands on the Bay of Finland in the Baltic Ocean, as well as a naval base in the tip of the Finland, in Hanko.

Unlike the other Baltic states, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Finland thanked the Soviets "No", and the last time Stalin heard this, he has been said to be in a jolly, jovial mood, and wished Finland all the best.

On November the 30th 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland without declaring with full force via the war on land, sea and air.

Soviet armies during the beginning of the Winter War.

In the picture above, there is a sketch of the Soviet invasion at the beginning of the Winter War. Or, how the Soviets figured it would go down. The Soviets entertained an idea of a swift victory, two weeks or so, and sent four armies (21 divisions, around 500,000 men) across the the border, and while the Finnish Intel has been ridiculously sly, and the commander-in-chief, Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, a former Tsar's General very familiar with the Russian mindset, attacks north of the Lake Ladoga were really not expected. But the stupidity of a full frontal attack did not stop the Soviets.

In the picture, down on the Karelian Isthmus (green), at the beginning of the war the 7th Army attacked. In terms of the terrain, only down there one can hope to score using a Blitzkrieg. In the medial parts of Finland, north of Lake Ladoga (blue in the figure), the 8th Army and the 9th Army were supposed to cut Finland in half, and up north, the 14th Army was supposed to make it's way via Lapland and towards Oulu. And one should not forget that at the time, the population of Finland was roughly four million. The same as the population of Leningrad. And against a scarce number of population, in terms of the land, Finland is vast and, in Europe, the population density is still the third lowest (after Iceland and Norway).

Things didn't take place quite as the Soviets expected. The commander-in-chief of the Red Army Kliment Voroshilov had the commander of the Armies, Kilill Meretskov demoted to lead just the 7th Army, tossed in an another Army (13th) on the Karelian Isthmus, the commander of which was a Finn, Vladimir Grönhdahl. And Meretskov was replaced by Semjon Timošenko. This was done while the Russian Armies regrouped, and reloaded.

After a sort of quiet period of few weeks the Soviets attacked by using sheer and brute force, no matter what the cost. By the end of the war, the Soviets had hauled five Armies and 61 divisions to attack Finland but to no avail. After just a tad over three months, 105 days. The war ended March 13th, 1940.

The Finns were on their dire straits, and Stalin - whose Invincible Red Army, the largest army in the world, had become a laughing stock in the eyes of the world - wanted out, too. The situation ended in a stalemate but the peace terms dictated Finland had to give about 10% of her land, most of it in the densely populated Karelian Isthmus, which was home to some 400,000 people none of whom stayed there. By the end of the war there were two Armies on the Isthmus (7th and 13th) and the 8th and 9th Armies north of Lake Ladoga (blue on the map) had been pretty much wiped out by mere guerrilla tactics, and the faith of the 14th Army is a bit of a mystery. Finland had just some border patrols and Swedish volunteers up north to fight the entire 14th Army. But the divisions of the 14th Army just halted. "We had no orders." They didn't want to end up in the Frozen Hell, colder than their own. And so much more red than theirs.

Outcome of the Winter War.

In Russia the Winter War, traditionally, has to the date been referred to as "a border incident" although as much as 1,000,000 Russians might lost their lives during the war which only lasted for mere 105 days. The real number of the Russian casualties is not likely to ever surface. But after the war, even Molotov had to provide a conservative number of 48,000 casualties. However, in his memoirs, Nikita Khruschev (Khruschev Remembers, 1970), then the party leader, that "1.5 million men were sent to Finland and one million of them were killed, while 1,000 aircraft, 2,300 tanks and armored cars and an enormous amount of other war materials were lost."

He would later, exceptional to a Soviet leader confess: "In our war against the Finns we could choose the location of the war and the date of its start. In number we were superior to the enemy, we had enough time to get ready for the operation. But on these most favorable terms we could only win through huge difficulties and incredibly great losses. In fact this victory was a moral defeat. Our people certainly never got knowledge of it because we never told them the truth."

Links:

The Winter War: The War That Became a Meme.

The Winter War on the Discovery Channel.

Simo Häyhä, the Deadliest Sniper in the World, Ever...

Finland Fights!: American news footage.

Motti tactics.

The Winter War: A Soviet Failure.

The Top 10 Ways That Finland Fought Off Soviet Domination

Mannerheim and the Main Defense (Mannerheim) Line

Suomi SMG.

Winter War: The Battle of Raate Road.

Stalin is still amused.

Thanks for the symphaties, but fan mail does not stop bullets.

Maybe a brick?

USA to the rescue! Wheat? Well, flour is a kinda sorta form of a powder.

Talvisota 1939-1940

Projektin tarkoituksena on koota yhteen talvisodan taisteluihin ja muihin suoriin sotatoimiin osallistuneiden, sankarivainajien ja siviiliuhrien profiilit Genissä.

Jotta projektimme onnistuisi omalta osaltaan edistämään myös profiilien laadun kehittämistä Genissä, suosittelemme seuraavaa käytäntöä:

1. Kun liität henkilön profiilin tähän projektiin, tarkista, että profiilista ilmenee muillekin Genin käyttäjille, miten henkilö liittyy talvisotaan. Täydennä tiedot tarvittaessa.
2. Jos henkilö löytyy Kansallisarkiston Suomen sodissa 1939-1945 menehtyneet -tietokannasta tai hänelle löytyy kantakortti Kansallisarkistoston Digitaaliarkiston kokoelmasta Kantakortit I -sarjan arkistoyksiköt, lisää hänen Geni-profiiliinsa myös linkit niihin. Halutessasi voit lisätä linkit myös henkilön profiileihin Sotapolku- ja Sotasampo-palveluissa.
3. Sankarivainajan kyseessä ollessa harkitse, että tarvittaessa liität profiilin projekteihin Sodassa kaatuneet, Sodan aiheuttamiin vammoihin kuolleet ja/tai Sotavankeudessa kuolleet.

Muiden kuin 1939-1945 sodissa menehtyneiden kantakortteja saa toistaiseksi vain tilaamalla. Ohjeet kantakortin tilaamiseen löydät täältä: Näin tilaat kantakortin.

Jos sotilaskantakortin löytymisen jälkeen riittää vielä kiinnostusta, lisää tietoa henkilön sotilaspalveluksen vaiheista löydät Digitaaliarkiston Sotapäiväkirjat -kokoelmasta. Sitä varten tarvitset tiedon milloin ja missä yksikössä henkilö palveli. Tiedot löytyvät joko henkilön kantakortista tai sotilaspassista.

Myös muista lähteistä löytyneet tiedot sekä perimätietona kulkeneet tarinat ovat hyvää sisältöä henkilön profiiliin.

Talvisota Wikipediassa: https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talvisota

Projektin yhteistyökumppanit ovat tervetulleita täydentämään projektikuvausta.

The Winter War of 1939-1940

About the project

The aim of the Project Winter War is to collect those who fought in the war, died in the war (including civilians, and merchant navy) under one umbrella. In total, 26,000+ Finns died (soldiers, civilians, merchant navy) during the Winter War. In order for this Project to succeed as well as possible, we also try to improve the quality of the profiles in Geni. We recommend the following practice:

1. When you add a profile into the project, please make sure that it becomes clear to all the Geni users how a given profile is affiliated with The Winter War. Add the information if necessary. Also, please consider that, if necessary, you would consider the individual profiles in the project to the following projects: Killed in Action, Killed from War Wounds and/or Died as a Prisoner of War.

2. If a person is found in the archives of the database deceased in the three wars 1939-1945, Deceased in the wars of finland 1939-1945 or if there is a base card for him (her) in the digi archives of the nat'l archives collection Kantakortit I-sarjan arkistoyksiköt Cards, please link your profiles to the archives as well. In addition, if you should want to link a profile of a given person to his Geni profile, please feel free to do that. Additionally, if you want to link the person to the databases in Sotapolku (War Path) and Sotasampo.

On the Winter War

The Winter War was a war which has reached legendary proportions. And the Winter War is still subject to an increasing amount of literature, YouTube clips, and what-have-you. These are regarding the war itself, as well as some individuals who scored the title of "badass." Simo Häyhä, aka. The White Death, being probably the most famous / infamous of them.

The groundwork for The Winter War was probably laid on 1917 when Finland, then an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia, claimed her independence in 1917. Also, the civil war between the Whites and the Reds, which followed the next year, in 1918 contributed to this.

Finland has, often times, and erroneously, been accused of siding with Hitler. Only Hitler had allied Germany with Stalin with Soviet Union. In the secret minutes of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact Eastern Europe were divided to the spheres of interest and, according to the pact, Finland was classified to belong to the Soviet sphere of interest. As a consequence, the Soviet Union started harassing Finland with demands, mostly regarding geographic areas down in the Karelian Isthmus (below in green), islands on the Bay of Finland in the Baltic Ocean, as well as a naval base in the tip of the Finland, in Hanko.

Unlike the other Baltic states, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Finland thanked the Soviets "No", and the last time Stalin heard this, he has been said to be in a jolly, jovial mood, and wished Finland all the best.

On November the 30th 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland without declaring with full force via the war on land, sea and air.

Soviet armies during the beginning of the Winter War.

In the picture above, there is a sketch of the Soviet invasion at the beginning of the Winter War. Or, how the Soviets figured it would go down. The Soviets entertained an idea of a swift victory, two weeks or so, and sent four armies (21 divisions, around 500,000 men) across the the border, and while the Finnish Intel has been ridiculously sly, and the commander-in-chief, Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, a former Tsar's General very familiar with the Russian mindset, attacks north of the Lake Ladoga were really not expected. But the stupidity of a full frontal attack did not stop the Soviets.

In the picture, down on the Karelian Isthmus (green), at the beginning of the war the 7th Army attacked. In terms of the terrain, only down there one can hope to score using a Blitzkrieg. In the medial parts of Finland, north of Lake Ladoga (blue in the figure), the 8th Army and the 9th Army were supposed to cut Finland in half, and up north, the 14th Army was supposed to make it's way via Lapland and towards Oulu. And one should not forget that at the time, the population of Finland was roughly four million. The same as the population of Leningrad. And against a scarce number of population, in terms of the land, Finland is vast and, in Europe, the population density is still the third lowest (after Iceland and Norway).

Things didn't take place quite as the Soviets expected. The commander-in-chief of the Red Army Kliment Voroshilov had the commander of the Armies, Kilill Meretskov demoted to lead just the 7th Army, tossed in an another Army (13th) on the Karelian Isthmus, the commander of which was a Finn, Vladimir Grönhdahl. And Meretskov was replaced by Semjon Timošenko. This was done while the Russian Armies regrouped, and reloaded.

After a sort of quiet period of few weeks the Soviets attacked by using sheer and brute force, no matter what the cost. By the end of the war, the Soviets had hauled five Armies and 61 divisions to attack Finland but to no avail. After just a tad over three months, 105 days. The war ended March 13th, 1940.

The Finns were on their dire straits, and Stalin - whose Invincible Red Army, the largest army in the world, had become a laughing stock in the eyes of the world - wanted out, too. The situation ended in a stalemate but the peace terms dictated Finland had to give about 10% of her land, most of it in the densely populated Karelian Isthmus, which was home to some 400,000 people none of whom stayed there. By the end of the war there were two Armies on the Isthmus (7th and 13th) and the 8th and 9th Armies north of Lake Ladoga (blue on the map) had been pretty much wiped out by mere guerrilla tactics, and the faith of the 14th Army is a bit of a mystery. Finland had just some border patrols and Swedish volunteers up north to fight the entire 14th Army. But the divisions of the 14th Army just halted. "We had no orders." They didn't want to end up in the Frozen Hell, colder than their own. And so much more red than theirs.

Outcome of the Winter War.

In Russia the Winter War, traditionally, has to the date been referred to as "a border incident" although as much as 1,000,000 Russians might lost their lives during the war which only lasted for mere 105 days. The real number of the Russian casualties is not likely to ever surface. But after the war, even Molotov had to provide a conservative number of 48,000 casualties. However, in his memoirs, Nikita Khruschev (Khruschev Remembers, 1970), then the party leader, that "1.5 million men were sent to Finland and one million of them were killed, while 1,000 aircraft, 2,300 tanks and armored cars and an enormous amount of other war materials were lost."

He would later, exceptional to a Soviet leader confess: "In our war against the Finns we could choose the location of the war and the date of its start. In number we were superior to the enemy, we had enough time to get ready for the operation. But on these most favorable terms we could only win through huge difficulties and incredibly great losses. In fact this victory was a moral defeat. Our people certainly never got knowledge of it because we never told them the truth."

Links:

The Winter War: The War That Became a Meme.

The Winter War on the Discovery Channel.

Simo Häyhä, the Deadliest Sniper in the World, Ever...

Finland Fights!: American news footage.

Motti tactics.

The Winter War: A Soviet Failure.

The Top 10 Ways That Finland Fought Off Soviet Domination

Mannerheim and the Main Defense (Mannerheim) Line

Suomi SMG.

Winter War: The Battle of Raate Road.

Stalin is still amused.

Thanks for the symphaties, but fan mail does not stop bullets.

Maybe a brick?

USA to the rescue! Wheat? Well, flour is a kinda sorta form of a powder.

The Winter War of 1939-1940

About the project

The aim of the Project Winter War is to collect those who fought in the war, died in the war (including civilians, and merchant navy) under one umbrella. In total, 26,000+ Finns died (soldiers, civilians, merchant navy) during the Winter War. In order for this Project to succeed as well as possible, we also try to improve the quality of the profiles in Geni. We recommend the following practice:

1. When you add a profile into the project, please make sure that it becomes clear to all the Geni users how a given profile is affiliated with The Winter War. Add the information if necessary. Also, please consider that, if necessary, you would consider the individual profiles in the project to the following projects: Killed in Action, Killed from War Wounds and/or Died as a Prisoner of War.

2. If a person is found in the archives of the database deceased in the three wars 1939-1945, Deceased in the wars of finland 1939-1945 or if there is a base card for him (her) in the digi archives of the nat'l archives collection Kantakortit I-sarjan arkistoyksiköt Cards, please link your profiles to the archives as well. In addition, if you should want to link a profile of a given person to his Geni profile, please feel free to do that. Additionally, if you want to link the person to the databases in Sotapolku (War Path) and Sotasampo.

On the Winter War

The Winter War was a war which has reached legendary proportions. And the Winter War is still subject to an increasing amount of literature, YouTube clips, and what-have-you. These are regarding the war itself, as well as some individuals who scored the title of "badass." Simo Häyhä, aka. The White Death, being probably the most famous / infamous of them.

The groundwork for The Winter War was probably laid on 1917 when Finland, then an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia, claimed her independence in 1917. Also, the civil war between the Whites and the Reds, which followed the next year, in 1918 contributed to this.

Finland has, often times, and erroneously, been accused of siding with Hitler. Only Hitler had allied Germany with Stalin with Soviet Union. In the secret minutes of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact Eastern Europe were divided to the spheres of interest and, according to the pact, Finland was classified to belong to the Soviet sphere of interest. As a consequence, the Soviet Union started harassing Finland with demands, mostly regarding geographic areas down in the Karelian Isthmus (below in green), islands on the Bay of Finland in the Baltic Ocean, as well as a naval base in the tip of the Finland, in Hanko.

Unlike the other Baltic states, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Finland thanked the Soviets "No", and the last time Stalin heard this, he has been said to be in a jolly, jovial mood, and wished Finland all the best.

On November the 30th 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland without declaring with full force via the war on land, sea and air.

Soviet armies during the beginning of the Winter War.

In the picture above, there is a sketch of the Soviet invasion at the beginning of the Winter War. Or, how the Soviets figured it would go down. The Soviets entertained an idea of a swift victory, two weeks or so, and sent four armies (21 divisions, around 500,000 men) across the the border, and while the Finnish Intel has been ridiculously sly, and the commander-in-chief, Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, a former Tsar's General very familiar with the Russian mindset, attacks north of the Lake Ladoga were really not expected. But the stupidity of a full frontal attack did not stop the Soviets.

In the picture, down on the Karelian Isthmus (green), at the beginning of the war the 7th Army attacked. In terms of the terrain, only down there one can hope to score using a Blitzkrieg. In the medial parts of Finland, north of Lake Ladoga (blue in the figure), the 8th Army and the 9th Army were supposed to cut Finland in half, and up north, the 14th Army was supposed to make it's way via Lapland and towards Oulu. And one should not forget that at the time, the population of Finland was roughly four million. The same as the population of Leningrad. And against a scarce number of population, in terms of the land, Finland is vast and, in Europe, the population density is still the third lowest (after Iceland and Norway).

Things didn't take place quite as the Soviets expected. The commander-in-chief of the Red Army Kliment Voroshilov had the commander of the Armies, Kilill Meretskov demoted to lead just the 7th Army, tossed in an another Army (13th) on the Karelian Isthmus, the commander of which was a Finn, Vladimir Grönhdahl. And Meretskov was replaced by Semjon Timošenko. This was done while the Russian Armies regrouped, and reloaded.

After a sort of quiet period of few weeks the Soviets attacked by using sheer and brute force, no matter what the cost. By the end of the war, the Soviets had hauled five Armies and 61 divisions to attack Finland but to no avail. After just a tad over three months, 105 days. The war ended March 13th, 1940.

The Finns were on their dire straits, and Stalin - whose Invincible Red Army, the largest army in the world, had become a laughing stock in the eyes of the world - wanted out, too. The situation ended in a stalemate but the peace terms dictated Finland had to give about 10% of her land, most of it in the densely populated Karelian Isthmus, which was home to some 400,000 people none of whom stayed there. By the end of the war there were two Armies on the Isthmus (7th and 13th) and the 8th and 9th Armies north of Lake Ladoga (blue on the map) had been pretty much wiped out by mere guerrilla tactics, and the faith of the 14th Army is a bit of a mystery. Finland had just some border patrols and Swedish volunteers up north to fight the entire 14th Army. But the divisions of the 14th Army just halted. "We had no orders." They didn't want to end up in the Frozen Hell, colder than their own. And so much more red than theirs.

Outcome of the Winter War.

In Russia the Winter War, traditionally, has to the date been referred to as "a border incident" although as much as 1,000,000 Russians might lost their lives during the war which only lasted for mere 105 days. The real number of the Russian casualties is not likely to ever surface. But after the war, even Molotov had to provide a conservative number of 48,000 casualties. However, in his memoirs, Nikita Khruschev (Khruschev Remembers, 1970), then the party leader, that "1.5 million men were sent to Finland and one million of them were killed, while 1,000 aircraft, 2,300 tanks and armored cars and an enormous amount of other war materials were lost."

He would later, exceptional to a Soviet leader confess: "In our war against the Finns we could choose the location of the war and the date of its start. In number we were superior to the enemy, we had enough time to get ready for the operation. But on these most favorable terms we could only win through huge difficulties and incredibly great losses. In fact this victory was a moral defeat. Our people certainly never got knowledge of it because we never told them the truth."

Links:

The Winter War: The War That Became a Meme.

The Winter War on the Discovery Channel.

Simo Häyhä, the Deadliest Sniper in the World, Ever...

Finland Fights!: American news footage.

Motti tactics.

The Winter War: A Soviet Failure.

The Top 10 Ways That Finland Fought Off Soviet Domination

Mannerheim and the Main Defense (Mannerheim) Line

Suomi SMG.

Winter War: The Battle of Raate Road.

Stalin is still amused.

Thanks for the symphaties, but fan mail does not stop bullets.

Maybe a brick?

USA to the rescue! Wheat? Well, flour is a kinda sorta form of a powder.