Winter War

- Winter war lasted only a little over three months, but when thinking the whole World War Two, the Winter War remains one of the most known conflict during the Second World War. Finnish stubborn resistance against overwhelming numbers of Russian troops got the whole worlds attention and many nations offered their help. Finland also received many volunteers from different countries.

- In Soviet Union, the high command wasn't happy to the result of the conflict. The main reason to the poor performance of the Russian troops, was the lack of experience of fighting in the conditions that were common in the frontline against Finland. Mainly this meant snow, snow and more snow, added with freezing temperature and forest countryside. They also weren't familiar with the terrain. The Finnish troops on the other hand, knew the terrain where they were fighting. Also the narrow roads and poor condition of these roads gave a lot of difficulties to the Russian supply lines.

- But the Russians learned quickly and by the sheer weight of numbers, the Finnish troops finally were pushed back, step by step. Finland was forced to make peace, even when they had managed to stall the Russian attack so well.

- When making the peace with the Soviet Union, Finland had to give Karelian Isthmus and area north to the Lake Ladoga, to Soviet Union. Generally the new border followed the old Peter the Great border. In this area that was handed over to Soviet Union, was included the quite big towns of Vyborg, Käkisalmi and Sortavala.

- Also a large area of the Salla urban district and two small capes from the Kalastajasaarento were included. The outer islands in the Gulf of Finland were also given to Soviet Union. Hanko was rented for 30 years as a naval base for Soviet Union. The peace treaty also limited the size of the Finnish fleet in the Artic Sea. The Soviet Union made one admission and gave Petsamo back to Finland, although the Russian troops had managed to occupy it during the war. The whole surface-area that was given to Soviet Union, was about 40 000 square kilometers and a home of 400 000 people.

- The Finnish casualties in these 105 days of heavy fighting, were 23 461 killed, 3 273 missing and 43 557 wounded, from the total strength of 340 000 men.

- The Russian losses are not so easy to calculate because there have been many kind of numbers, but one estimate would be, 72 408 killed, 16 208 missing and 180 863 wounded. The total strength of Russian troops against Finland, when the war started, was 500 000 men and when the war ended, the Russians had concentrated 957 675 men in the frontline against Finland.

- In the Finnish side, the agreement for the peace treaty was obvious. They had tried to get a peace all along, because the army was nearly exhausted. Even in the Soviet side, the war had lasted way too long.