With the poor performance of the Russian army in the Russian-Ukrainian war, there has been another wave of disgusting Russian combat effectiveness on the Internet, one of which is mentioned more often is the Soviet-Finnish war.
Indeed, the Soviets fought poorly in the Soviet-Finnish war and suffered heavy casualties.
The cause of the war was that the Soviet Union considered the Soviet-Finnish border too close to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and demanded that Finland move the Russian-Finnish border on the Karelian Isthmus 40 kilometers north, and cede to the Soviet Union several islands in the Gulf of Finland and Finnish territory on the Rybachi Peninsula; The Hanko Peninsula was leased to the USSR for 30 years at a cost of 8 million Finnish marks per year.
In order to compensate Finland for the loss of territory, the Soviet Union offered to give Finland twice the amount of land northwest of Lake Onega, which was ceded by Finland. Finland categorically refused.
The Soviet-Finnish war was divided into two phases.
At the first stage, the USSR suffered a crushing defeat.
Due to Stalin's purge of the Soviet army at that time, many grassroots, middle-level and even high-level officers were quickly promoted, and their military quality was very poor. When fighting Finland, although the Soviet army had advanced aircraft and artillery, and the Finns were poorly equipped, the Finns took advantage of the terrain conditions in Finland to ambush and guerrilla attacks in the ice and snow, and the Soviet troops suffered heavy casualties.
500,000 Soviet troops were helpless to take 120,000 Finnish troops.
At the second stage, the USSR won.
The first phase lasted 62 days, and the Soviet High Command immediately made adjustments, such as releasing more than 4,000 officers from prisons to enrich the front line of the Soviet-Finnish war. Among these officers, Rokossovsky, Rotmistrov, and Tolbukhin later became marshals of the Soviet Union, and countless others became generals.
The Soviet troops, under the command of these officers with rich experience in war, began the big **.
By March 5, 1940, the Finnish army was in danger of running out of soldiers, ammunition and food, and no hope of foreign aid. Britain, France and Germany talked about aiding Finland, but they paid lip service to Finland, and did not send a single soldier until Finland surrendered.
Relying on the superiority of numbers and **, the Soviet army attacked on multiple fronts, captured Vyborg, the second largest city in Finland, and the Finnish army was defeated and retreated, and finally announced its surrender and accepted the harsh land cession conditions of the Soviet Union.
Finland lost 10% of Finland's arable land, including Vyborg, Finland's second largest city, about 570,000 square kilometers. Another 15 percent of the industrial output, 222,000 inhabitants, or 12 per cent of the total population of Finland, were repatriated to Finland.
The Soviet army in the Soviet-Finnish war was huge, and the death toll of the Soviet Red Army was about nearly 200,000, totaling more than 700,000.
One of the generals of the Soviet Red Army said sadly: "In this war, we got 570,000 square kilometers of land, which is enough to bury our sacrificed comrades. ”
However, this cannot be a case of satirizing the poor combat effectiveness of the Soviet army and the Russian army.
Because the Soviet army at this time had undergone a great purge, many officers were dismissed, imprisoned or even shot, and the Soviet army was in chaos, and its combat effectiveness was extremely poor. The first phase of the Soviet-Finnish war was poorly fought solely as a consequence of Stalin's purge of the Soviet army.
Therefore, if this matter is used to prove the poor combat effectiveness of the Soviet army, then it is really too unobjective.
Hitler, who had been observing the Soviet-Finnish war, said contemptuously: "We just need to kick the door open, and the whole rotten structure inside (the Soviet Union) will collapse!" They don't have a good commander. ”
So a year later he launched a war of aggression against the Soviet Union, although the Soviet Union was defeated in the early days, but soon the Soviet Union began to actively **, and finally conquered Berlin, and Hitler also committed suicide in the basement.
This is the consequence of belittling the combat effectiveness of the Soviet troops.
Let's talk about Finland. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Finland also actively cooperated with the German army, recovered the territory ceded to the Soviet Union, and cooperated with the German army to encircle St. Petersburg.
The U.S. ambassador informed Finland** that since Finland had regained its territory, it should no longer take part in the German siege of Leningrad, which Finland refused.
In 1944, the Soviet Union **, the German army was losing one after another, and Finland saw that the momentum was not good and hurriedly negotiated peace with the Soviet Union.
In addition to returning the borders after the Soviet-Finnish War, Finland also ceded the Portsamo area to the Soviet Union, leased the Parkala Peninsula to the Soviet Union for 50 years, and paid a huge reparation of up to $300 million to the Soviet Union over six years.
After World War II, Finland signed the Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Cooperation with the Soviet Union in 1948, pursuing a policy of "pro-Soviet neutrality" for nearly 40 years, that is, "Finlandization", not joining military alliances organized by the West, not allowing anti-Soviet politicians to come to power, and not propagating anti-Soviet rhetoric in the territory.
That's the price Finland pays.
It was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union that Finland abandoned the policy of "Finlandization". In 1992, Finland signed the Treaty on the Basis of Russian-Finnish Relations with Russia, which no longer restricts Finland's participation in any military alliance. It was Finland's first diplomatic independence since World War II, and the cost and humiliation were significant.
Therefore, it is a hooligan to talk only about the poor performance of the Soviet army in the Soviet-Finnish war, but not to mention the reasons for the formation of this performance, and the final defeat of Finland and the humiliating "Finlandization" domestic and foreign policy that lasted for more than 40 years after World War II.
If the truth is only partially stated, it is a lie.
Project Sword