The Talvisota

Ah, the Russians and their winters. Whether it was freezing Frenchmen into little, flamboyant popsicles, or freezing Nazis into little, evil popsicles, Mother Nature has usually been kind to Mother Russia. Usually. There is at least one time that the two Mothers got into a little spat, and slaps started to fly, and a lot of Russians died as a result.

Early in World War II, the Russians invaded the small country of Finland, starting the Finnish Winter War, or Talvisota in the Finnish language. By all means, Finland should have collapsed in days; somehow, they not only held out, but also inflicted some of the most remarkable losses in military history.

The time frame is November 1939, just a few months after the surrender of Poland (both the Germans and Russians invaded Poland, so they could carve it up afterwards). Finland had gained it’s independence from Russia during the clusterf**k years of the Communist revolution in Russia. Although communists had tried to convert Finland to communism, the Finnish government firmly said no (the Finnish Civil War). This made things very tense between Finland and Russia.

Things came to a boil during the autumn of 1939, when Russia demanded that Finland was to move its border 16 miles away from the vital Russian city of Leningrad (the fear was that the Nazis, or Britain, or France, or anyone would attack through Finland and overwhelm Leningrad.) They also wanted Finland to rent out a coastal strip of land to them, so they could construct a naval base there. In return, the Russians would give Finland an amount of land some twice the size of what was being asked. The Finnish referred to this as, “Giving away two pounds of dirt, for a pound of gold.”

Despite this, the Finnish weren’t going to have any of it. They promptly denied the offer, and any further negotiation. Well, this, coupled with Finland’s earlier communism suppression really did not sit well in the smoldering cauldron of pure hate, distrust, evil, and ruthlessness that was Joseph Stalin’s (dictator of Russia) mind. Invasion plans were immediately drawn up.
The Russians were expecting little or no resistance. In fact, Russian propaganda had the Red Army troops thinking that the Finns were going to invite them with flags and candy. They would be sorely proven wrong.

At the beginning of the war, around 100,000 poorly equipped men stood ready to defend Finland. Finland did not even have enough uniforms for everyone, so most just had to go out with their civilian winter clothing. In addition, they had only 130 planes at their disposal, and 30 tanks.

The Russians invaded with 250,000 soldiers, equipped with thousands of aircraft, artillery guns, and tanks. The Red Army General, Meretskov, assures Stalin it will only take 10 to 12 days to reach the Finnish capital of Helsinki. The Russians are so confident, they don’t bring along winter clothing, but they bring marching bands instead.

Immediately, something goes wrong with the Russian plan. The Finnish use brilliant Guerilla tactics to harass and disrupt the Russians. Although the Finnish are lightly armed, they are equipped with skis. Yes, just regular skis. It sounds ridiculous, but they use the skis to move very quickly in the frozen landscape. The Finnish try not to do full frontal attacks, as that would be suicide. Instead, they do surprise ambushes, and attack “food kitchens”. Literally, they are destroying the Russians food supplies.

As well as starving the Russians, their constant attacks are forcing the Russians to get up and move, and thus move away from the comforting fires. This is important, due to the fact that the Winter War takes place during the second coldest winter in Finland since 1828. It would regularly get to 40 degrees below zero, and even colder. Many Russians would simply freeze to death during battle.

To the Russians’ horror, they realized they were losing men at ridiculous rates. Around 10,000 Russians died every day, while the Finns were only losing about 250. The Finns were using superior tactics, known as motti. The word motti refers to a way that Finnish loggers would cut up wood into 1 cubic meter stacks; scatter them around, to be collected later. The tactic called for rapid envelopment, harassment, and the division of the enemy, so that they would be separated into little groups that could be destroyed at will. One of the most famous, and most effective uses of the motti tactics came during the Battle of Suomussalmi.

A small Finnish force of 19,000 was all that stood before 44,000 Russians. The Finns split up into small teams and set about surrounding the Russians. They did, striking at vulnerable areas, food kitchens, and soldiers that were trying to get warm. At one point, an entire Russian division tried to retreat through a small mountain pass, only to be stopped by 350 Finns, who engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Take a moment to read that again. These Finns went up against maybe thousands of Russians, and stopped them in close combat. Seriously, WTF?

The Russians were completely demoralized, and they initiated a hasty withdrawal. Of the 44,000, only 5,000 Russians made it back. Around 900 Finns died. Imagine being a commander for a second, and winning a battle with only 900 of your men dead, while you inflicted THIRTY-NINE UN-FRIGGIN-BELIEVABLE THOUSAND DEATHS.

In addition to this, the victorious Finns captured some 85 tanks, 437 trucks, 20 tractors, 10 motorcycles, 1620 horses, 92 artillery pieces, 71 anti tank guns, 13 anti-aircraft guns, plus maybe 6,000 rifles, and thousands of machine guns, and a hoard of ammunition. All of these would be later used against the Russians.

The Russian Commander in charge of this operation was immediately shot when he got back to Russia, and although Russians were dying like fruit flies, Stalin was certain victory was in reach. The Russians kept up the pressure, sending wave after wave of soldiers, tanks, and aircraft.
As far as aircraft go, the Finns had little or nothing. However, they deployed their aircraft when it counted, using superior four-man scattered formations against the Red Air Force. The Finnish airmen’s’ credo was to strike, no matter the odds.

And as far as tanks go, the Finns had nothing. They also had very little in the way of conventional anti-tank weaponry. The Finns improvised. The Molotov cocktail was used to great extent throughout the Winter War. The four-man groups would run up to the Russian tanks, jam the treads with wood, the chuck a few cocktails at the engine compartment, causing the tank to catch on fire. When the crew would try to climb out, they would be mowed down by an SMG. Although cocktail crews’ casualties were 75%, the Russians lost 2,000 tanks to these heroic teams.

But the Russians kept coming. Sometimes, the waves would be literally running on top of a field of frozen, Russian corpses. When the Russians would attack over the frozen lakes, their piled bodies would be left there, until the thaw, when they would all sink to the bottom. As a Finnish veteran, Antti Olavi Pönkänen, would later say, “Our lakes are full of dead Russians.”
The last major offensive of the war would start on February 1st, 1940. On only 1.6 miles of front, 440 Russian cannons were grinding the Finns to dust. Or so they thought. 600,000 men with 500 aircraft and plenty of tanks charged the lines. Entire Red Army divisions were wiped out. But the Russians kept charging over the bodies of their comrades. The final attack would take place on the 6th, with three divisions supported by 150 tanks and 200 aircraft. By the 11th, the Russians had broken through, but the Finns (who were maybe one half or one third of their original strength) escaped, and dug into a new defensive line. The Russians did not pursue.
And so, the Russians finally realized they could no longer support an attack. Or so they thought. Little did they know, the Finns had almost completely run out of ammunition. If the Russians had attacked one more time, perhaps the Finns would have lost, solely because they had no more lead to pour on.

Personally, I doubt it.

Peace talks began, and the Finns were allowed their freedom, at the cost of some 22,000 square miles. One Russian general is noted as saying, “We have won enough ground to bury our dead. The Finns in the captured territory were given the option of becoming citizens of the Soviet Union, or moving to Finland. Most, if not all, left.

In total, 250,000 Finns answered the call to defend their country. Around 25,000 died for their country.

The Russian General Khrushchev asserts that, in total, 1.5 million Russians were sent to Finland. One million died. 1000 aircraft, 2,300 tanks and armored cars, in addition to gigantic amounts of other war materials were lost.

Just think about the numbers for a second. The Finns pulled off surviving complete annihilation, with a kill to death ratio of 40:1 (that magical number again). That is more than the majority of video gamers can claim in standard matches.

Another interesting thing came out of this war. When Stalin got his ass handed to him on silver, frozen platter, he realized that the Red Army needed to be reorganized. Krushchev said it best, “All of us – and Stalin first and foremost – sensed in our victory a defeat by the Finns. It was a dangerous defeat because it encouraged our enemies’ conviction that the Soviet Union was a colossus with feet of clay… We had to draw some lessons for the immediate future from what had happened.”

Stalin would put more trust into commanders, and took power away from the Political Commissars. These changes would come just in time to help the Russians defeat Nazi Germany (an article about that is on the way). Perhaps, if Finland had been more like France, and surrendered, the Russians would have been defeated by Nazi Germany. I shudder to think of the consequences, both in human lives and the wars’ course overall, if Nazi Germany had taken all of Russia and its oil fields.

The Finnish winter war is a remarkable story of bravery, selflessness, and pure badassery. The casualties inflicted by the Finns are some the most outrageous in all of military history.
The power-metal band Sabaton commemorated the Finns brutal struggle for survival in their song “Talvisota”. Here are the lyrics:

(Note that Kreml was a Russian commander)


Rise of nations pride!

Russians on a way to ruin
Kreml is more then certain to win
Sent away an army to the west

Blizzard reigned the ground were chosen
Snow was deep and hell was frozen
Stalin was too eager to invade

He thought of the might he possessed
And not of his foe
Rage of winter

Rise, nations pride
Hold what’s yours
Strike’em were it hurts

Fight, hold your ground
Winter war
Reinforce the line

Split them into small divisions
Rip ’em of the conquest visions
Motti tactics used with great result

Snipers move unseen in snowfall
Force them to retreat and recall
Fight the Russian rule and their demand

With molotov coctail in hand
No fear of their tanks
Death or glory

Rise, nations pride
Hold whats yours
Strike’em were it hurts

Fight, hold your ground
Winter war
Reinforce the line

A slice of a knife to a throat
And their blood turns to ice
TALVISOTA!

Rise, nations pride
Hold whats yours
Strike’em were it hurts

Fight, hold your ground
Winter war
Reinforce the line!


Here’s the song, with footage from a movie called, “Talvisota”