This year, on November 30, it will be 71 years since the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, which in our country and beyond its borders is often called the Winter War. Unleashed right on the eve of the Great Patriotic War The Winter War remained in its shadow for a very long time. And not only because the memories of her were quickly overshadowed by the tragedies of the Great Patriotic War, but also because of all the wars in which one way or another participated Soviet Union, it was the only war initiated by Moscow.
Push the border to the west
The Winter War became in the truest sense of the word "a continuation of politics by other means." After all, it began immediately after several rounds of peace negotiations stalled, during which the USSR tried to move the northern border as far as possible from Leningrad and Murmansk, in return offering Finland lands in Karelia. The immediate reason for the outbreak of hostilities was the Mainilsky incident: artillery shelling of Soviet troops on the border with Finland on November 26, 1939, which killed four servicemen. Moscow laid responsibility for the incident on Helsinki, although later the guilt of the Finnish side was subjected to reasonable doubts.
Four days later, the Red Army crossed the border of Finland, thus starting the Winter War. Its first stage - from November 30, 1939 to February 10, 1940 - was extremely unsuccessful for the Soviet Union. Despite all efforts, the Soviet troops failed to break through the Finnish defense line, which by that time was already called the Mannerheim line with might and main. In addition, during this period, the shortcomings of the existing system of organization of the Red Army were most clearly manifested: poor controllability at the level of middle and junior levels and the lack of initiative among commanders of this level, poor communication between units, types and types of troops.
The second stage of the war, which began on February 11, 1940 after a massive ten-day preparation, ended in victory. Until the end of February, the Red Army managed to reach all those lines that it planned to reach before the new year, and push the Finns back to the second line of defense, constantly creating a threat of encirclement of their troops. On March 7, 1940, the Finnish government sent a delegation to Moscow to participate in peace negotiations, which ended with the conclusion of a peace treaty on March 12. It stipulated that all the territorial claims of the USSR (the same ones that were discussed at the negotiations on the eve of the war) would be satisfied. As a result, the border on the Karelian Isthmus moved 120–130 kilometers away from Leningrad, the entire Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg, the Vyborg Bay with islands, the western and northern coasts of Lake Ladoga, a number of islands in Gulf of Finland, part of the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas, and the Khanko peninsula and the sea area around it were leased by the USSR for 30 years.
For the Red Army, victory in the Winter War came at a high price: irretrievable losses amounted, according to various sources, from 95 to 167 thousand people, and about 200-300 thousand more were wounded and frostbitten. Besides, Soviet troops suffered heavy losses in equipment, primarily in tanks: out of almost 2,300 tanks that went into battle at the beginning of the war, about 650 were completely destroyed and 1,500 were knocked out. In addition, moral losses were also heavy: both the army command and the whole country, despite massive propaganda, understood that military force The USSR needs urgent modernization. It began during the Winter War, but, alas, was never completed until June 22, 1941.
Between truth and fiction
The history and details of the Winter War, quickly dimmed in the light of the events of the Great Patriotic War, have since been reviewed and rewritten more than once, refined and rechecked. As it happens with any major historical events, the Russian-Finnish war of 1939-1940 also became the object of political speculation both in the Soviet Union and beyond - and remains so to this day. After the collapse of the USSR, it became fashionable to review the results of all key events in the history of the Soviet Union, and the Winter War was no exception. In post-Soviet historiography, both the losses of the Red Army and the number of destroyed tanks and aircraft increased significantly, while Finnish losses, on the contrary, were significantly underestimated (despite even the official data of the Finnish side, which remained practically unchanged against this background).
Unfortunately, the further the Winter War moves away from us in time, the less likely it is that someday we will know the whole truth about it. The last direct participants and eyewitnesses die, for the sake of political winds, documents and material evidence are shuffled and disappear, and even new ones, often fake ones, appear. But some facts about the Winter War are already so firmly fixed in world history that they cannot be changed for any reason. We will describe ten of the most notable of them below.
Mannerheim line
Under this name, a strip of fortifications erected by Finland on a 135-kilometer stretch along the border with the USSR went down in history. The flanks of this line rested on the Gulf of Finland and Ladoga lake. At the same time, the Mannerheim Line had a 95-kilometer depth and consisted of three consecutive defense lines. Since the line, despite its name, began to be built long before Baron Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim became the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army, the main ones in its composition were the old single-abrasion long-term firing points (bunkers), capable of conducting only frontal fire. There were about seven dozen of them in the line. Another fifty bunkers were more modern and could fire on the flanks of the attacking troops. In addition, obstacle lines and anti-tank structures were actively used. In particular, in the security zone there were 220 km of wire obstacles in several dozen rows, 80 km of anti-tank granite gouges, as well as anti-tank ditches, walls and minefields. Official historiography on both sides of the conflict emphasized that the Mannerheim Line was practically insurmountable. However, after the command system of the Red Army was rebuilt, and the tactics of storming the fortifications were revised and linked to preliminary artillery preparation and tank support, it took only three days to break through.
Finnish Democratic Republic
The day after the start of the Winter War, Moscow radio announced the creation in the city of Terijoki on the Karelian Isthmus of the Finnish Democratic Republic. It lasted as long as the war itself went on: until March 12, 1940. During this time, only three countries in the world agreed to recognize the newly formed state: Mongolia, Tuva (at that time not yet part of the Soviet Union) and the USSR itself. Actually, the government of the new state was formed from its citizens and Finnish emigrants living on Soviet territory. It was headed by one of the leaders of the Third Communist International, a member of the Communist Party of Finland, Otto Kuusinen, who simultaneously became Minister of Foreign Affairs. On the second day of its existence, the Finnish Democratic Republic concluded an agreement on mutual assistance and friendship with the USSR. Among its main points, all the territorial requirements of the Soviet Union, which caused the war with Finland, were taken into account.
Diversionary war
Since the Finnish army entered the war, albeit mobilized, but clearly losing to the Red Army both in terms of numbers and technical equipment, the Finns relied on defense. And its essential element was the so-called mine warfare - more precisely, the technology of continuous mining. As Soviet soldiers and officers who participated in the Winter War recalled, they could not even imagine that almost everything that the human eye can see can be mined. “Stairs and thresholds of houses, wells, forest clearings and edges, roadsides were literally littered with mines. Here and there were scattered bicycles, suitcases, gramophones, watches, wallets, cigarette cases thrown as if in a hurry. As soon as they were moved, an explosion was heard, ”they describe their impressions in this way. The actions of the Finnish saboteurs were so successful and demonstrative that many of their techniques were promptly adopted by the Soviet military and special services. It can be said that the guerrilla and sabotage war that unfolded a year and a half later on the occupied territory of the USSR, in to no small extent followed the Finnish model.
Baptism of fire heavy tanks KV
A new generation of single-turret heavy tanks appeared shortly before the start of the Winter War. The first copy, which was actually a smaller version of the SMK heavy tank - "Sergey Mironovich Kirov" - and differed from it by the presence of only one turret, was made in August 1939. It was this tank that ended up in the Winter War in order to be tested in a real battle, which it went into on December 17 during the breakthrough of the Hottinensky fortified area of the Mannerheim Line. It is noteworthy that out of the six crew members of the first KV, three were testers at the Kirov Plant, which was engaged in the production of new tanks. The tests were considered successful, the tank showed itself with the best side, but the 76-mm cannon with which he was armed turned out to be not enough to deal with pillboxes. As a result, the KV-2 tank, armed with a 152-mm howitzer, was hastily developed, which no longer had time to take part in the Winter War, but entered the history of world tank building forever.
How England and France prepared to fight the USSR
London and Paris supported Helsinki from the very beginning, although they did not go beyond military-technical assistance. In total, England and France, together with other countries, handed over to Finland 350 combat aircraft, approximately 500 field guns, over 150,000 firearms, ammunition and other ammunition. In addition, volunteers from Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, France and Sweden fought on the side of Finland. When, at the end of February, the Red Army finally broke the resistance of the Finnish army and began to develop an offensive inland, Paris began to openly prepare for direct participation in the war. On March 2, France announced its readiness to send an expeditionary force to Finland, consisting of 50,000 soldiers and 100 bombers. After that, Britain also announced its readiness to transfer its expeditionary force of 50 bombers to the Finns. A meeting on this issue was scheduled for March 12 - and did not take place, because on the same day Moscow and Helsinki signed a peace treaty.
There is no salvation from the "cuckoos"?
The Winter War was the first campaign in which snipers participated en masse. And, one can say, only on one side - Finnish. It was the Finns in the winter of 1939-1940 who demonstrated how effective snipers can be in modern warfare. The exact number of snipers remains unknown to this day: as a separate military specialty, they will begin to be allocated only after the start of World War II, and even then not in all armies. However, it is safe to say that the number of well-aimed shooters from the Finnish side was hundreds. True, not all of them used special rifles with a sniper scope. Yes, the most effective sniper Finnish army - Corporal Simo Häyhä, who in just three months of hostilities brought the number of his victims to five hundred, used an ordinary rifle with an open sight. As for the "cuckoos" - snipers shooting from treetops, about which an incredible number of myths circulate, their existence is not confirmed by the documents of either the Finnish or the Soviet side. Although stories about "cuckoos" tied or chained to trees and freezing there with rifles in their hands, there were many in the Red Army.
How submachine guns returned to the Red Army
The first Soviet submachine guns of the Degtyarev system - PPD - were put into service in 1934. However, they did not have time to seriously expand their production. On the one hand, for a long time the command of the Red Army seriously considered this type of firearm useful only in police operations or as an auxiliary one, and on the other hand, the first Soviet submachine gun was notable for its design complexity and manufacturing difficulty. As a result, the plan for the release of PPD for 1939 was withdrawn, and all copies already issued were transferred to warehouses. And only after the Red Army encountered the Finnish Suomi submachine guns, of which there were almost three hundred in each Finnish division, during the Winter War, the Soviet servicemen hastily began to return weapons so useful in close combat.
Marshal Mannerheim: who served Russia and fought with her
The successful opposition to the Soviet Union in the Winter War in Finland was considered and is considered primarily the merit of the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army - Field Marshal Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim. Meanwhile, until October 1917, this outstanding military leader held the rank of Lieutenant General of the Russian imperial army and was one of the most prominent divisional commanders of the Russian army during the First World War. By this time, Baron Mannerheim, a graduate of the Nikolaev Cavalry School and the Cavalry Officer School, had participated in the Russo-Japanese War and organized a unique expedition through Asia in 1906–1908, which made him a member of the Russian geographical society- and one of the most prominent Russian intelligence officers of the early twentieth century. After October revolution Baron Mannerheim, keeping the oath to Emperor Nicholas II, whose portrait, by the way, hung on the wall of his office all his life, resigned and moved to Finland, in whose history he played such an outstanding role. It is noteworthy that Mannerheim retained his political influence after the Winter War, and after Finland's withdrawal from World War II, becoming the first president of the country - from 1944 to 1946.
Where was the Molotov cocktail invented?
Molotov cocktail has become one of the symbols of heroic resistance Soviet people fascist armies at the first stage of the Great Patriotic War. But it must be admitted that such a simple and effective anti-tank weapon was not invented in Russia at all. Alas, the Soviet soldiers, who used this tool so successfully in 1941-1942, first had a chance to test it on themselves. The Finnish army, which did not have an adequate supply of anti-tank grenades, faced with tank companies and battalions of the Red Army, was simply forced to resort to Molotov cocktails. During the Winter War, the Finnish army received more than 500 thousand bottles with a mixture that the Finns themselves called the “Molotov cocktail”, hinting that they had prepared this dish for one of the leaders of the USSR, who in a polemical fervor promised that the very next day after the start of the war, he will dine in Helsinki.
Who fought against their
During the Russian-Finnish war of 1939-1940, both sides - both the Soviet Union and Finland - used units in which collaborators served as part of their troops. On the Soviet side, the Finnish People's Army participated in the battles - the armed force of the Finnish Democratic Republic, recruited from Finns and Karelians living in the USSR and serving in the troops of the Leningrad Military District. By February 1940, its number reached 25 thousand people, who, according to the plan of the USSR leadership, were to replace the occupying troops on Finnish territory. And Russian volunteers fought on the side of Finland, recruited and trained by the white émigré organization "Russian All-Military Union" (ROVS), created by Baron Pyotr Wrangel. In total, from Russian emigrants and some of the captured Red Army soldiers who expressed a desire to fight against former comrades, six detachments were formed with a total number of about 200 people, but only one of them, in which 30 people served, for several days at the very end of the Winter participated in the fighting during the war.
friend of your enemy
Today, wise and calm Finns can only attack someone in a joke. But three quarters of a century ago, when forced national building continued in Suomi on the wings of independence gained much later than other European nations, you would not be in the mood for jokes.
In 1918, Karl-Gustav-Emil Mannerheim pronounces the well-known "sword oath", publicly promising to annex Eastern (Russian) Karelia. At the end of the thirties, Gustav Karlovich (as he was called while serving in the Russian Imperial Army, where the path of the future field marshal began) is the most influential person in the country.
Of course, Finland was not going to attack the USSR. I mean, she wasn't going to do it alone. The ties of the young state with Germany were, perhaps, even stronger than with the countries of their native Scandinavia. In 1918, when intense discussions were going on in the country that had just gained independence about the form of government, by decision of the Finnish Senate, the brother-in-law of Emperor Wilhelm, Prince Friedrich-Karl of Hesse, was declared the King of Finland; for various reasons, nothing came of the Suom monarchist project, but the choice of personnel is very indicative. Further, the very victory of the “Finnish White Guards” (as the northern neighbors were called in Soviet newspapers) in the internal civil war of 1918 was also largely, if not completely, due to the participation of the expeditionary force sent by the Kaiser (numbering up to 15 thousand people, moreover, the total number of local "reds" and "whites", significantly inferior to the Germans in combat qualities, did not exceed 100 thousand people).
Cooperation with the Third Reich developed no less successfully than with the Second. The ships of the Kriegsmarine freely entered the Finnish skerries; German stations in the area of Turku, Helsinki and Rovaniemi were engaged in radio reconnaissance; from the second half of the thirties, the airfields of the "Country of a Thousand Lakes" were modernized to accept heavy bombers, which Mannerheim did not even have in the project ... It should be said that subsequently Germany already in the first hours of the war with the USSR (which Finland officially joined only on June 25, 1941 ) really used the territory and water area of Suomi for laying mines in the Gulf of Finland and bombing Leningrad.
Yes, at that moment the idea of attacking the Russians did not seem so crazy. The Soviet Union of the 1939 model did not look like a formidable adversary at all. The assets include the successful (for Helsinki) First Soviet-Finnish War. The brutal defeat of the Red Army by Poland during the Western campaign in 1920. Of course, one can recall the successful reflection of Japanese aggression on Khasan and Khalkhin Gol, but, firstly, these were local clashes far from the European theater, and, secondly, the qualities of the Japanese infantry were rated very low. And thirdly, the Red Army, as Western analysts believed, was weakened by the repressions of 1937. Of course, the human and economic resources of the empire and its former province are not comparable. But Mannerheim, unlike Hitler, was not going to go to the Volga to bomb the Urals. The field marshal had enough of one Karelia.
Finland recently celebrated the centenary of its statehood. It is generally accepted that the independence of Suomi was presented by Soviet Russia. But why, then, in 1918-1922, there was a fierce war between our countries? Let's remember those events well.
Mannerheim for the unity of the Finno-Ugric peoples
A month and a half after the October Revolution, on December 6 (19), 1917, the Finnish parliament approved a declaration of state independence. Already 18 (31) December Council people's commissars Russian Soviet Republic adopted the Decree recognizing the independence of Finland, signed personally by V. I. Lenin. Since then, the leader there is very respected. But already on January 27, 1918, an uprising broke out in Helsinki among the Finnish Red Army. On the same day, the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Suomen sosialistinen tydvaentasavalta) was proclaimed. What's the matter?
It is generally accepted that two ideas collided. The Finnish Red Guard wanted Finland to return to the bosom of Russia (at least partially), now Soviet. At the same time, on the wave of independence, the idea of panfilanism flourished in Suomi, that is, the unity of the Finno-Ugric peoples. The idea of the Great, "one and indivisible", Finland, with arms in hand, was embodied by the future Marshal Karl Gustav Mannerheim, who gave Russian army. Finland planned to expand at the expense of Karelia (including the Kola Peninsula), Ingria (the environs of Petrograd) and Estonia. Frankly, the lip is not a fool.
So, on February 23, 1918, just on the day of the formation of the Red Army, at the Antrea railway station (now Kamennogorsk, Vyborg district Leningrad region) Mannerheim pronounces the “Oath of the Sword”, in which he pathetically mentions: “I will not sheathe my sword. ..until the last warrior and hooligan of Lenin is expelled from both Finland and Eastern Karelia.” It sounds promising.
Despite the fact that the war was not officially declared on Soviet Russia, since mid-January Finland has been secretly sending partisan detachments to Karelia, whose task was the actual occupation of Karelia and assisting the Finnish troops during the invasion. A sort of agents of influence with weapons in their hands. Detachments successively occupy the city of Kem and the village of Ukhta (now the village of Kalevala). On March 6, the Provisional Karelian Committee is created in Helsinki, and on March 15, Mannerheim approves the “Wallenius Plan”, aimed at the invasion of Finnish troops into Karelia and the capture of Soviet territory along the Pechenga - Kola Peninsula - White Sea - Vygozero - Lake Onega - Svir River - Lake Ladoga . Parts of the Finnish army were to unite at Petrograd, which was supposed to be turned into a free city-republic controlled by Finland. In principle, everything will be the same in the Second world war- the same plans for the same territories. And with the same deplorable outcome for the Finns.
On the Estonian direction
But first, the Finns fought at home. Reds against whites, everything is just like ours. The only difference is that by the beginning of the spring of 1918, the Whites had won. This was largely due to the military genius of Mannerheim. With their hands untied in May 1918, the so-called White Finns launch an offensive into Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. On May 10, they attempted to attack the polar ice-free port of Pechenga, but the attack was repulsed by the Red Army. In October 1918 and January 1919, Finnish troops occupied the Rebolsk and Porosozersk (Porayarvi) volosts in the west of Soviet Karelia, respectively. In November 1918, after the surrender of Germany in the First World War, the withdrawal begins German troops from Russian territory, and the Germans lose the opportunity to help the Finns. In this regard, in December 1918, Finland changes its foreign policy orientation in favor of the Entente.
Meanwhile, after the withdrawal of German troops from the Baltics, the Red troops are making an attempt to occupy this region, but they are already meeting resistance from the troops of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. At the end of November 1918, the Red Guards took Narva, which was part of the Republic of Estonia. In Narva, the Estland Labor Commune (Eesti Toorahwa Kommuuna) was proclaimed and formed Soviet government Estonia, headed by Viktor Kingisepp. The Red Army also occupied Dorpat (Tartu) and about half of the territory of Estonia, and by January 6 was 35 kilometers from Tallinn. January 7 Estonian army goes on the counterattack. She was helped white army- just to spoil the Bolsheviks. And also little by little England and France. Finland sent to Estonia volunteer corps numbering about 3.5 thousand people. Finland's aspirations were to first drive the Reds out of Estonia, and then make it part of Finland, as a federation of Finno-Ugric peoples.
North Karelian state
But the most bloody battles at that time were still going on in Karelia. By July 1919, a separatist North Karelian state was formed in the village of Ukhta with the assistance of Finnish detachments that had secretly penetrated there. Even earlier - on April 21, 1919 - the Finnish troops, who had already occupied, as mentioned above, Reboly and Porosozero, crossed the Finnish-Russian border in the Eastern Ladoga region and occupied the village of Vidlitsa, and two days later the city of Olonets, where the so-called Olonets government was created. On April 25, the Finns come to the Pryazha River, finding themselves 10 kilometers from Petrozavodsk. Other White Finnish detachments at the same time force the Svir and go to the city of Lodeynoye Pole. Anglo-French-Canadian troops are approaching Petrozavodsk from the north, the defense of Petrozavodsk will last two months. At the same time, Finnish troops with smaller forces were conducting an offensive in North Karelia, using the North Karelian state to try to tear away the whole of Karelia.
But on June 27, 1919, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive, occupying Olonets by July 8 and driving the Finns out of the border line. long awaited world? Not! Finland refused to negotiate peace, and Finnish troops continued to occupy part of North Karelia. On June 27, just on the day of the end of the defense of Petrozavodsk, Finnish units under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Yurie Elfengren cross the border on the Karelian Isthmus and find themselves in close proximity to Petrograd. Finnish detachments of the Red Army, formed from the Red Finns who fled from Finland after the defeat in the civil war, enter the battle with them. Two days later, Finnish troops retreat beyond the border line. On July 9, in the border village of Kiryasalo, the Republic of Northern Ingria is proclaimed, the head of which is a local resident Santeri Termonen. In September 1919, the Finnish units crossed the border again and held the territory of Northern Ingria for about a year. The Republic becomes a state controlled by Finland.
We break, bend... Finns
A little stronger during civil war in Russia, the Red Army begins to push the Finns. From September 1919 to March 1920, the Reds completely liberate Karelia from the interventionist troops of the Entente, after which they begin to fight the Finns. On May 18, 1920, the Red troops took Ukhta without a fight, after which the government of the North Karelian state fled to Finland.
By July 21, the Red Army had liberated most of Soviet Karelia from Finnish troops. In the hands of the Finns, only the Rebolsk and Porosozersk volosts remained. In July 1920, in the Estonian city of Tartu (where a peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Estonia was signed five months earlier), peace negotiations between Soviet Russia and Finland begin. Representatives of the Finnish side demand the transfer of Eastern Karelia to it. The Soviet side, in order to secure Petrograd, demands half of the Karelian Isthmus and an island in the Gulf of Finland from Finland. Negotiations last four months. Finally, on October 14, 1920, a peace treaty was signed. Finland as a whole remained within the borders of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Soviet Russia handed over to Finland the ice-free port of Pechenga (Petsamo) in the Arctic, thanks to which Finland gained access to the Barents Sea. On the Karelian Isthmus, the old border drawn along the Sestra River (Rayajoki) was also left. Rebolsk and Porosozersk volosts, as well as Northern Ingria, remained with Soviet Russia.
The world has remained shaky
However, peace did not come again! After all, Finnish nationalist circles perceived the Treaty of Tartu as shameful. Not even two months had passed since the signing of the peace treaty, when on December 10, 1920, the United Karelian government was created in Vyborg. Further, the Finns used the same tactics as in 1919 - during the summer of 1921 they sent partisan detachments to the territory of Soviet Karelia, which gradually occupied the border villages and engaged in reconnaissance, as well as carried out agitation and arming the local population and thus organized the Karelian national insurrection.
In October 1921, in Soviet Karelia, on the territory of the Tungud Volost, an underground Provisional Karelian Committee (Karjalan valiaikainen hallitus) was created, headed by Vasily Levonen, Yalmari Takkinen and Osipp Borisainen.
On November 6, 1921, the Finnish Partisan detachments begin an armed uprising in Eastern Karelia, on the same day the Finnish army under the leadership of Major Paavo Talvela crosses the border. Finnish intervention resumes. The Finns counted on the weakness of the Red Army after the Civil War and an easy victory. New detachments were sent from Finland. If at the beginning of the war the number of Finnish troops was 2.5 thousand people, then by the end of December the figure approached 6 thousand. There were also detachments formed from participants Kronstadt uprising, after his suppression fled to Finland. On the basis of the Provisional Karelian Committee, the puppet North Karelian state was recreated, the leadership of which was again planted in Ukhta, again occupied by Finnish troops.
And what about the young Soviet Russia? On December 18, 1921, her government declared a state of siege in Karelia. The Karelian Front was restored. Additional units of the Red Army were transferred there. On December 26, our units strike from the side of Petrozavodsk and after a week and a half they occupy Porosozero, Padany and Reboly, and on January 25, 1922, they liberate the village of Kestenga.
On February 7, the troops of the Red Army enter the village of Ukhta: the North Karelian state is rapidly dissolving itself, and its leaders again flee to Finland. By February 17, 1922, the Red Army finally knocks the Finns out of the state border line, military operations actually stop there. On March 21, an armistice was signed in Moscow.
And on June 1, 1922, a full-fledged peace treaty was concluded in Moscow between Soviet Russia and Finland, according to which both parties were obliged to reduce the number of border troops. However, peace between neighboring states remained unsteady. Finland's claims to Karelia and the Kola Peninsula not only did not disappear, but, on the contrary, intensified. In addition, individual Finnish nationalist organizations even promoted the idea of creating a Great Finland to the Polar Urals, which was also supposed to include the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Cis-Urals and the Volga region. Yeah, don't be rude!
And less than twenty years later, Russians and Finns met again in the snows of Karelia with weapons in their hands. Since perestroika times, it has been somehow customary to consider the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 to be of little success, useless, even treacherous on our part. Would Leningrad have withstood the blockade of 1941-1944 if not for our territorial conquests of the so-called Winter War? Then they were captured about 11% of the territory of Finland. This buffer in many respects did not allow closing the blockade around Leningrad completely. However, this is a completely different story.
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A round table dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the start of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 was held at the National Museum of Karelia on November 28. The event was attended by Karelian local historians, military reenactors, archivists, organizers of cultural and historical tourism, journalists, museum workers and everyone who cares about this topic.
Opening the meeting, the director of the National Museum, Mikhail Goldenberg, said that the poet Alexander Tvardovsky called this war "not famous" for nothing. For a long time, information about her was not disclosed and domestic historians practically did not study it.
At the same time, this war had a great influence on the history of Karelia: after its end, the Karelian-Finnish SSR was formed, Petrozavodsk became the capital of the union republic for 16 years, which was largely reflected in its architectural appearance. We owe even the appearance of a university in our city to this war.
Soviet-Finnish war, which in Soviet time called the Finnish campaign, the border conflict, in Finland it was called the Winter Campaign. Despite the fact that over the past decade and a half documents have been published in Russia, serious research has been done, and films have been made about the Winter War, there are still many "blank spots" in its history. It is no coincidence that it is of great interest not only to specialists, but also to ordinary people.
According to Mikhail Goldenberg, when tourists come to the museum, the first thing people ask is: “What do you have about the Winter War?
With all due respect to this topic, we cannot do an exhibition. - says the director of the museum, - Because for this you need to have a collection in the funds, and the collection was thoroughly cleaned up in Soviet times for ideological reasons. This unfamiliar war remained behind the scenes.
Petrozavodsk historian Yury Kilin emphasized that now the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. is no longer unknown, it is now quite clear how events unfolded.
The inevitable war between the USSR and Finland began in the autumn of 1937, before that it was possible to enter into a political dialogue with the Finnish authorities, - says Yuri Kilin. - Foreign Minister of Finland Holsti came to Moscow. By the way, this was the only trip of the Finnish minister to the Soviet Union during the entire interwar period. But then this man, who was not pro-Soviet, but simply realistic, was removed from business because he did not like Hitler and once took the liberty of making a careless statement about him. The decision to prepare the Leningrad Military District for war was made on June 22, 1938, negotiations were deliberately dragged out on both sides.
The Winter War began on November 30, 1939, when Soviet troops crossed the border into Finland. The Soviet Union expected to end the war in a month, the Finns - in 6 months. In reality, it lasted 105 days - from November to March. During this time, our country lost about 150 thousand people killed, Finland - 27 thousand. For this small country, such losses were significant - almost all 19-20-year-old men died.
Until the end of December soviet soldiers they didn’t know what they were fighting for, - continues Yuri Kilin. - Only after the meeting of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on December 22, it was decided to completely rebuild the propaganda line. The stake was placed on the fact that the Red Army was protecting Leningrad, Kirovskaya railway, Northwest. After that, an increase in the combat effectiveness of the troops was noticed.
It is well known that the Soviet troops were poorly armed and equipped at the beginning of the war. In forty-degree frosts, they fought in Budenovkas, tarpaulin boots and often without mittens. From here - a large number of frostbite. In addition, many soldiers were called up from the southern republics - the Caucasus, Central Asia. Many saw snow for the first time, and they had to fight on skis on which they had never stood before.
Although the Finns were in more favorable conditions in this regard - they fought on their territory and for their country - their uniforms and weapons also left much to be desired. Answering a question about the material and technical base of the Finnish army, Yuri Kilin said that the Finns had only rifle cartridges in abundance, the rest was not enough, including uniforms.
On the video of the parade of Finnish troops on the occasion of the capture of Petrozavodsk in October 1941, the soldiers are dressed almost in onuchi. You can't find two people who have the same shoes. In fact, the soldiers received only a belt from the state. There were 14 different types of helmets alone.
The topic of the well-known legend about the Finnish "cuckoo" snipers, who were so nicknamed because they allegedly shot from trees, was also touched upon at the round table.
Not a single Finn climbed a tree to shoot at Soviet soldiers from above. Such a legend appeared because 20% of Finnish soldiers in 1939 fulfilled the sniper standard - that is, every fifth was a sniper.
Aleksey Tereshkin, an employee of the National Museum, added that another reason for the appearance of such a myth is that artillery scouts made "nests" on trees. They were located one and a half kilometers from the battlefield. Scouts watched the fighting through binoculars and transmitted coordinates by radio. And since it was not clear where the snipers were shooting from, it seemed that from the trees.
One of the participants of the round table shared the information read in the "Military Review" that this myth of the Winter War was invented by the Finns themselves in order to confuse our soldiers.
Probably, the tactics of the Finns bore fruit, since, according to Yuri Kilin, Soviet soldiers about 6 thousand people were taken prisoner, and Finnish - several hundred, the ratio of the number of prisoners was approximately one to ten. After the war, there was an exchange of prisoners of war, many of the Soviet soldiers who managed to return to their homeland in this way ended up in Stalin's camps.
In Finland, Soviet prisoners of war were divided according to nationality. Russians were kept separately from representatives of other peoples. A special attitude was to all the Finno-Ugric peoples - they were given the best rations and the opportunity to work. Jews were also singled out - they were taken to work in their factories by Jacobson, chairman of the Society of Finnish Jews. How the enemy treated the prisoner depended on his fate after returning to his homeland, the historian said.
The searchers present at the meeting presented items from the Center's exposition Military Glory Petrozavodsk: samples of weapons and uniforms, documents and household items of soldiers.
Also, two recently published books were presented at the round table: "Pitkyaranta - remembers!" published within the framework of the project "War - to remember and not to repeat" with the support of the Grant of the President Russian Federation, and the memorial publication "Zaonezhane in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940". These two books, completely different in concept and content, were united by the famous "Cross of Sorrow" depicted on their covers.
Mikhail Goldenberg mentioned one more famous book Karelian writer Anatoly Gordienko "The death of the division", published by the publishing house "PetroPress" in 2017. The novel chronicle, which tells about the tragic events that took place in the vicinity of Pitkyaranta, can also be called a monument to the Winter War.
In conclusion, the director of the museum noted that the main reason for organizing such meetings is not to forget the important lesson that the Soviet-Finnish War taught: big ones are born from small wars.
In the 18th century, a Catholic priest from Hungary, Janos Shainovich, discovered a relationship between the languages of several Finno-Ugric peoples. Now the Finno-Ugric "family" has 24 peoples, three of them - Hungarians, Estonians and Finns - have created independent states. 17 peoples live on the territory of Russia. Some of them are endangered. Several nationalities have disappeared altogether.
Finno-Ugric peoples in Russian chronicles
Anthropologists consider the Finno-Ugric peoples to be the oldest permanent residents of Europe and the oldest surviving peoples living in North-Eastern Europe. In the northeast of Russia, Finno-Ugric tribes lived even before the colonization of these lands by the Slavs. The tribes interacted peacefully - the territories were large, and the population density was low. The Tale of Bygone Years mentions such tribes as Chud, Merya, Vesya, Muroma. In the 800s, there are still no Russians in the annals, but there are a number of Slavic tribes: Krivichi, Slovenes.
The Varangians collected tribute from the Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes living in the northeast. Chud and Merya later participated in the campaign of Prince Oleg against Byzantium. Detachments gathered for other campaigns. For example, representatives of the Chud participated in Vladimir's campaign against the Polotsk prince Rogvolod. The Russians called the Finns "wonder".
Since the XII century, according to the chronicle, there has been a gradual assimilation of the Finno-Ugric peoples. For the chroniclers, they are no longer so much independent tribes as part of the Russian people. In fact, the tribal structure persisted, although it faded into the background. Around this time, the further expansion of the Russians to the northeast began. There are reports of conflicts with local tribes. For example, "Yaroslav fought with the Mordovians, on the 4th day of March, and Yaroslav was defeated."
In the late introduction to The Tale of Bygone Years, presumably created in 1113, data on the places of residence of the Finno-Ugric tribes are systematized: “And on Beloozero sits the whole, and on Lake Rostov - Merya, and on Lake Kleshchina - also Merya. And along the Oka River, where it flows into the Volga, there are Muroma speaking their own language, and Cheremis speaking their own language, and Mordovians speaking their own language.
The Izhora as a tribe has been mentioned in the annals since the 13th century, although, along with the Vod, they have inhabited the northwestern part of the current Leningrad region since ancient times. They fought together with the Novgorodians. In 1240, an Izhorian elder discovered a flotilla of Swedes and reported this to Prince Alexander Nevsky. Then the Izhors were close to the Karelians. The disunity occurred in 1323, when, after the signing of the Orekhovets peace treaty, the territory of the Karelians went to Sweden, and the Izhora remained in the possession of Novgorod.
The Izhora Upland is named after the Finno-Ugric people - the area south of the Neva and the Izhora River.
What did the Finno-Ugric peoples of the northeast do?
Arriving on the territory of the Finno-Ugric peoples, the Slavs quickly began to build cities. Among the Permian, Volga-Finnish and small Baltic-Finnish peoples, urban culture did not develop. They - representatives of the agrarian culture - were engaged in agriculture, hunting and fishing, weaving baskets, making pottery.
Life in the villages for a long time helped to preserve originality in clothing, food, construction of dwellings. Marriages were mostly concluded between their own, their languages were preserved.
Holidays were also celebrated within the people. As they said, "without noise and quarrel, and if someone is noisy or squabbling, then they drag him into the water and dip him so that he is humble." They had their own customs. So, at the Izhora, immediately after the wedding, the young people separated and went to celebrate with their relatives. Apart. They only met the next day.
The Izhora and Vod tribes retained their language until the middle of the 20th century. Ethnographers of that time noted that the Izhors did not speak Russian well, although they had Russian names and surnames. There was even writing based on the Latin alphabet, but in 1937 the publication of books was discontinued.
Izhora is one of the most singing Finno-Ugric peoples. They have saved over 125,000 songs. One of the main songwriters was Larin Paraske, who knew 1152 songs and more than 32 thousand poems.
Gradually, the Russian Finno-Ugric peoples adopted the Orthodox faith. So, the baptism of the Karelians took place in 1227. Many Christian terms in the Baltic-Finnish languages are of East Slavic origin.
For a long time, Orthodoxy among the Finno-Ugric peoples (for example, among the Izhora) existed on a par with paganism. In 1354, Archbishop Macarius informed Prince Ivan Vasilyevich that Chuds, Korelas, and Izhoras still had "bad idol prayer places." Until now, paganism has survived only among the Mari and Udmurts. Some northern peoples still practice shamanism.
recent history
Many Finno-Ugric peoples voluntarily assimilated with the Russians: they moved to cities, went to work in factories and workshops, women went to nannies. But until the 1920s, more than 90% of the Izhora were rural residents.
After the revolution, many Finno-Ugric peoples were granted national autonomy. There was even a Karelian-Finnish Soviet socialist republic(despite the fact that there were about 20% of Karelians and Finns in that territory). During the Soviet-Finnish war, many Finno-Ugric peoples moved to Finland. And during World War II, Izhors were sent to work in Finland forcibly.
In 1944, most of the returning Izhors Soviet authorities deported to the Yaroslavl, Pskov, Novgorod regions. Not all have returned to their original places of residence. The same fate befell the representatives of the Vod people.
In total, more than half a million Russian Finno-Ugric peoples were assimilated in the 20th century. According to the 2010 census, 266 Izhora now live in Russia. Once a large and strong Vod tribe now consists of about 60 people, and there are only a few who speak the Vot language. And for some, it is not native - people learn it in order to preserve it. Votic writing did not exist, but folklorists recorded songs and incantations.
In the former Vodka villages between Narva and Kingisepp (and to the east of it), only Russians have long lived. Only the names of settlements remind of the Votic heritage.
Probably, the number of representatives of disappearing nationalities is greater, but many already record themselves as Russians. If the trends continue, soon many small Finno-Ugric peoples and their languages will disappear forever.
