A soviet man had very little value as an individual, generally in communism this is whats most finns are against with the ideology. Quite alot of written info from both sides, how finns knew the soviets were poor, often hungry, no or poor equipment and their political officers hated the basic soldier. Finnish troops felt sorry for them.
2:22 Officially, Swedes remained neutral through the entire WW2. This allowed them to avoid being invaded, but also marked them as a bunch of cowards. Any aid sent was essentially volunteer work and some minor materialistic aid. However, they were still mostly worried of themselves, since not only were they terrified of a potential Russian assault would Finland collapse, but the Nazi Germany also managed to occupy Norway behind their backs.
4:20 "Why?" ...because that's how Russia / Soviet Union works. It's a cult of power. Any sort of "softness", which includes tactical thinking and valuing of human lives, is seen as "weakness", and directly as "treachery". This is not some "russophobia" exaggeration, this is how they have ALWAYS worked. The whole country is, and always has been, like one massive, brutal Mafia. And to make things worse, they were / are no joke systematically racist to anyone non-native Russian. Hence why they force drafted thousands of Poles and Ukrainians to the Finnish fronts, and later to fight against the Germans too.
5:05 Lenin LITERALLY warned people about Joseph Stalin, stating that he was one of the most dangerous men he'd ever come across; "Stalin should by no means be led to take control of Russia". Unfortunately, Stalin was a smart, brutal tactician, and eliminated all competition. And after that came the MASSIVE purges of anyone and anything that he considered a thread or liability to him and his goals, which instantly resulted execution of some tens of THOUSANDS of military officers and political figures, their names and photos literally erased from history books and public records. This was followed by the gradual creation of a literal cult following and worship of the country's leader, with the justification being that going against "His will" would be spitting on Lenin's grave, and disappointing your "Father" (Joseph himself). Yes, the big mustache Russian man was even bigger paranoid sicko than his... business partner in Germany at the time.
9:23 Lakes = large, open fields with no cover whatsoever during Winter. And yes, Soviets attempted "ice road" tactics a few times. They were sunk into the sea by the coastal artillery.
13:39 The joke here is that the Soviet officials and press claimed that all those fire bombings the Reds carried out on the Finnish population was actually them "dropping bread baskets" for the starving Finns. The "Molotov Cocktail" was the local's answer to this: the drink to help you wash down Molotov's "dry bread".
17:20 Cult like brainwashing and "better folk" mentality. Literally a matter of culling the "inferior races" and "nature's mistakes". Sounds insane to modern people, but this sort of fanatical narratives fueled the totalitarian hellholes back then... and still do today.
In 1940, Stalin's executioner Vasili Blohin personally executed 7000 Poles, apparently on Stalin's orders to make room for potential Finnish prisoners of war.
You don't have to invent details like "to make room" to portray Stalin worse than he was. People under Stalin, not just Poles or anyother ethnic minority or majority, were executed not to "make room" for anything or not because "evil Russians" hated someone more than the other, but because it was normalized. For any number of any minority executed there will be a larger number of previously executed part of majority. And this is the true horror of Stalin's regime, not NKVD's sidequests, so to speak. Under Stalin execution became the universal norm and it was a result of lenghty period of extremely traumatic stomping on people, and it started long before WW2, and this is what is the scariest thing.
@@NorthonBruce It is a very good commentary. I am Ukrainian and this is what most people need to know. It is not because Soviet Union is an Empire from Star Wars, that is evil because it is evil. It was a systematic opression, it was calculated
@@NorthonBruce I don't need to invent details, I posted a comment with link about the NKVD's plan to transport 26,500 Finnish prisoners of war to Poland, but my comment was deleted.
No frozen lakes was very deadly for Russians. No cover and perfect target for Finnish artillery. So no matter time of year you dont want to go any open area.
Soviets were bit stupid. As they thought that Finland would be taken in 5 days. It plays key role that they were arrogant. Got something but not like bulgaria, romania, Poland, Cezch, slovakia, Servia and whole that area. They did but they didn't get Finland
German reason for taking over Poland, later Ukraine and West Russia was food. They counted calories in way we dont understand now, we count them because we have too much, they counted them because they were not sure if they will have enough. Each of them remembered hunger coming from naval blockade in WWI, so even those without racial fervor agreed that taking breadbasket is a good idea. And once you fight for calories, you dont want to share them with those you see unfit, thus the killings of "unproductives". But they also were strongly bureaucratic society, so killing outside of your jurisdiction had to be defended by paperwork (even though it sounds bizarre to us).
Sweden didn't help at first because they didn't think we would survive. They send only 8000 volunteers to fight besides with Finns. Against like a million russians... But later they send also a guns and so on but never helped with their army. But they took many finnish children safe in their country, without their parents. As a finn I think they should of help more and I think that was even more traumatic for those children. Maybe. But anyway we are grateful for all help what we got.
That is a bit of a one-sided perspective. Sweden was in-between a rock and a hard place between Germany and the Russians, so could not make such a move as to help Finland openly. The Swedish people protested against the government, and volunteer soldiers, about 9000, were eventually allowed to go fight together with the Finns. Sweden sent basically a third of everything they had in military materiel to Finland, including the air force. Swedish soldiers in Finland fought in the far north and in the south aginst Russians, together with the Finns, and won quite a few battles. By far the biggest amount of volunteer soldiers in Finland came from Sweden. Sweden had a saying back in those days: "Finlands sak är vår" (Finland's cause is Ours), meaning that Sweden backed Finland as much as possible, without actually formally joining the war.
@vicolin6126 I understand that. And that is probably true. But I have also read that Swedes really did also said afterwards that they didn't help at first because they didn't believe we would survive. They just thought that we would be under Russians rule once again. And when they realized that we are really fighting for the last Finn and that we will not give up, they started to help us as they could without been a part of that war. And they did most of that help for secretly. And we are grateful for that help. But the fact is that if we really wouldn't survive, Russians would of come in Sweden also. So I think it was a little stupid not to take a part besides us at the first place. The results would of been the same but many people more would of survive. We were the only reason why Russian never attached in Sweden also.
Sweden didn't send "only 8000 soldiers", 8000 volunteers came by free will to Finland. I agree that Sweden should have sent soldiers to Finland and military aid in bigger numbers. After all "Finlands sak är vår". Tillsammans är vi starka 🇸🇪🇫🇮
10 วันที่ผ่านมา +1
@@filipforza8133 We will be testing that neighbourhood bond in nearish future. Maybe 8 to 15 years from now.
@@Pataassa Sweden helps sending guns and ammunition, planes and taking these children to shelter. But MOST Sweden´s help for Finland came after all the wars to rebuild Finland all the communicial villages and all the cities get money from Sweden to rebuild the houses etc. everything.
the reason that they need an excuse is that at this point there really are 2 german armies, the political one and the military one, and the military one keeps complaining about attrocities, and the political one cant afford to piss off the regular one to a point where they might stop fighting. ....VERY oversimplified.
Yeah, if russkie infantry tried to cross lakes they were mortar shelled if possible. Frozen lakes are easy way to advance but you are easily seen and neutralized too if got gaught middle of a lake.
Yeah, we've known this for a while now. Napoleon (I think) used this strategy of getting the enemy army onto a frozen lake and then breaking the ice more than a hundred years earlier.
Soviets dropped leaflets that said basically "come, Finnish soldiers, we have bread for you" and Molotov Cocktail is "well, here is some drink to go with your bread". And to me, the biggest irony of that is that this is very Slavic sense of humor, shows just how much there is Slavic influences in Finland... That dry and very dark kind of humor in the face of death.. That is Slavic. That is "fuck you Russian warship" kind of humor that East Europeans and Russians too have. It all stems basically from suffering that is so ridiculously out of scale that you just got to laugh at it. It comes from having overwhelming odds but having no other choice but go ahead, not because someone on your side is forcing to, but... like, defending your homeland, protecting your family and country.
The lakes were frozen and both sides used them to move across the terrain. Finland shelled the lakes when the Soviets were crossing sinking trucks, horses, soldiers and equipment. Later on in the war the shell shortage hit hard so there were cases where the Finns saw a platoon or two crossing a frozen lake but they just didn't have the shells to sink them. Also, the Mannerheim Line wasn't anything like the Maginot Line. The construction was started too late and the progress was too slow. Not a lot of people thought the Russians would attack so soon. Not that it would've helped that much even if the line was more fortified. The Finns just didn't have the manpower or production capacity to keep up.
Molotov cocktail is made from flammeable substances (usually fuel) and it was named after the soviet minister of foreign affairs Vyacheslav Molotov, who was not liked by the Finns.
The Molotov breadbasket, officially known as the RRAB-3 by the Soviets, was a cluster bomb first used by the Soviets in the Winter War in the bombing of Finnish cities. One of the first documented cases was the devastating firebombing of Vyborg on February 10, 1940, Arson Saturday. The bomb got its better-known name thanks to a radio speech by Vyacheslav Molotov in 1939: Molotov claimed that the Soviet Union was not bombing Finland, but was dropping food from airplanes to the Finns. In response, the Finns called the Molotov cocktails “Molotov cocktails.”
The Nordics offering no aid to Finland is a bit untrue - Sweden sent over a notable amount of supplies and equipment (approx. 1/3 of their stock) and the largest amount of volunteers while officially staying out of the war, and Norway also sent some aid in secret despite having officially declared neutral. Finland was certainly hoping for more, and most of the volunteers never even finished training before the war ended, but what little was given was still appreciated.
To think that all the stuff Soviets had with them would have been taken along to be used against the Finns and that they would need something like winter camouflage etc. to take Finland into their control, goes against the common consent the world had, which was that the Soviet Union would invade Finland with ease and that the Finns were goners. The Soviets had pictures of Stalin with them they were planning to hang on the walls in Helsinki. The idea was that by showing up strong, after the initial invasion and bombing, Finland would fold. Videos: "Russians Bombing Helsinki During WW2" and "Spirit of the winter war | Talvisodan henki | Karpolla on asiaa". The US officials had a plan (Operation Alaska) to take Finnish refugees to Alaska to "New Finland", if the Soviet Union would conquer Finland. The idea was to increase population in Alaska against the possible Soviet invasion. And Swedes naturally thought they'd be next: "Sweden On The Defensive (1940)". Sweden aided Finland the most during the Winter War for a good reason. Britain and France had plans (Plan R 4) to invade Norway and take the Swedish iron mines in their control. Britain had history of viewing Finland as a potential German's vassal state, and was viewing the Soviet Union as a potential ally against Germany already before the war (Anglo-Franco-Soviet negotiations).
Stalin was very paranoid, to the point of being crazy. He had comissaars with the army in order to keep all the power within the party (and with the Stalin himself), and if they even suspected someone wasn't 100% with the party politics they either sentenced the poor soldier to the siberian prison or shot right on the spot. He had KGB to spy his own staff since he was afraid some of his subordinates might try to kill him and seize power to themselves. He executed some of his best and most experienced generals since he worried they might become a little too powerful. In consequence there were only relatively inexperienced leaders making all the practical war decisions, and they were terfified of when was their turn to be executed. Therefore they didn't dare to tell Stalin that the war in Finland was going poorly, they just nodded and smiled and said everything was ok, just a small delay, they conquer Finland in no time, when they had made no progress and lost a ton of men and equipment. If somebody sane would have led the Soviet army Finland would have lost for sure. But Stalin hindered his own troops so much with bureacracy that Finland had time to regrop and reinforce the defences. I am sure that the reason why Germany attacked Soviet union later in the war is that they thought Soviets were really easy to defeat since they couldn't even defeat tiny Finland with poor equipment. 😅😂
It might be about trust in your military personnel, yes, but we could also consider describing it this way; it's about control of the power and sharing it. If you have a lot of competent people in the army, whose sole occupation is essentially to risk their lives for others, you need to keep them content. You need to share the power (with other than the people already within the political sphere). That divides power and control and you need to take more people's opinions into account, or risk a rebellion of a force that is very able to follow through. So, if you don't want to share power, you need to cripple that which can challenge you, even if that's your own military. How do you cripple your own defenders without diminishing their ability to do their job effectively? You add in a connection to people who are already in your boat/are loyal. In this case, the political commissars. For the leader of WW2 Germany, as you say, he had the loyalty without having to sacrifice a lot. Relatively speaking. Germany when Hitler came to power was in a rough state and needed something to make life seem just a little better. While Hitler couldn't paint with colours and brushes, he sure could paint with words. And he painted a picture worth, to some, blood and gold.
Even if the lake Is frozen solid to carry a tank you dont have do TOO much to sinkit all the tanks cars etc etc just make little crack in the ice and there they go. Hi from FINLAND 🇫🇮🇪🇺or like Orange Donkey did say Forrest People 😂😂😂
At the end of continuation war, finnish government and high command ended the war, while the soldiers and junior officer corps were willing to fight untill death, stalin knew this. If we utterly lost, finland would not excist anymore.
Hi Connor. A suggestion if you want more in depth historical information I suggest you watch The Rest is History Podcast. Not for reaction as usually about an hour long but if you want history bought to life there are few better.😻❤️🙏
Stalin, just like Putin now, feared military coups by far the most. So, his choice was to make the army fully subordinate of the political system. Political commissars were a threat to every military leader, officer and soldier. Putin has another system but the principle is the same: control the army and MAKE IT WEAKER! They can't rely on morale, both systems are designed to work with no morale at all. Proverbial and sometimes literal guns at your back forcing you to move. Soviet, and Russian soldiers are by far most afraid of their own. It is simple to control but is it effective? Of course not. All the way back to Gustav Adolfus we have found that competent subordinates, commanders and officers who are highly motivated, highly professional given a LOT of freedom to make initiatives on their own and be flexible, adaptable and with information freely moving from top to bottom and bottom to top without any fears of reprisals are by far the most effective and also cost effective... if human lives are counted. If human lives are not counted, then the Russian system is more cost effective: every dead soldier is one less paycheck, and if you don't pay them at all, that is even more cost effective. Russia, and the Soviets before them and the Tsarist Russia before them always relied on numbers. But.. competent military leaders become folk heroes, have the loyalty of their men and thus pose the biggest threat to any despot. Zhukov himself was a big threat and he showed it after the death of Stalin by basically aligning the military behind one person who got all the power.. This is why Zhukov was constantly removed from command but since he was really, REALLY good.. they had to bring him back time after time.
The number of those who perished in the winter war depends on where you read about it, somewhere it is said that 100,000 Finns perished, somewhere that 150,000, or only 80,000 as you write, no one knows how many Soviets perished when Russia still does not tell the correct numbers, why, maybe they are still ashamed of the whole war ,why, they didn't know what kind of nation was in front of them and they imagined that there is no opposition to a small Finland, they learn, the hard way. even though Finland lost the war, in the eyes of the world the big loser was the Soviet Union in every way.
Finland killed 11% of all casualties Russia in WW2. And wounded much more. And we did steal Soviets weapons because we did not have enough them. Stalin should not ever try to invade Finland.
Why the heck these two things are mixed - Russian Invasion to Finland have nothing to do with Nazi Crimes in Poland...And eventhough Opration Barbarossa were bright in mind for planners, and wasting resources to Finland by USSR serves that...Still Poland twist doesn't belong to this context.
The whole point of that channel is to cover each day of WW2 chronologically, not thematically. This is why things are mixed together. I don't particularly like that channel.
BTW just a heads up. The Soviet divisions are smaller on average than those of the other nations at the time. German divisions for example have over 10k in each, while Soviets have 7k.
@MrBulky992 True I was referring to later developement. However, in 1939 Finland received little aid except from Sweden. And then the situation gets worse; the US sending gear to the Soviets.
The Soviet Union had a very unique way of using people as replacable commodity. Where as Finland retrieved almost all of those who did not survive.
It's have been a russian way centuries and still is.
Not that unique
A soviet man had very little value as an individual, generally in communism this is whats most finns are against with the ideology. Quite alot of written info from both sides, how finns knew the soviets were poor, often hungry, no or poor equipment and their political officers hated the basic soldier. Finnish troops felt sorry for them.
2:22 Officially, Swedes remained neutral through the entire WW2. This allowed them to avoid being invaded, but also marked them as a bunch of cowards. Any aid sent was essentially volunteer work and some minor materialistic aid. However, they were still mostly worried of themselves, since not only were they terrified of a potential Russian assault would Finland collapse, but the Nazi Germany also managed to occupy Norway behind their backs.
4:20 "Why?" ...because that's how Russia / Soviet Union works. It's a cult of power. Any sort of "softness", which includes tactical thinking and valuing of human lives, is seen as "weakness", and directly as "treachery". This is not some "russophobia" exaggeration, this is how they have ALWAYS worked. The whole country is, and always has been, like one massive, brutal Mafia. And to make things worse, they were / are no joke systematically racist to anyone non-native Russian. Hence why they force drafted thousands of Poles and Ukrainians to the Finnish fronts, and later to fight against the Germans too.
5:05 Lenin LITERALLY warned people about Joseph Stalin, stating that he was one of the most dangerous men he'd ever come across; "Stalin should by no means be led to take control of Russia". Unfortunately, Stalin was a smart, brutal tactician, and eliminated all competition. And after that came the MASSIVE purges of anyone and anything that he considered a thread or liability to him and his goals, which instantly resulted execution of some tens of THOUSANDS of military officers and political figures, their names and photos literally erased from history books and public records. This was followed by the gradual creation of a literal cult following and worship of the country's leader, with the justification being that going against "His will" would be spitting on Lenin's grave, and disappointing your "Father" (Joseph himself).
Yes, the big mustache Russian man was even bigger paranoid sicko than his... business partner in Germany at the time.
9:23 Lakes = large, open fields with no cover whatsoever during Winter. And yes, Soviets attempted "ice road" tactics a few times. They were sunk into the sea by the coastal artillery.
13:39 The joke here is that the Soviet officials and press claimed that all those fire bombings the Reds carried out on the Finnish population was actually them "dropping bread baskets" for the starving Finns. The "Molotov Cocktail" was the local's answer to this: the drink to help you wash down Molotov's "dry bread".
17:20 Cult like brainwashing and "better folk" mentality. Literally a matter of culling the "inferior races" and "nature's mistakes". Sounds insane to modern people, but this sort of fanatical narratives fueled the totalitarian hellholes back then... and still do today.
In 1940, Stalin's executioner Vasili Blohin personally executed 7000 Poles, apparently on Stalin's orders to make room for potential Finnish prisoners of war.
You don't have to invent details like "to make room" to portray Stalin worse than he was. People under Stalin, not just Poles or anyother ethnic minority or majority, were executed not to "make room" for anything or not because "evil Russians" hated someone more than the other, but because it was normalized. For any number of any minority executed there will be a larger number of previously executed part of majority. And this is the true horror of Stalin's regime, not NKVD's sidequests, so to speak. Under Stalin execution became the universal norm and it was a result of lenghty period of extremely traumatic stomping on people, and it started long before WW2, and this is what is the scariest thing.
@@NorthonBruce It is a very good commentary. I am Ukrainian and this is what most people need to know. It is not because Soviet Union is an Empire from Star Wars, that is evil because it is evil. It was a systematic opression, it was calculated
@@NorthonBruce I don't need to invent details, I posted a comment with link about the NKVD's plan to transport 26,500 Finnish prisoners of war to Poland, but my comment was deleted.
You can also bomb the ice of lakes so the attacking troops and tanks go to the bottom of the lake, that tactic was used in Finland.
No frozen lakes was very deadly for Russians. No cover and perfect target for Finnish artillery. So no matter time of year you dont want to go any open area.
Soviets were bit stupid. As they thought that Finland would be taken in 5 days. It plays
key role that they were arrogant. Got something but not like bulgaria, romania, Poland, Cezch, slovakia, Servia and whole that area. They did but they didn't get Finland
9:21 Ice was mostly left unbroken as it could later amplify the effect of friendly artillery.
German reason for taking over Poland, later Ukraine and West Russia was food. They counted calories in way we dont understand now, we count them because we have too much, they counted them because they were not sure if they will have enough. Each of them remembered hunger coming from naval blockade in WWI, so even those without racial fervor agreed that taking breadbasket is a good idea. And once you fight for calories, you dont want to share them with those you see unfit, thus the killings of "unproductives". But they also were strongly bureaucratic society, so killing outside of your jurisdiction had to be defended by paperwork (even though it sounds bizarre to us).
Sweden didn't help at first because they didn't think we would survive. They send only 8000 volunteers to fight besides with Finns. Against like a million russians... But later they send also a guns and so on but never helped with their army. But they took many finnish children safe in their country, without their parents. As a finn I think they should of help more and I think that was even more traumatic for those children. Maybe. But anyway we are grateful for all help what we got.
That is a bit of a one-sided perspective. Sweden was in-between a rock and a hard place between Germany and the Russians, so could not make such a move as to help Finland openly. The Swedish people protested against the government, and volunteer soldiers, about 9000, were eventually allowed to go fight together with the Finns.
Sweden sent basically a third of everything they had in military materiel to Finland, including the air force.
Swedish soldiers in Finland fought in the far north and in the south aginst Russians, together with the Finns, and won quite a few battles. By far the biggest amount of volunteer soldiers in Finland came from Sweden.
Sweden had a saying back in those days: "Finlands sak är vår" (Finland's cause is Ours), meaning that Sweden backed Finland as much as possible, without actually formally joining the war.
@vicolin6126 I understand that. And that is probably true. But I have also read that Swedes really did also said afterwards that they didn't help at first because they didn't believe we would survive. They just thought that we would be under Russians rule once again. And when they realized that we are really fighting for the last Finn and that we will not give up, they started to help us as they could without been a part of that war. And they did most of that help for secretly. And we are grateful for that help. But the fact is that if we really wouldn't survive, Russians would of come in Sweden also. So I think it was a little stupid not to take a part besides us at the first place. The results would of been the same but many people more would of survive. We were the only reason why Russian never attached in Sweden also.
Sweden didn't send "only 8000 soldiers", 8000 volunteers came by free will to Finland. I agree that Sweden should have sent soldiers to Finland and military aid in bigger numbers. After all "Finlands sak är vår". Tillsammans är vi starka 🇸🇪🇫🇮
@@filipforza8133 We will be testing that neighbourhood bond in nearish future. Maybe 8 to 15 years from now.
@@Pataassa Sweden helps sending guns and ammunition, planes and taking these children to shelter. But MOST Sweden´s help for Finland came after all the wars to rebuild Finland all the communicial villages and all the cities get money from Sweden to rebuild the houses etc. everything.
Finns waited for russians to cross the ice before bombing to break it. Happened many times
soviets*
17:08 because the nazis thought they were sub human
the reason that they need an excuse is that at this point there really are 2 german armies, the political one and the military one, and the military one keeps complaining about attrocities, and the political one cant afford to piss off the regular one to a point where they might stop fighting. ....VERY oversimplified.
Yeah, if russkie infantry tried to cross lakes they were mortar shelled if possible. Frozen lakes are easy way to advance but you are easily seen and neutralized too if got gaught middle of a lake.
Yeah, we've known this for a while now. Napoleon (I think) used this strategy of getting the enemy army onto a frozen lake and then breaking the ice more than a hundred years earlier.
@garbage2882 ah yeah 🧐
@garbage2882 Lucky for us it took the russians longer than a hundred years to get the memo🕳️💦🥶
Soviet*
in a way, yes, but you don't shoot them right away if there is no one at the pond
Soviets dropped leaflets that said basically "come, Finnish soldiers, we have bread for you" and Molotov Cocktail is "well, here is some drink to go with your bread".
And to me, the biggest irony of that is that this is very Slavic sense of humor, shows just how much there is Slavic influences in Finland... That dry and very dark kind of humor in the face of death.. That is Slavic. That is "fuck you Russian warship" kind of humor that East Europeans and Russians too have. It all stems basically from suffering that is so ridiculously out of scale that you just got to laugh at it. It comes from having overwhelming odds but having no other choice but go ahead, not because someone on your side is forcing to, but... like, defending your homeland, protecting your family and country.
Finland mined the frozen lakes, whole armies were swallowed up in the frozen waters
The lakes were frozen and both sides used them to move across the terrain. Finland shelled the lakes when the Soviets were crossing sinking trucks, horses, soldiers and equipment. Later on in the war the shell shortage hit hard so there were cases where the Finns saw a platoon or two crossing a frozen lake but they just didn't have the shells to sink them.
Also, the Mannerheim Line wasn't anything like the Maginot Line. The construction was started too late and the progress was too slow. Not a lot of people thought the Russians would attack so soon. Not that it would've helped that much even if the line was more fortified. The Finns just didn't have the manpower or production capacity to keep up.
Molotov cocktail is made from flammeable substances (usually fuel) and it was named after the soviet minister of foreign affairs Vyacheslav Molotov, who was not liked by the Finns.
The Molotov breadbasket, officially known as the RRAB-3 by the Soviets, was a cluster bomb first used by the Soviets in the Winter War in the bombing of Finnish cities. One of the first documented cases was the devastating firebombing of Vyborg on February 10, 1940, Arson Saturday.
The bomb got its better-known name thanks to a radio speech by Vyacheslav Molotov in 1939: Molotov claimed that the Soviet Union was not bombing Finland, but was dropping food from airplanes to the Finns. In response, the Finns called the Molotov cocktails “Molotov cocktails.”
@ravenfin1916 Yes i read that in Wikipedia.
@tovarishdimov3317 I copy-pasted because I was too lazy to write. write. I just wanted to clarify.
The Nordics offering no aid to Finland is a bit untrue - Sweden sent over a notable amount of supplies and equipment (approx. 1/3 of their stock) and the largest amount of volunteers while officially staying out of the war, and Norway also sent some aid in secret despite having officially declared neutral.
Finland was certainly hoping for more, and most of the volunteers never even finished training before the war ended, but what little was given was still appreciated.
This is just the beginning of the war. Indy will talk about it later.
Unless the orders are to run, Kollaa will hold. - Aarne "Terror of Morocco" Juutilainen
To think that all the stuff Soviets had with them would have been taken along to be used against the Finns and that they would need something like winter camouflage etc. to take Finland into their control, goes against the common consent the world had, which was that the Soviet Union would invade Finland with ease and that the Finns were goners. The Soviets had pictures of Stalin with them they were planning to hang on the walls in Helsinki. The idea was that by showing up strong, after the initial invasion and bombing, Finland would fold. Videos: "Russians Bombing Helsinki During WW2" and "Spirit of the winter war | Talvisodan henki | Karpolla on asiaa". The US officials had a plan (Operation Alaska) to take Finnish refugees to Alaska to "New Finland", if the Soviet Union would conquer Finland. The idea was to increase population in Alaska against the possible Soviet invasion. And Swedes naturally thought they'd be next: "Sweden On The Defensive (1940)". Sweden aided Finland the most during the Winter War for a good reason. Britain and France had plans (Plan R 4) to invade Norway and take the Swedish iron mines in their control. Britain had history of viewing Finland as a potential German's vassal state, and was viewing the Soviet Union as a potential ally against Germany already before the war (Anglo-Franco-Soviet negotiations).
At the beginning germany and russia were allies.
Strict spartan mindset, we defend until we dont exist.
Stalin was very paranoid, to the point of being crazy. He had comissaars with the army in order to keep all the power within the party (and with the Stalin himself), and if they even suspected someone wasn't 100% with the party politics they either sentenced the poor soldier to the siberian prison or shot right on the spot. He had KGB to spy his own staff since he was afraid some of his subordinates might try to kill him and seize power to themselves. He executed some of his best and most experienced generals since he worried they might become a little too powerful. In consequence there were only relatively inexperienced leaders making all the practical war decisions, and they were terfified of when was their turn to be executed. Therefore they didn't dare to tell Stalin that the war in Finland was going poorly, they just nodded and smiled and said everything was ok, just a small delay, they conquer Finland in no time, when they had made no progress and lost a ton of men and equipment.
If somebody sane would have led the Soviet army Finland would have lost for sure. But Stalin hindered his own troops so much with bureacracy that Finland had time to regrop and reinforce the defences.
I am sure that the reason why Germany attacked Soviet union later in the war is that they thought Soviets were really easy to defeat since they couldn't even defeat tiny Finland with poor equipment. 😅😂
It might be about trust in your military personnel, yes, but we could also consider describing it this way; it's about control of the power and sharing it.
If you have a lot of competent people in the army, whose sole occupation is essentially to risk their lives for others, you need to keep them content. You need to share the power (with other than the people already within the political sphere). That divides power and control and you need to take more people's opinions into account, or risk a rebellion of a force that is very able to follow through. So, if you don't want to share power, you need to cripple that which can challenge you, even if that's your own military. How do you cripple your own defenders without diminishing their ability to do their job effectively? You add in a connection to people who are already in your boat/are loyal. In this case, the political commissars.
For the leader of WW2 Germany, as you say, he had the loyalty without having to sacrifice a lot. Relatively speaking. Germany when Hitler came to power was in a rough state and needed something to make life seem just a little better. While Hitler couldn't paint with colours and brushes, he sure could paint with words. And he painted a picture worth, to some, blood and gold.
Even if the lake Is frozen solid to carry a tank you dont have do TOO much to sinkit all the tanks cars etc etc just make little crack in the ice and there they go. Hi from FINLAND 🇫🇮🇪🇺or like Orange Donkey did say Forrest People 😂😂😂
Try to do more episodes a week if you can, get to the invasion of France quickly, also if you shell your own lake, it will freeze again 😅
greedy, but yes...but greedy...but yes.-...
At the end of continuation war, finnish government and high command ended the war, while the soldiers and junior officer corps were willing to fight untill death, stalin knew this. If we utterly lost, finland would not excist anymore.
Hi Connor. A suggestion if you want more in depth historical information I suggest you watch The Rest is History Podcast. Not for reaction as usually about an hour long but if you want history bought to life there are few better.😻❤️🙏
Stalin, just like Putin now, feared military coups by far the most. So, his choice was to make the army fully subordinate of the political system. Political commissars were a threat to every military leader, officer and soldier. Putin has another system but the principle is the same: control the army and MAKE IT WEAKER! They can't rely on morale, both systems are designed to work with no morale at all. Proverbial and sometimes literal guns at your back forcing you to move. Soviet, and Russian soldiers are by far most afraid of their own.
It is simple to control but is it effective? Of course not. All the way back to Gustav Adolfus we have found that competent subordinates, commanders and officers who are highly motivated, highly professional given a LOT of freedom to make initiatives on their own and be flexible, adaptable and with information freely moving from top to bottom and bottom to top without any fears of reprisals are by far the most effective and also cost effective... if human lives are counted. If human lives are not counted, then the Russian system is more cost effective: every dead soldier is one less paycheck, and if you don't pay them at all, that is even more cost effective. Russia, and the Soviets before them and the Tsarist Russia before them always relied on numbers.
But.. competent military leaders become folk heroes, have the loyalty of their men and thus pose the biggest threat to any despot. Zhukov himself was a big threat and he showed it after the death of Stalin by basically aligning the military behind one person who got all the power.. This is why Zhukov was constantly removed from command but since he was really, REALLY good.. they had to bring him back time after time.
Winter War was Brutal. 105 DAYS Soviet Union lost 800k mens. Fin 80k
The number of those who perished in the winter war depends on where you read about it, somewhere it is said that 100,000 Finns perished, somewhere that 150,000, or only 80,000 as you write, no one knows how many Soviets perished when Russia still does not tell the correct numbers, why, maybe they are still ashamed of the whole war ,why, they didn't know what kind of nation was in front of them and they imagined that there is no opposition to a small Finland, they learn, the hard way. even though Finland lost the war, in the eyes of the world the big loser was the Soviet Union in every way.
Finland killed 11% of all casualties Russia in WW2. And wounded much more. And we did steal Soviets weapons because we did not have enough them. Stalin should not ever try to invade Finland.
Polecam
Why the heck these two things are mixed - Russian Invasion to Finland have nothing to do with Nazi Crimes in Poland...And eventhough Opration Barbarossa were bright in mind for planners, and wasting resources to Finland by USSR serves that...Still Poland twist doesn't belong to this context.
Soviet *
The whole point of that channel is to cover each day of WW2 chronologically, not thematically. This is why things are mixed together. I don't particularly like that channel.
BTW just a heads up. The Soviet divisions are smaller on average than those of the other nations at the time. German divisions for example have over 10k in each, while Soviets have 7k.
Russia newer invated finland
Ohhh nooo not a Finrand!
2:18 average american knowledge
I think all the military kit was supplied by the USA and the UK.
What military kit?
@@TedgerYes, the Soviets had American gear.
@@sampohonkala4195In 1939? I thought the USA hated the Communists until they had no choice but to ally with them in 1942?
@MrBulky992 True I was referring to later developement. However, in 1939 Finland received little aid except from Sweden. And then the situation gets worse; the US sending gear to the Soviets.