The Winter War: Russia's Invasion of Finland, 1939-1940

by Robert Edwards

Overview

On November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union's Red Army invaded the young nation-state of Finland, in the full expectation of routing the small, ill-equipped Finnish army and annexing the former Russian territory by the end of the year. But Finland held out for 105 bitterly cold, fiercely combative days, until March 15, 1940, when a peace agreement ended the short, savage Winter War.

At the stirring center of the story lie the resourcefulness and resolve of the Finnish people, who against all military odds--in want of ammunition, food, sleep, and troops--fought a blundering, ineptly commanded Red Army to a standstill. On March 15, they ceded to the Soviet 11 percent of their territory and 30 percent of their economic assets, but none of their national pride.

The Russians meanwhile had markedly damaged their international standing and effectively ruined their military reputation-to such an extent, as this probing chapter in World War II history demonstrates, that Germany, with proud-blooded Finland as an ally, dared to launch its 1940 invasion of Russia. At the same time, though, the fiasco of the Winter War forced Stalin to acknowledge the shortcomings of the Red Army and to reform it: Germany would fall at Stalingrad in 1941.

With authority, this skillfully narrated military history unfolds its story of the four-month Soviet-Finnish war and explores its consequences from London to Moscow, from Helsinki to Paris, to Washington, DC.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605980560
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	05/27/2009
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	535,059
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Edwards spent twenty years as a Wall Street analyst and trader before turning to writing. He is a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph.

Table of Contents

List of Maps 7

List of Photographs 9

Preface 11

Introduction: An Awkward Little Country 13

Prologue: The Stranger from a Sunken World 19

1 Naboth's Vineyard 28

2 Bear-baiting: The Emerging Crisis 60

3 Questions of Command 92

4 The Assault on the Isthmus 108

5 Responses 128

6 The Ordeal of Ninth Army 152

7 In Ladoga-Karelia 175

8 Counter-attacks 191

9 Manoeuvres: The Gate of the Year 202

10 A Hare-brained Scheme... 214

11 The Red Army Reforms Itself 228

12 Endgame: Red Storm 240

13 Outcomes 272

Appendix The Russo-Finnish Treaty, of Moscow, 12 March 1939 283

Notes to the Text 290

Select Bibliography 305

Index 310