Parallel to World War II, Finland had to fight the Finno-Soviet Winter War in 1939/40. The Soviets already had installed a puppet government in Terijoki/Zelenogorsk under Otto Wille Kuusinen called the "Finnish Democratic Republic", planning to take over the whole country. Before they attacked Finland, they artillery bombed the Karelian border village of Mainila and claimed it was the Finns' fault. Finnish cities were bombed, and the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov spread the Lie they had only dropped breadbaskets for hungry Finns. Although the Finns fought like heroes, and Simo Häyhä became the most successful sniper of history, and the Red Army still suffered from the purges by Stalin since 1937, the Soviet Union won at the End. 70,000 Finnish Soldiers had fallen, but hundreds of thousands of Redarmists. In the peace treaty of Moscow, Finland had to cede about 35,000 sq km Land with 420,000 inhabitants and the big city of Vyborg/Viipuri (the Finns left this Land and had to be resettled) to the Soviet Union. Finally, the Hanko/Hangö peninsula was leased for 30 years to the SU, so they could found a military base there.
Since they worried about the spreading Soviet danger now, Great Britain and France thought up the Operation Pike, which didn't lead anywhere at the end though. The USA broke off trade with the SU in January 1940.
But the (hi)story isn't over yet. Many Finns are thinking about revenge, the country moved closer to Nazi Germany after being disappointed by the Western Allies, and some Finns even dream of a Greater Finland.
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