Yesterday I met a Finnish woman. Her parents are Finns, she is a first-generation American.
She was interested to hear some facts about Siberia, where I come from.
Then she asked me what I thought about Finland joining NATO.
Well, the Finnish government is reacting to the situation in the world. The task of the government is to protect its citizens. Unfortunately, the neighborhood with Russia is becoming dangerous.
Moreover, there have already been military conflicts in the history of Russia and Finland.
I did well at school, really well. Unfortunately, I can't say that I remember everything we were taught. What I don't remember for sure is about the military actions of the Soviet Union against Finland.
When Russia launched its special operation in February 2022, I started listening/watching various political scientists/historians/journalists and learned a lot about my homeland.
For example, the Russian-Finnish War of 1939-1940, another name is the Winter War. A war that lasted only 3 months.
I read from the Russian Wikipedia that the Soviet leadership offered Finland to cede border territories in exchange for land in other places, citing security considerations for Leningrad. Finland refused. Then there was an artillery attack from Finnish territory (this is according to the USSR). And then the Soviet Union began military operations.
In the English Wikipedia, I didn't find anything about the Finnish shelling.
As a result of the war:
-the Soviet Union was excluded from the League of Nations (I don't know anything about this organization)
-Finland ceded 9-10% of its territory. 430 thousand Finns were evacuated inland.
-Adolf Hitler analyzed the actions of the Red army, and suggested that an attack on the Soviet Union could be successful. And implemented the Barbarossa plan in June 1941.
A little history (purely for myself, everything is on Wikipedia).
Until the beginning of the 19th century, Finland was the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden.
From February 21, 1808 to September 17, 1809, the Russian Empire waged a Finnish war against the Kingdom of Sweden, ostensibly to protect the Russian capital of St. Petersburg (again ostensibly), and eventually this led to the conquest and annexation of Finland.
Until the end of the XIX century, the Grand Duchy of Finland was an autonomous buffer state within Russia.
World War I led to the collapse of the Russian Empire during the October Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War.
On November 15, 1917, the Bolshevik government of Russia declared that national minorities had the right to self-determination.
On December 6, 1917, the Finnish Senate declared the country's independence.
Finland achieved full sovereignty in May 1918 after a four-month civil war. Then there were attempts to annex eastern Karelia and create greater Finland (from the countries of the close Finno-Ugric peoples living along the coast of the Baltic Sea, East Karelia, Ingermanland**, in the territories of northern Norway and Sweden)
Official relations between the two countries were not friendly or neutral, but openly hostile too.
After World War II, relations between the countries improved.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians (residents of Leningrad/Saint Petersburg) went to Finland to shop.
I personally like Finland, I don’t know why. I hope to visit it sometime in the future. To experience Finnish hygge and Northern lights, try their potato pancakes and so on…
* A buffer State is a country geographically located between two rival or potentially hostile great Powers. Sometimes you might think that its existence prevents a conflict between them.
**historical region, now part of the Leningrad region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War
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