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The Winter War: Russia's Invasion Of Finland, 1939-40
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.
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.
319 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
May 27, 2019
A very good and clear history of the Soviet-Finnish winter war. Makes sense of the, sometimes confused, battles in various parts of the Finnish boarder lands. The international perspective is often brought in with the "small war" contrasted with events of the wider World War, that, other than at sea, hadn't truly begun.
November 10, 2008
When my brother and I were younger, we were "really into" the Civil War and the Second World War. My mother indulged us in our interests, and the bookshelves in our house overflowed with several Time/Life series for both periods. Today, the volumes of the World War II series inhabit my own shelves, many volumes' spines hopelessly compromised from the hours we would spend pouring over them. It was in one of those volumes that I first learned of Finland's valiant but hopeless defense against a Soviet invasion in that period between Sept. 1939 and the Nazi invasion of Russia in 1941 when the fascists and the communists were "best friends forever."
Robert Edwards is not a historian (he's a journalist) but that doesn't detract from the quality of his writing. He does, however, assume the reader's familiarity with the larger picture of events in the first two years of the war so I couldn't, in good faith, recommend this to anyone other than fairly serious students of WW2. But recommend it I shall since it's a good recounting of the Finns' remarkable resistance to the Soviets, the utter incompetence of the Red Army post Stalin's purges, and the unsurprising pusillanimity of every government in the conflict - Allies, neutrals & Axis (though, to be fair, considering that these men were contemplating war, it's understandable that there was hesitation and vacillation that, in hindsight, may appear more cowardly than warranted).
The author makes no wild, revisionist claims about Finland's or the Winter War's role in WW2 - it was a sideshow (except of course to the Finns & Russians slaughtered) but it did cause a shake up in the Red Army command that may have given it the edge to survive the disaster of the first few months of Barbarossa, and it convinced the German High Command that Russia could be conquered by a well led, modern armored force, which the Wehrmacht certainly was.
Robert Edwards is not a historian (he's a journalist) but that doesn't detract from the quality of his writing. He does, however, assume the reader's familiarity with the larger picture of events in the first two years of the war so I couldn't, in good faith, recommend this to anyone other than fairly serious students of WW2. But recommend it I shall since it's a good recounting of the Finns' remarkable resistance to the Soviets, the utter incompetence of the Red Army post Stalin's purges, and the unsurprising pusillanimity of every government in the conflict - Allies, neutrals & Axis (though, to be fair, considering that these men were contemplating war, it's understandable that there was hesitation and vacillation that, in hindsight, may appear more cowardly than warranted).
The author makes no wild, revisionist claims about Finland's or the Winter War's role in WW2 - it was a sideshow (except of course to the Finns & Russians slaughtered) but it did cause a shake up in the Red Army command that may have given it the edge to survive the disaster of the first few months of Barbarossa, and it convinced the German High Command that Russia could be conquered by a well led, modern armored force, which the Wehrmacht certainly was.
April 18, 2019
This is a fabulously researched work. There is a LOT of information here about the political nature of the Fenno-Russo Winter War in 1939-1940.
Sadly, the writing did not live up to the research, and the actual military operations of the Winter War were about 10-15% of the total volume. It definitely did not live up to it's name.
The problem with this book is two-fold.
First, while the major characters are from Finland and the Soviet Union, too much focus was given to the British. The British, French and Germans were minor players in this conflict, and should have received the appropriate amount of coverage. The focus on this book is not about Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, yet that seems to be where the author wanted to take it.
Second, and most importantly, the writing was atrocious. The author interjects his opinion (outside of analysis) through the repeated use of parenthetical comments (like the one I'm making here), which often detracts from the narrative. Furthermore, he also overuses the comma, and often writes three sentences into one, making for one, long and disjointed run-on sentence, which most of the times leads to the reader having to spend additional time to interpret the sentence, to try to understand the author's meaning. In other words, if you take out the run-on sentences, expository parenthetical comments, overuse of adverbs and prepositional phrases, there is roughly 40-50 pages worth of material worth reading, while the rest is just filler.
I do not recommend this book if you are trying to understand the Winter War. Read through a few other books first. After you get a good grasp of the material, then you can come back to this one to read through the analysis and make a few additional connections on the politics behind the Winter War. Like I said above, it is expertly researched, but poorly written. This book left me wanting to know more, but only because it was such a confusing read, not from any clarity that I may have gained from reading it, unfortunately, as I really wanted to like this book.
Sadly, the writing did not live up to the research, and the actual military operations of the Winter War were about 10-15% of the total volume. It definitely did not live up to it's name.
The problem with this book is two-fold.
First, while the major characters are from Finland and the Soviet Union, too much focus was given to the British. The British, French and Germans were minor players in this conflict, and should have received the appropriate amount of coverage. The focus on this book is not about Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, yet that seems to be where the author wanted to take it.
Second, and most importantly, the writing was atrocious. The author interjects his opinion (outside of analysis) through the repeated use of parenthetical comments (like the one I'm making here), which often detracts from the narrative. Furthermore, he also overuses the comma, and often writes three sentences into one, making for one, long and disjointed run-on sentence, which most of the times leads to the reader having to spend additional time to interpret the sentence, to try to understand the author's meaning. In other words, if you take out the run-on sentences, expository parenthetical comments, overuse of adverbs and prepositional phrases, there is roughly 40-50 pages worth of material worth reading, while the rest is just filler.
I do not recommend this book if you are trying to understand the Winter War. Read through a few other books first. After you get a good grasp of the material, then you can come back to this one to read through the analysis and make a few additional connections on the politics behind the Winter War. Like I said above, it is expertly researched, but poorly written. This book left me wanting to know more, but only because it was such a confusing read, not from any clarity that I may have gained from reading it, unfortunately, as I really wanted to like this book.
August 16, 2021
It was a case of David versus Goliath – only this time, Goliath won.
The Soviet Union in 1939 had a population about 40 times greater than Finland’s; yet the Finnish army managed to hold back the hordes of the Red Army for 105 days, until it literally ran out of soldiers and armaments and had nothing left. Its stand against insuperable odds has been compared to that of the Spartans at Thermopylae in 480 BC or that of the defenders of Rorke’s Drift, after the catastrophe of Isandlwhana, in Zululand in 1879; or the stand of the Polish Home Army in Warsaw in 1944 when the Red Army just stood by as the Germans ruthlessly suppressed the uprising (no aid from the West). Finland was forced to cede critical parts of its eastern territory, those closest to Murmansk in the north, the approaches to Leningrad around Lake Ladoga in the south, and part of the Gulf of Finland.
Stalin’s immediate goal was to insulate these critical parts of his territory against potential attack, with, of course, Germany in mind. (The Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 was really only a thin veneer that concealed a deep, ingrained hostility.) His longer-range goal was to re-create for the Soviet Union, and communism, an empire approximating that of Peter the Great in the 18th Century. He almost succeeded, even though most of Finland managed to remain independent; Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, along with most of Eastern Europe, fell under his sway as the “Iron Curtain” descended for almost 50 years.
The author goes into great detail about the diplomatic maneuvering and dilly-dallying between Britain, France, Sweden, Norway and the United States, and their conflicting goals for Scandinavia, which in the end prevented them from sending meaningful aid to Finland until it was too late, although small quantities of arms and numbers of volunteers managed to get through. That Finland held out as long as it did was due to the Red Army being unprepared and incompetently led for the first part of the campaign. Stalin’s megalomania and paranoia had led him to purge from the Red Army, during the Great Terror of 1937, most of its leadership, including its top general, Mikhail Tukhachevski; and to insert political officers and NKVD operatives at every level who paralyzed its ability to act in a coordinated fashion and caused thousands of needless casualties because political goals were at odds with military realities. Only after Gen. Semyon Timoshenko demanded – and due to the Kremlin’s desperation, received – full authority to direct the war, and to authorize commanders to act on their own initiative, was decisive progress finally made in February and March 1940. This latter phase of the war was a template for how the Red Army under Zhukov, Chuikov and Rokossovski was to fight during the Great Patriotic War – massive artillery preparation, followed by overwhelming infantry attack with tanks in support. The T-26 and T-28 tanks used in this campaign were soon superseded by the far more formidable T-34.
Though a bit tedious at times, the book amply shows how the desire for freedom is a much superior motivation to the fear, paranoia and compulsion which were always at the heart of the Soviet Union, or any other communist system.
**** review by Chuck Graham ****
The Soviet Union in 1939 had a population about 40 times greater than Finland’s; yet the Finnish army managed to hold back the hordes of the Red Army for 105 days, until it literally ran out of soldiers and armaments and had nothing left. Its stand against insuperable odds has been compared to that of the Spartans at Thermopylae in 480 BC or that of the defenders of Rorke’s Drift, after the catastrophe of Isandlwhana, in Zululand in 1879; or the stand of the Polish Home Army in Warsaw in 1944 when the Red Army just stood by as the Germans ruthlessly suppressed the uprising (no aid from the West). Finland was forced to cede critical parts of its eastern territory, those closest to Murmansk in the north, the approaches to Leningrad around Lake Ladoga in the south, and part of the Gulf of Finland.
Stalin’s immediate goal was to insulate these critical parts of his territory against potential attack, with, of course, Germany in mind. (The Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 was really only a thin veneer that concealed a deep, ingrained hostility.) His longer-range goal was to re-create for the Soviet Union, and communism, an empire approximating that of Peter the Great in the 18th Century. He almost succeeded, even though most of Finland managed to remain independent; Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, along with most of Eastern Europe, fell under his sway as the “Iron Curtain” descended for almost 50 years.
The author goes into great detail about the diplomatic maneuvering and dilly-dallying between Britain, France, Sweden, Norway and the United States, and their conflicting goals for Scandinavia, which in the end prevented them from sending meaningful aid to Finland until it was too late, although small quantities of arms and numbers of volunteers managed to get through. That Finland held out as long as it did was due to the Red Army being unprepared and incompetently led for the first part of the campaign. Stalin’s megalomania and paranoia had led him to purge from the Red Army, during the Great Terror of 1937, most of its leadership, including its top general, Mikhail Tukhachevski; and to insert political officers and NKVD operatives at every level who paralyzed its ability to act in a coordinated fashion and caused thousands of needless casualties because political goals were at odds with military realities. Only after Gen. Semyon Timoshenko demanded – and due to the Kremlin’s desperation, received – full authority to direct the war, and to authorize commanders to act on their own initiative, was decisive progress finally made in February and March 1940. This latter phase of the war was a template for how the Red Army under Zhukov, Chuikov and Rokossovski was to fight during the Great Patriotic War – massive artillery preparation, followed by overwhelming infantry attack with tanks in support. The T-26 and T-28 tanks used in this campaign were soon superseded by the far more formidable T-34.
Though a bit tedious at times, the book amply shows how the desire for freedom is a much superior motivation to the fear, paranoia and compulsion which were always at the heart of the Soviet Union, or any other communist system.
**** review by Chuck Graham ****
March 29, 2013
A good read and introduction to Finlands part in WW2, i've not got much knowledge on this part of the war and so it gave good insight, but i felt it concentrated a lot on the political side.
A true David and Goliath story and even though Finland had to call a truce in the end, they gave a good account of themselves considering they were pretty much abandoned. I'll be reading up on the continuation war next and maybe look for another winter war book for comparisons to this one, i personally feel there should be a better book than this for i wasn't impressed with Edwards choice of phrase in some instances.
A true David and Goliath story and even though Finland had to call a truce in the end, they gave a good account of themselves considering they were pretty much abandoned. I'll be reading up on the continuation war next and maybe look for another winter war book for comparisons to this one, i personally feel there should be a better book than this for i wasn't impressed with Edwards choice of phrase in some instances.
April 15, 2019
If there is one book about the Winter War that you should *not* read, this is the one.
Go for William Trotter's "Frozen Hell" instead!
The title is very much misleading, it should rather be "The Winter War as seen from London" as its mostly told from Alan Brooke and the other chiefs points of view, and when told from the Finnish viewpoint the author doesn't offers anything new, always taking his information from other works, like the aforementioned "Frozen Hell".
Appalling read, anyone with little or no prior knowledge of the Winter War does oneself a grave disservice by reading this first. Stay away.
Go for William Trotter's "Frozen Hell" instead!
The title is very much misleading, it should rather be "The Winter War as seen from London" as its mostly told from Alan Brooke and the other chiefs points of view, and when told from the Finnish viewpoint the author doesn't offers anything new, always taking his information from other works, like the aforementioned "Frozen Hell".
Appalling read, anyone with little or no prior knowledge of the Winter War does oneself a grave disservice by reading this first. Stay away.
January 24, 2019
Marrying into a clan of Finns, I have heard often how Finland stood up to the Great Bear in a grizzly contest at the start of the Second World War. “The Winter War” tells the David-Goliath story, and the diplomatic back story. The Winter War” is a thorough and complete treatise about an important but little known opening act in the Second World War. Why read a book about a long-ago war? There are patterns in world affairs. As Russia flexes its muscles again in Europe today, there is much wisdom to be found in the story of "The Winter War."
May 25, 2017
A decent book about the war, but mostly about the politics, leaders, and inter-country happenings much more than any tactical description of the war and battle fought. The actual battle descriptions make up maybe 10% of the book, but that was more what I was interested in.
May 28, 2018
Very detailed account of this fascinating conflict. Sometimes it gets into the weeds of military details, which not everyone is into, but I still recommend it to anyone interested in history.
March 4, 2019
Book is way too much about politics, and most of politics described are not about Finland. Pity, I wanted to read a book about Finland and a war.
February 29, 2020
A history lesson unknown to most.
December 19, 2016
I read this because I watched films of brave Finns skiing through forests to attack Soviets I didn't know till I read this book (because of the interest stirred up when I was a child) that Finland had only been free of Soviet control for something like 25 years when the Soviets decided to take Finland back. The Finns were under-armed, under-manned, and short of all kinds of supplies. Fortunately, the Soviets had supplied their troops very poorly -- clothes not suited to the intense cold, little food, some men had never experienced snow before, etc. At first, Finland's neighbors and allies refused to give any help: Sweden even refused passage across its territory for necessities. Finally, groups in France and England organized to help the out-numbered Finns. Germany blocked many vital supplies from reaching Finland.
[to be continued]
[to be continued]
June 13, 2015
Accessible read on the Winter War of 1939-40 between Finland and the Soviet Union. Heavy emphasis on the complex politics of this conflict as it overlayed German-Russian relations, Allied-Russian relations and Scandanavian neutrality. It also explains the rationale behind Churchill's plan to invade Norway in the guise of getting aid to Finland but with the real intent of interdicting Swedish iron ore from reaching the German munitions industry.
The author is not a military historian, so some of the language is odd. As an example, he refers to one of the principals as having "Tiggerish" optimism. He is also not shy about criticizing the Soviet regime, which is refreshing to see an author actually have an opinion, but may put off some readers expecting blessed, antiseptic neutrality.
The author is not a military historian, so some of the language is odd. As an example, he refers to one of the principals as having "Tiggerish" optimism. He is also not shy about criticizing the Soviet regime, which is refreshing to see an author actually have an opinion, but may put off some readers expecting blessed, antiseptic neutrality.
December 10, 2014
Historian John Suprin of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth
gave a lecture on The Winter War (the actual event, not the book) at the Kansas City Public Library December 4, 2014. He declared this his favorite book on the subject.
This book examines the lead-up to the hostilities, the fighting that left more than 126,000 Soviet troops killed or missing, and the war’s ramifications.
Good read for a military history book. The author didn't get bogged down in minutia, but instead did a good job of describing the characters involved and their motivations.
gave a lecture on The Winter War (the actual event, not the book) at the Kansas City Public Library December 4, 2014. He declared this his favorite book on the subject.
This book examines the lead-up to the hostilities, the fighting that left more than 126,000 Soviet troops killed or missing, and the war’s ramifications.
Good read for a military history book. The author didn't get bogged down in minutia, but instead did a good job of describing the characters involved and their motivations.
January 25, 2015
A small,less than 300 pages, fairly comprehensive overview of the Soviet invasion of Finland during WWII. It give a lot of political insight as well as actual battle tactics. If you know nothing of the subject this is a good place to start. Does well at not over glorifying the rather miraculous performance of the Fins while still noting their defeciences. It also gave insights into the failures of the Soviet armies and what they did to correct them. Worth a read and very interesting if you know nothing on the subject.
March 5, 2013
I always wanted to know how the Finns kicked the Russian's asses so bad in this little-taught war. While the Finns are pretty ferocious and clever, the idiotic party politics of the Soviet Army had much more to do with their pathetic failure here. Basically the Russians performed so poorly with their "super army" that the German's decided to try an invasion. If the Soviets had won easily, WW2 would have had a far different outcome.
February 2, 2016
When Russia invaded Finland in November 1939, the international community reacted with shock and outrage, and yet did not come to their aid. The results of the invasion seemed to be a forgone conclusion, as the Soviet army was reputed to be one of the best in the world, with nearly complete air..
The horrors of War, and the resilience of Finnish men
The horrors of War, and the resilience of Finnish men
November 10, 2011
Freaking fantastic. This is an obscure subject that I've always been interested in. Highly recommended for any military history buff, especially those interested in World War Two's Eastern Front. A real life David vs. Goliath story.
January 4, 2009
Boring.
March 9, 2011
Decent overview of the Russo-Finnish War but way too short.
August 2, 2013
An interesting read about one the more obscure fronts of WWII
February 10, 2015
8/10 This is not the most exciting book in the world, but it covers this war well enough with a good mix of the politics behind it and the tactics used in it.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews