The Winter War: A Soviet Failure

this video was sponsored by the great courses plus it's a service where you have instantaneous access to lectures by top professors one of these lectures inspired the creation of this video so stay tuned till the end to find out more everyone likes a good underdog story in the middle of World War Two before the Nazis invaded Russia Russia invaded Finland the finns against all odds and had a shock to everyone held their own against the largest army in the world the Winter War as it came to be called would not be the easy victory that Stalin wanted in fact it'd be an historic embarrassment for the Soviets even if they did win in the end but what led to the Winter War why did Russia invade Finland in the first place well as all stories that involves Stalin go our tale begins with paranoia before Germany and Russia fought they had a shaky to say the least alliance Stalin knew this wouldn't last a Nazi invasion was inevitable the Russians saw enemies and all sides even starting to believe the non-communist finish could somehow conspire with Hitler in the future Finland was a wild card even though I had no fascist tendencies whatsoever but that didn't stop Russia from imagining the Finns allowing German troops to invade from their border the mecca of communism the city of Leningrad was ripe for the taking on the Finnish border in Stalin's mind a buffer was needed so Russia gave Finland an offer give us 20 miles of your border demilitarize it and give us the islands next year coasts as well like any sovereign country Finland said no pretty confident that the Finns would just surrender immediately Stalin prepared his country to invade the tiny country on November 26th the first shots ran out within the day the Russians announced Finland had attacked them even though evidence showed otherwise and the red army marched across the border the Finns had prepared for months for such an attack they had dug trenches along the border and were camouflaged in all white uniforms they barely had an Air Force and no armor to speak of so they were entirely reliant on infantry the brown Red Army uniform made the Russians stand out in the snow like the Redcoats in America worst of all for Russia the terrain forced them down only a few long roads they were prime targets to guerrilla attacks finns were trained at a young age to ski and get around during the harsh winters they used their speed to sabotage russian tanks even sticking logs and tracks or throwing gasoline bottles called molotov cocktails that were named after the soviet foreign minister to burn the armour out using the roads to their advantage the finns would blow up trees and sabotage the long and winding russian convoys throughout all of december a weekend many realized the finns were putting up a fighting chance including the soviets for the average Russian soldier morale was low competent Red Army commanders were purged years ago replaced by incompetent party members for them the strategy was just overwhelming numbers entire divisions ran out into open fields only to be mowed down by a few well-placed machine guns in one case they even crossed across frozen lakes only to have the ice shot out beneath them and whole divisions disappeared under the water conditions were so bad there is a story when they did flank the Finns the Russians saw the warmth food the Finn cooks had left behind demoralized from the realization that Finland had it better the Russians halted their advanced just to eat in some battles the Soviets outnumbered Finland five to one but instead of pressing the advance they would slowly be whittled down and eventually forced to retreat Simo hey huh the white death gained infamy at the Battle of Kola it's night being 250 Soviets alone stopping an entire assault but that's a story for another time the disorganization of the Russians didn't go unnoticed Stalin was bewildered and the West was just laughing at the Soviets by January the Red Army came was replaced with a competent leader same on Tymoshenko refocusing their efforts more divisions and armour was sent to Finland by February the Soviets began making overwhelming victories the Finns had defended for two months but supplies were running low they simply were too small to fight any longer by February Finland officially surrendered a ceasefire was declared by the end the Finns lost 11% of their territory including Corellia 500,000 finns evacuated never to return home even with the victory the war was an egg on the red army's record a hundred and sixty thousand Russians died compared to the 25,000 finns but to russia at least Leningrad was safe from a potential attack a year later Germany would invade Russia through Poland the most likely spot for the next three years Leningrad the center of communism would be under siege making the entire winter war pointless in the long term keen strategy Stalin good job this is Kody of knowledge hub this video was inspired by a lecture which was featured in the video service the great courses plus history of Russia taught by Professor Mark Steinberg here he discusses the general history of Russia from its origins to the modern day you can access this in many numerous courses through the great courses plus it's a subscription on-demand video learning service with over 8,000 video lectures taught by professors in basically every field topics like science history math and even really specific and on topics that continue to always be updated like photography courses are sometimes even hosted by National Geographic in the Smithsonian it removes the pressure of grades from college all you have to do is just watch and listen so if you ever want to learn more about the history of Russia especially the Bolshevik Revolution click on this link to get one month of unlimited access to courses and videos absolutely free just visit the great courses plus.com slash knowledge is provided in the description below this is Cody of knowledge job

Channel: KnowledgeHusk

Views: 1,937,847

Keywords: Winter War, Finland Winter War, Finland, Finland Soviet winter war, winter war history, winter, world war II history, world war II soviets, alternatehistoryhub, knowledgehub, history, the winter war documentary, the winter war animation, animation history, knowledgehub winter war, alternatehistoryhub winter war

Id: lWi2Kclq0DE

Length: 6min 53sec (413 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 29 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/RWBYcookie]

I wonder...

Does r/talvisota exist yet?

[u/[deleted]]

It's pretty how the Soviets learnt a lot of things especially about important thing that their high ranking officers in those day weren't exactly what they needed,and you can see who came to command the troops after that.

[u/swagdaddy1234t]

A soviet afghan war mod or game would also be interesting

[u/Autismo_Ed]

Rs3 anyone?