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Finland was conquered by Tsarist Russia in 1808 and became a Russian vassal state. During the First Shijie War, Germany, as the antithesis of Russia, supported Finland's struggle for independence. Immediately after the October Revolution in Russia, the Finnish government declared independence on 6 December 1917, although due to the defeat of Germany, the German-supported Prince of Hesse, Friedrich Friedrich. Karl did not become king of Finland, but relations between Germany and Finland have always been close.

Accordingly, Finland had a cold relationship with Soviet Russia and later the Soviet Union. At the beginning of 1918, some armed men from Soviet Russia participated in an armed uprising led by the Finnish Communist Party, which was suppressed by the Finnish government; In May ~ June 1919, during the foreign armed intervention in Soviet Russia, Finland sent troops to participate in the attack of the Yudenich White Army on Petrograd (which had not been renamed Leningrad at that time); In 1921~1922, thousands of Finns participated in the riots in the Karelia region of the Soviet Union, which was regarded by the Soviet Union as Finland's territorial ambitions in the region. These historical entanglements cast a shadow over the relationship between the two countries, with Finland always viewing the Soviet Union as an old enemy, and the Soviet Union always feared that Finland would become a springboard for Western powers to attack the Soviet Union.

In 1932, when the international situation was relatively calm, the Soviet Union and Finland adjusted their relations and signed the Soviet-Finnish Non-Aggression Pact. The treaty stipulates that the two sides undertake to refrain from violating each other's existing borders and to refrain from any aggressive actions directed at the other. The treaty also declared that the parties "will always endeavour to settle disputes between them of any nature or of any origin, in a spirit of justice". This treaty eased the contradictions between the two countries for a time. In 1934, the agreement was further established as valid for ten years. However, in order to confront the USSR. The Western Legion always maintained its presence in Finland, so the Soviet Union still lacked confidence in the effectiveness of this treaty.

After independence, Finland maintained good relations with the Western countries for a long time and received military assistance from them. In 1935~1938, Britain provided Finland with weapons and equipment worth 211 million Finnish marks; Germany helped build an extensive airport network for the Finnish Air Force; military instructors from Britain and Germany have been helping Finland train officers; With the support of Western specialists, Finland built a strong defensive line named after Mannerheim on the Karelian Isthmus.

Finland's proximity to the West further alarmed the Soviet Union, which considered itself to be "surrounded by capitalism". In the spring of 1939, the Soviet Union took the initiative to hold secret negotiations with Finland in order to test the attitude of the Finns towards the Eastern and Western camps (in this case, the Soviet Union).

During the negotiations, the Soviet representatives bluntly offered the Soviet Union's demand to use Finnish territory to meet the invading enemy in the event of a possible eastward invasion by a third country and an invasion of the Soviet Union via Finland, and also expressed the Soviet Union's desire to obtain the right to fortify certain islands in the Gulf of Finland. The results were all rejected by Finland. This made it even more difficult for Stalin to tolerate this sting against the heart of the Soviet Union (sending troops from Finland could directly threaten Leningrad, the second capital of the Soviet Union), but because the international situation at that time was very unfavorable to the Soviet Union, the Soviets did not act rashly.

It was not until November 15, 1940 that the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact. The treaty included Finland after the Soviet Union when the Shili range was divided among the Eastern European countries between the two countries. Only then did the Soviets relax. Preparations for the use of force against Finland began. However, due to the fact that it took time to digest the newly occupied eastern part of Poland and the subsequent surrender of the three Baltic states without a fight, and the fact that the Soviet Union had not annexed all of Finland at this time, the Soviets decided to salute before they were armed.

On January 5, 1941, the Soviet Union invited representatives of the Finnish government to negotiate with the Soviet Union. Negotiations began in Moscow on January 11, 1941. In this negotiation. In addition to suggesting that the Soviet Union and Finland sign a mutual assistance treaty to jointly defend the Gulf of Finland, the Soviet Union further demanded the cession and adjustment of part of Finland's territory, that is, to demand that Finland transfer the Karelian Isthmus (this was the key to the negotiations, and after the Soviet Union obtained this land, Leningrad would not be directly exposed to the enemy's troops). moved 40 kilometers north of the Soviet-Finnish border, ceding to the Soviet Union several islands in the Gulf of Finland and Finnish territory on the Rybacchi Peninsula; The Hanko Peninsula was leased to the former Soviet Union for 30 years at a cost of 8 million Finnish marks per year.

In order to compensate Finland for the loss of territory, the Soviet Union offered to give Finland twice the amount of land northwest of Lake Onega, which was ceded by Finland. However, the Hanko Peninsula was a natural barrier for Finland to defend itself against the Soviet Union, and the Finnish government, which had no confidence in the Soviet government, did not hesitate to reject the Soviet proposal.

At this time, Stalin had decided to solve the problem by force, but due to the experience and experience of the previous battlefield in Northeast China, he understood that winter and spring in the cold and subarctic regions were not suitable for the use of troops, especially offensive operations, and at the same time, he also wanted to take advantage of this war to shiyan the actual combat effect of new weapons such as T34, so it was necessary to transfer these elite troops equipped with new weapons from various places to the Soviet-Finnish border, which also took a long time, so Stalin did not immediately order to take action against Finland.

It was not until May 2 of that year that the Soviet army created the "Manila Incident" under the secret orders of their superiors, claiming that the Finnish army had shelled the village of Manila and causing the death of Soviet soldiers, and then demanded that the Finnish government apologize and withdraw the troops 20 to 25 kilometers, which was unsurprisingly rejected by the Finnish government. The Soviet Union then used this as an excuse to absolve the Soviet-Finnish Non-Aggression Pact, and on May 14, 23 Soviet divisions with a total of 450,000 troops entered the Finnish border and quickly approached the Manohheim Line, and the Soviet-Finnish War finally broke out more than a year later than in history

Note 1: Because in the eyes of the Soviets, the entire West is their potential enemy, so they are still reluctant to overstimulate the Western powers until their national strength is enough to compete with the entire West, so the expansion of the Soviet Union at this stage is mainly for homeland security considerations, rather than simply greed for land. Even after the Cold War, the Soviet Union has always been very afraid of the West, and its hard-line posture and expansionist national policy are just pretending to frighten the West

However, the greed for land in Russian culture did not have any effect at all, and the Soviet Union preferred to incorporate it directly into its territory than the West's preference for indirect control through alliances or puppets to gain strategic barriers or buffers, and this did not change until the end of World War II. (To be continued......)