Editing Continuation War (section)

==Background==
===Winter War===
{{Main|Winter War|Interim Peace}}
[[File:Finnish flag at half-mast interim peace Helsinki 1940.jpg|thumb|left|Finnish flags at [[half-mast]] in Helsinki on 13 March 1940 after the Moscow Peace Treaty became public]]

On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] in which both parties agreed to divide the independent countries of Finland, [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Polish Second Republic|Poland]], and [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] into [[spheres of interest]], with Finland falling within the Soviet sphere.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=30}} One week later, Germany [[Invasion of Poland|invaded Poland]], leading to the United Kingdom and [[French Third Republic|France]] declaring war on Germany. The Soviet Union [[Soviet invasion of Poland|invaded eastern Poland]] on 17 September.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=31}} The Soviet government turned its attention to the [[Baltic states]] of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, demanding that they allow Soviet military bases to be established and troops stationed on their soil. The Baltic governments [[Background of the occupation and annexation of the Baltic states|acquiesced to these demands]] and signed agreements in September and October.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=33}}

In October 1939, the Soviet Union attempted to negotiate with Finland to cede Finnish territory on the [[Karelian Isthmus]] and the islands of the [[Gulf of Finland]], and to establish a Soviet military base near the Finnish capital of [[Helsinki]].{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=39}} The [[Finnish government]] refused, and the [[Red Army]] invaded Finland on 30 November 1939.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=44}} The same day, [[Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim|Field Marshal C.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;E.&nbsp;Mannerheim]], who was chairman of Finland's Defence Council at the time, assumed the position of [[Chief of Defence (Finland)|Commander-in-Chief]] of the [[Finnish Defence Forces]].{{sfn|Jägerskiöld|1986|pp=88, 111}} The USSR was expelled from the [[League of Nations]] and was condemned by the international community for the illegal attack.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=49}} [[Foreign support in the Winter War|Foreign support for Finland]] was promised, but very little actual help materialised, except from Sweden.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=65}} The [[Moscow Peace Treaty (1940)|Moscow Peace Treaty]] concluded the 105-day Winter War on 13 March 1940 and started the [[Interim Peace]].{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=69}} By the terms of the treaty, Finland ceded 9% of its national territory and 13% of its economic capacity to the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=215}} Some 420,000 evacuees were resettled from the ceded territories.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=75}} Finland avoided total conquest of the country by the Soviet Union and retained its sovereignty.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=70}}

Prior to the war, Finnish foreign policy had been based on [[multilateralism|multilateral]] guarantees of support from the League of Nations and [[Nordic countries]], but this policy was considered a failure.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=74}} After the war, Finnish public opinion favored the reconquest of [[Finnish Karelia]]. The government declared national defence to be its first priority, and military expenditure rose to nearly half of public spending. Finland both received donations and purchased war materiel during and immediately after the Winter War.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=75}} Likewise, the Finnish leadership wanted to preserve the [[Spirit of the Winter War|spirit of unanimity]] that was felt throughout the country during the Winter War. The divisive [[White Guard (Finland)|White Guard]] tradition of the [[Finnish Civil War]]'s 16 May victory-day celebration was therefore discontinued.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=76}}

The Soviet Union had received the [[Hanko Naval Base]], on Finland's southern coast near the capital Helsinki, where it deployed over 30,000 Soviet military personnel.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=75}} Relations between Finland and the Soviet Union remained strained after the signing of the one-sided peace treaty, and there were disputes regarding the implementation of the treaty. Finland sought security against further territorial depredations by the USSR and proposed [[Mutual Defense Treaty|mutual defence agreements]] with [[Norway]] and [[Sweden]], but these initiatives were quashed by Moscow.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=77}}{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=216}}

===German and Soviet expansion in Europe===
{{see also|Germany–Soviet Union relations before 1941}}
[[File:Spb 06-2017 img02 Spit of Vasilievsky Island.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Vasilyevsky Island]] in [[Saint Petersburg]], pictured in 2017. During the Winter and Continuation Wars, [[Leningrad]], as it was then known, was of strategic importance to both sides.]]
After the Winter War, Germany was viewed with distrust by the Finnish, as it was considered an ally of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, the Finnish government sought to restore diplomatic relations with Germany, but also continued its Western-orientated policy and negotiated a war trade agreement with the United Kingdom.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=77}} The agreement was renounced after the [[Operation Weserübung|German invasion of Denmark and Norway]] on 9 April 1940 resulted in the UK cutting all trade and traffic communications with the Nordic countries. With the [[Battle of France|fall of France]], a Western orientation was no longer considered a viable option in Finnish foreign policy.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=78}} On 15 and 16 June, the Soviet Union [[Occupation of the Baltic states|occupied the Baltic states]] almost without any resistance and Soviet [[Puppet state|puppet regimes]] were installed. Within two months Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were incorporated into the USSR and by mid–1940, the two remaining northern democracies, Finland and Sweden, were encircled by the hostile states of Germany and the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=79}}

On 23 June, shortly after the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states began, Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] contacted the Finnish government to demand that a mining licence be issued to the Soviet Union for the [[nickel]] mines in [[Pechengsky District|Petsamo]] or, alternatively, permission for the establishment of a joint Soviet-Finnish company to operate there. A licence to mine the deposit had already been granted to a British-Canadian company and so the demand was rejected by Finland. The following month, the Soviets demanded that Finland destroy the fortifications on the [[Åland|Åland Islands]] and to grant the Soviets the right to use Finnish railways to transport Soviet troops to the newly acquired Soviet base at Hanko. The Finns very reluctantly agreed to those demands.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=80}} On 24 July, Molotov accused the Finnish government of persecuting the communist [[Finland–Soviet Union Peace and Friendship Society]] and soon afterward publicly declared support for the group. The society organised demonstrations in Finland, some of which turned into riots.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=81}}{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=218}}

Russian-language sources from the post-Soviet era, such as the study ''[[Stalin's Missed Chance]]'', maintain that Soviet policies leading up to the Continuation War were best explained as defensive measures by offensive means. The Soviet division of occupied Poland with Germany, the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states and the Soviet invasion of Finland during the Winter War are described as elements in the Soviet construction of a security zone or buffer region from the perceived threat from the [[capitalist]] powers of Western Europe. Other post-Soviet Russian-language sources consider establishment of Soviet [[satellite state]]s in the [[Warsaw Pact]] countries and the [[Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948]] as the culmination of the Soviet defence plan.<ref>{{harvnb|Baryshnikov|2002v}}: "The actual war with Finland began first of all due to unresolved issues in Leningrad's security from the north and Moscow's concerns for the perspective of Finland's politics. At the same time, a desire to claim better strategic positions in case of a war with Germany had surfaced within the Soviet leadership."</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.aroundspb.ru/finnish/kozlov/part_01.php|title=Финская война. Взгляд "с той стороны"|last=Kozlov|first=Alexander I.|year=1997 |language=ru|trans-title=The Finnish War: A look from the "other side"|quote=After the rise of National Socialism to power in Germany, the geopolitical importance of the former 'buffer states' had drastically changed. Both the Soviet Union and Germany vied for the inclusion of these states into their spheres of influence. Soviet politicians and military considered it likely, that in case of an aggression against the USSR, German Armed Forces will use the territory of the Baltic states and Finland as staging areas for invasion—by either conquering or coercing these countries. None of the states of the Baltic region, excluding Poland, had sufficient military power to resist a German invasion.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209182941/http://www.aroundspb.ru/finnish/kozlov/part_01.php|archive-date=9 December 2007}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Meltyukhov|2000}}: "The English–French influence in the Baltics, characteristic for the '20s and early '30s, was increasingly limited by the growth of German influence. Due to the strategic importance of the region, the Soviet leadership also aimed to increase its influence there, using both diplomatic means as well as active social propaganda. By the end of the '30s, the main contenders for influence in the Baltics were Germany and the Soviet Union. Being a buffer zone between Germany and the Soviet Union, the Baltic states were bound to them by a system of economic and non-aggression treaties of 1926, 1932 and 1939."</ref> Western historians, such as [[Norman Davies]] and [[John Lukacs]], dispute this view and describe pre-war Soviet policy as an attempt to stay out of the war and regain the land lost due to the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] after the fall of the [[Russian Empire]].{{sfn|Davies|2006|pp=137, 147}}{{sfn|Lukacs|2006|p=57}}

===Relations between Finland, Germany and Soviet Union===
{{Main|Operation Barbarossa}}
[[File:Europe before Operation Barbarossa, 1941 (in German).png|thumb|The geopolitical status in Europe in May 1941:{{legend|#5B8B67|The United Kingdom and occupied areas}}{{legend|#5B5B5B|Germany, its allies and occupied areas}}{{legend|#A74F4E|The Soviet Union and occupied areas.}}Note how Finland is marked as a German ally.|277x277px]]

On 31 July 1940, [[Adolf Hitler]] gave the order to plan an assault on the Soviet Union, meaning Germany had to reassess its position regarding both Finland and Romania. Until then, Germany had rejected Finnish requests to purchase arms, but with the prospect of an invasion of Russia, that policy was reversed, and in August, the secret sale of weapons to Finland was permitted.{{sfn|Reiter|2009|p=132|pp=}} Military authorities signed an agreement on 12 September, and an official exchange of diplomatic notes was sent on 22 September. Meanwhile, German troops were [[Transit of German troops through Scandinavia (World War II)|allowed to transit]] through Sweden and Finland.{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=220}} This change in policy meant Germany had effectively redrawn the border of the German and Soviet spheres of influence, in violation of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=83}}

In response to that new situation, Molotov visited Berlin on 12–13 November 1940.{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=219}} He requested for Germany to withdraw its troops from Finland and to stop enabling Finnish anti-Soviet sentiments. He also reminded the Germans of the 1939 pact. Hitler inquired how the Soviets planned to settle the "Finnish question" to which Molotov responded that it would mirror the events in [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina|Bessarabia]] and the Baltic states. Hitler rejected that course of action.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=84}} During the [[1940 Finnish presidential election|Finnish presidential election]] in December 1940, [[Risto Ryti]] was elected to be president largely due to interference by Molotov in Ryti's favour since he had signed the Moscow Peace Treaty as prime minister.{{sfn|Virrankoski|2009|p=898}}{{sfn|Turtola|2000|p=409}}

On 18 December 1940, Hitler officially approved Operation Barbarossa, paving the way for the German invasion of the Soviet Union,{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=221}} in which he expected both Finland and Romania to participate.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=86}} Meanwhile, Finnish Major General [[Paavo Talvela]] met with German Colonel General [[Franz Halder]] and Reich Marshal [[Hermann Göring]] in Berlin, the first time that the Germans had advised the Finnish government, in carefully-couched diplomatic terms, that they were preparing for war with the Soviet Union. Outlines of the actual plan were revealed in January 1941 and regular contact between Finnish and German military leaders began in February.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=86}} Additionally in January 1941, Moscow again demanded Finland relinquish control of the Petsamo mining area to the Soviets, but Finland, emboldened by a rebuilt defence force and German support, rejected the proposition.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=85}}

In the late spring of 1941, the USSR made a number of goodwill gestures to prevent Finland from completely falling under German influence. Ambassador {{ill|Ivan Stepanovich Zotov|ru|Зотов, Иван Степанович}} was replaced with the more conciliatory and passive {{ill|Pavel Dmitrievich Orlov|ru|Орлов, Павел Дмитриевич}}. Furthermore, the Soviet government announced that it no longer opposed a [[rapprochement]] between Finland and Sweden. Those conciliatory measures, however, did not have any effect on Finnish policy.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=87}} Finland wished to re-enter the war mainly because of the Soviet invasion of Finland during the Winter War, which the League of Nations and Nordic neutrality had failed to prevent due to lack of outside support.{{sfn|Lunde|2011|p=9}} Finland primarily aimed to reverse its territorial losses from the 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty and, depending on the success of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, to possibly expand its borders, especially into [[East Karelia]]. Some right-wing groups, such as the [[Academic Karelia Society]], supported a [[Greater Finland]] ideology.{{sfn|Jokipii|1999|pp=145–146}} This ideology of a Greater Finland mostly composed of Soviet territories was augmented by anti-Russian sentiments.{{sfn|Kirby|2006|pp=201–202}}

===German and Finnish war plans===
The details of the Finnish preparations for war are still somewhat opaque. Historian [[William R. Trotter]] stated that "it has so far proven impossible to pinpoint the exact date on which Finland was taken into confidence about Operation Barbarossa" and that "neither the Finns nor the Germans were entirely candid with one another as to their national aims and methods. In any case, the step from contingency planning to actual operations, when it came, was little more than a formality".{{sfn|Trotter|1991|p=226}}

The inner circle of Finnish leadership, led by Ryti and Mannerheim, actively planned joint operations with Germany under a veil of ambiguous neutrality and without formal agreements after an alliance with Sweden had proved fruitless, according to a meta-analysis by Finnish historian {{ill|Olli-Pekka Vehviläinen|fi}}. He likewise refuted the so-called "driftwood theory" that Finland had been merely a piece of driftwood that was swept uncontrollably in the rapids of great power politics. Even then, most historians conclude that Finland had no realistic alternative to co-operating with Germany.{{Sfn|Zeiler|DuBois|2012|pp=208–221}} On 20 May, the Germans invited a number of Finnish officers to discuss the coordination of Operation Barbarossa. The participants met on 25–28 May in [[Salzburg]] and Berlin and continued their meeting in Helsinki from 3 to 6 June. They agreed upon Finnish [[mobilisation]] and a general division of operations.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=87}} They also agreed that the Finnish Army would start mobilisation on 15 June, but the Germans did not reveal the actual date of the assault. The Finnish decisions were made by the inner circle of political and military leaders, without the knowledge of the rest of the government. Due to tensions between Germany and the Soviet Union, the government was not informed until 9 June that mobilisation of [[reservist]]s would be required.{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=221}}{{sfn|Reiter|2009|pp=135–136, 138}}

===Finland's relationship with Germany===
Finland never signed the [[Tripartite Pact]]. The Finnish leadership stated they would fight against the Soviets only to the extent needed to redress the balance of the 1940 treaty, though some historians consider that it had wider territorial goals under the slogan "shorter borders, longer peace" ({{langx|fi|"lyhyet rajat, pitkä rauha"|links=no}}). During the war, the Finnish leadership generally referred to the Germans as "brothers-in-arms" but also denied that they were allies of Germany – instead claiming to be "co-belligerents".{{sfn|Stahel|2018|p=8}} For Hitler, the distinction was irrelevant since he saw Finland as an ally.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=102}} The 1947 Paris Peace Treaty signed by Finland described Finland as having been "an ally of Hitlerite Germany" during the Continuation War.{{sfn|U.S. GPO|1947|p=229}}{{sfn|Tallgren|2014|p=512}} In a 2008 poll of 28 Finnish historians carried out by ''[[Helsingin Sanomat]]'', 16 said that Finland had been an ally of Nazi Germany, six said it had not been and six did not take a position.<ref name="Mäkinen1">{{cite news |last1=Mäkinen |first1=Esa |title=Historian professorit hautaavat pitkät kiistat |url=https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000004606365.html |access-date=7 February 2021 |work=Helsingin Sanomat |date=19 October 2008 |archive-date=23 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210523233020/https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000004606365.html |url-status=live }}</ref>