Editing Continuation War (section)

===Ceasefire and peace===
[[File:Continuation War September 1944 English.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|The front lines on 4 September 1944, when the ceasefire came into effect and two weeks before the war concluded.]]
{{Main|Moscow Armistice}}

Finland was required to return to the borders agreed to in the 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty, demobilise its armed forces, fulfill war reparations and cede the municipality of Petsamo. The Finns were also required to end any diplomatic relations with Germany immediately and to expel the {{lang|de|Wehrmacht}} from Finnish territory by 15 September 1944; any troops remaining were to be disarmed, arrested and turned over to the Allies. The Finnish Parliament accepted those terms in a secret meeting on 2 September and requested for official negotiations for an armistice to begin. The Finnish Army implemented a ceasefire at 8:00&nbsp;a.m. Helsinki time on 4 September. The Red Army followed suit a day later. On 14 September, a delegation led by Finnish Prime Minister [[Antti Hackzell]] and Foreign Minister [[Carl Enckell]] began negotiating, with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, the final terms of the Moscow Armistice, which eventually included additional stipulations from the Soviets. They were presented by Molotov on 18 September and accepted by the Finnish Parliament a day later.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|pp=147–149}}{{Sfn|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|pp=529–531}}

[[File:Officers comparing watches.jpg|thumb|left|A Soviet (left) and a Finnish officer compare their watches on 4 September 1944 at Viipuri (Vyborg).]]

<!-- Remember to be neutral per WP:NEUTRAL and add verifiable, reliable sources per WP:VERIFY! -->The motivations for the Soviet peace agreement with Finland are debated. Several Western historians stated that the original Soviet designs for Finland were no different from those for the Baltic countries. American political scientist [[Dan Reiter]] asserted that for Moscow, the control of Finland was necessary. Reiter and the British historian [[Victor Rothwell]] quoted Molotov as telling his Lithuanian counterpart in 1940, when the [[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|Soviets effectively annexed Lithuania]], that minor states such as Finland, "will be included within the honourable family of Soviet peoples".{{sfn|Reiter|2009|p=131}}{{sfn|Rothwell|2006|pp=143, 145}} Reiter stated that concern over severe losses pushed Stalin into accepting a limited outcome in the war rather than pursuing annexation, although some Soviet documents called for military occupation of Finland. He also wrote that Stalin had described territorial concessions, reparations and military bases as his objective with Finland to representatives from the UK, in December 1941, and the US, in March 1943, as well as the Tehran Conference. He believed that in the end, "Stalin's desire to crush Hitler quickly and decisively without distraction from the Finnish sideshow" concluded the war.{{sfn|Reiter|2009|p=|pp=134–136, 138}} Red Army officers captured as prisoners of war during the Battle of Tali-Ihantala revealed that their intention was to reach Helsinki, and that they were to be strengthened with reinforcements for this task.{{sfn|Enkenberg|2021|p=581}} This was confirmed by intercepted Soviet radio messages.{{sfn|Enkenberg|2021|p=581}}

Russian historian Nikolai Baryshnikov disputed the view that the Soviet Union sought to deprive Finland of its independence. He argued that there was no documentary evidence for such claims and that the Soviet government was always open for negotiations. Baryshnikov cited sources like the public information chief of Finnish Headquarters, Major {{ill|Kalle Lehmus|fi}}, to show that Finnish leadership had learned of the limited Soviet plans for Finland by at least July 1944 after intelligence revealed that some Soviet divisions were to be transferred to reserve in Leningrad.{{Sfn|Baryshnikov|2002|pp=222–223|loc="Стремительный прорыв"}} Finnish historian {{ill|Heikki Ylikangas|fi}} stated similar findings in 2009. According to him, the Soviets refocused their efforts in the summer of 1944 from the Finnish Front to defeating Germany, and Mannerheim received intelligence from Colonel [[Aladár Paasonen]] in June 1944 that the Soviet Union was aiming for peace, not occupation.{{sfn|Ylikangas|2009|pp=40–61}}
Evidence of the Soviet leadership's intentions for the occupation of Finland has later been uncovered. In 2018, it was revealed that the Soviets' designed and printed (in [[Goznak]]) new banknotes for Finland during the closing phases of the war, which were to be put into use after the planned occupation of the country.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rahalöytö paljasti neuvostojohdon suunnitelmat – "Ne olisivat muistuttaneet suomalaisille, kuka täällä määrää" |url=https://suomenkuvalehti.fi/kotimaa/rahaloyto-paljasti-neuvostojohdon-suunnitelmat-ne-olisivat-muistuttaneet-suomalaisille-kuka-taalla-maaraa/ |date=29 September 2022 |access-date=19 November 2022 |language=fi |author=Heikki Salmela |website=[[Suomen Kuvalehti]] |archive-date=2 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221202172422/https://suomenkuvalehti.fi/kotimaa/rahaloyto-paljasti-neuvostojohdon-suunnitelmat-ne-olisivat-muistuttaneet-suomalaisille-kuka-taalla-maaraa/ |url-status=live }}</ref>