Editing Continuation War (section)

==Aftermath and casualties==
{{see also|Aftermath of World War II|Cold War}}

===Finland and Germany===
{{See also|Finlandization|Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine|Karelian question|History of Germany (1945–90)}}
[[File:Finnish areas ceded in 1944.png|thumb|Areas ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union following the [[Moscow Armistice]] displayed in red.]]
According to Finnish historians, the casualties of the Finnish Defence Forces amounted to 63,204 dead or missing and around 158,000 wounded.{{Sfn|Kinnunen|Kivimäki|2011|p=172}}{{Sfn|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|p=320}}{{refn|A detailed list of Finnish dead is as follows:{{sfn|Leskinen|Juutilainen|2005|pp=1150–1162}}
* Dead, buried: 33,565;
* Wounded, died of wounds: 12,820;
* Dead, not buried, declared as dead: 4,251;
* Missing, declared as dead: 3,552;
* Died as prisoners-of-war: 473;
* Other reasons (diseases, accidents, suicides): 7,932;
* Unknown: 611.|group="lower-alpha"}} Officially, the Soviets captured 2,377 [[Finnish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union|Finnish prisoners-of-war]], but Finnish researchers estimated the number to be around 3,500 prisoners.{{sfn|Leskinen|Juutilainen|2005|pp=1022–1032}} A total of 939 Finnish civilians died in air raids and 190 civilians were killed by Soviet partisans.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />{{sfn|Leskinen|Juutilainen|2005|pp=1150–1162}}{{Sfn|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|p=320}} Germany suffered approximately 84,000 casualties in the Finnish front: 16,400 killed, 60,400 wounded and 6,800 missing.{{Sfn|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|p=320}} In addition to the original peace terms of restoring the 1940 border, Finland was required to [[Finnish war reparations to the Soviet Union|pay war reparations to the USSR]], conduct [[war-responsibility trials in Finland|domestic war-responsibility trials]], cede the municipality of Petsamo and lease the [[Porkkalanniemi|Porkkala Peninsula]] to the Soviets, as well as ban [[fascist]] elements and allow left-wing groups, such as the [[Communist Party of Finland]].{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|pp=147–149}} A Soviet-led [[Allied Control Commission]] was installed to enforce and monitor the peace agreement in Finland.{{sfn|Mouritzen|1997|p=35}} The requirement to disarm or expel any German troops left on Finnish soil by 15 September 1944 eventually escalated into the [[Lapland War]] between Finland and Germany and the evacuation of the 200,000-strong 20th Mountain Army to Norway.{{Sfn|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|pp=279–280, 320–321}}

The Soviet demand for $600 million in war indemnities was reduced to $300 million (equivalent to ${{#expr:({{Inflation|US|300|1938|r=-2}}/1000)}} billion in {{Inflation-year|US}}), most likely because of pressure from the US and the UK. After the ceasefire, the Soviets insisted for the payments to be based on 1938 prices, which doubled the de facto amount.{{sfn|Ziemke|2002|p=390}}{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|pp=147–149}} The temporary Moscow Armistice was finalised without changes later in the [[1947 Paris Peace Treaties]].{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=162}} Henrik Lunde noted that Finland survived the war without losing its independence, unlike many of Germany's allies.{{sfn|Lunde|2011|p=379}} Likewise, Helsinki, along with Moscow, was the only capital of a combatant nation that was not occupied in Continental Europe.{{Sfn|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|p=320}} In the longer term, Peter Provis analysed that by following self-censorship and limited appeasement policies as well as by fulfilling the Soviet demands, Finland avoided the fate of other nations that were annexed by the Soviets.<ref name="Provis1999">{{cite journal|url=http://diemperdidi.info/nordicnotes/vol03/articles/provis.html|last=Provis|first=Peter|title=Finnish achievement in the Continuation War and after|issn=1442-5165|year=1999|publisher=Flinders University|journal=Nordic Notes|volume=3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103202028/http://diemperdidi.info/nordicnotes/vol03/articles/provis.html|archive-date=3 November 2013}}</ref>
Because of Soviet pressure, Finland decided not to accept economic aid from the [[Marshall Plan]].{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=240}} On 6 April 1948, Finland and the Soviet Union agreed to sign the Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948, which was introduced since Finland wanted more political independence from the USSR and the Soviets sought to prevent Finland from being used by Western powers to invade the USSR.{{sfn|Jakobson|1969|p=41}} On 19 September 1955, Finland and the Soviet Union agreed to extend the Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 and the Soviets also agreed to return the Porkkala Peninsula to Finland. In January 1956, twelve years after the beginning of the lease in 1944, the Soviets withdrew from [[Porkkala Naval Base|their naval base on Porkkala]] and the peninsula was returned to Finnish sovereignty.{{sfn|Jakobson|1969|pp=45–47}}

Many civilians who had been displaced after the Winter War had moved back into Karelia during the Continuation War and so had to be [[evacuation of Finnish Karelia|evacuated from Karelia again]]. Of the 260,000 civilians who had returned to Karelia, only 19 chose to remain and become Soviet citizens.{{sfn|Hietanen|1992|pp=130–139}} Most of the Ingrian Finns, together with [[Votians|Votes]] and [[Izhorians]] living in German-occupied Ingria, had been evacuated to Finland in 1943–1944. After the armistice, Finland was forced to return the evacuees.{{Sfn|Taagepera|2013|p=144}} Soviet authorities did not allow the 55,733 returnees to resettle in Ingria and [[deportations of the Ingrian Finns|deported the Ingrian Finns]] to central regions of the Soviet Union.{{Sfn|Taagepera|2013|p=144}}{{Sfn|Scott|Liikanen|2013|pp=59–60}}

=== Soviet Union ===
{{See also|History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953)|}}

The war is considered a Soviet victory.{{sfn|Mouritzen|1997|p=35}}{{sfn|Nordstrom|2000|p=316}}{{sfn|Morgan|2005|p=246}} According to Finnish historians, Soviet casualties in the Continuation War were not accurately recorded and various approximations have arisen.{{Sfn|Kinnunen|Kivimäki|2011|p=172}}{{Sfn|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|p=320}} Russian historian [[Grigori F. Krivosheev|Grigori Krivosheev]] estimated in 1997 that around 250,000 were killed or missing in action while 575,000 were medical casualties (385,000 wounded and 190,000 sick).{{sfn|Krivosheev|1997|pp= 79, 269–271}}{{Sfn|Kinnunen|Kivimäki|2011|p=172}} Finnish author Nenye and others stated in 2016 that at least 305,000 were confirmed dead, or missing, according to the latest research and the number of wounded certainly exceeded 500,000.{{Sfn|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|p=320}} Of material losses, authors Jowett and Snodgrass state that 697 Soviet tanks were destroyed,{{sfn|Jowett|Snodgrass|2012|p=14}} 842 field artillery pieces captured,{{sfn|Paulaharju|Sinerma|Koskimaa|1994|p=537}}{{#tag:ref| This number includes only those field artillery pieces which were captured in full condition or were later repaired to full condition and used by Finnish artillery. It does not include anti tank guns, anti aircraft guns or coastal guns captured. Armies do not usually leave undestroyed guns behind and we can assume that Soviet army was no exception. So the number of guns left behind and lost by Soviet army is likely much higher. |group="lower-alpha"}} and 1,600 airplanes destroyed by Finnish fighter planes (1,030 by anti-aircraft fire and 75 by the Navy).{{sfn|Nikunen|Talvitie|Keskinen|2011|p=349}}

The number of [[Soviet prisoners of war in Finland]] was estimated by Finnish historians to be around 64,000, 56,000 of whom were captured in 1941.{{sfn|Leskinen|Juutilainen|2005|p=1036}} Around 2,600 to 2,800 Soviet prisoners of war were rendered to Germany in exchange for roughly 2,200 Finnish prisoners of war.<ref>{{cite news|first=Max |last=Jakobson|author-link=Max Jakobson|title=Wartime refugees made pawns in cruel diplomatic game |newspaper=Helsingin Sanomat|url=http://www2.hs.fi/english/archive/news.asp?id=20031118IE7|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604123825/http://www2.hs.fi/english/archive/news.asp?id=20031118IE7 |archive-date=4 June 2011|date=8 November 2003|language=fi}}</ref> Of the Soviet prisoners, at least 18,318 were documented to have died in Finnish [[prisoner of war camp]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ylikangas|first=Heikki|date=2004|title=Heikki Ylikankaan selvitys valtioneuvoston kanslialle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qUL6tgAACAAJ|journal=Valtioneuvoston Kanslian Julkaisusarja|isbn=952-5354-47-4|issn=0782-6028|language=fi|access-date=2 October 2020|archive-date=25 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425151855/https://books.google.com/books?id=qUL6tgAACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> Finnish archival sources indicate that the highest mortality rates were observed in the largest prisoner of war camps, with mortality rates as high as 41%. For small camps, the comparable mortality rate was under 5%.{{sfn|Westerlund|2008|p=30}} Nearly 85% of the deaths happened between November 1941 and September 1942 with the highest monthly number of deaths, 2,665, recorded in February 1942. For comparison, the amount of deaths in February 1943 was 92.{{sfn|Westerlund|2008|p=31}} Historian {{ill|Oula Silvennoinen|fi}} attributes the amount of Soviet deaths to several factors, which include Finnish unpreparedness to handle unexpectedly large amounts of prisoners resulting in overcrowding, a lack of warm clothing among prisoners captured predominantly during the summer offensive, limited supplies of food (often made worse by camp personnel stealing food for themselves), and disease as a result of the previous factors.{{sfn|Silvennoinen|2012|pp=375–380}} According to historian Antti Kujala, approximately 1,200 prisoners were shot, "most" of whom illegally.{{sfn|Kujala|2009|pp=429–451}}

<!-- Remember to be neutral per WP:NEUTRAL and add verifiable, reliable sources per WP:VERIFY! -->The extent of Finland's participation in the siege of Leningrad, and whether Soviet civilian casualties during the siege should be attributed to the Continuation War, is debated and lacks a consensus (estimates of civilian deaths during the siege range from 632,253<ref>{{cite book| script-title=ru:Сведения городской комиссии по установлению и расследованию злодеяний немецко-фашистских захватчиков и их сообщников о числе погибшего в Ленинграде населения |publisher=Central State Archives of St. Petersburg| pages=46–47|chapter=фонд 8357, опись 6, дело 1108|language=ru|trans-title=Information of the City Commission on the establishment and investigation of the atrocities of the German fascist invaders and their accomplices about the number of people killed in Leningrad|trans-chapter=Fund 8357, Inventory 6, File 1108}}</ref> to 1,042,000).{{sfn|Glantz|2001|p=179}}{{sfn|Barber|2017|p=7|ps=: "While the exact number who died during the siege by the German and Finnish armies from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944 will never be known, available data point to 900,000 civilian deaths, over half a million of whom died in the winter of 1941–2 alone."}}