The Finnish Soviet Winter War 1939–40

This is a documentary about the Finnish-Soviet Winter War (Talvisota) of 1939-1940. It contains rare and never before seen footage from the official film archives (Sota-arkisto) of the Finnish army. The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation.

The Winter War was supposed to be a quick and easy conflict; instead it proved to be a bitter war that destroyed the international reputation of the Soviet Red Army. The diminutive Finnish force was desperately outnumbered by almost half a million Russian troops, but rather than sweeping across their neighbours the Soviet troops stumbled blindly, constantly wrong-footed and then bloodied by their seemingly insignificant foe. Drawing on a wide range of sources this study looks at three key battles, drawing a stark contrast between the poorly prepared Russian troops and the Finns, who made excellent use of terrain and innovative guerrilla tactics as they defended their homeland.

In November 1939, when Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union, no one expected that this tiny nation could resist the largest military force in the world. And no one anticipated that 1939 would be one of the coldest winters in recorded history, what historians have called a frozen hell.

The film deals with the Winter War of 1939-40 between Finland and the USSR. It begins with military exercises in the Autumn of 1939 and moves on to the Soviet invasion