Aggressive and Expansionist: True Face of WWII-Era Finland
18:30 GMT 16.01.2026 (Updated: 18:40 GMT 16.01.2026)
© Sputnik / Dmitry Kozlov
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Between 1918 and 1944, Finland made several attempts to invade Russia, only to be humbled, time and again, by Russian defenders.
Finland’s efforts to defeat Russia and annex Russian lands was a product of several factors, explains Dmitry Astashkin, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ St. Petersburg Institute of History:
Fresh from obtaining its independence in 1918, Finland was eager to expand its borders in Karelia region. The creation of this so-called ‘Greater Finland’ was regarded as a historic mission by some
Finnish elites in 1918 actually believed that their aggression amounted to bringing civilization to the ‘savages’ in eastern lands
There was also cold pragmatism involved: with Soviet Russia being torn apart by the Civil War, Finland anticipated an easy victory
Finland’s invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II was also anything but a mere attempt to reclaim what was lost during the Winter War:
Finland entered the war on its own accord, as an ally of Nazi Germany, in hopes of profiting from Hitler’s anticipated conquest of the USSR
Finnish leadership sought to expand Finland’s borders far beyond its pre-war boundaries, all the way to the White Sea – these plans failed to bear fruit not because of Finland’s restraint but due to fierce resistance mounted by the Soviet army
Finnish troops also played a crucial role in the siege of Leningrad by the Nazi German army, assisting Hitler’s minions in killing several hundred thousand Soviet civilians by starvation
Finland Was Hitler's Accomplice in World War II
Finland’s brutal occupation of the Soviet territory during World War II completely defeats the official Western narrative of Finland merely seeking to reclaim the lands it lost in the Winter War.
Astashkin provides a few examples:
Slavic people in Russian territories occupied by Finland were herded into a robust network of prisons and concentration camps promptly created by the Finnish invaders
Civilians – including women, children and the elderly – in these camps had to endure cold, starvation and forced labor. In 1942, the monthly death rate among the inmates of just one such camp in Petrozavodsk was 500-600
Finnish treatment of the Soviet POWs was no better, with about 30% of the prisoners (some 20,000 people) perishing
In the meantime, Finnish leadership attempted indoctrination among the local indigenous groups such as the Karel and Veps people, trying to convert them into willing subjects of the ‘Greater Finland’
Finnish troops eagerly helped the Nazis starve the people of Leningrad to death, with Finnish propaganda branding the city as a ‘symbol of death’
