Finland was aligned with the Germans but was not formally an Axis member. Yet the country was a signatory of the
The main reason for Finland's siding with Germany was to regain territory lost to the Soviets in the Winter War of 1939 – 1940. As opposed to Axis Power states and affiliates, Finland granted asylum to Jews and had Jewish soldiers serving in its military. It also refused to participate in the Siege of Leningrad.
Finland participated in the Second World War initially in a defensive war against the Soviet Union, followed by another battle against the Soviet Union acting in concert with Nazi Germany and then finally fighting alongside the Allies against Germany.
In fact, Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany during the second world war not to prevent Soviet conquest but to win back territories lost to the USSR as a result of the winter war of 1939-40. The peace treaty that ended the war in March 1940 left Finnish independence intact.
The United States established diplomatic relations with Finland in 1919, following its 1917 declaration of independence from the Russian Empire. The United States severed diplomatic relations with Finland in 1944 during World War II, when Finland and Nazi Germany fought as co-belligerents against the USSR.
Finland was aligned with the Germans but was not formally an Axis member. Yet the country was a signatory of the Anti-Comintern Pact. The German troops were primarily stationed in northern Finland. The Finnish Army advanced deep into the Soviet territory in the Continuation War (1941–1944).
Finland believed the Soviet Union wanted to expand into its territory and the Soviet Union feared Finland would allow itself to be used as a base from which enemies could attack. Finland declared itself neutral at the start of the Second World War, but the Soviet Union demanded concessions.
The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. The war 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.
Sweden declared its neutrality in September 1939. However, after the German occupation of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, Sweden was less well placed to resist German pressure to relax its neutral stance.
Finland as a part of the Russian Empire 1809–1917
During the Russian rule, Finland became a special region developed by order of the Emperor. For example, Helsinki city centre was built during Russian rule.
The Moscow Armistice between the Soviet Union and the UK with Finland in September 194413 meant ceding Finnish territories even further than in the 1940 peace treaty, as well as massive reparations to be paid to the Soviet Union, the dismantlement of Finnish 'fascist-minded' organizations and the handing over to the ...
With assistance from the Nazis, Finland briefly recaptured its lost lands, but from 1944 onwards the Soviet Union regained control. Since then Finland seems to have abandoned its hopes of getting the territory back, though activist groups — and the occasional politician — still lobby for Karelia's return.
World War II. With the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, Norway again declared itself neutral. On April 9, 1940, German troops invaded the country and quickly occupied Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. The Norwegian government rejected the German ultimatum regarding immediate capitulation.
- Finland lost around 10% of its territory to the Soviet Union in the Moscow Armistice in September 1944. It had to relocate 400,000 inhabitants, or 11% of its population, from lost territories and pay war indemnities worth $300 million, equalling some 4.9 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in current exchange rates.
Denmark signed a nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939, hoping to maintain neutrality as it had in World War I. Germany, however, broke the agreement on April 9, 1940, when it occupied Denmark. King Christian X remained on the throne, and the Danish police and government reluctantly accepted the German occupation.
In the peace settlement Finland ended up ceding a large part of Karelia and some other areas to the Soviet Union. However, Finland remained an independent democracy in Northern Europe.
As part of the British Empire, Australia was among the first nations to declare war on Nazi Germany and between 1939 and 1945 nearly one million Australian men and women served in what was going to be the Second World War.
During World War I and World War II, Switzerland maintained armed neutrality, and was not invaded by its neighbors, in part because of its topography, much of which is mountainous.
Much of the reason for Spanish reluctance to join the war was due to Spain's reliance on imports from the United States. Spain also was still recovering from its civil war, and Franco knew his armed forces would not be able to defend the Canary Islands and Spanish Morocco from a British attack.
Elsewhere on the frontier, Finnish ski troops used the rugged landscape to conduct hit-and-run attacks on isolated Soviet units. Their guerilla tactics were only aided by the freezing Finnish winter, which bogged the Soviets down and made their soldiers easy to spot against snowy terrain.
Finland, suspicious of Soviet motives, refused – the outcome was the Soviet war of aggression against Finland by the name of the Winter War in 1939–1940. The Soviet Union won this war and compelled Finland to cede sev- eral territories – about 10 per cent of Finland's area.
Finland has formally become a NATO ally. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg today welcomed the new member when Finland's flag was raised alongside those of the 30 other nations in the alliance during a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Sweden, which had declared itself to be a non-belligerent rather than a neutral country (unlike for the rest of World War II wherein Sweden tried to uphold neutrality), contributed military supplies, cash, credits, humanitarian aid and some 8,700 Swedish volunteers prepared to fight for Finland.
In 1948, Stalin wrote in Falsifiers of History that "there could hardly be any doubt that the leading circles of Finland were in league with the Hitlerites and that they wanted to turn Finland into a springboard for Hitler Germany's attack on the U.S.S.R." Regarding the start of the war, Stalin also wrote, "In the war ...
The Soviet Union demanded territories on the Karelian Isthmus, the islands of the Gulf of Finland, a military base near the Finnish capital, and the destruction of all defensive fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. Helsinki again refused, and the Red Army attacked on 30 November 1939.