Russia at war 1941-1945

Having refused to withdraw their troops from the Soviet border by even twenty or

twenty-five kilometres after the wicked shelling of Soviet troops by Finnish troops, the Government of Finland has shown that it continues to maintain a hostile attitude to the Soviet Union. Since it has violated the non-aggression pact... we now also consider ourselves free of the obligations arising from this pact.

On the same day Molotov made a radio announcement in which he said, in effect, that

war had been declared on Finland since the two months' negotiations had only led to the shelling by the Finns of Soviet troops in the Leningrad area. He announced that the

Soviet political and economic representatives in Finland had been recalled. At the same time Molotov also went out of his way to state that the Soviet Union "regarded Finland, no matter what its régime was, as an independent and sovereign State". This statement was all the more curious since, three days later, the Russians set up the "Finnish People's Government" of Terijoki under Otto Kuusinen.

"Spontaneous" mass demonstrations of anger were reported from all over the Soviet Union in Pravda of November 30, alongside the text of the Molotov broadcast. Here are a few headlines:

"Let us Strike Mercilessly at the Enemy!" (Mass meeting at the Bolshevik Plant in Leningrad).

Moscow: "We Shall Answer Fire with Fire!"

Kronstadt: "Our Patience is at an End!"

The People's Wrath: "Wipe the Finnish Adventurers off the Face of the Earth."

Kiev: "The Fate of Beck and Moscicki Awaits Them!"

On the following day, the Soviet press briefly reported "clashes between Soviet and Finnish troops".

More startling, however, was the "monitoring report, translated from the Finnish" of an alleged "Address by the Central Committee of the Finnish Communist Party to the Labouring People of Finland". And then on December 2, the Soviet press published this TASS report from Leningrad:

FORMATION OF A PEOPLE'S GOVERNMENT OF FINLAND

By agreement with the representatives of a number of Left-wing parties and with

Finnish soldiers who had rebelled, a new government of Finland—the People's

Government of the Finnish Democratic Republic—was formed at Terijoki today.

[Terijoki is on the Gulf of Finland only a few miles across the Finnish border. It used to be a favourite seaside resort with Petro-graders before the Revolution.]

The premier and foreign minister of this government was Otto Kuusinen, one of the most active members of the Comintern for many years past, and he had six ministers—

somebody called Mauri Rosenberg, the Minister of Finance, Axel Anttila, Minister of

Defence, Taure Lechin, Minister of the Interior and three others. No one knew who

exactly, with the exception of Kuusinen, these people were. On the same day it was

announced that diplomatic relations had been established between the Soviet Union and the Finnish Democratic Government.

The news of the formation of the new Finnish Government was not only received "with jubilant enthusiasm by the people of Leningrad" but—already on the very day of its formation—"The kolkhoz-niks of Tataria 'heartily welcomed' the People's Government of Finland ".

[Pravda, December 2,1939. ]

Kuusinen was going from strength to strength. On the following day (December 3)

Pravda published a front-page picture showing Molotov signing the Mutual Assistance and Friendship Pact between the USSR and the Finnish Democratic Republic. Standing

behind him were Zhdanov, Voroshilov, Stalin and Kuusinen. It was not quite clear what had happened to the other members of the new Finnish Government. The Pact provided

that the "ratification papers" would be "exchanged by the two governments at Helsinki".

The same issue of Pravda published a map showing the new Soviet-Finnish frontier agreed upon between Molotov and Kuusinen: apart from a lease by Russia of Hangö,

only a small area of Finnish territory north-west of Leningrad—less than half-way