Why did the torrent of steel that made the whole of Europe tremble lose troops and generals during the Soviet-Finnish War?

When it comes to the Soviet Union, everyone’s first impression is often the massive Soviet Red Army of more than 10 million at the end of World War II, or the torrent of steel that made the entire Europe tremble during the Cold War. It seems that in everyone's consistent impression, apart from greed, the deepest impression the Soviet Union has given everyone is its strong military strength.

The Soviet Union’s Steel Torrent

However, in the Soviet-Finnish War that broke out in the early stages of World War II, the Soviet Red Army suffered defeat after defeat, and its performance was jaw-dropping: after the armistice, the Soviet Red Army already had 48,000 people were killed in action, as many as 270,000 people were missing, and a large number of tanks, aircraft and other weapons and equipment were lost. However, its opponent Finland only had more than 20,000 people killed in action.

Soviet-Finnish War Everyone has always had the impression that the Soviet Union has a strong military strength. Why did it perform so shockingly in the Soviet-Finnish War when it faced little Finland?

First, the Soviet army in 1939 was far from powerful, especially after the great purges in the previous two years. Since most Soviet officers, especially senior officers, were purged and lost their With a large number of backbones, the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Red Army at this time is very worrying.

Three of the five Soviet marshals were purged

It was after seeing the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army on the Soviet-Finnish battlefield that Hitler finally made up his mind to fully attack the Soviet Union. In the early stage of the Soviet-German battlefield, the Soviet Union's great defeat also confirmed this point.

Second, the climate is very unfavorable to the Soviet Union. We have always believed that cold climate was the best friend of Tsarist Russia or the Soviet Union, and the biggest nightmare of the attackers. Both Napoleon and Hitler proved this with their own failures. However, on the Soviet-Finnish battlefield, it was precisely because of the coldest winter in Finland's history that it greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of the Soviet troops attacking Finland.

Soviet-Finnish War

Since Stalin did not trust the troops stationed on the Soviet-Finnish border, the Soviet troops participating in the Soviet-Finnish War were mainly composed of troops from the southern Soviet Union. However, the troops from the warm south were not adapted to Finland's extremely harsh winter environment. At the same time, the equipment of the Soviet army is not suitable for severe cold climates. For example, tanks must be turned off 24 hours a day to ensure that the fuel does not freeze. Obviously, these have a great impact on combat effectiveness.

Soviet-Finnish War

Thirdly, the Finnish army, which fought on its own soil and defended its homeland, had a strong will to fight and received strong support from the people. Any modern country with a national awakening will have a high will to fight in the face of aggression, and Finland is no exception.

Soviet-Finnish War

Fourth, the Finnish army is well-trained and has appropriate strategies and tactics. Although the Finnish army is small, there were only more than 30,000 people before the war began. However, the Finnish army is well-trained. At the same time, the Finnish army, which has close communication with foreign countries, has very appropriate tactics in combat. For example, the Finnish Air Force has always adopted a four-plane formation as its basic organization for air combat. It achieved extremely brilliant results in the face of the Soviet Air Force's rigid tactics.

Soviet-Finnish War

Fifth, Finland received strong support from abroad. In addition to the Finnish immigrants who returned home to join the war, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom and other countries also provided strong support to Finland. Sweden, for example, sent more than 8,700 volunteers to fight in the war in Finland. These have become the most powerful support for Finland to continue to defend its country.

Foreign aid received by Finland during the Soviet-Finnish War

However, despite its small territory and population of just over 3 million, Finland carried out heroic resistance and caused huge losses to the Soviet Union. The two countries are not of the same order of magnitude at all. The Soviet army even had a larger population than Finland. Therefore, in the end, Finland chose to negotiate with the Soviet Union to end the war. The always greedy Soviet Union also caused Finland to eventually lose 10% of its land and 20% of its industrial output.