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A Finnish
Maxim M/09-21 machine gun crew during the Winter War
The Winter War was a war between the
Soviet Union 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. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The
League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from its organization.
The Soviets made several demands, including that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons – primarily the protection of
Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. When Finland refused, the Soviets invaded. Most sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and cite the establishment of the
puppet Finnish Communist government and the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols as evidence of this, while other sources argue against the idea of a full Soviet conquest. Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders in temperatures as low as −43 °C (−45 °F). The battles focused mainly on
Taipale along the
Karelian Isthmus, on
Kollaa in
Ladoga Karelia and on
Raate Road in
Kainuu, but there were also battles in
Salla and
Petsamo in
Lapland. (Full article...)
By the age of 22, Alekhine was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the
tournaments in which he played. In 1921, Alekhine left Soviet Russia and emigrated to France, which he represented after 1925. In 1927, he became the fourth World Chess Champion by defeating
José Raúl Capablanca. (Full article...)
Image 13Residents of Leningrad leave their homes destroyed by German bombing. About 1 million civilians died during the 871-day
Siege of Leningrad, mostly from starvation. (from Soviet Union)
Image 15Country emblems of the Soviet Republics before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union (the
Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (fifth in the second row) no longer exists as a political entity of any kind and the emblem is unofficial.) (from Soviet Union)
Image 16A scene from the July Days. The army has just opened fire on street protesters. (from October Revolution)
Image 18U.S.
Lend Lease shipments to the USSR. During the war the USSR provided an unknown number of shipments of rare minerals to the US Treasury as a form of cashless
repayment of Lend-Lease. (from Soviet Union)
Image 40Map showing the greatest territorial extent of the Soviet Union and the sovereign states that it dominated politically, economically and militarily in 1960, after the
Cuban Revolution of 1959 but before the official
Sino-Soviet split of 1961 (total area: c. 35,000,000 km2) (from Soviet Union)
Image 41Russian troops meeting German troops in No Man's Land (from Russian Revolution)
... that a 1955 satirical comedy play by Kasymaly Jantöshev was one of the first signs of the relaxation of
Soviet literary restrictions after the death of
Joseph Stalin?
... that after being arrested for organizing a
general strike in 1920, S. Girinis was sent to the Soviet Union following a Soviet-Lithuanian exchange of political prisoners?
... that economist and
anti-apartheid activist Vella Pillay arranged for South African revolutionaries to receive military training in the Soviet Union and China?
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