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Patience, my dear!
I have my four final exams tomorrow and Friday. After that, I should have some more updates for both this and my Germany AAR.
Thanks, Ikarases!Good luck with that
Thanks, and welcome!Subbed.
With this being a Soviet AAR, I would like to wish all a merry May Day today, as well!!!
Chapter 2: The Winter War
The Soviets considered the Finnish border, which ran just 30-40 kilometers northwest of the important Russian city of Leningrad, to be a grave threat to their national security. For quite some time, Russian negotiators had been attempting to reach an agreement with the Finns to have the border near Leningrad pushed back a few dozen kilometers. In exchange for this concession, the Finns would receive a much larger area of further north. The Soviets also demanded a lease on the port Hango on the north side of the Gulf of Finland as they wanted to obtain complete control over this important waterway.
These negotiations continued for several months until on 26 November 1939 a border incident occurred. The Russians claimed that the Finns had shelled the Soviet border and had killed several Red Army soldiers. Of course, the Finnish Government denied this. In response, the Russians demanded that the Finnish Army withdraw a couple dozen kilometers back from the border, but the Finns refused to comply.
Thus, on 29 November 1939, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov sent a note to the Finnish Minister in Moscow, Irje Kosinen, in which he declared:
“Having refused to withdraw their troops from the Soviet border by even twenty or twenty-five kilometers 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 [with the Soviet Union] … we now also consider ourselves free of the obligations arising from this pact.”
And, thus, in late November 1939 the Soviet Union went to war with Finland in what history would come to know as the Winter War. Clashes with Finnish troops were soon reported in newspapers across the Soviet Union and a full-scale war was on.
If you recall, Finland was assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence per the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939. Nevertheless, this was yet another break in Soviet policy from the Western democracies. World opinion largely supported the Finnish cause and viewed the Soviet Union as the aggressor. Foreign volunteers poured in from across the world to fight for Finland. Britain and France strongly considered sending their own troops in to fight on the Finnish side, but never carried through with it and the war ended before anything was done. Nevertheless, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations on 14 December 1939.
By almost all accounts, the Soviet Union should have rolled over Finland, with its exponentially larger population and industrial base. We will not go very much into depth about the Winter War here as it is really not what this volume is centered on, but it is important to realize the Winter War’s future implications and the weaknesses of the Red Army that were exposed during the conflict. After all, Finland did invade the Soviet Union on 25 June 1941 to reclaim these lost lands (and more) in what is now known as the Continuation War. The Red Army’s weakness during the Winter War of 1939-1940 certainly emboldened the Finns in this decision.
Soviet bombers over Helsinki, Finland on 30 November 1939.
The decisive theater in the Winter War was just north of Leningrad on the Karelian Isthmus. There sat the famed Mannerheim Line. Though not quite complete or nearly as impressive as the French Maginot Line, it was an impressive series of concrete and steel bunkers, barbed wire, fallen trees, strategically placed boulders, and various natural barriers. Built in two phases, from 1920-1924 and 1932-1939, it would prove to be a formidable task for the Red Army to penetrate.
A portion of the Mannerheim Line.
After some brief fighting south of the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus in late November and early December as Finnish troops executed a planned retreat northward from the border to more defensive positions, Soviet troops began to reach the bunkers and fortresses en mass by 7 December. Thereafter, Soviet forces began to enter the meat-grinder.
Further north, in mid-December, a single Finnish regiment and several battalions consisting of approximately 4,000 men routed two full Soviet infantry divisions (20,000) men in the Battle of Tolvajärvi. Finnish casualties were less than 500 while Soviet losses totaled near 10,000 men and dozens of armored vehicles lost.
A Finnish machine gun crew during the Winter War.
Several more Soviet unmitigated disasters occurred during January as the dead of winter set in. The Finns were dug in well and the cold, stormy weather only further worked in their favor as they were squarely on the defensive. Two Soviet offenses in early January 1940 were crushed as the Red Army was routed in the Battles of Raat Road and Suomussalmi. Finnish knowledge of their local terrain certainly played a role as did the morale of the Finnish soldiers as they protected their homes, villages, and towns.
Finnish ski troops in northern Finland.
The Finns also used improvised devices nicknamed “Molotov Cocktails”, aptly named for Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov. The fuel for these devices was refined to a slightly sticky mixture of gasoline, kerosene, tar, and potassium chlorate which was poured into a bottle. Finnish troops would light these afire and hurl them at incoming Soviet tanks at close range.
A report by the British War Office in June 1940 noted:
“The Finns' policy was to allow the Russian tanks to penetrate their defenses, even inducing them to do so by 'canalizing' them through gaps and concentrating their small arms fire on the infantry following them. The tanks that penetrated were taken on by gun fire in the open and by small parties of men armed with explosive charges and petrol bombs in the forests and villages... The essence of the policy was the separation of the AFVs from the infantry, as once on their own the tank has many blind spots and once brought to a stop can be disposed of at leisure.”
A Finnish Molotov Cocktail.
It wasn’t until early February that, after several disastrous defeats, the Red Army finally began to take the initiative again as they launched an all-out offensive against the Mannerheim Line on 1 February. By 11 February, Soviet troops had breached the Finnish fortifications and Finnish troops were squarely on the retreat.
By early March, after breaching the Mannerheim Line, the Red Army had occupied most of the Karelian Isthmus and the Finnish government began to try to negotiate a peace treaty. On 12 March 1940, the Finnish and Soviet Governments signed the Moscow Peace Treaty. It signaled an end to the 105-day conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union. A ceasefire was declared effective at noon local time on 13 March and the war was over. The treaty was ratified on 21 March 1940.
Situation along the Karelian Front at the time of the ceasefire.
By the terms of the treaty, the Finns had to surrender almost all of the heavily-industrialized region of Finnish Karelia to the Soviet Union. Finland also had to cede the Salla area, the Kalastajansaarento Peninsula in the Barents Sea, and several islands in the Gulf of Finland. In addition, the Hanko Peninsula was leased to the Soviet Union as a naval base for a period of 30 years. Also, any equipment located on the ceded territories was to be handed over to the Soviet Union. This meant that capital equipment and scores of locomotives, railroad cars, etc. were handed over.
The Finns were taken aback by the harsh peace terms forced upon them, but there was little they could do. Their war effort was collapsing as the winter turned the spring and it was likely that the Red Army would make significant gains into the heart of Finland in the summer of 1940 if the war continued.
Finnish territorial concessions to the Soviet Union as a result of the Moscow Peace Treaty.
Despite the final result, the war was still something of a disaster for the Red Army. Casualties were heavily lopsided in the Finns’ favor. Despite outnumbering the Finns, the Red Army sustained an estimated 323,000 casualties in comparison to only 70,000 for the Finnish Army. The Red Army also lost thousands of armored vehicles and the VVS lost several hundred aircraft. It was clear that the purges had done much to hamper the Soviet Union’s ability to wage war and Soviet leaders finally saw that the Red Army was in no shape to fight a major war against a formidable opponent, like Nazi Germany. Thus, massive reforms would be taken during 1940 and early 1941 to modernize and strengthen the Soviet Red Army, Red Navy, and VVS. These reforms would prove vital when the Germans stormed over into Mother Russia in June 1941.
Destroyed Soviet BT-5 Tank.
The Soviets considered the Finnish border, which ran just 30-40 kilometers northwest of the important Russian city of Leningrad, to be a grave threat to their national security. For quite some time, Russian negotiators had been attempting to reach an agreement with the Finns to have the border near Leningrad pushed back a few dozen kilometers. In exchange for this concession, the Finns would receive a much larger area of further north. The Soviets also demanded a lease on the port Hango on the north side of the Gulf of Finland as they wanted to obtain complete control over this important waterway.
These negotiations continued for several months until on 26 November 1939 a border incident occurred. The Russians claimed that the Finns had shelled the Soviet border and had killed several Red Army soldiers. Of course, the Finnish Government denied this. In response, the Russians demanded that the Finnish Army withdraw a couple dozen kilometers back from the border, but the Finns refused to comply.
Thus, on 29 November 1939, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov sent a note to the Finnish Minister in Moscow, Irje Kosinen, in which he declared:
“Having refused to withdraw their troops from the Soviet border by even twenty or twenty-five kilometers 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 [with the Soviet Union] … we now also consider ourselves free of the obligations arising from this pact.”
And, thus, in late November 1939 the Soviet Union went to war with Finland in what history would come to know as the Winter War. Clashes with Finnish troops were soon reported in newspapers across the Soviet Union and a full-scale war was on.
If you recall, Finland was assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence per the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939. Nevertheless, this was yet another break in Soviet policy from the Western democracies. World opinion largely supported the Finnish cause and viewed the Soviet Union as the aggressor. Foreign volunteers poured in from across the world to fight for Finland. Britain and France strongly considered sending their own troops in to fight on the Finnish side, but never carried through with it and the war ended before anything was done. Nevertheless, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations on 14 December 1939.
By almost all accounts, the Soviet Union should have rolled over Finland, with its exponentially larger population and industrial base. We will not go very much into depth about the Winter War here as it is really not what this volume is centered on, but it is important to realize the Winter War’s future implications and the weaknesses of the Red Army that were exposed during the conflict. After all, Finland did invade the Soviet Union on 25 June 1941 to reclaim these lost lands (and more) in what is now known as the Continuation War. The Red Army’s weakness during the Winter War of 1939-1940 certainly emboldened the Finns in this decision.
Soviet bombers over Helsinki, Finland on 30 November 1939.
The decisive theater in the Winter War was just north of Leningrad on the Karelian Isthmus. There sat the famed Mannerheim Line. Though not quite complete or nearly as impressive as the French Maginot Line, it was an impressive series of concrete and steel bunkers, barbed wire, fallen trees, strategically placed boulders, and various natural barriers. Built in two phases, from 1920-1924 and 1932-1939, it would prove to be a formidable task for the Red Army to penetrate.
A portion of the Mannerheim Line.
After some brief fighting south of the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus in late November and early December as Finnish troops executed a planned retreat northward from the border to more defensive positions, Soviet troops began to reach the bunkers and fortresses en mass by 7 December. Thereafter, Soviet forces began to enter the meat-grinder.
Further north, in mid-December, a single Finnish regiment and several battalions consisting of approximately 4,000 men routed two full Soviet infantry divisions (20,000) men in the Battle of Tolvajärvi. Finnish casualties were less than 500 while Soviet losses totaled near 10,000 men and dozens of armored vehicles lost.
A Finnish machine gun crew during the Winter War.
Several more Soviet unmitigated disasters occurred during January as the dead of winter set in. The Finns were dug in well and the cold, stormy weather only further worked in their favor as they were squarely on the defensive. Two Soviet offenses in early January 1940 were crushed as the Red Army was routed in the Battles of Raat Road and Suomussalmi. Finnish knowledge of their local terrain certainly played a role as did the morale of the Finnish soldiers as they protected their homes, villages, and towns.
Finnish ski troops in northern Finland.
The Finns also used improvised devices nicknamed “Molotov Cocktails”, aptly named for Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov. The fuel for these devices was refined to a slightly sticky mixture of gasoline, kerosene, tar, and potassium chlorate which was poured into a bottle. Finnish troops would light these afire and hurl them at incoming Soviet tanks at close range.
A report by the British War Office in June 1940 noted:
“The Finns' policy was to allow the Russian tanks to penetrate their defenses, even inducing them to do so by 'canalizing' them through gaps and concentrating their small arms fire on the infantry following them. The tanks that penetrated were taken on by gun fire in the open and by small parties of men armed with explosive charges and petrol bombs in the forests and villages... The essence of the policy was the separation of the AFVs from the infantry, as once on their own the tank has many blind spots and once brought to a stop can be disposed of at leisure.”
A Finnish Molotov Cocktail.
It wasn’t until early February that, after several disastrous defeats, the Red Army finally began to take the initiative again as they launched an all-out offensive against the Mannerheim Line on 1 February. By 11 February, Soviet troops had breached the Finnish fortifications and Finnish troops were squarely on the retreat.
By early March, after breaching the Mannerheim Line, the Red Army had occupied most of the Karelian Isthmus and the Finnish government began to try to negotiate a peace treaty. On 12 March 1940, the Finnish and Soviet Governments signed the Moscow Peace Treaty. It signaled an end to the 105-day conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union. A ceasefire was declared effective at noon local time on 13 March and the war was over. The treaty was ratified on 21 March 1940.
Situation along the Karelian Front at the time of the ceasefire.
By the terms of the treaty, the Finns had to surrender almost all of the heavily-industrialized region of Finnish Karelia to the Soviet Union. Finland also had to cede the Salla area, the Kalastajansaarento Peninsula in the Barents Sea, and several islands in the Gulf of Finland. In addition, the Hanko Peninsula was leased to the Soviet Union as a naval base for a period of 30 years. Also, any equipment located on the ceded territories was to be handed over to the Soviet Union. This meant that capital equipment and scores of locomotives, railroad cars, etc. were handed over.
The Finns were taken aback by the harsh peace terms forced upon them, but there was little they could do. Their war effort was collapsing as the winter turned the spring and it was likely that the Red Army would make significant gains into the heart of Finland in the summer of 1940 if the war continued.
Finnish territorial concessions to the Soviet Union as a result of the Moscow Peace Treaty.
Despite the final result, the war was still something of a disaster for the Red Army. Casualties were heavily lopsided in the Finns’ favor. Despite outnumbering the Finns, the Red Army sustained an estimated 323,000 casualties in comparison to only 70,000 for the Finnish Army. The Red Army also lost thousands of armored vehicles and the VVS lost several hundred aircraft. It was clear that the purges had done much to hamper the Soviet Union’s ability to wage war and Soviet leaders finally saw that the Red Army was in no shape to fight a major war against a formidable opponent, like Nazi Germany. Thus, massive reforms would be taken during 1940 and early 1941 to modernize and strengthen the Soviet Red Army, Red Navy, and VVS. These reforms would prove vital when the Germans stormed over into Mother Russia in June 1941.
Destroyed Soviet BT-5 Tank.
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Half of them are on Wikipedia and half of them on Google
Seriously, I had a presentation about Winter War in school and I used at least three pictures SJ used
Half of them are on Wikipedia and half of them on Google
Seriously, I had a presentation about Winter War in school and I used at least three pictures SJ used
Yeah, the maps are from Wikipedia as are some of the pictures. The Molotov Cocktail is just a cropped Wikipedia image. Some of the other ones are from various other sites found via a Google search.
I have a couple web sites that have a ton of pictures from the Eastern Front of WWII (from both the Russian and German perspectives) that I plan to use once the real fighting starts.
Anyways, my last final exam for university was on Friday (all I have left is a speech which won't be very time-consuming). Thus, updates should pick up to this and my German AAR since my job doesn't start until the end of the month.
I plan to post two more updates or so before the actual fighting starts and things start to go downhill as my units shatter all across the plains of White Russia and Western Ukraine...
Wow that was a very good winter war presentation. Better than history book in my school if you ask me.
Thank you and welcome.
I kind of glossed over the northern front of the war (which wasn't really the crucial front, anyways), but the update was already running long and I didn't want to make a bigger wall of text than I already had.
Nice update and photos. The Finns really slapped the Russians around until just overwhelmed by huge numbers. Sort of like........the Germans a few years later. Just imagine if the few good Russian Generals left (ie Zhukov, etc) had been purged how bad the Russian Army would have been when the Wehrmacht came kicking in the front door.......
The strength ... and number ... of the Soviet worker is unmatched by any other on Earth! The Red Army is driven by the grit and determination of the great peoples that inhabit this great nation of ours as we bring socialism to all the oppressed peoples of the world!
Thanks!Interesting update. Made me to read about the Winter War at Wikipedia
This is off-topic, but speaking of Molotov Cocktails and relating to today's news.......
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/domes...-minnesota-fbi/story?id=19118115#.UYiqebWsiSo
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/domes...-minnesota-fbi/story?id=19118115#.UYiqebWsiSo
Chapter 3: The Soviet Annexation of the Baltic States, Bessarabia, and Northern Bukovina
Following the fall of Poland and the annexation of Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine in October, the Soviet Union wasted no time in turning to the question of the Baltic States. The Soviets signed “mutual aid and trade agreements” with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania which gave the Soviet Union army, naval, and air bases in all three Baltic States.
In addition, the city of Vilnius was handed over to Lithuania after the fall of Poland. Poland and Lithuania nearly went to war over the city in the late 1930s. The city had been under Polish control since the formation of Poland in 1920. Vilnius would eventually become the capital of the Lithuanian S.S.R.
Lithuanian soldiers march through Vilnius during a military parade after its liberation from Poland in 1939.
Nevertheless, these so-called mutual agreements were really just the first step in a series of events which would eventually result in the Soviet Union annexing all three nations and incorporating each country into the Soviet Union as Soviet Socialist Republics.
With the Germans rampaging through northern France in June 1940, Stalin needed to do something to show that the Soviet Union could stack up to Hitler’s German Reich. Thus, the USSR finally made its move and all three Baltic States were occupied by the Red Army (RKKA). All pretense of their sovereignty was tossed by the wayside as each country was annexed into the Soviet Union.
The Baltic States prior to their annexation (and prior to Vilnius being handed back to Lithuania).
Pravda and other Soviets newspapers reported jubilant demonstrations in the streets of Riga, Tallinn, and Kaunas. The governments of the Baltic States were accused of having conspired against the Soviet Union. In addition, they were accused of having “grossly violated their mutual assistance pacts with the Soviet Union.” Thus, according to the Soviet propagandists, it was only right that the RKKA step in and install new governments that would abide by these agreements.
Given the coincidental, or not, nature of the Soviets having occupied the Baltic States while Germany was having its greatest military successes in the West, there were persistent rumors that the Soviets were only taking these actions to compete with German successes. In fact, on 23 June 1940, Pravda published the following piece denying these allegations:
“In connection with the entry of Soviet troops into the Baltic States there are persistent rumors in the Western press about 100 or 150 Soviet divisions being concentrated on the German frontier. This is supposed to arise from the dissatisfaction felt in the Soviet Union over Germany’s military successes in the West, and to point to a deterioration of Soviet-German relations.
“TASS (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union) is authorized to state that this is totally untrue. There are only eighteen to twenty Soviet divisions in the Baltic countries, and they are not concentrated on the German border, but are scattered throughout the Baltic countries.
“No pressure on Germany is intended and the military measures taken have only one aim: which is to safeguard the mutual aid between the Soviet Union and these countries.”
Of course, the fact that Pravda felt a reason to even substantiate these rumors officially meant that there probably was plenty of truth the connection between the Soviet annexations and the German successes in France. It was clear that the Soviet-German honeymoon was over and relations began to take a turn towards the worst – and the worst would soon be realized in the summer of 1941.
The breakdown of relations with Germany also began to be seen in the press, where reports on the war in the West were now being shown in a light that was no longer pro-German, but even pro-British and pro-French. Whereas previous atrocities such as the razing of Rotterdam were barely reported at all in the Soviet press, coverage of future atrocities such as the London Blitz would receive considerable coverage.
The Soviets did not stop with the Baltic States. The Romanian regions of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were also occupied less than a week later after a Soviet ultimatum was handed down on 26 June. Northern Bukovina was especially notable as this was the first annexation thus far that was not part of the former Russian Empire. The Soviets justified this action because “in November 1918 the People’s Assembly of Bukovina had, reflecting the will of the people, decided in favor of joining Soviet Ukraine.” The region was also heavily ethnically Ukrainian.
A map of interwar Romania before the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.
It was reported that the Soviet-Romanian conflict over these regions was now satisfactorily settled and, of course, the Soviet press did not miss an opportunity to report on the, real or imagined, jubilation of the peoples of these occupied regions due the entrance of Soviet troops. The Soviets have since justified these steps as necessary due to the increasingly pro-German nature of the Romanian government.
The Bessarabia region was brought into the Soviet Union as the newly-formed Moldavian S.S.R. while Northern Bukovina was incorporated into the already-existing Ukrainian S.S.R.
A map showing the territories annexed by the Soviet Union and Germany in Eastern Europe in 1939-1940.
In all the occupied regions, the NKVD moved in soon thereafter and loyalists and fascists were soon exterminated by various means or “reeducated” in various labor camps. This was especially true in the Baltic States, where most people resented the Soviet occupation and many were sent to the gulags in Siberia.
Following the fall of Poland and the annexation of Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine in October, the Soviet Union wasted no time in turning to the question of the Baltic States. The Soviets signed “mutual aid and trade agreements” with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania which gave the Soviet Union army, naval, and air bases in all three Baltic States.
In addition, the city of Vilnius was handed over to Lithuania after the fall of Poland. Poland and Lithuania nearly went to war over the city in the late 1930s. The city had been under Polish control since the formation of Poland in 1920. Vilnius would eventually become the capital of the Lithuanian S.S.R.
Lithuanian soldiers march through Vilnius during a military parade after its liberation from Poland in 1939.
Nevertheless, these so-called mutual agreements were really just the first step in a series of events which would eventually result in the Soviet Union annexing all three nations and incorporating each country into the Soviet Union as Soviet Socialist Republics.
With the Germans rampaging through northern France in June 1940, Stalin needed to do something to show that the Soviet Union could stack up to Hitler’s German Reich. Thus, the USSR finally made its move and all three Baltic States were occupied by the Red Army (RKKA). All pretense of their sovereignty was tossed by the wayside as each country was annexed into the Soviet Union.
The Baltic States prior to their annexation (and prior to Vilnius being handed back to Lithuania).
Pravda and other Soviets newspapers reported jubilant demonstrations in the streets of Riga, Tallinn, and Kaunas. The governments of the Baltic States were accused of having conspired against the Soviet Union. In addition, they were accused of having “grossly violated their mutual assistance pacts with the Soviet Union.” Thus, according to the Soviet propagandists, it was only right that the RKKA step in and install new governments that would abide by these agreements.
Given the coincidental, or not, nature of the Soviets having occupied the Baltic States while Germany was having its greatest military successes in the West, there were persistent rumors that the Soviets were only taking these actions to compete with German successes. In fact, on 23 June 1940, Pravda published the following piece denying these allegations:
“In connection with the entry of Soviet troops into the Baltic States there are persistent rumors in the Western press about 100 or 150 Soviet divisions being concentrated on the German frontier. This is supposed to arise from the dissatisfaction felt in the Soviet Union over Germany’s military successes in the West, and to point to a deterioration of Soviet-German relations.
“TASS (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union) is authorized to state that this is totally untrue. There are only eighteen to twenty Soviet divisions in the Baltic countries, and they are not concentrated on the German border, but are scattered throughout the Baltic countries.
“No pressure on Germany is intended and the military measures taken have only one aim: which is to safeguard the mutual aid between the Soviet Union and these countries.”
Of course, the fact that Pravda felt a reason to even substantiate these rumors officially meant that there probably was plenty of truth the connection between the Soviet annexations and the German successes in France. It was clear that the Soviet-German honeymoon was over and relations began to take a turn towards the worst – and the worst would soon be realized in the summer of 1941.
The breakdown of relations with Germany also began to be seen in the press, where reports on the war in the West were now being shown in a light that was no longer pro-German, but even pro-British and pro-French. Whereas previous atrocities such as the razing of Rotterdam were barely reported at all in the Soviet press, coverage of future atrocities such as the London Blitz would receive considerable coverage.
The Soviets did not stop with the Baltic States. The Romanian regions of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were also occupied less than a week later after a Soviet ultimatum was handed down on 26 June. Northern Bukovina was especially notable as this was the first annexation thus far that was not part of the former Russian Empire. The Soviets justified this action because “in November 1918 the People’s Assembly of Bukovina had, reflecting the will of the people, decided in favor of joining Soviet Ukraine.” The region was also heavily ethnically Ukrainian.
A map of interwar Romania before the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.
It was reported that the Soviet-Romanian conflict over these regions was now satisfactorily settled and, of course, the Soviet press did not miss an opportunity to report on the, real or imagined, jubilation of the peoples of these occupied regions due the entrance of Soviet troops. The Soviets have since justified these steps as necessary due to the increasingly pro-German nature of the Romanian government.
The Bessarabia region was brought into the Soviet Union as the newly-formed Moldavian S.S.R. while Northern Bukovina was incorporated into the already-existing Ukrainian S.S.R.
A map showing the territories annexed by the Soviet Union and Germany in Eastern Europe in 1939-1940.
In all the occupied regions, the NKVD moved in soon thereafter and loyalists and fascists were soon exterminated by various means or “reeducated” in various labor camps. This was especially true in the Baltic States, where most people resented the Soviet occupation and many were sent to the gulags in Siberia.
Considering, that Romania annexed Bessarabia in 1918 from Russia, they got what they deserved, when forced to give it back.
Considering that the Baltic States dared to declare their independence from Russia in 1918, they got what they deserved, when forced to become SSRs...
Hey, there was a plebiscite in 1940, and those countries voted to join the USSR! Besides, it was either SU or Germany, and the latter had much worse plans in store for them.
How about British in India? Why does no one (except the Soviets and Indians themselves) condemn the British for their behavior?
Sorry, I am too tired, and couldn't restrain myself.
