Review of "A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40," by William R. Trotter

 Review of

A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40, by William R. Trotter

Five out of five stars

David did not win, but did not lose

 After Germany easily overran Poland and then partitioned it once again with the Soviet Union in 1939, the situation in the rest of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia became one of likely choosing sides. Despite the treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union, there was little doubt anywhere in the world that those two nations would at one point be at war. Thus treaty, commonly referred to as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, had a secret clause that allocated the states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland to the Soviet sphere of influence. 

 Freed from immediate concerns about how Germany would react, in November 1939, Stalin decided to make unreasonable demands on Finland and launched an invasion. Despite being incredibly outnumbers and outgunned, the Finns were able to outfight the Soviet masses, largely due to incredibly incompetent military tactics. For approximately two months, the Finns caused immense casualties in the Soviet forces until the sheer weight of numbers and material overwhelmed them. 

 The excellent performance of the Finnish forces had profound repercussions in the nations that were already fighting. Many in the German military and what were to become the Allies concluded that the Soviet Red Army was a paper tiger. The relative numbers and armaments between the Finns and the Soviets are hard to believe when they appear in this book. Yet, they are accurate.

 While all aspects of this book are very well worth reading and give an important component of what was a world war, the most significant point made is at the end. While Stalin gobbled up the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as eastern Europe, he largely left Finland alone. The conclusion is that Stalin was so impressed by the fighting abilities of the Finns that he did not want to take over the country and risk fighting a determined enemy skilled at forest guerilla tactics. 

 There are many military and geopolitical lessons that can be learned from the Russo-Finnish War, no study of the Second World War is complete without studying those lessons.  This book is a good introduction to that important topic. 


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