Russian Colonialism, Exposed: Finland 1939-1940

The 1939 Russian bombing of Helsinki.

They called them ‘Nazis.’ They set up a puppet ‘people’s republic’ statelet on a stolen land. Then they invaded to ‘protect.’ It sounds like something that you’ve witnessed in 2022 with the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But it is actually the story of a Russian invasion of Finland in 1939.

Finland is one of many colonies Russia lost in 1917, but it has been obsessively trying to drag it back to the empire since then. And every time, Russian invaders get kicked out. The 1939-1940 Winter War remains one of the largest inspirations for anti-colonial resistance all across the continent. As for Ukraine in 2022, most would give the Finnish democracy just a few days to crumble. But Finns used smart, non-conventional resistance and loads of bravery to stop a ginormous colonial army of 700,000+ manpower, thousands of tanks, and planes and inflict on the invaders catastrophic losses in just three months.

In the 1939 invasion of Finland, Moscow followed the same colonial formula: gaslight, invade, exterminate. It started with a broken word, as usual. Russians lured Finns into a ‘non-aggression pact’ in 1932 but then conspired with Nazis for a sneak attack. To lay the ground for it, Moscow produced virulent propaganda accusing Finns of every possible crime and dehumanizing them obsessively. Then, the empire created a puppet ‘opposition’ government next to the Finnish border and used it as a front for an invasion to ‘protect’ Finland. The Soviets used war crimes to slaughter as many Finns as possible and erase as much of Finnishness as possible.

Brave Finns defending their democracy in the face of imperial aggression broke the invasion’s momentum. But it did not end in complete victory: Moscow stole 10% of the Finnish territory in a blackmail ‘peace’ deal. Only because the rest of the free world didn’t care to stand up for freedom and assist Finland.

The ‘Russian Colonialism, Exposed’ series is based on my newly-released ‘Russian Colonialism 101’ pocket guidebook. My Patreon and Substack families fund these explainers — by joining, you get access to exclusive reading lists curated for each episode. You can access them below behind the paywall.