By the evening of the first day of the war, 87 Finnish soldiers were recorded as killed. As the second day of the war came to a close, another 80 names were added to the list of heroes. Mannerheim had the name of each fallen warrior read to him by an adjutant ,gently nodding after […]

The first Finnish soldier to fall in the Winter War. Source http://kronos.narc.fi/menehtyneet/index.php?id=502656&raportti=1

At 0650 on the morning of the 30th November 1939, the entire Russo-Finnish border along the Karelian Isthmus erupted in a devastating shower of artillery. Stated to be the largest bombardment since the First World War, around 2,000 artillery guns, alongside the massive navals guns of the Kronstadt fortress, fired at the Finnish side of

After the shelling at Mainila, tensions along the border rose. Finnish Border Guards reported that formations of Soviet troops were charging at the border, only to stop just before they crossed. The order not to fire upon Soviet troops unless they crossed the border was reinforced and the feints were ignored. However, a little known

In the evening of the 26th November 1939, Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Armas Aarno Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen, received a note from Soviet Foreign Minister Vjatšeslav Mihailovitš Molotov. It read: “Monsieur le Ministre, According to information received from the headquarters of the Red Army, our troops posted on the Carelian Isthmus, in the vicinity of the