On the 80th anniversary of the end of the Soviet-Finnish War

Politicians began to seek peace from the end of January 1940, when the Soviet ambassador to Sweden, Kolontay, conveyed Soviet conditions for ending the war through "unofficial channels"

Exactly 80 years ago, on March 13, 1940, Finland plunged into mourning. As a sign of mourning for the dead and material losses, state flags were flown at half mast throughout the country, and the work of the state institution was suspended. The newspapers that printed the text of the peace treaty with the USSR placed it in mourning frames. Patriotic citizens wore black. Tears flowed down the cheeks of many people who listened to the radio address of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Väinö Tanner about the end of the war and the conditions of the peace agreement, which were extremely difficult for the Finns. Some were sobbing...

"Ask the soldiers for the price of peace..."

The people were perplexed: how could a country undefeated on the battlefield agree to such an ultimatum? How can you voluntarily give up a tithe of your territory to the enemy, including the cradle of the Finnish "self" - the land of Kalevala, an eighth of all deposits of minerals and forest resources, a quarter of transport and industrial capacities, including almost the entire woodworking, paper and pulp industry, the production of explosives, a third hydropower, a good hundred power plants, the Saimaa Canal, which provides navigation from inland lakes to the Gulf of Finland? How is it possible to deprive half a million of compatriots of their homes and property, to leave the graves of their ancestors and the very fresh graves of soldiers who bravely defended their homeland?

When the next day the Finnish government delegation, which had signed the peace, headed by Prime Minister Risto Ryti, returned from Moscow to Helsinki, the city greeted them with cold silence and concentration ...

In the troops, on the contrary, joyful excitement reigned - they read out the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Marshal Mannerheim No. 34.

“Soldiers of the illustrious Finnish army! - the order said, - A harsh peace has been concluded between our country and Soviet Russia, which has transferred to it almost all the battlefields on which you shed your blood in the name of everything that is dear and sacred to us. You did not want war, you loved peace, work and creation, but you were forced to fight... More than fifteen thousand of you who left for the battlefield will never see your home again, and many have lost the ability to work forever. But you also dealt sensitive blows. And if now two hundred thousand of your enemies lie in snowdrifts, peering into our starry sky with unseeing eyes, then this is not your fault. You did not hate them and did not wish them anything bad. You just followed the cruel rule of war: kill or be killed yourself ... "

The order of the headquarters echoed the feelings of the soldiers. Still - to survive in such a meat grinder! Yes, and the old marshal correctly noticed: despite the propaganda on both sides of the front, no one felt much hatred for the enemy, especially since many on the “other” side had relatives, acquaintances, colleagues, schoolmates, because only a quarter of a century ago everyone lived in one power...

They say that when at 12:00 Leningrad time (at 11:00 Finnish time) on March 13 the fire was ceased, in many places the Finns, who had not yet forgotten the imperial language, began to shout into the neighboring trenches: “Hey, Russians! War is over! Come to us to put up and drink vodka!” And they did go! (Although, of course, this has never been advertised with us). And they drank. They laughed and patted each other on the shoulder. And they fraternized, exchanging simple soldier souvenirs - lighters, spoons, flasks, canned food, banknotes and coins ...

After all, soldiers know better than others that it is not they who start the wars, but politicians. And it is the military, who know firsthand the value of life, always and everywhere are the most sincere supporters of peace between peoples ...

Negotiations in the Stockholm "Grand Hotel" and their behind the scenes

... Politicians, on the other hand, began to seek peace from the end of January 1940, when the Soviet ambassador to Sweden, Alexandra Kolontai, conveyed to the Finns Soviet conditions for cessation of hostilities through "unofficial channels." Behind this cunning diplomatic formulation, of course, was a specific person. Such was an old pre-revolutionary acquaintance of Alexandra Mikhailovna - an Estonian, writer and owner of the left-wing Helsinki literary and political salon Hella Vuolijoki, nee Murrik. (Her husband, Sullo Vuolijoki was a prominent Finnish social democrat and personal friend of Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin).

Hella Vuolijoki (in 1943 she would be convicted by a military tribunal for harboring a Soviet parachutist-communicator) at the beginning of January offered intermediary services to the Finnish Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner. Like, she can "try to contact the Soviet Union through her friend." The friendly relationship between the two women turned out to be most welcome, because with the start of the Winter War, the USSR severed relations with official Helsinki and maintained contacts only with the puppet "government" of Otto Ville Kuusinen ...

Slowly, the connection between the Ryti-Tanner government and Moscow was established. Soon Swedish diplomats joined the peace process, followed by the ubiquitous Americans. (Vuolijoki even stayed at the American ambassador's residence in Stockholm). The green light was given to direct contacts between the opposing sides. Political dialogue in the style of Daless-Wolf from "17 Moments" went on throughout February 1940 in the Stockholm Grand Hotel ...

According to some reports, in addition to Kolontai and Vuolijoki, the meetings were attended by employees of the INO NKVD - Andrey Grauer and Boris Yartsev, Finnish Foreign Minister Tanner, his former colleague, and at that time Charge d'Affaires of Finland in Sweden Juho Elyas Erkko, Finnish diplomats and employees special services. The search for peace, as one might expect, was difficult. The Finns at first (as well as during the Moscow negotiations in the autumn of 1939 on moving the border from Leningrad deep into the Karelian Isthmus in exchange for territories in Eastern Karelia) did not want to agree to the new conditions of the Soviet side.

At the same time, our neighbors had, as they say, an ace up their sleeve - Western " democracies " in the form of Great Britain and France. These well-known "peacekeepers" in every possible way pushed the Finnish side to continue the war, assuring that already, de, in March they were ready not only to send volunteers to the Soviet-Finnish front, but also regular units (including Polish brigades) with a total number of at least one hundred thousand people.

Norway and Sweden, who did not particularly want to complicate relations not only with the USSR, but also with Germany, which had its own interest in the North of Europe, were considering whether to give this army fraught with consequences permission to pass through their territory. In addition, it was during these days that Soviet intelligence informed Stalin about the parallel development by the British and French of plans for landing in the Murmansk region (in the bay of Zapadnaya Litsa, the Kriegsmarine rented the Nord naval base from the Soviet Union) and the bombing of an oil hub in the Baku region ...

It became clear to both the Soviet and Finnish leadership that in this way they could be drawn into the escalating World War II, which at this stage was in no way included in either Moscow's plans or Helsinki's plans. Some did not want to fight even against the Reich, while others also did not want to fight against the collective West. Moreover, with such a possible configuration of the fronts of the northern theater of operations, they would certainly include all of Southern and Central Finland, Soviet Karelia and the immediate approaches to Leningrad, the Finnish and Soviet Arctic ...

Two other February events also influenced the rapprochement of the positions of the parties. First: Vuolijoki's message that inside Finland there are puppets from the so-called. The Terijoki government of Kuusinen does not enjoy any popular support and does not have the slightest political weight. Second: the visit of the former Finnish Prime Minister (who later became ambassador to the Reich) Toivo Kivimäki to Berlin for a more detailed sounding of the German position.

In its course, the Germans (in pursuance of the division of spheres of influence in Europe in accordance with the so-called "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact") officially supported Moscow's demands for peace on its terms. Unofficially, Göring, who knew about Hitler's intentions to turn his weapons to the east immediately after the victory over France and England, hinted that the Finns should not bother too much about territorial losses, since Finland, de, "can more than compensate them later."

Kivimäki, upon his return to Helsinki, immediately informed the country's leadership about this. Molotov sent a telegram to Stockholm saying that the Finnish delegation was expected in Moscow. To make the Finns more compliant, on February 29, the Red Army launched a massive offensive against Viipuri-Vyborg, the capital of Finnish Karelia. The Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army, Marshal Mannerheim, who, like no one else, knew the true situation at the front and the state of the country's resources for further defense, advised his government to "hurry up", because in the event of the fall of Vyborg, the path to Helsinki, in fact, would be open ...

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