Finland surrendered as expected. After the Mannerheim line of defense completely collapsed and the Nordic army was defeated and ran away, the Finnish government fully accepted Molotov's "Moscow Armistice Agreement" and ceded territory and begged for mercy.
Although the Soviet Union finally achieved its strategic goals, it made a fool of itself because it underestimated Finland's resistance.
At the beginning of the war, the Soviet Union believed that Finland was just a small country with a weak national power and a weak military, so it expected to end the war in a short period of time. This miscalculation ultimately led to the Soviet Red Army hastily sending troops, paralyzing and underestimating the enemy, being insufficiently prepared, and failing to
They invested decisive force at the beginning of the war, and were defeated by the Finnish army who was on standby and took advantage of its geographical advantage.
The Soviet Union originally planned to end the war in one month, but it was delayed again and again, and was extended more than three times. And the final result was only to barely achieve the basic goal of the bottom line of the Soviet leadership, rather than the complete annexation planned at the beginning.
All of Finland.
There is no doubt that the Soviet Union originally intended to completely wipe the country of Finland off the map. Molotov, as Stalin's diplomatic representative, had already explained this to Reinhard in Berlin.
The big talk had been made a long time ago, but now it has not been realized, which made Stalin look very embarrassed in front of Reinhardt.
After the war, Finland's sovereignty was actually preserved, but it only lost part of its territory. That was not what Stalin said to Reinhard at the beginning.
According to what he said at the beginning, it was a week of preparation, two weeks of attack, three weeks of mopping up, and four weeks of final victory. The naughty Reinhard even looked like he had an admiring look on his face and took out a personal notebook and wrote it down himself.
.
It was so embarrassing now. Stalin regretted why he didn't stop Reinhard from taking notes. Even if it was an excuse like a secret treaty or inconvenience to record, he should have stopped it.
What was most difficult for Stalin to accept was not just humiliation!
At this time, Reinhardt's German Third Reich had shown that it was fully capable of destroying very powerful enemies at lightning speed. However, when the main forces of the two major military regions under his command joined forces to attack the small Finland, it still had to be slow.
It took more than three months.
You can tell who is strong and who is weak almost at a glance!
There really is no harm without comparison...
As a result, the Soviet Union was not only condemned internationally. It could not even hold its head high in front of partners like Germany and had to make concessions on many aspects of cooperation.
After all, the Soviet Union and Germany are already bordering each other. If the Soviet army's performance in the Battle of Finland is used to calculate combat effectiveness, what can it do to withstand the German blitzkrieg after it really offends Germany?
More than three months ago, Stalin might have had enough confidence that his huge army could resist the German army. Moreover, he also believed that with the strength of the Soviet army, it would not be a bad idea to attack Germany in the future.
But now, he only prays that there will be no conflict between the Soviet Union and Germany, at least in the short term. He wants to transform the weak and fragile army under his command, and he wants to prevent the army that has already made a fool of itself in front of the world from making a fool of itself again.
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For this reason, he needs time and needs to stabilize all unstable factors so that he can develop himself with peace of mind.
In the Kremlin Palace, Molotov, who was summoned by Stalin, looked at the silent leader without saying a word.
It wasn't until a long time later that Stalin, who seemed to have come back to his senses, said to Molotov, who was already waiting aside: "The war is over. What are the other countries doing?"
"Britain, France and other countries still accuse us as always, with no new tricks." Molotov recalled one by one: "...As for Germany, their official statement is that the German government is ready to end the war.
And I am glad that the Soviet Union and Finland have followed their suggestions and reconciled, and expressed their willingness to work for long-term peace in Europe."
This is really telling lies with open eyes.
Since German leaders have always celebrated world peace, why do you want to deploy troops on the Danish border?
As for the Soviet Union and Finland following Germany’s advice and stopping fighting and making peace, isn’t that nonsense? It’s obvious that both sides have been hurt by the fight and they don’t want to continue fighting. What does Germany’s advice have to do with it?!
"What do the Germans say privately?" Stalin was too lazy to listen to the diplomat's nonsense. In his opinion, since Germany was still cooperating with the Soviet Union, it had to discuss the supplementary secret clauses of the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact"
, what do you think of the war that has stopped midway?
Stalin guessed right. Reinhard did indeed send a message privately. Molotov on the side quickly continued: "General Secretary, the German head of state asked their Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to send a message."
"What did he preach?" Stalin asked eagerly while smoking his big pipe.
"Reinhard sent a message..." Molotov hesitated for a moment, and finally said it clearly: "He believes that the reason for today's situation is ultimately...
Our senior commanders are incompetent. If it were their senior generals, they would never have fought so badly. He also said that he was angry for you and suggested that you kill the senior officers responsible for commanding this battle and replace them with a group of more loyal and brave ones.
general."
"Kill them..." Stalin smiled bitterly: "Is he going to provide me with the missing commander?"
Stalin couldn't figure out whether Reinhard was mocking himself or praising himself, or if he had other plans. However, he was indeed quite dissatisfied with his own commanders.
Why can't the Soviet commanders be like those German commanders, fighting a war in which less defeats more? Not to mention defeating more with less, as long as more wins more points with less, that's fine...
In fact, the reasons for this situation are not just subjective reasons such as the incompetence of the upper-level Soviet commanders and the low combat quality of the troops.
All this is also closely related to the objective factors caused by Finland's lakes, dense forests, sparsely populated areas, inconvenient transportation, and severe cold climate.
Finland's geographical environment is not conducive to the Soviet army's heavy equipment and large-force operations. On the contrary, it is suitable for the Finnish army's use of light equipment and small forces. The Soviet troops who are not familiar with the complex terrain of Finland's dense forests often have limited maneuverability.
It is inconvenient to unfold, making it difficult to read the beginning and end.
The Finnish army, which is familiar with the local environment, can use its expertise in skiing to avoid frontal combat and conduct extensive ambushes and blockades in small groups, break them into parts, disperse and entangle, and wait for opportunities to sneak attacks on the flanks and logistics of the Soviet Red Army.
Faced with the endless harassment of the Finnish guerrilla squads who were determined to avoid large-scale head-on confrontations, and the sniping attacks by the Finnish sniper squads at irregular times and locations, the Soviet army was unable to advance quickly, nor could it achieve any large-scale results.
And even though there are capable generals like Meretskov and Timoshenko, most of the basic officers of the Soviet army are young men who are loyal to Stalin and do not know how to direct a war. These basic officers cannot be very good at all.
command troops. They were immature and could not even protect a large battlefield observation group, so much so that the Simon sniper team of the Finnish Army killed the key commanders of three divisions at once.
To blame these two Soviet generals solely for their incompetence would be an injustice to them.