Shelling of Mainila

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Location of Mainila on the Karelian Isthmus (according to the borders prior to the signing of the Moscow peace treaty).
Location of Mainila on the Karelian Isthmus (according to the borders prior to the signing of the Moscow peace treaty).

The Shelling of Mainila (Finnish: Mainilan laukaukset) was a military incident on November 26, 1939, during which the Soviet Union's Red Army initiated shooting at the Russian village of Mainila (situated near Beloostrov) declaring that the shelling originated from Finland on the other side of the nearby border and claiming losses in personnel, thus getting a great propaganda boost and a casus belli that launched the Winter War four days later.[1]

[edit] The incident

The private archives of Soviet party leader Andrei Zhdanov contain material, which heavily hints that the entire incident was orchestrated in order to paint Finland as an aggressor and launch an offensive.[2] Some Russian historians express doubts in the document's authenticity.[3] The Finnish side declined responsibility for the attacks and identified Soviet artillery as their source — indeed, the war diaries of nearby Finnish artillery batteries show that Mainila was out of range of all of them, as they had been withdrawn previously to prevent such incidents.[4]

However, in the days following the Shelling of Mainila, the Soviet propaganda machine generated publicity about other fictitious Finnish aggressions, renounced the non-aggression treaty with Finland, and on November 30, 1939 launched the first offensives of the Winter War.

The Russian historian Pavel Aptekar analyzed the declassified Soviet military documentation and found out that the daily reports from troops dislocated in the area did not report any losses in personnel during the time period in question, concluding that the shelling of Soviet troops was staged.[5] However other Russian historians claim that it is impossible to assign responsibility for the shelling using existing data.[3]

In 1994, the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin denounced the Winter War, agreeing that it was a war of aggression.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Edwards, Robert: White Death: Russia's War on Finland 1939-40, ISBN 9780753822470, Orion Publishing co., 2007
  2. ^ Manninen, Ohto: Molotovin cocktail-Hitlerin sateenvarjo, 1995
  3. ^ a b (Russian)Константин Филиппов. "Майнила. В дебрях лжи."
  4. ^ Leskinen, Jari - Juutilainen, Antti (edit.): Talvisodan pikkujättiläinen, ISBN: 9789510235362, WSOY, 2006
  5. ^ (Russian)Pavel Aptekar in article [1] using casualty reports as sources (Там же Оп.10 Д.1095 Л.37,42,106.130,142)
  6. ^ (Finnish) In a joint press conference with President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari at Kremlin May 18, 1994. See [2]

[edit] External links