Spirit of the Winter War
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The Spirit of Winter War (Finnish: Talvisodan henki) is the national unity which is credited with having saved Finland from breaking under the Soviet invasion during the Winter War of November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940.
"The Spirit of Winter War" is significant because it demonstrated that Finnish society had partially healed after the Finnish Civil War of 1918, one of the bloodiest civil wars in European history. After the civil war, legislation and democratic political process helped to decrease the gap between different classes of society. During the 1920s and 1930s the Social Democrats had participated in several governments, including the government in power in November of 1939.
After the war began, Stalin set a puppet regime in Terijoki in hopes that Finnish workers would join and assist the Soviet invasion. However, this Terijoki Government, led by a communist leader of the civil war, Otto Wille Kuusinen, received no sympathy from the Finnish labour movement.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 23, 1939 had shaken the world views of both the bourgeoise and the working class. Many Finns had believed that Germany would eventually aid Finland against the Soviet Union as Imperial Germany had done in 1915–1918. Some of the ordinary workers believed that the Soviet Union was a guarantee for peace and a force against Nazi Germany. Now, suddenly Germany was in pact with Soviet Union against Finland. The socialists witnessed Soviet Union invading Poland instead of fighting against the Nazis. Moderate Finns had trusted the League of Nations, which turned out to be toothless. So on the eve of war, there was very little trust for any foreign power — be it socialist internationalism, German military or help from western powers.
[edit] Significance
During the Winter war in January 1940 the Association of Finnish Industries acknowledged the trade unions as a negotiation parties for collective agreements regarding labour. This declaration is referred to as Tammikuun kihlaus (Betrothal of January).
The long term effects were similar to the Swedish Saltsjöbadsavtalet (Saltsjöbaden Agreement) in 1938. However the backgrounds for these corporativist agreements are different. Sweden had not suffered a civil war nor was it under a foreign invasion in 1938 but had had a peaceful and steady Social Democratic government for over a decade. The apparent success of Swedish Social Democrats appealed to the Finnish working class more than revolutionary agitation.
Talvisodan henki was coined after the Winter War for use in domestic and foreign politics when national unity and consensus was needed to face challenges ahead. The coming together of different factions of society is still referred to as "the Spirit of the Winter War". As with most such calls to 'rally to the flag', however, this propaganda did not benefit all levels of Finnish society equally. While the workers and peasants who had been on the losing, socialist, side in the civil war appear to have genuinely bought into the nationalist sentiment, that feeling of reconciliation does not seem to have been universal in 'white' circles. In February of 2005, Professor Jukka Kemppinen reported his research findings which suggest a shocking hypothesis: that the Army High Command had deliberately assigned conscripts from formerly 'red' villages in highly disproportionate numbers to 'cannon fodder' battalions which took significantly greater-than-average casualties. [1] Kemppinen's claim was countered by Professor Heikki Ylikangas by explaining that low educated workers were more likely to be assigned to the high risk infantry units than more technical field artillery or supply units which relied on horse handling skills. Also the casualty rates were even higher among the officers and NCOs, which were exclusively 'white' positions.[2]
