The Finns beat the Reds so hard that they became the good guys for a minute

Blake and I were talking about historical underdogs who beat their attackers this week on the podcast, and I championed one of my favorite underdogs that actually had a lot of similarities to Ukraine’s defense against Russia: The Finns against the Soviets.

In both cases, a small country bordering a Russian juggernaut suffered a surprise invasion after previous land grabs, managed to stop the Russian invasion with a better knowledge of the terrain and the cold, innovated new weapons and tactics to level the playing field, and then fought Russia to—at least—a draw.

In fact, that surprise Finnish win in the Winter War of 1939-1940 was such a big deal that it convinced Hitler, an ally of convenience of Stalin, that “You only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.”

So how’d it happen?

In the 1939 Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, a sober gambler had every reason to bet on the Soviet Union. The Reds invaded with 450,000 people, 4,000 planes, and 6,000 armored vehicles in November.

They were stopped by 180,000 Finnish troops with less than 200 vehicles of all types.

The Soviets initially asked Finland for a bangin’ Atlantic port in exchange for some large tracts of land on the Finnish-Russian border. When Finland said no, calling the deal “two pounds of dirt for one pound of gold” the Soviets invaded. They started the war with a false-flag operation, shelling their own border positions. Later that week, the Soviets invaded.

The Finns knew the land and picked a perfect spot north of St. Petersburg to resist the invasion. Since the Soviets invaded in Winter in dark uniforms, Finnish snipers and machine gunners had a field day wiping them out. Amazingly, even though the Russians were fighting a war of choice in Winter, the Soviets had sent very few winter supplies, including coats and proper lubricants and everything. Oh, and enough food.

Russian tanks frequently got stuck in the snow and ice and even froze up. The Finns developed special tactics for taking out trapped armor and Russian infantry, skiing up and attacking them when they inevitably got stuck in the ice and snow.

And they even made a special gift for the Soviets. It was in this war that the Finns invented and debuted the Molotov cocktail. They filled glass bottles with gasoline or alcohol, stuff a burning rag into it, and threw the bottles at an opening on Russian tanks that led down into the engine compartment.

The tanks often exploded, which is rare in real life, or burned down to the treads. Fun either way.

The Finns mostly fought along the Mannerheim Line, but the Soviets finally achieved breakthroughs a few months into the war. Finland took a negotiated settlement rather than risk letting pissed-off Soviets run roughshod over their peninsula.

It was a pretty great success for a small nation against a massive military. Of course, the result of the war made it awkward in World War II. Finland could have been a great member of the Allies, but it really wanted the chance to get the Soviets back. So when the Nazis invaded Russia in 1941, Finland lined up with the Nazis and the Soviet Union came over to the Allies.

While we appreciate the T-34 tanks and everything, I, for one, would typically rather square up next to Finland than the Russians in most cases. But you can’t really do that if your potential ally becomes a literal Nazi.