In 1939 the Soviet Union invaded Finland, a country with about one Finn for every forty Soviets. One Soviet commander said it would take two weeks. It took 105 days, and it went very badly for the Red Army. Finland lost the war, but kept its independence. Here is how.

Accuracy: every factual sentence in this video has a claim ID on screen (green badge). Each claim was checked against at least three sources, two of them outside Wikipedia. Speech bubbles are invented dialogue unless marked PARAPHRASE; pink badges mark joke props.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open: 105 days
0:59 Sweden, Russia and a Grand Duchy
2:55 Independence and civil war
3:25 A king, a republic and prohibition
4:35 The Leningrad problem
5:12 The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the ask
7:12 Mainila and the invasion
8:18 Bread baskets and cocktails
9:03 A puppet government and the League
10:04 Finland fights back
12:44 Why the Red Army struggled
13:01 Volunteers and 'help is coming'
14:18 The hammer
15:36 The peace and the cost
16:38 So who won?
17:19 What came next

KEY SOURCES
- Library of Congress Country Studies (hosted at countrystudies.us): Finland - The Winter War https://countrystudies.us/finland/19.htm
- The National WWII Museum (New Orleans): White Death (World War II magazine article, 2018) https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/white-death
- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Finland's Winter War with the Soviet Union https://www.rferl.org/a/finlands-winter-war-with-the-soviet-union/30280490.html
- Yle (Finnish public broadcaster): Talvisodan tapahtumakalenteri (Winter War event calendar) https://yle.fi/a/3-5962821
- Yle (Finnish public broadcaster): Suomi taistelee itsenaisyydestaan (Finland fights for its independence) https://yle.fi/a/20-78917
- Library of Congress Country Studies (countrystudies.us): Finland - The Finnish Civil War https://countrystudies.us/finland/15.htm
- Yle News: 80 years ago: First day of the Winter War https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/80_years_ago_first_day_of_the_winter_war/11081924
- Finnish Military Museum / Winter War Society (talvisota.fi): The Winter War https://talvisota.fi/en/the-winter-war/
- Library of Congress Blogs: Finland Celebrates 100 Years of Independence (6 Dec 2017) https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2017/12/finland-celebrates-100-years-of-independence/
- thisisFINLAND (finland.fi): Main outlines of Finnish history https://finland.fi/?p=3141
- Yle (Finnish public broadcaster): Aluevaatimuksia ja valelaukauksia - talvisota syttyi 30. marraskuuta 1939 https://yle.fi/aihe/a/20-67234
- Finnish Military Museum / Winter War Society (talvisota.fi): Peace negotiations https://talvisota.fi/en/politics-of-the-winter-war/peace-negotiations/
- Yle News: Finns commemorate outbreak of Winter War (30 Nov 2019) https://yle.fi/a/3-11096349
- Yle News: Soviet Plot Launches Winter War (2009) https://yle.fi/a/3-5964904
- Library of Congress Country Studies (hosted at countrystudies.us): Finland - The Continuation War https://countrystudies.us/finland/20.htm
- thisisFINLAND (Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs): Main outlines of Finnish history https://finland.fi/life-society/main-outlines-of-finnish-history/
- Finnish Military Museum / Winter War Society (talvisota.fi): Politics of the Winter War https://talvisota.fi/en/politics-of-the-winter-war/
- Uppslagsverket Finland: Vinterkriget https://www.uppslagsverket.fi/sv/sok/view-170045-Vinterkriget
- Finnish Military Museum / Winter War Society (talvisota.fi): Lansimainen apu (Western aid) https://talvisota.fi/talvisodan-politiikka/lansimainen-apu/
- Finnish Military Museum / Winter War Society (talvisota.fi): Taistelut Mannerheim-linjalla helmikuussa 1940 https://talvisota.fi/taistelut/karjalan-kannaksen-taistelut/taistelut-mannerheim-linjalla-helmikuussa-1940/
- Finnish Military Museum / Winter War Society (talvisota.fi): Moskovan rauha (Moscow peace) https://talvisota.fi/tilinpaatos/moskovan-rauha/
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Molotov cocktail https://www.britannica.com/print/article/2035892
- thisisFINLAND (finland.fi): Mannerheim biography article https://finland.fi/?p=3146
- US Department of State, Office of the Historian: FRUS 1939 vol. I, doc. 1065: Steinhardt to Hull, 13 Oct 1939 (account of Stalin-Finnish talks) https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1939v01/d1065
- Mannerheim Museum (mannerheim.fi): Defence Council https://mannerheim.fi/09_pneuv/e_neuvos.htm
(+142 more sources in the full research ledger)

MAPS: borders from OpenHistoricalMap (CC0) and Natural Earth (public domain).
MUSIC: "Sneaky Snitch", "Five Armies", "Heartbreaking" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Narration: synthetic voice (Kokoro). Fonts: Comic Neue, Patrick Hand (SIL OFL).

Found an error? Comment with a source; corrections are pinned and fixed in future episodes.

#history #winterwar #finland