The geopolitical realities of the time were… well, let’s put it this way: everyone in Europe that was interested in maintaining stability and discouraging war fully shit the bed.
There was no credible alliance or mutual defense pact that the Finns were able to rely on to defend against the Soviets trying to, you know, fully annex them - the UK made supportive noises, but ultimately couldn’t get their shit together to make any difference whatsoever in the Winter War. Thus, when Germany, basically the preeminent land force in Europe at the time, ultimately offered an alliance to them to deter the Soviets, it was the only offer in the table; faced with such existential threats and only one choice that wasn’t effectively an eventual full capitulation to the USSR… they chose the pragmatic option. Honestly, I see the alliance of Finland and Nazi Germany around WW2 as a very direct result of the abject failure of the League of Nations, and more pointedly, the severe lack of credibility of French and British foreign policy, political will, and military strength at the time.
That’s not to say it was a good choice; it was simply the least bad choice Finns had in front of them.
It was harm-reduction on large scale, yes. Even before the Winter War we have a long, negative history with Russia being the aggressor. So knowing it is either them genociding you, or allying with Nazis, you do what you can… Does not make it Good in any way.
Lest we not forget that the Scandanavians were also being mugged by Germany for their iron. If the Soviets had broke through the Germans would have invaded in full force to keep the iron flowing to the war effort.
Indeed. Many people don’t realize how harrowing of a balance of power the Scandinavian countries had to deal with, between the Soviets and the Nazis - again, due to the complete uselessness of the League of Nations, and how much the other European powers at the time fumbled their responses to the Anschluss and broader German expansionism and expeditionary campaigns (read: the Spanish Civil War, in which the Germans basically proved out and refined the initial concepts of Blitzkrieg / combined arms warfare) at the time. Not to mention, the German occupation of Norway during the war. It’s not a theater that has ever been strongly represented in WW2-oriented media (in the States, at least).
Edit:
On a completely unrelated note, Sisu is a banger of a film
The geopolitical realities of the time were… well, let’s put it this way: everyone in Europe that was interested in maintaining stability and discouraging war fully shit the bed.
There was no credible alliance or mutual defense pact that the Finns were able to rely on to defend against the Soviets trying to, you know, fully annex them - the UK made supportive noises, but ultimately couldn’t get their shit together to make any difference whatsoever in the Winter War. Thus, when Germany, basically the preeminent land force in Europe at the time, ultimately offered an alliance to them to deter the Soviets, it was the only offer in the table; faced with such existential threats and only one choice that wasn’t effectively an eventual full capitulation to the USSR… they chose the pragmatic option. Honestly, I see the alliance of Finland and Nazi Germany around WW2 as a very direct result of the abject failure of the League of Nations, and more pointedly, the severe lack of credibility of French and British foreign policy, political will, and military strength at the time.
That’s not to say it was a good choice; it was simply the least bad choice Finns had in front of them.
It was harm-reduction on large scale, yes. Even before the Winter War we have a long, negative history with Russia being the aggressor. So knowing it is either them genociding you, or allying with Nazis, you do what you can… Does not make it Good in any way.
Lest we not forget that the Scandanavians were also being mugged by Germany for their iron. If the Soviets had broke through the Germans would have invaded in full force to keep the iron flowing to the war effort.
Indeed. Many people don’t realize how harrowing of a balance of power the Scandinavian countries had to deal with, between the Soviets and the Nazis - again, due to the complete uselessness of the League of Nations, and how much the other European powers at the time fumbled their responses to the Anschluss and broader German expansionism and expeditionary campaigns (read: the Spanish Civil War, in which the Germans basically proved out and refined the initial concepts of Blitzkrieg / combined arms warfare) at the time. Not to mention, the German occupation of Norway during the war. It’s not a theater that has ever been strongly represented in WW2-oriented media (in the States, at least).
Edit:
On a completely unrelated note, Sisu is a banger of a film