Peace of Moscow

The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on March 12, 1940. It marked the end of the Winter War.

Background

Finland's government received the first tentative peace conditions from Soviet (through Stockholm) on January 29. Until then, the Red Army had fought to occupy all of Finland and abolish Finland's democracy. By this point, the Soviet government was prepared to temper its claims. The demands were that Finland cede the Karelian Isthmus, including the city of Viipuri, and Finland's shore of Lake Ladoga. The Hanko Peninsula was to be leased to the Soviet Union for 30 years.

Finland rejected these demands, and intensified the pleas to Sweden, France and the United Kingdom for military support by regular troops. Although Finland in the long run had no chance against a country 50 times its size, the reports from the front still held out hope for a Finland anticipating League of Nations intervention. Positive signals, however inconstant, from France and Britain, and more serious expectations of troops from Sweden, for which plans and preparations had been made all through the 1930s, were further reasons for Finland not to rush into peace negotiations. (See Winter War#Foreign support for a detailed account.)

By the end of February, Finland's Commander-in-Chief, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, clearly expressed his pessimism about the military situation, prompting the government to start peace negotiations on February 29 . The same day the Red Army commenced an attack against Viipuri.

The harsh peace

On March 6, a Finnish delegation lead by Prime Minister Risto Ryti travelled to Moscow. During the negotiations, the Soviets broke through the Finnish defence lines around Tali and were close to surrounding Viipuri.

The Peace Agreement was signed on March 12. The fighting ended the following day.

Finland was forced to cede nearly all of Finnish Karelia (with Finland's industrial center, including Finland's second largest city Viipuri; in total, nearly 10% of the territory), even though large parts were still held by Finland's army. 422,000 Karelians, 12% of Finland's population, lost their homes. Military troops and remaining civilians were hastily evacuated to inside the new border.

Finland also had to cede a part of the Salla area, the Finnish part of the Kalastajansaarento (Rybachi) peninsula in the Barents Sea and the islands of Suursaari, Tytärsaari, Lavansaari and Seiskari in the Gulf of Finland. Finally, the Hanko Peninsula was leased to the Soviet Union as a military base for 30 years.

Additional demands were that any equipment and installation on the ceded territories were to be handed over. Thus Finland had to hand over 75 locomotives, 2000 railroad cars, a number of cars, trucks and ships. The Enso industrial area, which was clearly on the Finnish side of the border, was also handed over after Soviet demands.

The new border was not arbitrary on the Soviet viewpoint. Before the war Finland had been a leading producer of high quality pulp, which was important raw material for explosives. Including Enso factories, Soviet Union captured 80% of Finnish production capacity. Finland had to cede 1/3 of her built hydroelectric power, mainly in the form of hydroelectric power plants in river Vuoksi, which was badly needed in Leningrad where industry suffered 20% shortage of electricity.

The location of the new border was consistent with Soviet defence doctrine, which envisoned taking the fight to enemy soil through counter attacks and pre-emptive strikes. It meant that border should not provide natural defensible barriers to enemy, so instead of running throuh natural border locations like Bay of Viipuri or swamp region in isthmus between Lake Saimaa and Lake Ladoga, the new border ran on the western side of those. But those areas were also very easy to encircle if counterattacks were not materialized, which was soon to be shown.

The Finns were shocked by the harsh peace terms. It seemed as if more territory was lost in the peace than in the war. Sympathy from world opinion, and from the Swedes in particular, seemed to have been of little worth. For better or for worse, the harsh terms made the Finns inclined to seek support from Germany, and made many Finns regard a revanche as justified. In the end, this might have been a necessary condition for Finland's survival in the World War.

Only a year later, in June 1941, hostilities resumed in the Continuation War.