haapanen@watdcsu.UUCP (Tom Haapanen [DCS]) (10/19/84)
Another independent country just as close to the Soviets as Yugoslavia is Finland. Why have the Russkies not taken Finland over, it being such a decadent country? (Finland is a parliamentary demoracy, with a free market economy and most of its trade with the west, and strong ties to the other Scandinavian countries). Well, they've tried. The famous (?) Winter War was fought in 1939-1940, and the Russians tried to take Finland after the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty giving Finland to Soviets. Despite massive manpower advantage and the Finns having practically no tanks or air force, the Russians were beaten back with extremely heavy losses, as the pesky Finns were aided by one of the coldes winters in recent history. A peace treaty was signed in March of 1940 after the Russians started finally getting organized with a major offensive. The Continuation War followed when Germans started Operation Barbarossa in the summer of '41, and Finland was left with the choice of fighting with the Germans, or fighting with the Russians. For the Finns, there was no question as to who they wanted to kill (they had had to cede some 20% of Finland, including Viipuri, the 2nd largest city, after the Winter War), so they ended up on the wrong side, from the U.S./Canadian viewpoint, at least. Finns advanced well in early stages, but decided not to join in the siege of Leningrad (in retrospect, a wise decision). In '44, Russian's major offensive broke through, sort of, but the Finns fought back enough to merit a separate peace treaty. *** NO OCCUPATION TROOPS ***. Since the late 1940's, Finland's relations with the Soviets have been friendly, with neutral foreign policy. Naturally, the proximity of the Russkies places restrictions on their freedom of movement, so, for example, the invasion of Afghanistan wasn't widely publicized, and no official comment was made for a quite a long time. However, the Soviets do not control teh Finnish politics, and appear quite content to let Finns run their own affairs. Apparently Soviets have realized that it would be considerably more trouble for them to try take over Finland than it would be worth. the Finnish terrain is fairly well suited for resistance (even if it isn't 'Nam style jungle), and the Finns are determined to retain their independence. The Russians, right now, have a reliable buffer zone between themselves and the west, without a worry of invasion, and with a profitable trade with Finland. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the Yugoslavian situation to comment on it. I hope, however, that this will cast some light on Soviet objectives and/or principles. Tom Haapanen University of Waterloo (519) 744-2468 allegra \ clyde \ \ decvax ---- watmath --- watdcsu --- haapanen ihnp4 / / linus / The opinions herein are not those of my employers, of the University of Waterloo, and probably not of anybody else either.