Battle of Raate-Road
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Raate Road was fought during the Winter War
between the Soviet Union
and Finland
in January 1940, as a part of the Battle of Suomussalmi
.
On December 7, 1939, the Soviet 163rd Division had captured Suomussalmi
, but found itself trapped deep inside Finnish territory, and the Soviet 44th Rifle (Ukrainian) Division
was sent to aid the 163rd. Over the next week, Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo
's 9th Division stopped and then completely destroyed the overwhelming Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road. This battle proved the effectiveness of Finnish motti tactics.
headquarters, as the entire 44th Division was about to move along the Raate road.
Most military historians date the battle of the Raate road from 1 January to 7 January 1940. However, the Raate road was a battlefield during the entire Winter War. Before the main battle against the 44th Division, the Finns fought retreat battles against a part of 163rd Division on the Raate road. Furthermore, some battles were fought on the east side, near the border, on the road during the rest of the Winter War.
The battles focused on Haukila, where most of the Soviet troops were located and where squadrons "Mandelin" and "Mäkiniemi" attacked. Squadron "Mäkiniemi" had started moving towards Haukila a few days before the official attack. At the same time, the fresh 3rd NKVD
Border Guard Regiment was just arriving to assist the Soviet 44th Division. By the following morning, the Finnish troops held strong blocking positions reinforced with mines at several points in the midst of the Soviet column. During January 6, heavy fighting occurred all along the Raate road as the Finns continued to break up the enemy forces into smaller pieces. The Soviets attempted to overrun Finnish roadblock
s with armor, losing numerous tanks in frontal attacks, but were unsuccessful. Finally, at 21:30, Vinogradov belatedly ordered his division to retreat back to the Soviet border.
The despairing Soviet troops began to escape north over Lake Kiantajärvi. Many soldiers froze to death without proper clothing or supply; one Finnish soldier said he saw Soviet soldiers in a frozen campsite and had to poke one in the eye with a stick to see if he was really dead. Remnants of Soviet units had already tried to escape to the east, but were blocked by squadron "Kari". Further in the east, squadron "Fagernäs" couldn't hold a strategic bridge under Finnish control. On January 7 squadron "Fagernäs" captured the bridge back and before noon all Soviet resistance was suppressed. The mopping-up went on for two days, during which the Finns rounded up hundreds of starving, frozen Ukrainians. Other remnants of the 44th Division managed to escape the blockade and reach the border in several small groups.
The Finnish army captured a huge amount of materiel
in this battle.
captured in early January. Officers of the Soviet 27th Infantry Regiment told their casualties were 70 percent and the Finns assumed that the strength of the 44th Division was over 20,000 men. Furthermore, Western historians conformed to Finnish estimations. The Soviets questioned number of casualties published in the Western world
immediately in January. The official number of Soviet casualties was no more than 900 men, mostly from frostbite
. Furthermore, the Soviets estimated the Finns lost at least 2,000 men. Later Finnish historians conducted further attempts at estimating the number of Soviet casualties in the battle. The Finns captured over 5,000 rifles, and, furthermore, a tag of the North Finland Group
showed the Finns replaced 1,200 old rifles with the newer Soviet models. Most recent Finnish studies indicate that the Soviets lost at least 7,000–9,000 men.
During the early spring, the Finns buried dead Ukrainians in short time as weather warmed and there was a risk of epidemic
s. Mass grave
s were marked on maps and were mounted a cross or a pole. Later the maps disappeared. The Soviets requested around the Easter
, that they would like to gather the dead and bring them back home, but the Finnish side did not allow Soviet army officials to cross the border. However, the Finns delivered 300 bodies from near the village of Raate to Soviet officials. After the Continuation War
, the Soviets were not interested in deceased. The Red Army occupied the Raate road shortly, gathered wartime junk but left the bodies alone. The fate of the Ukrainian Division remained unmentioned in Soviet historiography
for decades.
According to the Russian historian Yuri Kilin
, the Stavka
set up a research commission in January 1940 to investigate the number of casualties. The Commission reported 4,674 total casualties, where 1,001 dead, 1,430 wounded and 2,243 missing. In turn of the year, the strength of the division was 13,962 men and in the end of the Raate road battle it was at 9,288 men. According to the report, the division was understaffed, because two battalions of the 305th Infantry Regiment were deployed elsewhere. Kilin calculated that some troops returned after the report, so the number of the missing is lower. Later, a research by the Ukrainian historian Oleg Bozhko yielded similar numbers as he used the same source. The Stavka report was published in January 1940, in the middle of the Winter War. The statistics of the report start from 1 January, and by this time the division had already suffered heavy losses for two weeks. Furthermore, the Stavka report did not mention casualties suffered on the Raate road by other units, along the advancement of the 44th Division.
ed, found guilty and sentenced to death; the executions were carried out immediately. However, the Stavka itself made the crucial decisions continue keeping the 44th Division on the Raate road after the 163rd lost Suomussalmi village.
The Ukrainian veteran of the Raate Road Sergeant Pyotr Andrevitch Morozov was interviewed in 1991 by the Finnish non-fiction writer Leo Karttimo. According to Morozov the Finns returned prisoners of war, but none of them managed to get back to Ukraine as the Soviet secret service NKVD executed them all in summer 1940.
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
between the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
in January 1940, as a part of the Battle of Suomussalmi
Battle of Suomussalmi
The Battle of Suomussalmi [suo.mus.sal.mi] was fought between Finnish and Soviet forces in the Winter War. The action took place from around December 7, 1939 to January 8, 1940.The outcome was a major Finnish victory against vastly superior forces...
.
On December 7, 1939, the Soviet 163rd Division had captured Suomussalmi
Suomussalmi
Suomussalmi is a municipality in Finland and is located in the Kainuu region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finnish...
, but found itself trapped deep inside Finnish territory, and the Soviet 44th Rifle (Ukrainian) Division
44th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 44th Kievskaya of the Red Banner Rifle Division of Nikolay Shchors, or 44th Kievskaya for short, was an elite military formation of the Soviet Union....
was sent to aid the 163rd. Over the next week, Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo
Hjalmar Siilasvuo
Hjalmar Fridolf Siilasvuo was a Finnish general who led troops in the Winter War, Continuation War and Lapland War...
's 9th Division stopped and then completely destroyed the overwhelming Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road. This battle proved the effectiveness of Finnish motti tactics.
Background
During the battle of Suomussalmi, the Finns cut the Raate road on 11 December 1939. The action prevented the second, southern supply route to the Soviet 163rd Rifle Division in the town of Suomussalmi. The Finns also cut the first, northern supply route on 13 December, and the Soviets were forced to open new supply route through Lake Kiantajärvi. The 163rd Division was nearly surrounded and suffered major casualties in Suomussalmi. The situation was getting worse, and on 20 December the commander of the 163rd Division, Andrei Zelentsov, asked permission to retreat from Suomussalmi. In response, part of the 44th Division, the 1st Battalion of the 305th Infantry Regiment, and the 3rd Battalion of the 662nd Infantry Regiment, were sent to reinforce the 163rd Division troops near Suomussalmi. Zelentsov's concerns were not understood at Red ArmyRed Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
headquarters, as the entire 44th Division was about to move along the Raate road.
Most military historians date the battle of the Raate road from 1 January to 7 January 1940. However, the Raate road was a battlefield during the entire Winter War. Before the main battle against the 44th Division, the Finns fought retreat battles against a part of 163rd Division on the Raate road. Furthermore, some battles were fought on the east side, near the border, on the road during the rest of the Winter War.
The battle
At the start of the battle of Raate road, Siilasvuo's 9th Division had already destroyed the Russian 163rd Division. After that, it received orders to destroy the Soviet 44th Division, which was stopped on the road near Haukila, 12 kilometers from Suomussalmi. The Finnish 9th Division was split in four squadrons, each named after their commanders. The decisive battle was ordered to begin on January 5, 1940, 08:30.The battles focused on Haukila, where most of the Soviet troops were located and where squadrons "Mandelin" and "Mäkiniemi" attacked. Squadron "Mäkiniemi" had started moving towards Haukila a few days before the official attack. At the same time, the fresh 3rd NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
Border Guard Regiment was just arriving to assist the Soviet 44th Division. By the following morning, the Finnish troops held strong blocking positions reinforced with mines at several points in the midst of the Soviet column. During January 6, heavy fighting occurred all along the Raate road as the Finns continued to break up the enemy forces into smaller pieces. The Soviets attempted to overrun Finnish roadblock
Roadblock
A roadblock is a temporary installation set up to control or block traffic along a road. The reasons for one could be:*Roadworks*Temporary road closure during special events*Police chase*Robbery*Sobriety checkpoint...
s with armor, losing numerous tanks in frontal attacks, but were unsuccessful. Finally, at 21:30, Vinogradov belatedly ordered his division to retreat back to the Soviet border.
The despairing Soviet troops began to escape north over Lake Kiantajärvi. Many soldiers froze to death without proper clothing or supply; one Finnish soldier said he saw Soviet soldiers in a frozen campsite and had to poke one in the eye with a stick to see if he was really dead. Remnants of Soviet units had already tried to escape to the east, but were blocked by squadron "Kari". Further in the east, squadron "Fagernäs" couldn't hold a strategic bridge under Finnish control. On January 7 squadron "Fagernäs" captured the bridge back and before noon all Soviet resistance was suppressed. The mopping-up went on for two days, during which the Finns rounded up hundreds of starving, frozen Ukrainians. Other remnants of the 44th Division managed to escape the blockade and reach the border in several small groups.
The Finnish army captured a huge amount of materiel
Materiel
Materiel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....
in this battle.
Casualties
For many years, Finnish historians estimated the Soviet losses to be around 17,000 men. The estimation was based on the interrogation of the POWsPrisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
captured in early January. Officers of the Soviet 27th Infantry Regiment told their casualties were 70 percent and the Finns assumed that the strength of the 44th Division was over 20,000 men. Furthermore, Western historians conformed to Finnish estimations. The Soviets questioned number of casualties published in the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
immediately in January. The official number of Soviet casualties was no more than 900 men, mostly from frostbite
Frostbite
Frostbite is the medical condition where localized damage is caused to skin and other tissues due to extreme cold. Frostbite is most likely to happen in body parts farthest from the heart and those with large exposed areas...
. Furthermore, the Soviets estimated the Finns lost at least 2,000 men. Later Finnish historians conducted further attempts at estimating the number of Soviet casualties in the battle. The Finns captured over 5,000 rifles, and, furthermore, a tag of the North Finland Group
North Finland Group
North Finland Group was a formation of the Finnish Army during the Winter War. It was responsible for an almost 800-kilometer-long border from the town of Lieksa to the Arctic Ocean. The group was under Major General Wiljo Tuompo, and the headquarters was located in Kajaani.It was charged to...
showed the Finns replaced 1,200 old rifles with the newer Soviet models. Most recent Finnish studies indicate that the Soviets lost at least 7,000–9,000 men.
During the early spring, the Finns buried dead Ukrainians in short time as weather warmed and there was a risk of epidemic
Epidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
s. Mass grave
Mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...
s were marked on maps and were mounted a cross or a pole. Later the maps disappeared. The Soviets requested around the Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
, that they would like to gather the dead and bring them back home, but the Finnish side did not allow Soviet army officials to cross the border. However, the Finns delivered 300 bodies from near the village of Raate to Soviet officials. After the Continuation War
Continuation War
The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II.At the time of the war, the Finnish side used the name to make clear its perceived relationship to the preceding Winter War...
, the Soviets were not interested in deceased. The Red Army occupied the Raate road shortly, gathered wartime junk but left the bodies alone. The fate of the Ukrainian Division remained unmentioned in Soviet historiography
Soviet historiography
Soviet historiography is the methodology of history studies by historians in the Soviet Union . In the USSR, the study of history was marked by alternating periods of freedom allowed and restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , and also by the struggle of historians to...
for decades.
According to the Russian historian Yuri Kilin
Yuri Kilin
Yuri Mihailovich Kilin is a Russian historian and a professor of History Studies at the Petrozavodsk State University in Petrozavodsk. He has written extensively on Russo-Finnish and Karelian historical conflicts. Kilin graduated with honours in 1983. He received his Candidate of Sciences degree...
, the Stavka
Stavka
Stavka was the term used to refer to a command element of the armed forces from the time of the Kievan Rus′, more formally during the history of Imperial Russia as administrative staff and General Headquarters during late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and those of the Soviet Union...
set up a research commission in January 1940 to investigate the number of casualties. The Commission reported 4,674 total casualties, where 1,001 dead, 1,430 wounded and 2,243 missing. In turn of the year, the strength of the division was 13,962 men and in the end of the Raate road battle it was at 9,288 men. According to the report, the division was understaffed, because two battalions of the 305th Infantry Regiment were deployed elsewhere. Kilin calculated that some troops returned after the report, so the number of the missing is lower. Later, a research by the Ukrainian historian Oleg Bozhko yielded similar numbers as he used the same source. The Stavka report was published in January 1940, in the middle of the Winter War. The statistics of the report start from 1 January, and by this time the division had already suffered heavy losses for two weeks. Furthermore, the Stavka report did not mention casualties suffered on the Raate road by other units, along the advancement of the 44th Division.
Soviet executions
The Soviet commander, Vinogradov, and two of his chief officers, Volkov and Pahomov, retreated in the middle of crucial battles. According to the Stavka report, this act had a fateful influence to morale. As they reached the Soviet lines four days later they were court-martialCourt-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
ed, found guilty and sentenced to death; the executions were carried out immediately. However, the Stavka itself made the crucial decisions continue keeping the 44th Division on the Raate road after the 163rd lost Suomussalmi village.
The Ukrainian veteran of the Raate Road Sergeant Pyotr Andrevitch Morozov was interviewed in 1991 by the Finnish non-fiction writer Leo Karttimo. According to Morozov the Finns returned prisoners of war, but none of them managed to get back to Ukraine as the Soviet secret service NKVD executed them all in summer 1940.
Monuments
Today, the former battlefield is the site of the Monument of the Winter War dedicated to all who died in the war on both sides. The memorial includes a field of thousands of stones as symbolic gravestones of the Soviet soldiers who fell in the battle. The Russian monument was installed in September 1994, and the Ukrainians installed their own monument in the spring of 1998.External links
- Gallery of the Soviet and Finnish photographs The Monument of the Winter War website