Timeline of the Winter War
Encyclopedia
The timeline of the Winter War is a chronology of events leading up to, culminating in, and resulting from the Winter War
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...

. The war began when 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....

 attacked 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...

 on 30 November 1939 and it ended 13 March 1940.

Prelude

  • 7 November 1917: Bolshevik revolution breaks out in Russia
    Russia
    Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

    .
  • 6 December 1917: Finland declares independence from Russia.
  • 27 January 1918: Finnish Civil War
    Finnish Civil War
    The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...

     between German-supported White Guards
    White Guard (Finland)
    The White Guard was a voluntary militia that emerged victorious over the socialist Red Guard as part of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War of 1918...

     and Soviet-supported Red Guards
    Red Guards (Finland)
    The Red Guards formed the army of Red Finland during the Finnish Civil War in 1918. The combined strength of the Red Guard was about 30,000 at the beginning of the Civil War, and peaked at 90,000-120,000 during the course of the conflict....

    .
  • 15 May 1918: Finnish Civil War ends with a victory by the White Guards under C.G.E. Mannerheim
    Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
    Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War, Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defence Forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, and a Finnish statesman. He was Regent of Finland and the sixth President of Finland...

    .
  • 17 July 1919: Finland adopts a democratic constitution
    Constitution of Finland
    The Constitution of Finland is the supreme source of national law of Finland. It defines the basis, structures and organisation of government, the relationship between the different constitutional organs, and lays out the fundamental rights of Finnish citizens...

    . Finland was the first country in Europe to give women the right to vote
    Women's suffrage
    Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...

     in 1907.
  • 14 October 1920: Soviet Russia and Finland sign the Treaty of Tartu
    Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Finnish)
    The Treaty of Tartu between Finland and Soviet Russia was signed on 14 October 1920 after negotiations that lasted for four months. The treaty confirmed the border between Finland and Soviet Russia after the Finnish civil war and Finnish volunteer expeditions in Russian East Karelia. Ratifications...

    , which provides for mutual de jure recognition and a settlement of the border.
  • 21 January 1932: The Soviet Union and Finland negotiate a non-aggression pact.
  • 24 August 1939: Russo–German non-aggression pact signed. Secret protocol places the Baltic region and Finland within the Soviet Union's sphere of interest.
  • 17 September 1939: The Soviet Union invades Poland
    Poland
    Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

    .
  • 22 September 1939: Estonia
    Estonia
    Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

    n foreign minister invited to Moscow
    Moscow
    Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

    .
  • 29 September 1939: Soviet–Estonian mutual assistance pact signed.
  • 1 October 1939: Latvia
    Latvia
    Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

    n foreign minister invited to Moscow.
  • 3 October 1939: Lithuania
    Lithuania
    Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

    n foreign minister invited to Moscow.
  • 5 October 1939: Soviet–Latvian mutual assistance pact signed. The Soviet Union invites Finns to negotiate territorial adjustments.
  • 9 October 1939: Finland orders a mobilization
    Mobilization
    Mobilization is the act of assembling and making both troops and supplies ready for war. The word mobilization was first used, in a military context, in order to describe the preparation of the Prussian army during the 1850s and 1860s. Mobilization theories and techniques have continuously changed...

     under the name Additional Refresher Training.
  • 10 October 1939: Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty
    Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty
    The Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty was a bilateral treaty signed between the Soviet Union and Lithuania on October 10, 1939. According to provisions outlined in the treaty, Lithuania would acquire about one fifth of the Vilnius Region, including Lithuania's historical capital, Vilnius,...

     signed.
  • 11–12 October 1939: Finnish delegation meets V.M. Molotov
    Vyacheslav Molotov
    Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...

     and J.V. Stalin
    Joseph Stalin
    Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

     in Moscow, and receives demands of concessions.
  • 31 October 1939: Molotov's speech before the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
  • 13 November 1939: Negotiations are broken off.
  • 26 November 1939: The Soviets stage the Mainila shots
    Shelling of Mainila
    The Shelling of Mainila was a military incident on November 26, 1939, where the Soviet Union's Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila , declared that the fire originated from Finland across a nearby border and claimed losses in personnel...

    .
  • 28 November 1939: The Soviets withdrawn from the nonaggression pact.

November

  • 30 November 1939: Helsinki
    Helsinki
    Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

     bombed, and the Soviets troops cross Finnish border.

December

  • 1 December 1939: The puppet government "Finnish Democratic Republic
    Finnish Democratic Republic
    The Finnish Democratic Republic was a short-lived government dependent on and recognised only by the Soviet Union. It nominally operated in those parts of Finnish Karelia that were occupied by the Soviet Union during the Winter War....

    " is founded.
  • 3 December 1939: Finland makes appeal for intervention by the League of Nations
    League of Nations
    The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

    .
  • 7 December 1939: Soviets reach main line
    Mannerheim Line
    The Mannerheim Line was a defensive fortification line on the Karelian Isthmus built by Finland against the Soviet Union. During the Winter War it became known as the Mannerheim Line, after Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. The line was constructed in two phases: 1920–1924 and...

     of Finnish resistance on the Karelian Isthmus
    Karelian Isthmus
    The Karelian Isthmus is the approximately 45–110 km wide stretch of land, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva . Its northwestern boundary is the relatively narrow area between the Bay of Vyborg and Lake Ladoga...

    .
  • 14 December 1939: The Soviet Union expelled from League of Nations.
  • 23 December 1939: Finns organized unsuccessful counterattack.
  • 25 December 1939: Finns win the battle of Tolvajärvi
    Battle of Tolvajärvi
    The Battle of Tolvajärvi ['tol.va.jær.vi] was fought on 12 December 1939 between Finland and the Soviet Union. It was the first large offensive victory for the Finns in the Winter War.-Prelude:...

    .

January

  • 7 January 1940: Finns win the battle of Raate road.
  • 8 January 1940: Finns win 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...

    .

February

  • 1 February 1940: Soviets start all-out offensive on the Karelian Isthmus.
  • 5 February 1940: Britain
    United Kingdom
    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

     and France
    France
    The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

     agree intervene in Scandinavia
    Scandinavia
    Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

    .
  • 11 February 1940: Soviets score decisive breakthrough of Mannerheim Line
    Mannerheim Line
    The Mannerheim Line was a defensive fortification line on the Karelian Isthmus built by Finland against the Soviet Union. During the Winter War it became known as the Mannerheim Line, after Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. The line was constructed in two phases: 1920–1924 and...

    .
  • 12 February 1940: Finns seek peace terms.

March

  • 1–5 March 1940: Fighting in and around city of Viipuri (Vyborg).
  • 9 March 1940: Finns retreat from last toeholds in Gulf of Viipuri.
  • 12 March 1940: Moscow Peace Treaty signed in Moscow.
  • 13 March 1940 Cease-fire goes into effect.

Aftermath

  • 9 April 1940: Germany assaults
    Operation Weserübung
    Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...

     on Denmark and Norway.
  • 15 April 1940: Allies send troops to Norway.
  • June–August 1940: The Soviet Union occupies and annex the Baltic states.
  • 22 June 1941: Germany assaults
    Operation Barbarossa
    Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

     on the Soviet Union.
  • 25 June 1941: 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...

     begins.

See also

  • List of wars involving Finland
  • Timeline of the occupation of the Baltic states
    Timeline of the occupation of the Baltic states
    Timeline of the occupation of the Baltic States lists key events in the military occupation of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania by the Soviet Union during the Second World War.-1939:...

  • Timeline of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
    Timeline of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
    The timeline of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact is a chronology of events, including Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact negotiations, leading up to, culminating in, and resulting from the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact...

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