Tag Archives: World War II

The Forgotten Victory Parade of the Allies on September 7, 1945

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The allied forces of the Anti-Hitler Coalition held a parade in honour of the end of the Second World War. Parade taken by Soviet troops in Chief Marshal Georgy Zhukov, the commander of the 3rd U.S. Army General George Patton, the British General Robertson and French General Marie-Pierre Kœnig.

The parade was almost cancelled due to General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery declining the invitations shortly before the parade, but at Iosif Stalin’s insistence, took place anyway.

It is known as a “forgotten parade”, as it was mentioned in only a few Western sources, and only showed once in the USSR. The forces of four Allies also participated in another Berlin parade several months later, on the Charlottenburger Chaussee, in front of the Brandenburg Gate, on the first anniversary of the German surrender on 8 May 1946, in the Berlin Victory Parade of 1946. This parade was connected to the inauguration of the Soviet War Memorial at Tiergarten. Soviet troops were not present at the much more widely known in the West London Victory Celebrations of 1946.


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Raw video source on YouTube.
We presented this translation first at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

Word to Georgy Zhukov, “Recollections and Reflections”, volume 2, 1974 edition, translation from 1985, page 427-428

By common agreement the salute was to be taken by the Commanders-in-Chief of the Soviet, US, British and French Forces.

All arms of the land forces participated in the Berlin Parade. It was decided not to call in the air forces and navies as they were considerable distances away from Berlin.

The appointed date was approaching. The Soviet troops carried out a thorough preparation. We sought to invite to this parade primarily those soldiers, NCOs, officers and generals who had displayed particular gallantry in the storming of Berlin and particularly its main strongholds of resistance — the Reichstag and the Imperial Chancellery. Everything was going on according to our agreement with the Allies.

But on the very eve of the parade, we were suddenly informed that for a number of reasons the Commanders-in-Chief of the Allied Forces could not come to Berlin for the Victory Parade, and had authorised their generals to attend.

I immediately put a telephone call through to Stalin. He heard my report and said:

“They want to belittle the political importance of the parade of troops of the anti-Hitler coalition countries. Just wait, they’ll be up to something else next. Ignore the refusal of the Allies and take the salute yourself, all the more so, as we have more rights to do it than they.”

The parade of troops in Berlin was held on September 7, 1945, exactly at the appointed time. Participating were the Soviet troops which had stormed Berlin, and American, British and French troops which were stationed in Berlin in order to carry out occupation duties in the western sectors of Berlin set aside for them.

After reviewing the troops drawn up for the march-past, I made a speech noting the historic merits of the Soviet forces and the Allied Expeditionary Forces.

The Soviet infantry, tanks and artillery marched in impeccable order. A particularly memorable impression was made by our tanks and self-propelled artillery. Among the Allied troops the best-drilled were the British.

About 20,000 Berliners gathered to see the Parade. It was a ceremony symbolising the victory of the anti-Hitler coalition over the bloodthirsty fascist aggression.

And so, the parade became forgotten, pushed out of mind.

In the West, because celebrating the Victory on September 7 drove home the point that it was Socialism that won the battle over its mortal enemy — Fascism, the tool of Imperialism. As Zhukov had said, the West would not forgive USSR for liberating it — it already commenced a new war on the USSR, and this reminder did not fit into the plans.

As for the USSR, it chose to forget that parade for different reasons, one of them being the contempt that the West showed.

The feat of a Russian partisan: how to single-handedly blow up 600 Wehrmacht soldiers

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While we recall the manifestations of Nazism – past and present – let us not forget those, who fought against the Nazis, both at the front and behind enemy lines. The recounting of their feat makes for an inspiring reading!

Below, is our translation of an article by Alexander Neukropny at TopCor.ru. The article was published in 2020 for the 75th anniversary of the Victory over Nazism.

If you imagine the history of the Great Patriotic War in the form of a book, then it will probably be a huge folio in a luxurious cover, gilded and intricately decorated. Inside, anyone who opens it will find not only smooth lines and beautifully designed illustrations, but also huge gaps, mercilessly retouched and rewritten many times, or even “torn out with to the core” pages and entire chapters.

Alas, despite the titanic work of entire generations of both professional historians and amateur searchers (often much more efficient, and, most importantly, impartial and objective in their work), despite the truly reverent and caring attitude of most of our fellow citizens towards the Great Patriotic War, its chronicle still gapes with “white spots”. Forgotten exploits, unrecognised heroes, battles and skirmishes that remained unknown, each of which should serve as an example of the highest courage and steadfastness of the defenders of our Motherland… Sometimes even the brightest episodes of a great epic find themselves in a completely undeserved “shadow”, which some immediately begin to try to fill up with their own vile fabrications. We will recall one of these episodes today.

Odessa resident from Gorlovka

Meet Konstantin Alexandrovich Chekhovich. A Soviet partisan who could rightfully have been awarded the title of “The most efficient saboteur of the Great Patriotic War”. It is no joke to send to hell in one fell swoop, at the very least, a battalion of Nazi scum, or even one and a half (according to various estimates, this Wehrmacht combat unit could number from 500 to 600 units of personnel), and in addition, several dozen representatives of senior and senior commanders, who belonged not only to ordinary army personnel, but also to Nazi intelligence and counterintelligence!
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The Nazi Roots of Today’s European Union

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An article by Pål Steigan from October 21, 2025, translated by us from Norwegian.

Walther Funk, Minister of Economics and President of the Reichsbank, during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Provided by: Robert Jackson.

There are clear similarities between today’s EU and Nazi Germany’s plans for a Greater Germanic Reorganisation of Europe. This may seem like a drastic claim, but if we read the Nazis’ own plans and compare them with how the EU works, and not least how the EU is developing, it is not difficult to see the similarities.

The most interesting document in this context is a speech given by Hitler’s Minister of Economics Walther Funk on April 25, 1940: “Die wirtschaftliche Neuordnung Europas”.

This was a key speech in which Funk, as German Minister of Economics, outlined Nazi Germany’s plans for an economic reorganisation of Europe under German domination, including the exploitation of resources from occupied countries such as Norway.

The document promotes the idea of ​​a “European economic community” dominated by Germany, with a focus on self-sufficiency, rational allocation of resources, and the elimination of “unnecessary” competition.

These are the key points of the document:
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Forgotten History – The Moscow Negotiations of 1939

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On September 30, we remembered the 1938 agreement between Britain, France, Italy and Germany to dismember and abandon Czechoslovakia, and we commented on this Munich Betrayal connecting it to the start of World War II. In August of 1939, the USSR had no other way, but to sign a non-aggression agreement with Germany.

However, in March-April of 1939, the USSR still tried to prevent the looming War, trying to talk sense into Britain, Poland and France, in order to jointly reign in German militarism.

The following material from FKT – Geschichte der Sowjetunion (History of the Soviet Union) is about that attempt (first translated at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”).

Forgotten History – The Moscow Negotiations of 1939

❓ Was there a chance to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War?

Yes, and not just one. The last such chance was the trilateral negotiations between the Soviet Union, France, and Britain. They were initiated in April 1939 by the government of the USSR.

The Moscow negotiations, or rather their failure, marked a definitive end to the last possibility of preserving peace in Europe.

A brief summary before we go into details

🔽Background

Basically, the start of the Second World War was already preordained in 1935 when Hitler refused to comply with the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. This event took place on March 16, 1935.

Germany embarked on a consistent course of militarisation. The European countries, victors of the First World War, were content with half-hearted “protests.” The peaceful and naive Western democracies sincerely believed, according to many liberals, that the reorganised and rearmed Reich army would only participate in battles “around the harvest.”

Then followed the transfer of the Saar and Rhine regions to Hitler—of course, the USSR was blamed—the Anschluss of Austria, and finally the signing of the Munich Agreement. As a result, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist.

🔽Start of the negotiations

By early 1939, even the indigenous people of the Tuamotu Islands knew that a major war in Europe was inevitable. This was also clear to the leadership of the USSR.

No state wants to wage war alone. A government’s foreign policy is always aimed at finding allies. The Soviet Union was no exception.

Under the conditions of the escalating Polish-German conflict, the USSR proposed to Poland’s allies, namely England and France, to conclude a joint treaty to protect the Polish state. This format is referred to in historical terminology as Stalin’s “system of collective security.”

On March 18, 1939, People’s Commissar Litvinov proposed through the British ambassador in Moscow to convene a conference of six countries: USSR, England, France, Romania, Poland, and Turkey. The goal of the conference was a joint agreement to prevent the expansion of German aggression. England refused, calling the proposal “premature” and suggested limiting it to a declaration.

❗️Against all odds, the Soviet government managed to organise trilateral negotiations. These began in April 1939. England proposed to the USSR to give Poland unilateral guarantees in case of German aggression. The Soviet Union insisted on signing an official treaty between the countries.

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Facts about the Munich Conspiracy of September 30, 1938

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The material is from Russian MFA Telegram channel, where one can also watch a short facta newsreel.

After a short fact-list from the Telegram post, we re-blog the in-depth version from the MFA’s Telegraph blog.

On September 30, 1938, the leaders of Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and France signed an agreement in Munich on the German annexation of the Sudetenland, an industrial region of Czechoslovakia where ethnic Germans made up 90 percent of the population. Czechoslovakia had not been invited to the talks; it was presented with the fact that its sovereign territory must be ceded to Nazi Germany as a fait accompli.

This disgraceful pact between the Western powers and Nazi Germany went down in history as the “Munich Conspiracy” or the “Munich Betrayal”.

FACTS:

▪️ Following the signing of the agreement between the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy in Munich, German troops crossed Czechoslovakia’s border on October 1 and occupied the entire area of the Sudetenland by October 10.

▪️ The Soviet Union was ready to defend Czechoslovakia, but the Soviet Army had to obtain permission to pass through Poland or Romania. Warsaw, which was interested in getting part of Czechoslovakia’s territory for itself, adamantly refused to support Prague against Germany and prohibited possible flights of Soviet aircraft to render aid to the Czechoslovak army. Romania made every effort to slow down the process as much as possible.

▪️ The Munich Betrayal crowned the Western powers’ policy of appeasing the aggressor. Hoping to avoid a conflict with the Third Reich, they tried to satisfy its growing territorial claims at the expense of Eastern and Central European countries.

▪️ As the world witnessed the collapse of the Versailles-Washington system of international relations that existed at the time, many countries began to cooperate with the Third Reich and fell into its sphere of influence.

▪️The Czechoslovakia crisis became a prologue to the bloodiest conflict in the history of humanity, demonstrating what underhanded plotting and reliance on countries’ selfish interests can lead to, i.e. paved the way to World War II.

The Munich Betrayal

On September 30, 1938, the leaders of the United Kingdom (Neville Chamberlain), France (Edouard Daladier), Germany (Adolf Hitler) and Italy (Benito Mussolini) signed an agreement in Munich sanctioning the beginning of annexation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany. This crowned the appeasement policy which made a big war inevitable.

The Treaty of Versailles of June 28, 1919, ended the First World War and put Germany in a very difficult position. Pursuant to the document, Germany lost part of its traditional lands, its army was substantially reduced, and its defence industry was in effect eradicated. The document also contained a separate requirement on the demilitarisation of the Rhineland. The terms of the Versailles peace treaty were extremely harsh, which had a catastrophic effect on the German economy. The direct consequences included the total collapse of Germany’s industry, overwhelming impoverishment of the population and disastrous hyperinflation.
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Finnish occupation of USSR during WWII in Soviet caricatures

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To conclude (for now) the topic of Finland, let us look at a few caricatures and posters, depicting Finnish actions during its invasion of the USSR. We invite everyone to explore this post at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden” for a comprehensive set of links on the topic of Finland and also to see the list of the articles tagged with the “Finland” tag at the Beehive.

We had already presented the first image as an illustration to The new Finnish doctrine: Ignorance, deception, and ingratitude. An Article by Dmitry Medvedev:

Death to the German-Finnish Occupiers!
This is TASS Window #11 from Leningrad, created in July of 1944 by Vasily Selivanov.
The poster shows the Finns taking Hitler’s baits of the “Greater Finland to Urals and Leningrad”. It is accompanied by a verse by K. Vysokovsky.
— I’ll take the Urals! – the bandit cried,
Accepting Hitler’s bait at face value,
The Russian “Hurra!” was then heard,
Turning the bandits into dust and feathers!
Source: Beorn And The Shieldmaiden

An Awkward Camouflage

The caricature by Boris Yefimov from 1943 shows the dual nature of how Finland positioned itself during the WWII.

The sign above the bunny reads: «Finland is a quiet, HARMLESS country!». Meanwhile, the soldier behind the snow mound is loading a gun with an artillery shell, carrying an inscription «At Leningrad». Below the picture there is the second title: «Finnish bandits ‘under cover’»
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Maria Zaharova’s replies to the Finnish President Stubb

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Finnish President Alexander Stubb had the misfortune to show his complete lack of knowledge of history of his own country, and of the geopolitical realities and implications. The spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zaharova, was quick to grill Stubb on the matters of history. Below we present our translations of her Telegram posts, first published at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

Read also: The Art of Timely Betrayal. Why the Finnish SS avoided punishment? and On Historical and International Legal Accountability of Finland for the Occupation of Karelia During Great Patriotic War (WWII) (1941–1944).

Mannerheim, the Executioner

Maria Zaharova comments on Stubb’s 1944 “solution” for 2025

At yesterday’s meeting in Washington, the President of Finland Stubb literally said the following:

“Finland has a long border with Russia and has its own experience of interaction with this country during World War II. We found a solution in 1944, and I am sure we will be able to find a solution in 2025”.

The big question is, did Stubb understand the full hell of his statement?

Let’s dive into history.

From 1939 to 1940 and from 1941 to 1944, Finland was in a state of armed conflict with the USSR.

As a result of Finnish provocations, the Soviet-Finnish war began, in which Helsinki lost. Then there was a short break, and then Finland openly sided with Hitler and declared war on the USSR three days after the start of Operation Barbarossa.

Finland’s allies of Hitler matched him. As the Finnish politician of that time, Väinö Voionmaa wrote: “We are a state of the ‘Axis’ [Rome-Berlin-Tokyo], and also mobilised for attack”.

Finland committed real war crimes, which it itself admitted in 1946 following the trial of Finnish war criminals.

It was the Finns who played an important supporting role for the German Army Group North during the Siege of Leningrad – a genocide of the Soviet people. The President of Finland Ryti wrote to the German envoy: “Leningrad must be eliminated as a major city”.

From hunger, cold, bombings, and artillery shelling in besieged Leningrad, at least 1,093,842 people died, according to some estimates up to 1.5 million people. And these figures are continuously refined by historians and researchers – always increasing due to newly uncovered facts.
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The Moscow Armistice of September 19, 1944 between the USSR and Finland

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On September 19, 1944, the Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland and the USSR, according to which Finland recognised the validity of the peace treaty signed in Moscow in 1940 at the end of the Soviet-Finnish War.

During the Winter War, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army defeated the Finnish armed forces. The result of the victory was the annexation of the Karelian Isthmus and part of Karelia to the USSR.

After the defeat, the Finnish nationalist government set a course for an alliance with Nazi Germany in order to recapture the lost territories in a new war and achieve the previously declared goals. By the beginning of 1941, this alliance was concluded, and covert mobilisation and preparation for war began in Finland.

By June 22, about half a million soldiers were concentrated on the border with the USSR, who went on the offensive on June 28.

In the summer of 1941, the Finns blockaded Leningrad from the north and also occupied significant territories in Karelia. After the start of the blockade of the city of Lenin, the Finnish armed forces took part in the shelling of the city and the “Road of Life”, and also built concentration camps in Karelia.

After the Battle of Moscow, the front with Finland stabilised. In 1944, the large Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive operation began, during which the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army defeated the Finnish forces north of Leningrad and reached the pre-war borders.

Realising the inevitability of its defeat, the Finnish government began to look for ways out of the war, and on August 25, Moscow received an official request for an armistice. On September 19, the Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland and the USSR. Finland withdrew from the war, recognised the 1940 peace treaty as valid, ceded the port of Pechenga, returned all [surviving] Soviet prisoners of war, and paid $300 million in reparations.

As a result of the armistice, Germany lost an important ally that had participated in the war against the USSR, was a source of raw materials, and provided a bridgehead for German units advancing on Leningrad and Murmansk.

Source: CPRF, translated by Beorn and The Shieldmaiden

On Historical and International Legal Accountability of Finland for the Occupation of Karelia During Great Patriotic War (WWII) (1941–1944)

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Below is a complete copy of the report by the Representative office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in Petrozavodsk, published at the site of the Russian Foreign Ministry on July 7, 2025. The report can also be downloaded as a PDF file. A summary of the report is available at the MFA’s Telegram channel.

On Historical and International Legal Accountability of Finland for the Occupation of Karelia During Great Patriotic War (WWII) (1941–1944)

Report by the Representative office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in Petrozavodsk

GENERAL INFORMATION

September 30, 2024, marked 80 years since the liberation of Karelia from Nazi and Finnish occupation forces. Given the need to reaffirm the historical truth, it is again relevant to direct the attention of the world community to the crimes committed by Finland during its occupation of Karelia from 1941 to 1944. While these atrocities were adjudicated by a Finnish court under the agreement between the USSR and Finland, the proceedings demonstrated excessive leniency towards the accused.

On August 1, 2024, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Karelia ruled on the application of the Prosecutor of the Republic of Karelia to establish a fact of legal significance. The Court recognised crimes committed by Nazi occupation forces and Finnish occupation authorities and troops on the territory of the Karelo-Finnish SSR during the Great Patriotic War (WWII) (1941-1944) as war crimes and crimes against humanity. These crimes, defined in the Charter of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal (August 8, 1945) and affirmed by UN General Assembly Resolutions 3(I) (February 13, 1946) and 95 (I) (December 11, 1946), were perpetrated against at least 86,000 Soviet citizens. The victims comprised civilians and prisoners of war serving in the Red Army (the armed forces of the USSR). Furthermore, the Court recognised these acts as genocide against national, ethnic, and racial groups representing the population of the USSR – the peoples of the Soviet Union. This genocide formed part of a plan by Nazi Germany and its ally, Finland, to expel and exterminate the entire local population of the occupied Soviet territories to colonise the land.

The evidence presented to the court confirmed that the occupiers systematically tortured civilians and prisoners of war. This included subjecting them to forced labour under brutal conditions, physical beatings, the prolonged denial of medical care, and confinement in inhumane concentration camp conditions. Collective punishment was routinely applied to civilians and prisoners of war for even minor acts of disobedience. Based on evidence presented during hearings, the court established that over 26,000 civilians and prisoners of war perished during the occupation. These deaths resulted from execution, torture, starvation, and disease. Furthermore, the occupiers deliberately destroyed cities, villages, and industrial and agricultural infrastructure. The total economic and infrastructural damage inflicted upon the region, adjusted for inflation to current rouble values, exceeds 20 trillion roubles[1].

Considering the ruling of the Supreme Court, this report provides a legal assessment of Finland’s conduct during World War II. The documented violations include violations of international treaties, crimes against peace, the implementation of a brutal policy in the occupied territories, which entailed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, ethnic segregation, cruel treatment of non-Finno-Ugric population and prisoners of war.
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Finnish Face of Fascism, an RT Documentary

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During World War II, Finland became Germany’s strategic ally on the Eastern Front and fought against the Soviet Union. From 1941 to 1944 the Finnish army controlled Karelia, one of the republics of the Soviet Union. Nazi ideas thrived among the Finnish leadership, who developed a theory of racial superiority. According to this theory the Karelia population has been divided into two parts: the privileged Karelians and Finnis, and the Russians. Ethnic Russians were doomed to starvation and working to death. Though almost 80 years have passed since Finnish concentration camp survivors were liberated, the perpetrators of these crimes still go unpunished.


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A short history of Finnish-Russian relations

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A cornerstone in the official Finnish Russomania, is the claim that Russia wants to consume the whole of Finland.

Our subscriber came across a historic step-by-step summary demonstrating the absolute inconsistency of such an accusation, which we published in a two-part post at “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”:

♦️♦️♦️

They didn’t, at any point from 1809-1947. That is the hallucination that Finns have, that Russia wants their lands.

In 1945 Roosevelt insisted that Finland gives up all the territories that Soviet Union had suggested in negotiations of 1938 with Finland, just to secure their second largest city against Finnish aggression, with Nazi Germany alliance and their troops in Finland.

Remember, the secret clause in the Molotov-Rittentrop agreement dictated that Finland belonged to Soviet Union sphere of influence. That there is not to be German troops etc in there. And what did Germans and Finns do? Exactly the opposite!

As well, Finland was the country for Nazi Germany’s submarine design and research, that is why Finland had own submarines as it did the designs for Nazi Germany, that was denied having submarines according to WWI peace treaty. So having it in Finland made it possible to circumnavigate those treaty limitations.

The Soviet Union had all the legitimate reasons to worry about the Finnish agenda and objectives, seeing what Finns did in 5 years after getting independence from Soviet Union.

♦️♦️♦️

The main attraction of Helsinki – Alexander II and the Cathedral, St Nicholas’s Church. Photo by Beorn, 2016.

🔹 Russia formed Finland in 1809 by defining its borders for the first time in history, when Sweden lost their eastern territory to Russia.

🔹 Russia gave Finns their language, by making Finnish the official language in the country, before that you only had Swedish language for everything.
And no, Russia didn’t even demand Russian language be used.
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Soviet-Finnish War: the second offer is always worse than the first

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The Soviet-Finnish War began on the last day of autumn, November 30, 1939

By this time, in accordance with the secret additional protocol to the Soviet-German non-aggression pact signed on August 23 of the same year by Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, Moscow and Berlin had agreed that the territory of Finland was within the sphere of interests of the USSR.

This gave Iosif Stalin a unique opportunity to begin solving a complex geopolitical problem – ensuring the security of the European part of the USSR from the north.

To do this, at a minimum, it was necessary to move the Soviet-Finnish border away from Leningrad, and at a maximum – to create another friendly state on its borders instead of a country hostile to the Soviet Union.

In the conditions of the impending world war, Moscow was confident that all methods were good for achieving the set goals – from political and diplomatic to military.

However, it seems that Stalin hoped to resolve the matter peacefully until the very end. One of the leaders of the Finnish delegation at the negotiations with Moscow, Väinö Tanner, who held the post of head of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the Winter War, later recalled:

“Judging by Stalin’s entire behaviour, it seemed to us that he was strongly interested in an agreement. It was not in vain that he devoted so many evenings to the affairs of little Finland. Moreover, he tried to find compromises…”

For 85 years now, the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940 has remained one of the most controversial topics in our history.  Viewed through the knowledge of the Finnish complicity and partaking in the nazi genocide against Soviet citizens in Leningrad, the USSR leadership were right in acting proactively, and with whatever means necessary.

♦️♦️♦️

The second offer is always worse than the first

Preparing for the war against fascism, the USSR needed to move the border away from Leningrad and an agreement was almost reached with the Finnish side about getting Vyborg area, a lease of some islands and a small territory in the north in exchange for the sizable bit of Karelia. Finland did not ratify this agreement.

The text of «The Ageement on Mutual Help and Friendship between the Soviet Union and the Finnish Democratic Republic» can be read at the archive of historic documents of Russia.

The document is dated December 2, 1939, and its text was published in the newspaper «Izvestia» on the next day, December 3.

The second offer is always worse than the first one.

Facts about the Red Army’s Polish Campaign on September 17, 1939

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On September 17, 1939, the Red Army launched a military operation in Poland’s eastern regions, also known as the Red Army’s Polish Campaign. The material is from Russian MFA Telegram channel, where one can also watch a short facta newsreel.

Certain (pseudo)academic circles and mainstream media in the West intentionally promote an excessively biased interpretation of these events seeking to equate the Third Reich and the USSR and cast our country as an aggressor.

❗️ Such approach is completely at odds with the historical truth.

Britain and France, which had played their role in fostering Hitler’s aggression in Europe and redirecting it eastward, were not willing to fulfill their alliance commitments to Poland, having just formally declared a war against the Third Reich, and refrained from direct military confrontation.

Traffic directors
A caricature by Boris Yefimov showing Britain and France as traffic directors, leading Hitler’s war gang along the way to the USSR, while stopping his progress to Western Europe. The caricature is not marked with year, but presumably depicts the effects of the Munich Conspiracy.

The French army did not even attempt to prevent the redeployment of the Wehrmacht units to the East. As Nazi general Alfred Jodl later testified at the Nuremberg trials, “if the Reich did not fail in 1939, it was only because during the Polish campaign, approximately 110 French and British divisions, stationed in the West, took no action against Germany’s 23 divisions”.

Thus, Warsaw, which completely relied on support of Britain and France, was, in fact, abandoned by the allies and had to face Hitler’s aggression. Poland was doomed to meet the same fate that had Czechoslovakia a year earlier. Betrayed by its allies and falling victim to its own political miscalculation, the Polish leadership — which for years had prioritized collaboration with Nazi Germany — ultimately led its nation to catastrophe.
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Facts about the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Treaty of August 23, 1939

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The material is from Russian MFA Telegram channel, where one can also watch a short facta newsreel.

Here we re-blog the in-depth version from the MFA’s Telegraph blog.

Read also our article The complete list of pacts concluded between Germany and other European countries before and during World War II.

On August 23, 1939 — the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Treaty of Non-Aggression, a document that obligated the two Parties “to refrain from any act of violence, any aggressive action, and any attack on each other, either individually or jointly with other Powers.”

This Document was a key achievement of the Soviet diplomacy ahead of WWII: the USSR was able to buy time to better prepare to repel Hitler’s impending attack, which had been seen as inevitable due to the failed policy of “appeasement” by Western European states and their refusal to forge a collective security agreement with our nation against Nazism.

Signing the non-aggression treaty with Germany was a difficult but necessary decision by the Soviet leadership, dictated by national security considerations and the urgent need to deter Nazi aggression in the east.

In the 1930s, twenty years after the end of World War I, the threat of a new large-scale armed conflict in Europe started to grow. A key factor for this was the crisis of the Versailles system of international relations, designed by Britain and France, which paved the way for rising revanchist sentiments in the states it had humiliated — Germany and Italy.

The League of Nations, established as a universal organisation for settling international disputes by diplomatic and political legal means, proved unable to fulfill its mandate, mired in the controversy and intrigues of European states that tried to use the body for their own selfish and opportunistic purposes.

Against this backdrop, the hydra of fascism began spreading rapidly across Europe. Political leaders confident of their own nations’ superiority came to power first in Italy (1922) and then in Germany (1933), where a Nazi dictatorship led by Hitler was established.

With the Nazis’ rise to power in Germany, the threat of a new war in Europe became real. Hitler’s misanthropic ideology was rooted in the notorious doctrine of “racial superiority.” The Nazis used this doctrine to justify Germany’s pursuit of world domination. In this way, an absolute evil emerged in the centre of Europe, endangering the peace and freedom of entire nations.

By the mid-1930s, Germany’s military preparations were becoming increasingly obvious and intense. The strength of the German armed forces reached almost half a million personnel. In 1935, the Nazi regime officially announced the creation of a German military air force (whose existence had been prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles). Hitler signed a decree reintroducing universal conscription and expanding the military, the so-called new peacetime Wehrmacht consisted of 36 divisions totalling 550’000 soldiers and officers. For the first time since its defeat in World War I, Germany again possessed a significant military power capable of launching full-scale offensive operations. Furthermore, the Reich initiated the construction of the Navy, a move that was, in effect, sanctioned by a bilateral agreement between Germany and Britain (signed in London in 1935) in direct contravention of the Versailles prohibitions.
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Finland’s Dirty Secret: From “Neutral” Ally to Hitler’s Partner – Dispelling the Finnish Myths

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We translated this very informative series of posts from a German Telegram channel FKT – Geschichte der Sowjetunion (History of the Soviet Union) and published it on our Telegram channel Beorn And The Shieldmaiden. Here we present the series in the form of one consecutive article.

👉 Read also: The new Finnish doctrine: Ignorance, deception, and ingratitude. An Article by Dmitry Medvedev, “Kill the Russians.” 105 years ago, the Finnish army staged the massacre in Vyborg. The truth must come out!, and many other materials at the blog, bearing the Finland tag.

Finland’s Dirty Secret: From “Neutral” Ally to Hitler’s Partner

Today, Finland likes to play the victim card and acts as if it had nothing to do with the siege of Leningrad. The argument goes:

“We did not attack the city, Mannerheim refused to bomb it, we just stood by and took care of our own affairs.”

A nice story. Too bad it’s pure fiction.

The reality is different: Finnish troops sat for three years at the gates of Leningrad. They did not drink coffee and were not “neutral.” They held a third of the blockade line. Without Finland’s involvement, the Germans would not have been able to completely seal off the city. Together they closed the ring that starved one million people, including 400,000 children.

And Mannerheim, the “savior”?

His order was to bomb the Road of Life (which was actually not a road but a frozen lake), the only route over which food was transported across Lake Ladoga.

On June 25, 1941, Mannerheim ordered the Finnish army to commence hostilities against the USSR:

“I call you to a holy war against the enemy of our nation. Together with the mighty forces of Germany, as brothers in arms, we resolutely embark on a crusade against the enemy to secure a safe future for Finland.”

Finland dreamed of expansion and had concrete plans. On the dream map of “Greater Finland,” Russian cities like Murmansk, Leningrad, and Kandalaksha are marked as Finnish.

Let’s Get to Know Mannerheim

Before we come to Finland’s well-known war against the USSR on Hitler’s side, we need to turn back the clock a bit and look at the context. Finland as a state emerged within Russia. Before the Russo-Swedish War, these territories were simply the eastern part of Sweden. After the war, Russia took them over and established the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. It remained part of the Russian Empire until the 1917 revolution.

Now let’s get to know Mannerheim – a military and political figure who came from poor Swedish-Finnish noble backgrounds but rose to become a general in the Russian army and an officer of the Imperial Guard, close to Nicholas II himself and part of the empire’s military elite. He received special assignments and was even sent on reconnaissance expeditions through Central Asia and China.

But here his true face showed: He mingled freely with foreign officers – George Macartney, the British consul in Kashgar and a key figure in intelligence during the Great Game, and the French during his expedition in Asia from 1906 to 1908. Later, he was even suspected of having connections to Masonic circles. All this suggests that his loyalty was never fully aligned with Russia.

After the empire’s collapse, he wasted no time. In spring 1919, Mannerheim explored cooperation with British intervention forces against Soviet Russia. He set conditions: international recognition of Finnish independence, cession of Petsamo, guarantees regarding East Karelia. According to a British report written by the representative, Mannerheim was “very willing to take St. Petersburg and destroy the Bolsheviks there” in February 1919.

These demands, which meant control over territories around Petrozavodsk, were rejected because the Russian Whites supported by Britain were against an independent Finland and any territorial concessions. Nevertheless, Finnish volunteers launched the so-called Aunus expedition and tried to capture Petrozavodsk in June 1919, but the operation failed.

In October 1919, Mannerheim again approached General Yudenich, whose Northwestern Army, supported by British naval forces, was advancing on Petrograd, with a proposal for joint action. His terms were rejected again. Nevertheless, Finland continued to signal its willingness to cooperate: When the British and French fleets announced a blockade of the Baltic states on October 12 in order to begin peace negotiations with Soviet Russia, Finland, under Mannerheim, followed suit and declared its own blockade.

Finland’s Relations with Hitler in the 1930s

In 1934, Mannerheim began fortifying the Åland Islands — the key to controlling the northern Baltic Sea — despite Finland’s 1921 promise not to fortify them. In 1935, he approached Germany and participated in a secret conference with Hermann Göring, Hungarian Prime Minister Gömbös, and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Polish Parliament to discuss joint measures against the USSR. Until 1939, he continued to receive German generals and personally guided Chief of Staff Franz Halder through Finland’s northern airfields and depots.
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