Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Moments of Life in Soviet Union #ussr #socialism" video.

  1. The war before the invasion by Germany was the secret war planned with Germany for the annexations of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and parts of Romania. Those were seized without much military resistance. The secret plan alo allowed the Soviets to seize a mot of Finnish territory along Lake Ladoga as a buffer to help protect Leningrad. It was expected that operations, later known as the Winter War, would take about three weeks at the time the Red Army invaded on November 30,1939. This was about three months after the start of WWII and it was assumed the allies would be too tied up with German troops to send aid. That assumption proved to be correct, so Finland had to fight on its own. Finland did not roll over and play dead.. Instead of three weeks, the Finns fought on for three months. They fought the Russians to a standstill on almost all fronts and actually gained some Russian territory. Finally, the reorganization of the Russian Army , aided by executing a couple high level Russian Army generals, opened a crushing offensive ont the Finns. Driven back on all fronts but still capable of resisting, the Fins had almost no ammunition left and what remained of the air force grounded for lack of fuel. Finland signed an armistice on March 12, 1940/ The finns would get their revenge starting on June 22 when, as allies of Germany now, they launched and attack against Russian troops of Finnish soil. That, however, is a war for another time. The resistance of the Finns stands in stark contrast to the almost total lack of effective resistence the the Nazis as they moved west.
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