Originally published at: http://timeghost.tv/the-baltic-in-stalins-squeeze-ww2-007-13-october-1939/
Facebook Twitter Google+ EmailLink While the Third Reich and USSR consolidate their Polish conquest, their leaders areaway of each other but turn the attention to the next prize. Stalin moves to the North and Hitler pushes for an attack in the West. Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and…
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Nice episode again. I’m interested to see what you’re going to be covering during the upcoming “phoney war”.
Minor niggle I know, but the G in Gneisenau is normally left silent in most documentaries I’ve seen.
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I’m very interested in the Finnish-Soviet Winter War. I almost wrote a small project on it in high school. Now that I reminiscine, that was a long time ago.
I may have spotted a small typo in the final credits. It says “Sebastiaaan de With” if my eyes didn’t deceive me (it was early in the morning and I was watching on my phone). I think it’s an “a” or maybe two too many.
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Thank you for taking an unbiased view on the Winter War`s causes! Finns so often chalk it up to thirst for conquest but there were legitimate strategic concerns for Stalin.
The fear that Finland could be used as a springboard for an attack on St. Petersburg/Leningrad was an old one. Its the main reason why Russians conquered Finland in the first place in 1809. During WW1 the Imperial Army had fortified Helsinki and Viipuri heavily and kept tens of thousands of troops in Finland throughout the war for this very reason. Then there was the recent political history: In 1918 the Germans helped the winning side in the Finnish civil war the two countries had been on very friendly terms ever since, whereas Finnish sentiments (at least on official level) towards both communism and Russia were overwhelmingly negative. In 1919 Mannerheim tried to organize a joint attack on the bolsheviks in Petrograd with the Russian whites. The plans fell apart because the Russians wouldnt recognize Finland and the Finnish government was aware of Finlands war weariness and destitute financial situation. But the idea was there.
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