The Winter War: Its Causes and Effects

Authors

Ethan D. Beck, Cedarville UniversityFollow

Department/School of the Primary Author

History and Government

Keywords

Winter War, Russo-Finnish War, World War II, Russian Revolution, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Treaty of Dorpat, Nazi-Soviet Pact, Operation Barbarossa

DOI

10.15385/jch.2018.2.2.4

Abstract

The Russo-Finnish War of 1939-1940, also known as the Winter War, forms a curious portion of World War II history that bears further study. Occurring during the “Phony War”—the period of calm following Hitler’s invasion of Poland—the Winter War offers a glimpse into the attitudes of the major powers as the growing necessity of the coming war becomes increasingly clear during 1939 and 1940. Specifically, the Winter War provides insight into Soviet imperialism and its concerns over German aggression, and forms a crucial portion of the German decision to invade Russia in the summer of 1941. Without consideration of the Winter War and the conclusions drawn from it by the major world powers, it is difficult to form a satisfactory explanation of each power’s behavior in the Second World War. Therefore, though it was a relatively brief conflict, the Winter War is crucial to a proper understanding of the events of World War II as a whole.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Disclaimer

DigitalCommons@Cedarville provides a publication platform for fully open access journals, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. However, the opinions and sentiments expressed by the authors of articles published in our journals do not necessarily indicate the endorsement or reflect the views of DigitalCommons@Cedarville, the Centennial Library, or Cedarville University and its employees. The authors are solely responsible for the content of their work. Please address questions to dc@cedarville.edu.

Rights

© 2018 Ethan D. Beck. All rights reserved

Recommended Citation

Beck, Ethan D. (2018) "The Winter War: Its Causes and Effects," Channels: Where Disciplines Meet: Vol. 2: No. 2, Article 4.
DOI: 10.15385/jch.2018.2.2.4
Available at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/channels/vol2/iss2/4