One War Ends

The 105th day of vast Red Russia's hammering attack on little snowbound Finland opened as usual on all fronts last week. Soon after dawn, Red bombers appeared over interior cities, methodically dropping demolition where it would most damage communications and transport, incendiary charges where they would burn homes and civilian morale. Northeast of Lake Ladoga,* Red tanks and infantry tried to make headway where three of their divisions had been whittled to bits. As usual, they were driven back. At Taipale, Vuosalmi and along the Vuoksi in the centre of the Karelian Isthmus, tired Finnish defenders stood firm under fresh concatenations of heavy Red artillery, replying with their own shells to break up the enemy's attempts to advance. At the Mannerheim Line's right centre, north of its gaping break-through at Summa, the Red juggernaut inched forward. In the suburbs of Viipuri, out on the ice and islands of the bay, and southwest along the coast where the Reds had won a few footholds, fighting raged as the 105th morning wore on. The Russians claimed that now Viipuri. where the first shots for Finnish independence were fired in 1918, was in Russian hands.

Meantime, in Helsinki, in Moscow, in Germany and Sweden and all around the world, most people knew that Finland's ordeal was over. The British-accented German radio propagandist, "Lord Haw-Haw," had been the first to say so, at 10:30 p.m. the night before. He had had word from Moscow that terms were finally struck between Finnish and Russian negotiators. Their final session in the Kremlin was joined by Dictator Joseph Stalin, who warmly commended Finland's Delegate Dr. Juho Paasikivi and said that if Dr. Paasikivi had continued as Finnish leader in the negotiations last autumn, there need never have been a war. To seal the peace after it was signed, J. Stalin served a round of beer.

News correspondents, on vigil in Room No. 4 on the second floor of Helsinki's Hotel Kemp, heard the German broadcast and several others from foreign stations, but still could get no confirmation from Finnish officials. No news came from the Finnish Diet, which wrangled in secret far into the night, debating whether or not to accept at this last hour the Allies' offer of 50,000 troops. Morning came, and though news correspondents were certain now of peace, Finns were not. A carpenter busy boarding up a store window against more bomb splinters said to the New York Times'?, George Axelsson: "I have not heard anything about it [peace]. But perhaps they have at last thrown the Russians out of the country."

Officers at the fighting front knew by 10 a.m. that the armistice lay one hour ahead. A private soldier, when he heard, echoed the Helsinki carpenter: "So at last, they have had enough?" The Finnish Air Force ceased flying, though Russian planes kept the air until 11 o'clock, one of their last bombs hitting the statue in Hanko which commemorates Germany's help in liberating Finland from Red Russia.

Official notice to the country that the smoking guns were still and Finland was at peace again, still free, was radioed by Foreign Minister Vaino Tanner at noon. Flags were half-staffed, the people stood speechless and downcast to hear him. "Our army did well and fought with all its might," he said. "They have behaved--I will not say as heroes, for that would be too everyday a word--but as men. . . . We had many great victories and only on the main frontier were we forced to withdraw somewhat.

"But we are a small nation. . . . The same men have had to remain under fire the whole time. And even the pluckiest troops gradually become tired. . . .

"We could not win this war alone. The inevitable end would have been the destruction of our country. . . .

"Peace has returned to this country. But what a peace! . . . But we must forget the past and look toward the future. . . . Our country has been devastated before in the course of its history. Its population has once been reduced by nearly half.* Even from such depths we have ascended again. Finland will become a vigorous nation and her people will prosper as before. We have land in abundance. Our opportunities for fruitful work are boundless. And our army is still whole. It can keep watch that our peace will not be disturbed in the future. . . ."

What Finland Paid. Baron Mannerheim put at 15,000 dead the cost to Finland in lives. Other estimates went twice that high, plus 35,000 wounded. In money the cost was some $400,000,000, one-quarter in actual military expenditures, one-half in property damages. Upon these prices were piled the peace terms, one-quarter in commercial losses.

Last autumn, Russia demanded a lease on the Hanko Peninsula, for a naval base, and Lappohja Bay for an anchorage; plus certain islands in the Gulf of Finland; plus enough Finnish territory to put Leningrad out of range of artillery on the Karelian Isthmus; plus the west end of the Rybachi Peninsula north of Petsamo; plus assurance that Sweden (or anyone else) would not be allowed to join in Finland's fortification of the Aland Islands. Now, at a cost of some 250,000 men, 250,000 wounded, 1,500 tanks, 700 airplanes, and a promised $128,000 per year rent for 30 years for Hanko, she wrested from Finland all these demands except the Aland Islands point, and in addition.

> The entire Isthmus plus eastern Viipuri Province, approximately following the line established by Peter the Great when he whipped Sweden in 1721. This region includes what is left of Finland's No. 3 city, Viipuri, which was her cradle of liberty, her largest timber exporting port; the mouth of Saimaa Canal communicating with her interior lakelands; the better half of the Vuoksi valley, rich in sawmills, woodworking, cellulose, pulp and paper plants, producing 8.4% of Finland's exports; the Taipale waterpower system; important metal works at Vaertsilae and Haemekoski. It compasses the west and north shores of Lake Ladoga, making that body all-Russian--something the Russian Army had failed to do. It contains the important railheads (beside Viipuri) of Sortavala and Suojaervi. Within it also lies Finland's entire southeastern defense system, still intact save for the breakthrough from Summa up to Viipuri.

> A 50-mile rail connection which Finland must build this year, from the railhead at Kuolajaervi eastward to a link which Russia will build westward from Kandalakska. Russia will have free transit over this line to its juncture with the Swedish rail-road at Tornio, hard by the Swedish iron mines and fort at Boden. To narrow the "waist" of Finland thus traversed (something else Russia's fighting columns failed to do), Russia takes a slice off Finland north and south of Kuolajaervi, instead of ceding a big slice of Russia further down the line as she was willing to do last autumn. In these concessions, Russia thus was insuring herself against future military resistance from the Finns of the kind that proved so costly in the past three months.

> Russia gets the whole Rybachi Peninsula dominating Petsamo's port of Liinahamari, which Russia returns to Finland though retaining the right of free transit for Red goods and persons across this "Finnish corridor" to Norway and Norway's ice-free port of Kirkenes.

> Finland's naval forces in the North (as under the existing treaty of 1920) shall consist of not more than 15 armed ships of not more than 400 tons, though vessels of less than 100 tons are unrestricted. Finland's Arctic naval bases shall be proportionately small and on this coast Finland shall maintain no submarines, no armed aircraft.

> No alliances, no coalitions directed at Russia.

> Nothing was said in the treaty about Finland fortifying her new frontiers, and spunky Foreign Minister Tanner said: "Who can stop us?"

Subject to possible changes to be made by a joint treaty commission this week. thus ended the Russo-Finnish War. The Finnish Diet ratified the terms 145-to-3.* Obeying the terms of a protocol appended to the peace treaty, 100,000 Finns still remaining in the ceded areas at once started a sad march out of bigger-than-ever Russia into an even smaller Finland--carrying their babies and chattels, driving their few remaining cows and horses. The narrow roads and war-taxed railroads clogged up. Snow fell, gales raged. Defense Minister Juho Niukkanen resigned from the Cabinet partly because his job was done, partly because his whole constituency was ceded to Russia and all his constituents were among these weary evacues. For these last exiles and 370,000 who had been evacuated before them, new homes had to be found in central and western Finland.

Yet the Finns did not despair or complain. The one thing in their country that seemed unimpaired was their sisu (in American: guts). Where the softer Liths and Latvians and Estonians had scared out cheaply, the Finns had once again proven their durability and burnished their national honor. They had incidentally made it plain to the Russians that they would be a very troublesome people to govern, and if any net gain had accrued in putting up a game but hopeless fight instead of selling out for bargain rates to begin with, this was it.

* Known to Finns as Lake Laatokka.

* After the "Great Wrath" in 1721 when Finland was the Russo-Swedish battleground, her population dropped to 250,000.

* Those opposed were all members of the 17-man Swedish Party.

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