Shelling of Mainila
60°15′08″N 29°51′12″E / 60.25222°N 29.85333°E
The Shelling of Mainila (
Historians have now concluded that the shelling of Mainila was a fabrication carried out by the Soviet NKVD state security agency.[3]
Background
The Soviet Union had signed international and mutual nonaggression treaties with Finland: the
The incident
Seven shots were fired, and three Finnish observation posts detected their fall. These witnesses estimated that the shells detonated approximately 800 meters (2,600 ft) inside Soviet territory.[5] Finland proposed a neutral investigation of the incident, but the Soviet Union refused and broke diplomatic relations with Finland on November 29.[6]
Materials in the private archives of Soviet party leader Andrei Zhdanov show that the incident was orchestrated to paint Finland as an aggressor and launch an offensive.[7] The Finnish side denied responsibility for the attacks and identified Soviet artillery as their source—indeed, the war diaries of nearby Finnish artillery batteries show that Mainila was out of range of all of them, as they had been withdrawn to prevent such incidents.[8]
The Soviet Union then renounced the non-aggression pact with Finland and on 30 November 1939 launched the first offensives of the Winter War.[2]
Aftermath
Russian historian Pavel Aptekar analyzed declassified Soviet military documents and found that the daily reports from troops in the area did not report any losses in personnel during the time period in question, leading him to conclude that the shelling of Soviet troops was staged.[10]
In his 1970 memoir, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev wrote on the start of the Winter War: "We had fired our salvo, and the Finns had replied with artillery fire of their own. De facto, the war had begun. There is, of course, another version of the facts: it's said that the Finns started shooting first and that we were compelled to shoot back. It's always like that when people start a war. They say, "You fired the first shot," or "You slapped me first, and I'm only hitting back."[11]
On 18 May 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin denounced the Winter War, saying it had been a war of aggression.[12]
1941 Finnish shelling of Mainila
During the
See also
- Background of the Winter War
- Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
- Operation Himmler
- Gleiwitz incident
- Mukden Incident– Another false flag attack
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 9780753822470.
- ^ a b c d Turtola, Martti (1999). "Kansainvälinen kehitys Euroopassa ja Suomessa 1930-luvulla". In Leskinen, Jari; Juutilainen, Antti (eds.). Talvisodan pikkujättiläinen. pp. 44–45.
- ^ False flags: What are they and when have they been used?, BBC News, 18 February 2022, retrieved 23 February 2022
- ISBN 951-710-050-7.
- ^ ISBN 978-1565122499.
- ISBN 978-951-0-33919-0, WSOY, 2004 p. 125
- ^ Manninen, Ohto: Molotovin cocktail-Hitlerin sateenvarjo, 1995
- ISBN 978-951-0-23536-2, WSOY, 2006
- ^ Gunther, John (1940). Inside Europe. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. xx.
- ^ Pavel Aptekar in article Casus Belli using casualty reports as sources (Там же Оп.10 Д.1095 Л.37,42,106.130,142) (in Russian)
- OCLC 203242.
- ^ Yeltsin's joint press conference with President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari at the Kremlin on 18 May 1994; Many Karelias Virtual Finland, November 2001, archived 2 February 2009 from the original (in Finnish)
- ISBN 951-99836-4-3.
Bibliography
- Edwards, Robert (2006). White Death: Russia's War on Finland 1939–40. London, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-84630-7.
- Leskinen, Jari; Juutilainen, Antti, eds. (1999). Talvisodan pikkujättiläinen (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö. p. 976. ISBN 951-0-23536-9.
- ISBN 1-85410-881-6.
First published in the United States under the title A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939–40
External links
- Diplomatic correspondence between Finnish and Russian Governments Archived 2007-03-16 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)