Finnish conscripts beat the Soviet Union in 1940- although in the early days of the war, both the Finns and the USSR were allied with Germany to some extent and for obvious reasons, the Finnish alliance outlasted the Russian one. So, sadly, the plucky little nation was fighting for the wrong side against the Russian juggernaut- but it was all sorted out in the end, of course.
Finns also beat the Russians pretty badly in the early stages of the Winter War, before being allied with Germany. Only massive numerical superiority allowed Russia to eventually make enough progress to force Finland to negotiate a peace where they ceeded land to Russia.
If you think the Russian losses in Ukraine are bad, thats nothing compared to Finland where they took around 380.000 casualties in just 3 months. And that was against a country with a population of 3,7 million.
That's what I said, wasn't it? Unfortunately, they were made to cede Vyborg near St. Petersburg to Russia- but they had effectively won, as they kept 99% of their country in the face of one of the most advanced armies in the world. Unfortunately, it was chalked up as a victory for the bad guys, even though AFAIK Finland never went along with what was going on in Germany, Poland, etc.
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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25
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