does anyone have any information on the russian/finnish war, that caused finland to lose a major city?

Answer 1

Here is a brief review of a book on the Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40 by Trotter. It is a good, short analysis of a complex subject.

"Trotter tells us that the Karelian Isthmus of Finland isn't much to look at, has no natural resources, yet "there are few comparably small areas of land in all Europe that have been fought over so often and stubbornly." The reason is that it is the only major land bridge between Russia and the Scandinavian peninsula.
And so, knowing Russia would need passage for the upcoming European conflagration --- in 1939 Stalin asked, then demanded concessions in the Karelian Isthmus from Finland. When he didn't get them, he brought in a large, modern, well-equipped army to fight the ill-equipped army of Finland --- a country of nineteen million. What was astonishing was not that Russia won; what was astonishing was that it took them three-and-a-half months to do so.

Trotter is an admirable writer, and the tale of this war is filled with fascinating facts. The Finnish army may have been motley, but they were perfectly suited for the landscape --- many were farmers from the region, and they fought a guerrilla war not unlike that of Indochina 25 years later.

Despite an appalling lack of arms, they used what little matériel they had brilliantly. Their commanders were resourceful; their strategy was sound; their ability to hold their tide against a million Russian soldiers with all their airplanes, tanks, and firepower was a miracle.

The war lasted 105 days --- from November 26, 1939, to March 13, 1940. 250,000 Russians, it is believed, were killed --- versus 25,000 Finns. A national infrastructure of roads, power lines, dams, and rail links were destroyed --- and would take years to rebuild. At the beginning, the Russian army was an unknown; at the end of the conflict, the world knew that it was powerful; the world also knew how the Russians had mishandled what could have been a two-week conquest of a sparsely populated country. The lessons the general staff learned about fighting an implacable enemy were crucial to the ultimate success that it had two years later against the German Wermacht."

Answer 2

There were two wars that caused us to loose a major city, the same one, Viipuri, twice. First one was the Winter War 1939-1940, to which John B. refers in his answer, though he seems to have some miss conceptions in it, and the second one was the Continuation War 1941-1944.

In Winter War the Finnish army was indeed greatly laking in armament and munitions, but even if the Red Army was well provided for when considering the numbers of soldiers and armament, their tactics were hopelessly old-fashioned and suited for open plains, not for the boggy, thick forests of Eastern Finland. The Red Army did have the overwhelming material advance over the Finnish army, but they were ill-prepared in every other way - to our advance. We really did have only 30 tanks, but only roughly half of them were in working-order and they were used only once (only one of them survived and it got stuck into a ditch and never made it to the battle ground). It didn't matter though, The Winter War was not won (and there was no clear winner in this war) by machines but by men.

There wasn't nineteen million Finns up and about back then. It wasn't until 1950 that population reached 4 million and it's now a bit under 5 300 000.

Finns did use guerrilla tactics, but wasn't a guerrilla war as such. There were fixed front lines, especially in southern front were certain parts of the line held unmoved until the peace was declared. I recommend that you read the Virtual Finland- site's article "Lessons of Military Strategy". (You'll find out why the war in Irak is not going so well...)

The infrastructure in general was not greatly damaged. Helsinki, the capital, was heavily bombarded but the anti-aircraft defence was up to its job and was able to keep the Soviet air-assault at bay.

In the end the Winter War was a defencive victory since Finland was not occupied by the Soviet Union. 10 % of the Finland's territory had to be ceded to USSR, including the city of Viipuri.

In the Continuation War Finland attacked the USSR in order to regain areas lost in the peace agreement after Winter War. At first all went well and the old borderlines were quickly reached and crossed, but in the end the result of the war was much the same as in Winter War, and Viipuri was lost for the second time.

I recommend you read the articles on the sites I have listed as my sources if you're interested in all this.

Answer 3

In 1703 Peter the Great conquered the land of Ingria and renamed much of it St. Petersburg. At the time modern-day Finland was a part of Sweden, so the war was actually between Russia and Sweden.