List of wars involving Finland

This article is about wars involving independent Finland. For wars during Russian rule (1809–1917), see list of wars involving Russia. For wars during Swedish rule (1249–1809), see list of wars involving Sweden. For wars prior to Swedish rule, see early Finnish wars.

This is a list of wars involving Finland since its declaration of independence on 6 December 1917.

List

Conflict	Party 1	Party 2	Result	Finnish leaders		Finnish losses (dead or missing)
				Head of State	Chief of Defence
Finnish Civil War (1918)	Finnish Whites German Empire [1] Foreign volunteers: Swedish Brigade Estonian volunteers Polish Legion White Army	Finnish Reds Soviet Russia	Finnish Whites victory Establishment of the Kingdom of Finland German hegemony until November 1918 Division in Finnish society Collapse of the Finnish Reds Dissolution of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic	Pehr Evind Svinhufvud	C. G. E. Mannerheim	~30,000 [2] (Reds and Whites)
Heimosodat (1918–1922)	Finnish White Guard Estonia Uhtua Forest Guerrillas North Ingria United Kingdom (Estonian War of Independence)	Russian SFSR Finnish Red Guards Commune of Estonia United Kingdom (Viena expedition and Petsamo expeditions)	Treaty of Tartu Finnish victory in Estonia and annexation of Petsamo Soviet victory in White Karelia, Aunus, Petrograd and East Karelia	K. J. Ståhlberg	Karl Fredrik Wilkama	~550
Winter War (1939–1940) Part of the European theatre of World War II	Finland Foreign volunteers	Soviet Union Finnish Democratic Republic	Moscow Peace Treaty Soviet conquest of Finland fails Cession of the Gulf of Finland islands, Karelian Isthmus, Ladoga Karelia, Salla, Rybachy Peninsula and lease of Hanko to the Soviet Union	Kyösti Kallio	C. G. E. Mannerheim	25,904 [3]
Continuation War (1941–1944) Part of the Eastern Front of World War II	Finland   Germany Naval support:   Italy [a]	Soviet Union Air support:   United Kingdom [7]	Defeat [8] Moscow Armistice Start of the Lapland War Petsamo ceded to the USSR Porkkala Peninsula leased to the USSR for 50 years [b] Hanko retaken by Finland	Risto Ryti		63,204 [10]
Lapland War (1944–1945) Part of the Second World War	Finland Minor air support: Soviet Union [c]	Germany	Victory German retreat from Finnish territory	C. G. E. Mannerheim		1,036 [16]

See also

• Military of the Grand Duchy of Finland
• Military history of Finland
• List of Finnish treaties
• Finland Guard Regiment

References

Citations

1. Including conspirative co-operation between Germany and Russian Bolsheviks 1914–1918, Pipes 1996, pp. 113–149, Lackman 2009, pp. 48–57, McMeekin 2017, pp. 125–136
2. National Archive
3. Finnish detailed death casualties: Dead, buried 16,766; Wounded, died of wounds 3,089; Dead, not buried, later declared as dead 3,503; Missing, declared as dead 1,712; Died as a prisoner of war 20; Other reasons (diseases, accidents, suicides) 677; Unknown 137.
4. Zapotoczny 2017, p. 123.
5. Clements 2012, p. 210.
6. Sturtivant 1990, p. 86.
7. The United Kingdom formally declared war on Finland on 6 December 1941 along with four Commonwealth states largely for appearances' sake. ^[5] Before that, the British conducted a carrier raid at Petsamo on 31 July 1941, ^[6] and commenced Operation Benedict to support air raids in the Murmansk area and train Soviet crews for roughly a month from September to October in 1941
8. Mouritzen, Hans (1997). External Danger and Democracy: Old Nordic Lessons and New European Challenges. Dartmouth. p. 35. ISBN   1-85521-885-2.
9. Jakobson 1969, pp. 45–47.
10. Finnish detailed death casualties: Dead, buried 33,565; Wounded, died of wounds 12,820; Dead, not buried later declared as dead 4,251; Missing, declared as dead 3,552; Died as prisoners of war 473; Other reasons (diseases, accidents, suicides) 7,932; Unknown 611
11. Gebhardt 1989, pp. 2–4.
12. Ziemke 2002, pp. 391–401.
13. Jowett & Snodgrass 2012, p. 16.
14. Zabecki 2015, p. 1552.
15. Jaques 2007, p. 792.
16. Ahto 1980, p. 296.

Notes

1. Italian participation was limited to the four motor torpedo boats of the XII Squadriglia MAS serving in the international Naval Detachment K on Lake Ladoga during the summer and autumn of 1942. ^[4]
2. On 19 September 1955, Finland and the Soviet Union signed an agreement to return the Porkkala Peninsula to Finland. In January 1956, 12 years after its lease to the USSR, the Soviets withdrew from their naval base on Porkkala and the peninsula was returned to Finnish sovereignty. ^[9]
3. Minor air support in Operation Tanne Ost only. Further extent of Soviet belligerence in the Lapland War is debatable. Gebhardt and Ziemke mention the German withdrawal from Lapland and Finnmark, as well as the Soviet Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive as operations of the Second World War that were either strategically overlapping or as a continuum of events without a clear stance. ^{[11] [12]} Jowett and Snodgrass write about the war as a conflict between German and Finnish troops, but include the offensive in the war's timeline. ^[13] Zabecki begins by mentioning that Lapland extends to Norway and the Soviet Union. He states that the "Finnish War of Lapland" started between Finland and Germany, but links the Soviet offensive to it. ^[14] Jaques writes of the offensive as a part of the war in a dictionary of battles. ^[15]

Bibliography

• Ahto, Sampo (1980). Aseveljet vastakkain – Lapin sota 1944–1945[Brothers in Arms Opposing Each Other – Lapland War 1944–1945] (in Finnish). Helsinki: Kirjayhtymä. ISBN   978-951-26-1726-5.
• Clements, Jonathan (2012). Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy. Haus Publishing. ISBN   978-1-908323-18-7. Archived from the original on 25 April 2023.
• Gebhardt, James F. (1989). The Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation: Soviet Breakthrough and Pursuit in the Arctic, October 1944 (PDF). Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. ISSN   0195-3451. OCLC   20490453. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 11, 2018.
• Jakobson, Max (1969). Finnish Neutrality: A Study of Finnish Foreign Policy Since the Second World War . New York: Praegar. ISBN   978-0-238-78818-5.
• Jaques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of battles and sieges: a guide to 8,500 battles from antiquity through the twenty-first century. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN   978-0-313-33536-5. OCLC   68786744.
• Jowett, Philip; Snodgrass, Brent (2012). Finland at War 1939–45. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1-78200-156-0. Archived from the original on 25 April 2023.
• Lackman, Matti (2009), Jääkäriliike. In: Haapala, P. & Hoppu, T. (eds.) Sisällissodan pikkujättiläinen, Helsinki: WSOY, pp. 48–57, ISBN   978-951-0-35452-0
• McMeekin, Sean (2017). The Russian Revolution: A New History. London: Profile Books. ISBN   978-1-78125-902-3.
• Pipes, Richard (1996). A Concise History of the Russian Revolution. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN   0-679-74544-0.
• Sturtivant, Ray (1990). British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm 1917–1990. London: Arms & Armour Press Ltd. ISBN   0-85368-938-5.
• Zapotoczny, Walter S. Jr. (2017). Decima Flottiglia MAS: The Best Commandos of the Second World War. Fonthill Media. ISBN   978-1-62545-113-2. Archived from the original on 21 February 2018.
• Zabecki, David T. (2015). Zabecki, David T. (ed.). World War II in Europe: an encyclopedia. Military history of the United States. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN   978-0-8240-7029-8.
• Ziemke, Earl Frederick (2002). Stalingrad to Berlin: the German Defeat in the East. Washington: United States Army Center of Military History. ISBN   978-0-16-001962-3.