Will Ukraine war turn out like Soviet - Finland War of 1939? | Eastern NC Now

There are intriguing similarities between Russia's attack on Ukraine and the Soviet Union's attack on Finland in 1939.  Will they play out the same way?

Finland was a much smaller country with a much smaller army, and when it came to tanks, the Soviets had them outnumbered over 100 to 1, and even more so in aircraft. Stalin thought he would easily roll over the Finns and install a communist puppet regime in Helsinki.  They expected an easy victory and many of the Soviet troops went in with summer uniforms which presented them a huge problem when the dead of winter hit.  The Finns fought tenaciously, inflicting heavy casualties on the Soviet invaders who never got close to their major objectives.  Ultimately a peace treaty was signed where Finland gave up some territory but kept their independence.  One of the inventions by the Finns in the war was the Molotov Cocktail, named after the Soviet Foreign Minister whose Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had given the Soviets a green light from the Germans to attack FInland.  Finland suffered almost 26,000 dead while the Soviets suffered almost 168,000 dead.  Finland had only 32 tanks during the war and lost most of them, but the Soviets lost over 3,500 tanks destroyed.  In aircraft, the Finns lost 62 compared to the Soviets 515.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has made political and military threats to Finland and Sweden.