Putin: Winter War was fought to correct errors in border with Finland

[derspiess]

I like to think my Finnish M39 rifle whacked a few Soviets.  But since it has a date of 1944 and the fact that it looks barely used, that's very doubtful.

Deciphered one of the proofs on the receiver and found out that it was originally produced here in the US by New England Westinghouse (as part of an M91 rifle).  That rifle was likely produced in 1915 or 1916 and shipped to the Imperial Russian Army, then absorbed into the Red Army, then captured by the Finns, who took the receiver and put a new barrel, stock, trigger, etc. on it & made it into an M39.

The M39 was such a well-made rifle, particularly for a Mosin-Nagant variant.  For all their current nuttiness, the Finns worked near-miracles with such limited resources back in the day.

[Valmy]

For all their current nuttiness, the Finns worked near-miracles with such limited resources back in the day.

Necessity being the mother of invention and all that.  But seriously if the Russians had shown basic competence it would not have been much of a struggle.

What do you mean by current nuttiness?  Like that Lizard woman guy and mouth sugar back in the day?

[jimmy olsen]

that Lizard woman guy

The thread where that first came up was a thing of beauty.

[Razgovory]

For all their current nuttiness, the Finns worked near-miracles with such limited resources back in the day.

Necessity being the mother of invention and all that.  But seriously if the Russians had shown basic competence it would not have been much of a struggle.

What do you mean by current nuttiness?  Like that Lizard woman guy and mouth sugar back in the day?

I think that it's important to note that despite Soviet ineptness and Finnish skill the Finns still lost.  I think that should take it out of the running.

[Solmyr]

Tbh Putin does have a point in that Finnish defense would have collapsed had the war continued much longer. It was already under great strain and barely holding together. Even Mannerheim understood this, which is why he wanted a peace treaty. And Stalin was getting worried about Germany, so he was content to disengage from Finland asap.

[dps]

The Turk invasion of the Caucas in the middle of winter has to trump them...

For something involving supposedly major powers, I think that was probably the worst. 

Once you start looking at the Third World, there's plenty to choose from.  The Cambodian attack on Vietnam, or maybe the Ugandan invasion of Tanzania.

[The Brain]

Racist.

[Ideologue]

Why support the Finns when it turns out they were all secretly Jew-hating Nazi sympathizers, and monsters to a man?  Sure, no one knew it yet in 1939, they were just defending themselves.  But perhaps Stalin had an inkling of their allegiance to true evil.

[dps]

Why support the Finns when it turns out they were all secretly Jew-hating Nazi sympathizers, and monsters to a man?  Sure, no one knew it yet in 1939, they were just defending themselves.  But perhaps Stalin had an inkling of their allegiance to true evil.

'Cause commies are worse than Nazis.

[Eddie Teach]

that Lizard woman guy

The thread where that first came up was a thing of beauty.

Was his first post IIRC. 

[Barrister]

Why support the Finns when it turns out they were all secretly Jew-hating Nazi sympathizers, and monsters to a man?  Sure, no one knew it yet in 1939, they were just defending themselves.  But perhaps Stalin had an inkling of their allegiance to true evil.

'Cause commies are worse than Nazis.

[dps]

Why support the Finns when it turns out they were all secretly Jew-hating Nazi sympathizers, and monsters to a man?  Sure, no one knew it yet in 1939, they were just defending themselves.  But perhaps Stalin had an inkling of their allegiance to true evil.

'Cause commies are worse than Nazis.

The only good commie is a dead commie.  The same is true of Nazis, but at this point, the Nazis are almost all dead, but there are still plenty of live commies.

[Viking]

Why support the Finns when it turns out they were all secretly Jew-hating Nazi sympathizers, and monsters to a man?  Sure, no one knew it yet in 1939, they were just defending themselves.  But perhaps Stalin had an inkling of their allegiance to true evil.

The terms of the finnish alliance with the nazis was pretty clear in terms of who and where they fight. Finland specifically was not going to fight the UK and Greece (which was in the fight at the time of the alliance).

[Brezel]

Why support the Finns when it turns out they were all secretly Jew-hating Nazi sympathizers, and monsters to a man?  Sure, no one knew it yet in 1939, they were just defending themselves.  But perhaps Stalin had an inkling of their allegiance to true evil.

Finnish jews were never persecuted, though, and instead served in the army. Finland deported  eight foreign jewish refugees and about 2000 soviet prisoners of war, amongst them some 70 jews, to Germany.

Three Finnish jews were awarded the iron cross, although all of them refused to accept the decoration.

http://www.jewishquarterly.org/issuearchive/article8d14.html?articleid=194

[Razgovory]

Why support the Finns when it turns out they were all secretly Jew-hating Nazi sympathizers, and monsters to a man?  Sure, no one knew it yet in 1939, they were just defending themselves.  But perhaps Stalin had an inkling of their allegiance to true evil.

'Cause commies are worse than Nazis.

There were many in this country who thought we should ally with Hitler.  I suspect there still are some.