Talk:Continuation War

Length of Lead

The current lead is too long and needs to be shortened substanially. According to MOS:LEADLENGTH, the lead should be compressed to about 10 to 15 sentences of 3 paragraphs, or about 300 words total. Currently, it has 607 words total and 6 paragraphs. I will be dramatically reducing the length with accordance to WP:SS throughout the process. JumbledPasta (talk) 03:15, 22 October 2023 (UTC)

Too vague reference to the beginning of Continuation war

In the " It began with a Finnish declaration of war and invasion on 25 June 1941 and ended on 19 September 1944 with the Moscow Armistice. " is too vague and does not take in consideration what caused the reaction on 25th June 1941. Documented finnish side saw that the 25th started with USSR 27 SB 2 bomber attack to small city of Heinola and 18 other locations in southern-Finland.

On 22nd of June Germany had declared war against USSR and Göbbels declared in radio that Finland fought "Im Verein und im Bunde". This was translated in Ministry of foreign affairs as Im Verein "together" and im bunde "in union", however the latter was considered to mean "side by side". After Göbbels radio release, Finnish ministry of foreign affairs stated that Finland would stay outside of the war between Germany and USSR. There was no official documentation written for this co-operation, but Germany had stated later afterwards that the missing official documentation was replaced by previous letter sent by Adolf Hitler to Ryti in 21st of June 1941 which Ryti then replied 28th of June 1941 with his own letter.

As the attack happened on 25th of June and basically the letter was sent back to Adolf Hitler that was considered official document on 28th, the disrepancy on using Finnish declaration of war in this type of context should be reconsidered. (Radio speech on 26th of June 1941 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risto_Ryti translated to english describing situation after bombing".) 87.94.108.199 (talk) 10:54, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

"On 22 June 1941, the Germans launched their massive invasion of the Soviet Union. Finland had already secretly mobilized its forces and declared war on 25 June..." (p. 442) [1]. Mellk (talk) 07:03, 26 July 2024 (UTC)

https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/ebace8ed-51f2-4158-9bb8-105e69a000f1/content

Page 31 - 3.4.3 Did the Soviet Union Start Aggressive War on 25 July 2001:14BA:9C52:3300:89D1:5F9:304E:7D6E (talk) 17:57, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

I am not sure what you are arguing. From what I can see, the source mentions the Finnish position, then the analysis says: "Hitler’s declaration in itself could serve as a sufficient reason for the Soviet Union to take military measures against Finland... It is the inherent right of every State to defend itself against an attack endangering its existence. For Finland to avoid Soviet attack it would have been important to 1) contest Hitler’s declaration 2) declare neutrality according to its law, 3) emphasize to the Soviets that the German forces in Finland were meant only for Finland’s defensive purposes, and 4) assure that no military action would be taken across the border... I conclude that the Soviet Union had weighty reasons to argue that it had the right to use armed force in self-defence against Finland starting on 25 June. Finland was playing a double game." Mellk (talk) 18:13, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Then in the conclusion: "After Germany attacked against the Soviet Union, Finland reoccupied the territories lost in the Winter War. The Finnish forces did not stop at the old border but attacked to the Eastern (Soviet) Karelia and occupied it with a wish eventually to annex it. By that measure, Finland joined as Germany’s ally in its war of aggression against the Soviet Union..." Mellk (talk) 18:15, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

For future reference, I think the vast majority of historians believe that the Winter War was an aggressive war against Finland, while the Continuation War was an aggressive war against the USSR. This is almost as pointless as arguing that Finland were the aggressors in the Winter War for supposedly attacking the USSR, when it is known that the USSR had already planned for a war against Finland and to install a puppet communist government. Mellk (talk) 05:13, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Unclear date of the invasion in the lead

"It began with a Finnish declaration of war and invasion on 25 June 1941".

The article states that the joint Finnish–German invasion of Murmansk oblast started on 29 June, and that the Finnish invasion of Karelia started on 10 July. Am I missing something or should that part be clarified?

I understand the Finnish declaration of war was on 25 June, though, I didn't find any citation in the article text that Finland declared war on that date, only "the Finnish Parliament used the attacks [on 25 June] as justification for the approval of a "defensive war"", but I don't see in the article how the invasion began on 25 June. Leverpastej18 (talk) 10:27, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps it could be clarified, as there was still wartime cooperation with Germany before the Finnish offensive began. Mellk (talk) 04:48, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Small addition to "In film and literature"

I recall a nice film from the time of this war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo_(film) 109.81.84.25 (talk) 22:20, 25 October 2024 (UTC)