The Interim Peace (, ) was a short period in the history of Finland during the Second World War. The term is used for the time between the Winter War and the Continuation War, lasting a little over 15 months, from 13 March 1940 to 24 June 1941. The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 12 March 1940 and it ended the 105-day Winter War.
In the aftermath of the Winter War, both the Soviet Union and Finland were preparing for a new war while Stalin pressured the Finns politically. In early 1940 Finland sued for an alliance with Sweden but both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany opposed it. Nazi Germany occupied Denmark and Norway in April 1940 and defeated France in June 1940. Then, Stalin occupied the Baltic states. In 1941, Finland negotiated its participation in the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.
Background
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the Winter War
The 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact clarified Soviet–German relations and enabled the Soviet Union to bring pressure to bear on the small Baltic republics and Finland. The Baltic republics had to give in to Soviet demands for bases and troop transfer rights, but Finland continued to refuse. As diplomatic pressure had failed, arms were resorted to, and on 30 November 1939 the Soviet Union began the Winter War, an invasion of Finland.
The Winter War produced in Finns a rude awakening to international politics. Condemnation by the League of Nations and by countries all over the world seemed to have no effect on Stalin's policy. Sweden allowed volunteers to join the Finnish Army, but did not send military support, and refused passage to French or British troops—which were in any event made ready in lower numbers than promised. Even right-wing extremists were shocked to find that Nazi Germany did not help at all, and also blocked material help from other countries.
The Moscow Peace Treaty, which ended the Winter War on 12 March 1940, was perceived as a great injustice. It seemed as if the losses at the negotiation table, including Viipuri (Finland's second-largest city [Population Register] or fourth-largest city [Church and Civil Register], depending on the census data), had been worse than on the battlefield. A fifth of the country's industrial capacity and 9% of its territory were lost. Of the 12% of Finland's population who lived in the lost territories, only a few hundred stayed, the remaining 420,000 moving to the Finnish side of the new border.
After the Moscow Peace Treaty
The Moscow Peace Treaty, signed on 12 March 1940, was a shock for the Finns. It was perceived as the ultimate failure of Finland's 1930s foreign policy, which had been based on multilateral guarantees for support from similar countries, first in the world order established by the League of Nations, and later from the Oslo group and Scandinavia. The immediate response was to broaden and intensify this policy. Binding bilateral treaties were now sought where Finland formerly had relied on goodwill and national friendship, and formerly frosty relations with ideological adversaries, such as the Soviet Union and the Third Reich, had necessarily to be eased.
Closer and improved relations were sought particularly with: Sweden and Norway the United Kingdom the Soviet Union the Third Reich With exception for the case of Nazi Germany, all of these attempts turned out to meet critical obstacles—either due to Moscow's fear that Finland would slide out of the Soviet sphere of influence or due to general dynamics of the world war.
Reaction in Finland Public opinion in Finland longed for the re-acquisition of the homes of the 12% of Finland's population who had been forced to leave Finnish Karelia in haste, and put their hope in the peace conference that was generally assumed would follow the World War. The term Välirauha ("Interim peace") hence became popular after the harsh peace was announced.
To protest the Moscow Peace Treaty, two ministers resigned and Prime Minister Ryti was forced to form a new cabinet right away. To achieve better national consensus, all parties except the right extremist IKL participated in the cabinet.
The most difficult post to fill was that of Foreign Minister, for which Ryti and Mannerheim first thought of Finland's ambassador to London G. A. Gripenberg, but as he believed himself to be too unpopular in Berlin, Rolf Witting, who was less British-oriented and more suitable to achieve improved relations with Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, was selected.
Attempted Nordic Defence Alliance During the last days of war, Väinö Tanner and Per Albin Hansson had mentioned the possibility of a Nordic Defence Alliance, possibly including also Norway and Denmark, to stabilize the situation in the region. On 15 March this plan was published for discussion in the parliaments. However, on 29 March the Soviet Union declared that an alliance would be in breach of the Moscow Peace Treaty, which stalled the plan, and Germany's invasion of Denmark and Norway killed even the option of a smaller Scandinavian defence union, which would have benefited Finland even if it were not a party to it.
Re-armaments Although the peace treaty was signed, the state of war was not revoked because of the widening world war, the difficult food supply situation, and the poor shape of the Finnish military. Censorship was not abolished and was used to suppress critics of the Moscow Peace Treaty and the most blatantly anti-Soviet comments.
The continued state of war made it possible for President Kyösti Kallio to ask Field Marshal Mannerheim to remain commander-in-chief and supervise the reorganization of Finland's armed forces and the fortification of the new border, a task that was critically important in the unruly times. Within a week after the peace treaty was signed, the fortification works were started along the 1200 km long Salpalinja ("the Bolt Line"), where the focus was between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Saimaa.
During the summer and autumn, Finland received material purchased and donated during and immediately after the Winter War, but it took several months before Mannerheim was able to present a somewhat positive assessment of the state of the army. Military expenditures rose in 1940 to 45% of Finland's state budget. Military purchases were prioritised over civilian needs. Mannerheim's position and the continued state of war enabled an efficient management of the military, but it created an unfortunate parallel government that from time to time clashed with the structures of the civilian government.
On 13 March, the same day that the Moscow Peace Treaty came into effect, the British Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) asked the Foreign Office to start negotiations with Finland as soon as possible to secure positive relations with Finland. The under-secretary of MEW, Charles Hambro was authorized to form the war trade treaty with Finland, and he travelled to Helsinki on 7 April. He had already exchanged letters with Ryti, and they quickly reached a basic understanding of the contents of the treaty. The Finns were eager to start trade and from the first meeting the preliminary treaty was created, which Finns accepted immediately; but Hambro needed the approval of his superiors and stressed that the treaty would not be considered official until the final version was negotiated. In the treaty Finland gave control of her strategic material exports to Britain in exchange for armaments and other necessary materials. However, the next day, Germany attacked Norway, making the treaty unworkable due to the lack of safe trade routes between the two countries.
Foreign relations
Denmark and Norway occupied
After Nazi Germany's assault on Scandinavia on 9 April 1940, Operation Weserübung, Finland was physically isolated from her traditional trade markets in the west. Sea routes to and from Finland were now controlled by the Kriegsmarine. The outlet of the Baltic sea was blockaded, and in the far north Finland's route to the world was an Arctic dirt road from Rovaniemi to the ice-free harbour of Petsamo, from where the ships had to pass a long stretch of German-occupied Norwegian coast by the Arctic Ocean. Finland, like Sweden, was spared occupation but encircled by Nazi Germany and Soviet Union. With direct support by Marshal Mannerheim a volunteer unit was formed and sent to Norway to help the fight against the Nazi army. The ambulance unit participated in the war until the Germans conquered the area in which it was serving. The volunteers returned to Finland.
Especially damaging was the loss of fertilizer imports, that, together with the loss of arable land ceded in the Moscow Peace, the loss of cattle during the hasty evacuation after the Winter War, and the unfavourable weather in the summer of 1940, resulted in a drastic fall of foodstuff production to less than two thirds of what was Finland's estimated need. Some of the deficit could be purchased from Sweden and some from the Soviet Union, although delayed deliveries were then a means to exert pressure on Finland. In this situation, Finland had no alternative but to turn to Germany for help.
Finland seeks German rapprochement Germany had traditionally been a counterweight to Russia in the Baltic region, and despite the fact that Hitler's Third Reich had acquiesced with the invader, Finland perceived some value in also seeking warmer relations in that direction. After the German occupation of Norway, and particularly after the Allied evacuation from northern Norway, the relative importance of a German rapprochement increased. Finland had queried about the possibility of buying arms from Germany on 9 May, but Germany refused to even discuss the matter.
From May 1940, Finland pursued a campaign to re-establish the good relations with Germany that had soured in the last year of the 1930s. Finland rested her hope in the fragility of the Nazi–Soviet bond, and in the many personal friendships between Finnish and German athletes, scientists, industrialists, and military officers. A part of that policy was accrediting the energetic former Prime Minister Toivo Mikael Kivimäki as ambassador in Berlin in June 1940. The Finnish mass media not only refrained from criticism of Nazi Germany, but also took active part in this campaign. Dissent was censored. Seen from Berlin, this looked like a refreshing contrast to the annoyingly anti-Nazi press in Sweden.
After the fall of France, in June 1940, the Finnish ambassador in Stockholm heard from the diplomatic sources that Britain could soon be forced to negotiate peace with Germany. The experience from World War I emphasized the importance of close and friendly relations with the victors, and accordingly the courting of Nazi Germany was stepped up still further.
The first crack in the German coldness towards Finland was registered in late July, when Ludwig Weissauer, a secret representative of the German Foreign Minister, visited Finland and queried Mannerheim and Ryti about Finland's willingness to defend the country against the Soviet Union. Mannerheim estimated the Finnish Army could last a few weeks without more arms. Weissauer left without any promises.
Continued Soviet pressure The implementation of the Moscow Peace Treaty created problems due to the Soviet Vae Victis-mentality. Border arrangements in the Enso industrial area, which even Soviet members of the border commission considered to be on the Finnish side of the border, the forced return of evacuated machinery, locomotives, and rail cars; and inflexibility on questions which could have eased hardships created by the new border, such as fishing rights and the usage of Saimaa Canal merely served to heighten distrust about the objectives of the Soviet Union.