A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940

A good read but badly needs a post-Cold War update. This book is about a conflict between Russia and Finland, but the only Russian source listed in the "Notes on the Sources" (there is no bibliography) is the English translation of the memoirs of Khruschev, who didn't even participate in the Winter War. Other than a few short, atmospheric accounts by Russian soldiers taken from earlier English or Finnish books, no other Russian source is cited, leaving us almost wholly dependent on Finnish historians and the memoirs of Finnish commanders. This is not a scholarly approach.
Maybe there just weren't any other Russian sources available; or maybe they were only available in Russian (which the author does not know, although he is rightly proud of having mastered Finnish). All that may have been a tolerable excuse in 1991 (when this book came out), but the Russian state archives are now open to all, and certainly much more material has been translated into English in the past 16 years. At the very least, Trotter could speak to some Russians. He found Finnish veterans to interview, and I bet some of their Russian counterparts can also still be found among the WWII veterans who totter around public parks in Russia every May 9.
But to find, you have to look, and what's disappointing is that I have no sense the author feels any need to seek out more significant sources from the other side.

Although I was raised in the 70s by uncles full of admiration of what the Finns did to the Russians for three months it is still a profound dissapointment that few people know, and even fewer people care about this profound struggle of 3 Million Finns -- a free people -- against the tyranny of Stalinst Russia.

For a nation this small to have the stomach to thumb their noses at the Russians and then to systematically cut their attacks to ribbons -- inflicting colonial war casualties on the Russians -- it truly one of the David against Goliath matches in history.

But there is more to the traditional interpretation notion of the "plucky Finns" and the "incompetent Russians:" Finns eventually did succumb to the inevitable onslaught of the Russians. There were cases of the Finns actually breaking from the front, and Russians actually adapting tactics to overcome the Finnish ability to use their understanding of their own geography to dominate the Russians. That is perhaps not so hard to believe. What is harder to believe is miracles such as the battle of Soussalmi -- where Finnish ski troops cut to pieces 30,000 Russians for the total of 1,700 Finnish dead.

The book is an overview only and does cover the various stages of the war -- the initial and failed Russian Offensive of December, the holding pattern of January and the final onslaugth that brought the end for Finland. But the book does not pretend to be a total overview of the fighting on the front -- on that point there still needs to be a definitive English edition of this war such as what Norman Davis' "Rising 44" did for the Warsaw Insurrection.

There is also not enough background on the political developments surrounding the war and the geopolitical drivers of policy (the actions of the Western allies are a bit bewildering to those uninitiated in a good understanding of the history of these times).

There is also a good chapter on Mannerheim. This man, so long assciated with both the fighting spirit of Finland is often equated totally as the heart of Finn resistance. His personality was in fact authoritarian, problematic and a direct result of the Tsarist officer corps he was raised within and whose spirit he imbided.

A good read and well worth your time.

awesome reading of a awesome moment in our recent history. How finland could survive this war?? David vs Goliath. but not all was romantic, finland has to make a lot of concesions, and they "lost" too the war in a certain way. its the best example of how always both sides lost in a war

this war has been forgotten over the years, and with this book is posible to remember or know for first time one of the most heroic moment in our history. a fight for freedom and for independence.

I loved the book

This history is a testament to the value of a highly trained military force. The Finns accomplished very much with very little, in the face of a massive Soviet invasion at the outset of World War II. Despite Finland's small population, and poorly supplied armed forces, they held their ground against an incredible onslaught of modern weaponry.
The Soviets had Finland vastly outnumbered in troops, artillery, armored vehicles, aircraft, ships, and all manner of supplies. However, most of the Soviet troops were pathetically trained cannon-fodder, wasted in enormous human-wave assaults against fortified positions (very typical of all communist regimes). The Soviet officer corps had been recently liquidated in concentration camps at Stalin's orders!
The Finnish soldier was generally a well-trained reservist, adept at marksmanship, wilderness survival, camoflage, skiing, and all pertainent infantry skills. Finland greatly lacked most of the modern weaponry possessed by the Soviets, but frequent raids on the enemy bolstered their supplies. In general, all Finnish forces, air, land, and sea inflicted terrible damage on a much larger invading force.
Meanwhile, the international community cried out against the Soviet invasion...but did very little to actually assist Finland. Disgusted with their indecisive government, some 8000 Swedish military personnel "took leave" to help their neighbors, but it was too late. Finland's military commander, the famous Karl Gustaf Mannerheim, did manage to negotiate a peace which kept the U.S.S.R. from occupying most of Finland, but large regions of territory were lost.
This book describes all aspects of the Winter War in great detail, from individual accounts to major units. Here are some of the highlights:
-The aggressive and ingenious tactics of the Finns, such as 2 man night-raids on skis. One man carried a Soumi submachinegun (excellent weapon), the other a pistol and flashlight. Both had grenades. They would sneak up to the Russian trenches, flash-blind the enemy with the light, and strafe the trench, toss grenades, and be off before the panicing Soviet troops knew what hit them. Soviet soldiers learned to fear the Finns!
-Read how Finland's small airforce knocked disproportionate numbers of enemy aircraft out of the sky!
-Creative improvisation by Finnish troops on the battlefield, in attack and defense!

Trotter has a very easy-to-follow style of writing which he uses to great effect as he introduces the reader to the background to The Winter War. The background set, he also examines the mindset of the key people who were later to play a pivotal role in an epic David-and-Goliath struggle.

Trotter uses a witty, often dry, tone on occasion which, to my mind, adds a much more familiar tone to the book, ensuring that it does not end up as a plain, single-dimensional report. Rather it shows just how the people involved were real, imperfect and yet played their own part.

I've read my copy over a dozen times and it will always remain at the top of my favourites list.