Finland in the Second World War

the long version

"On 30 November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland and tried to establish a puppet regime there. After a heroic three-month struggle fought in the snow and darkness of the northern winter, Finland survived as an independent democratic nation. Isolated and embittered by the human and territorial losses it had suffered, it sought German protection, and in June 1941 the Finnish Army under Field Marshal Mannerheim joined the German offensive against the Soviet Union. When the fortunes of war turned against it, it managed in autumn 1944 to extricate itself from the war and conclude an armistice with the USSR. Finland was the only country on the Axis side that was never occupied, and the only western neighbour of the Soviet Union where the Communists did not succeed in seizing power."--BOOK JACKET.