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Music Hello everyone and welcome to history of the Second World War.

Episode 143, The Winter War Part 1, Nordic Defiance.

This week, a big thank you goes out to Jason and Uli for the donations and to Sergei, Eugene, Leonid, Justin, Soren, and Gavin for choosing to become

members. You can find out more over at History of the Second World War.com slash members.

Last episode covered the events that led up to and then immediately followed the signing

of the mutual assistance packs between the Soviet Union and three Baltic nations,

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

One of the key pieces of those agreements was the provision that allowed the Soviet Union

to place troops and aircraft within the boundaries of those nations, under the excuse that

such actions were required to protect both the security of those nations and the security

of the Soviet Union.

This, however, had the effect of essentially removing

those nations' independence because it negated any ability they may have had to defend themselves

against Soviet aggression. There was another nation that the Soviet Union wanted to sign a similar

agreement with, Finland. But Finland would react very differently to

...