On November 30, 1939, as part of their secret agreement with Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union invaded the nation of Finland.

Despite the overwhelming numerical and military advantage, however, the Soviets were unable to advance very far and suffered heavy losses.

One man in particular was responsible for many of those losses and single-handedly wreaked havoc on the invading forces.

Learn more about Simohauha, the White Death, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. For hundreds of years Finland was part of the kingdom of Sweden. In the early

19th century Russia fought a war with Sweden and Finland became part of the

Russian Empire. They were mostly autonomous but eventually in the late 19th

century the Russians tried to culturally assimilate Finland,

which caused a backlash among the Finnish population.

Eventually during the First World War, the Russian Empire fell apart, and Finland finally became independent in 1917.

However, while the Tsar was gone, the new Soviet Union wanted to bring Finland back into the fold

and had its eye on it throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

They finally got the go-ahead to take

Finland back by force when the Soviets signed a secret agreement with Nazi

Germany in 1939 which divided up Eastern Europe. If you remember back to my episode on the Ribantop Molotov Pact, the deal was that Germany

would get the Western half of Poland and that the Soviets would get Eastern Poland,

what is today Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.

They managed to occupy Poland in September of 1939,

and on November 30th, 1939,

at the very start of winter, the Soviets invaded Finland.

The Soviets on paper had a massive numerical advantage.

They entered Finland with 21 divisions of 450,000 soldiers

and eventually had as many as 750,000 troops involved in the campaign.

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