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

Look, pal, ALL wars have "two sides" to them. Stalin did not simply wake up one morning and announce to the Politburo: "Hey, wouldn't it be fun to invade Finland next week?" Soviet foreign policy was certainly naive, bullying, and disasterously uninformed about outside realities. But from the viewpoint of a Soviet strategist in 1939, Finland was suspect. Fact: there WAS a powerful pro-fascist clique in the country that had welcomed German aid before (in 1917) and would do so again (in 1941). Fact: The Red uprising in 1917 WAS put down with ruthless savagery. Fact: Stalin apparently really DID believe Finland would acede to his demands. For me not to have mentioned these things, would have been utterly irresponsible.

As for my comments about Finland "opting for a thoroughly bourgeoise form of government" -- the TONE here is decidedly IRONIC, not ideological. Irony, evidently, sails right past this reader's head.

Be that as it may, his whole hysterical tirade collapses in the face of what I wrote on page 17: "ultimately, of course,it came back down to an irreducible case of right versus wrong. Finland was a sovereign nation, and it had every legal and moral right to refuse any Russian demands for territory. And the Soviet Union, for its part, had no legal or moral right to pursue its policies by means of armed aggression."

I don't know how I could possibly make this point more clearly.

If this reader had bothered even to finish my book, I think he would have seen how fiercely my admiration for the Finns -- indeed, my deepy passionate love for that nation -- burns through the book. Certainly, none of the Finnish reviewers who praised the book saw anything "Marxist" about it, and several lauded its historical even-handedness.

Finally, if my book were indeed the sort of bilious "Daily Worker" tract this reader thinks it is, I hardly think it would have been awarded the Finlandia Foundation's Arts and Letters Prize.

I invite curious readers to judge the book on its own merits and on my skills as a story-teller; I did not write it with any agenda in mind other than that of accuracy, completeness, and narrative vitality. Ninety-nine percent of those who have read it seem to agree that I did at least a passable job shedding light on an otherwise obscure and almost-forgotten, but stirringly heroic, episode.

William R. Trotter


Important book about an under-reported conflict   January 11, 2001
J. N. Mohlman (Barrington, RI USA)
27 out of 29 found this review helpful

Unfortunately, the Russo-Finnish war is usually given short shrift in most histories of WWII. This, in spite of the fact that it resulted in hundreds of thousands of casulties, in spite of the fact the Finns performed some of the most brilliant feats of arms in modern history, and, in spite of the fact that the Western Allies sacrficed the Finns on the alter of political "necessity".

The courageous, remarkable defense of their homeland by the Finns in the face of insurmountable odds is no less inspiring or intriguing for its ultimate futility. With an even hand, Trotter guides the reader through the ferocious Finnish winter, and takes us into the minds of both Russian and Finnish soldiers as they fight in some of the most appalling battlefield conditions ever.

In conclusion, my sysmpathy for the Finns is obvious, as is Trotter's, but don't doubt that this is a serious work of history. Trotter deals judiciously with all parties to the conflict based on fact; popular mythology plays no role in this work.


Balanced view of Russo-Finnish Winter War   October 22, 2000
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

I have read both William R. Trotter's "A Frozen Hell" and Engle & Paananen's "The Winter War: The Soviet Attack on Finland 1939-1940". In addition to these books I am in the process of reading 2 books by Max Jakobson, one of which is specifically on the Winter War, as well as a number of academic journal articles on Finland between 1937-1945.

Trotter has done a great job of recounting the Winter War from both the Finnish and Russian political and military perspecives, using available documents. I am an American-Finn who is very proud of my Finnish heritage, yet I was not insulted by Trotter's treatment of the Russian perspective at all - it was very enlightning. I prefer to understand ALL the "why?"s surrounding an event as momentous as the Winter War. It is nice to have some idea what the Russian reasoning and motives were, even if I don't agree with them. Life is rarely black and white as we would like it to be.

The short biography of Marshall Mannerheim in the beginning was especially useful. Understanding the man sheds light on his actions and opinions. It also explains a bit of the history of Russian-Finnish relations as well.

Improvements: More maps would be very helpful. Also, as a Finnish speaking American I can appreciate Trotter's attempt to make understanding easier for non-finnish speakers, however the occasional reference to places in Finn-glish was a slight annoyance. An example would be "... east of Lake Kuokjaervi" where the word "Lake" is redundant because the name of the place says it is a lake. This is a very picky detail and does not detract from the content.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading "A Frozen Hell". The more balanced and objective view taken by Trotter does not take away from the heroics and Sisu of the Finns. I also appreciated inclusion of a more detailed explanation on the surrounding political climate/situations.


An indepth and thrilling account   June 23, 2004
Weiner Doggie (Norman, OK United States)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

What makes historical books such as these work, are the vignettes and character sketches not only of individuals but groups of people. The Finnish courage and sense of humor, the sad pitiful state of Soviet soldiers, the Soviet's inhumanity and indifference to its own people, the waffling and Realpolitik of Western nations, the indepedence of Mannerheim, all come through in Trotter's writing. The stories of Soviet soldiers trapped in barbed wire calling out to Stalin, the night-time hunter-seeker raids by pairs of Finns, the foolish tactics of the Soviets who would push their tanks far ahead of the troops and allow the Finns to ignore the tanks and slaughter the unprotected troops, the snow un-drinkable because of artillery contamination...

I guess I was a little disappointed that the "ski attacks" weren't as prevalent as I had believed. One of the most visual scenes in WWII combat is the image of camoflauged Finns sweeping through trees w/ submachine guns blowing away Soviets, but the book tells of other Finnish tactics that were more successful (and realistic), such as the nighttime raid that forced the Soviets to get into a firefight w/ themselves. An excellent book on guerilla warfare in the snow and ice.


The Winter War - All Your Questions Revealed   June 5, 2002
Matherson (Rhinebeck)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

The Russo-Finnish War of 1939 is remembered an obscure offshoot of the broader Second World War, but technically it was a self-contained conflict whose belligerents were not then parties to the conflict between Germany and the Allies. That said, the Soviet Union had just assisted Germany in the invasion of Poland - annexing its eastern provinces - and was regarded as unbeatable in this contest. Ultimately it did "win" - in the sense of getting more territory out of the peace settlement - but the win was entirely Pyrrhic, with vastly one-sided losses, numerous Finnish tactical victories (particularly north of Lake Ladoga where the Finnish "sausage" tactics decimated entire divisions of Russian troops) and catastrophically bad generalship. This book looks at the war from mainly a Finnish perspective, and there is little mention of the (infinitely less romantic) "Continuation War" of 1941-44, when Finland joined the Axis. Trotter is at his best when describing the heroism of individuals at the front: small units of lightly armed men conducting anti-tank operations; ski patrols cutting off Russian forces in the blinding snow; teams in the trenches grimly defending their positions against seemingly interminable waves of assaults. Superb military history.