Word: finnish
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Frontier Incident. This editorial was strongly reminiscent of a similar one directed at Poland's rulers and printed 48 hours before the Red Army marched into Eastern Poland in September. Reports from the Finnish-Russian frontier the next day were timed to give it further significance...
...Soviet Government announced, Finnish troops suddenly opened artillery fire on Soviet troops stationed near Mainil, on the Karelian Isthmus, where Finns have their strongest fortifications. Four Red Army soldiers were killed, nine wounded. That was all Soviet Premier-Foreign Commissar Viacheslav Molotov needed to call in Finnish Ambassador Baron Aarno Armas Yrjo-Koskinen and hand him a note...
Declaring that the border incident was a "provocational shelling," Comrade Molotov asserted that the "concentration of Finnish troops near Leningrad not only creates a menace to Leningrad, but is, in fact, a hostile act against the U.S.S.R. . .. Therefore, the Soviet Government.. . proposes that the Government of Finland withdraw its troops without delay 20 to 25 kilometers (twelve to 15 miles) farther from the border of the Karelian Isthmus, thus preventing the possibility of a repeated provocation. Accept, Mr. Minister, the assurance of my perfect respect...
Fiction. The frontier incident was news to the Finnish Government. Border outposts were telephoned; the only noise reported on the frontier was that of Russian soldiers practicing trench-mortar firing and hand-grenade throwing. President of Finland's National Defense Council Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim toured the border that day and heard of no firing. A Finnish Government spokesman concluded that the entire incident was "completely untrue." At Helsinki the Government had no intention of ordering troops to retire from a frontier fairly jammed with Red Army contingents. To withdraw from back of their fortified line would...
Meanwhile, inside Russia the threats came thicker & faster. Unlike anything so far seen on either side of World War II, students and workers staged great popular demonstrations in favor of war, demanding stern action against the "Finnish militarists." Moscow troops even got together and handed out statements declaring that there was a "limit to patience" and asking the Government to "bridle the [Finnish] provocateurs of war." Foreign newsmen were allowed to send out reports of huge concentrations of Soviet troops in the Leningrad district which, it was said, were ready for action. The Moscow radio called upon the Finnish people...