Word: petsamo
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Boundaries. Again the man in possession called the tune. From Finland, Russia is to get the warm water port of Petsamo and a lease on the Baltic naval base at Porkala; from Rumania, 79,300 square miles of Bessarabia. Other shifts in the Balkans give Transylvania back to Rumania, southern Dobruja to Bulgaria. The British and French gain at the expense of Italy: the Dodecanese Islands go to British-controlled Greece; the communes of Briga and Tenda and other bits of the Italian Alps go to France. But Italy is allowed to keep the South Tyrol over Austrian protest. Trieste...
Four weeks after the armistice with Russia, war-drained Finland was still trying to throw out the once-welcome German guest. Russia joined in at the Arctic Ocean to speed the parting. With Petsamo's nickel mines threatened by the Russian drive and a Lapland winter making up, the German determination to stick around was beginning to cool. Helsinki was still hopeful that it would be able to demobilize its soldiers by Dec. 5-the armistice deadline...
When Finland surrendered, most of the Germans in northern Finland were dug in near the nickel mines and the Norwegian frontier. Colonel General Lothar Rendulic had two divisions in the far north based on the Norwegian port of Kirkenes (35 miles northwest of Petsamo); three divisions were based farther south on the railroad town of Rovaniemi (65 miles north of the Gulf of Bothnia...
Through the multicolored spruce and birch forests the fight went on. Soon winter would freeze the hundreds of lakes and rivers, blanket the forests with snow. In the north the Russians landed six miles from Petsamo, at the northern terminus of the Arctic highway, marched in to capture the port three days later. When the Russians neutralized Kirkenes and the Finns reached Rovaniemi, organized German resistance could no longer continue. Then Finland would have peace...
Russia's territorial demands had increased since the spring negotiations. Instead of the tip of the Ribachi Peninsula, commanding the approach to far-northern Petsamo, the Russians had now taken Petsamo itself and enough surrounding territory to cut off Finland from the Arctic, restore the Tsarist frontier with Norway. Instead of their lease on Hangö, commanding the Gulf of Finland, Russia took a 50-year lease on the Porkkala Peninsula for a naval base. This brought the Russians within twelve miles of Helsinki. Russia also got back Viipuri, Finland's fourth biggest city. Parts of timber-rich...