Interim Peace (Välirauha)
잠정평화
The Finnish term for the 15-month period between the Moscow Peace Treaty (March 1940) that ended the Winter War and the outbreak of the Continuation War (June 1941). During this interlude, the Soviet Union exerted relentless political pressure, demanding Petsamo nickel concessions, troop transit rights, and a veto over Finnish presidential candidates, while Nazi Germany secretly courted Finland by lifting its arms embargo and negotiating troop transit agreements. Finland used the time to rearm, fortify the Salpalinja defensive line, and resettle 420,000 evacuees, even as its leadership increasingly concluded that only a German-backed war could recover what had been lost.
Related historical events
Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) full article covering the period: Soviet pressure, German courtship, Finnish rearmament, Petsamo crisis, and road to Barbarossa
- fi.wikipedia.org Finnish-language article confirming the term's origin in historical scholarship and the contemporary suspicion that the peace would be short-lived
- sotiemmeperinne.fi Finnish war heritage site detailing the evacuee crisis, food rationing, Pika-asutuslaki (Rapid Settlement Act), and fortification works
- cifile.org Hannikainen (Brill/Nijhoff) academic article analyzing Finland's path from the Winter War through the Interim Peace into Continuation War under international law