Mannerheim Line

만네르헤임 선

A defensive fortification line built by Finland across the Karelian Isthmus to guard against Soviet attack. Constructed in two phases (1920–1924 and 1932–1939), it was named by foreign journalists during the Winter War after Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. Consisting of 157 concrete bunkers and eight artillery positions, it relied, unlike the Maginot Line, heavily on natural terrain, trenches, and obstacles as a flexible-defense system, and was still incomplete when the war began. The line held the Red Army for two months; Soviet propaganda afterwards exaggerated its strength to explain the Red Army's poor performance. In February 1940 Timoshenko's massed offensive broke through at Summa, and after the Moscow Peace Treaty Soviet engineers destroyed the remaining installations.