Shelling of Mainila

Background

The Soviet Union had signed non-aggression pacts with Finland in 1932 and 1934, but after negotiations to reorganize Baltic security collapsed in the autumn of 1939, the Soviet leadership prepared a military solution. Soviet war games held in 1938 and 1939 were based on a scenario in which a border incident at Mainila would trigger hostilities.

The Incident

At 15:45 Moscow time on 26 November 1939, seven artillery shells exploded near the Soviet border village of Mainila. The Soviet government announced that Finnish artillery had killed four Red Army soldiers and wounded nine. Foreign Commissar Molotov delivered a protest note demanding Finland withdraw its troops 20–25 km from the border. Finland's own investigation found that the artillery fire had come from the Soviet side: Finnish border guards had observed the shell impacts and heard the shots, and on Mannerheim's orders all Finnish guns had been withdrawn out of range of Mainila. Finland proposed a joint investigation.

The USSR refused, renounced the non-aggression pact on 28 November, severed diplomatic relations on 29 November, and on 30 November launched the Winter War with offensives across the Finnish frontier.

Historical Assessment

After Soviet archives opened in the 1990s, Russian historian Pavel Aptekar analyzed the daily strength reports of the 68th Rifle Regiment stationed at Mainila. From 25 through 29 November 1939 the regiment reported zero combat and non-combat losses, with total personnel numbers unchanged, directly contradicting the official claim of casualties. Further discrepancies appeared: the regimental war diary bore the signatures of officers who were not the actual regimental commander and chief of staff at the time. Nikita Khrushchev later indicated in his memoirs that the shells had been fired from the Soviet side, and in 1994 President Boris Yeltsin denounced the Winter War as a war of aggression.