ЦЕЛИ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОГО РУКОВОДСТВА ФИНЛЯНДИИ В ВОЙНЕ ПРОТИВ СССР В 1941 ГОДУ
AIMS OF FINLAND’S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE WAR AGAINST THE USSR IN 1941

Summary/Abstract: Carl Gustav Mannerheim’s order of July 10, 1941, was the only public statement outlining specific objectives for Finland’s participation in the war against the USSR alongside Nazi Germany. In this order, Mannerheim explicitly stated that the aims of the war included seizing extensive Soviet territories and creating a Greater Finland. Although no other official statements were issued publicly, representatives of the Finnish leadership made similar remarks on several occasions at the diplomatic level in 1941. These remarks have received little attention in the scholarly literature. Nevertheless, unpublished documents from the Finnish Foreign Policy Archives, as well as U.S. State Department records cited in this article, reveal that both the Finnish president and the minister of foreign affairs repeatedly briefed American diplomats in 1941 on the true objectives of Finland’s participation in the war. These officials explicitly emphasized that Finland aimed to seize substantial Soviet territory. These statements confirm that Finnish policy in 1941 was entirely consistent with the instructions Mannerheim had issued to the Finnish army.

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