Thread by @TallbarFIN

Imagine how differently things would be today if Finland actually got the Western help it wished & asked for in Winter War against the Soviet Union.

Let's play with this alternative line of history in this short thread 🧵

Was there a real threat during the Winter War that the Soviet Union would be attacked from Finland?

Everyone knows that there wasn't.

The goal was to annex Finland back to the Soviet Union. There was a literal deal about it between Nazi-Germany & USSR.

Finns would never have gone to a one-on-one war against the Soviet Union. There's absolutely no sense in that claim.

Finland had turned its eyes to the West & had dreams of a partnerships with Western powers like Great Britain, France etc.

Stalin was not going to accept it.

Britain hoped to help Finland in the Winter War, but didn't because it feared full scale conflict with USSR & its ally Germany.

France also had plans to come to Finland's aid to prevent the Soviet occupation intentions, but the help of the French was also minimal.

But think about what could have happened if Britain and France came to actually help Finland against the USSR.

This is where the alternate history gets interesting.

The Soviet Union feared Britain and France getting involved in the Winter War. Their inclusion would have been a disaster for the Soviet Union, but perhaps also for the whole world.

The reason for this is clear.

Nazi-Germany would probably have seen the situation in a new light and actually joined forces with the Soviet Union against the countries of Western Europe.

A combined German and Soviet war machine would have been virtually unstoppable.

Germany easily defeated the French and British armies alone in 1940.

Together with Soviet Union they would have attacked the British Isles without stopping and soon would have began to really threaten the USA across the sea.

Combined with Japan in Asia and Italy in Europe, the Axis powers, bolstered by the endless resources of the Soviet Union, would have defeated the Allies in Asia and Africa. Europe would have been fully in axis control, including Finland.

Without allies, the USA would have stood alone against the Axis powers and very likely faced a landing from both coasts at the same time.

In Asia, Japan, strengthened by its allies, would have harnessed China's enormous resources and would dominate the Pacific & Indian ocean.

The Axis Powers would have won the Second World War and propably would have turned their eyes to South America as well.

The whole world would have been under the control of the Axis powers.

What would have happened after that is a mystery.

Propably, Hitler's hatred of the communists would have eventually led to a war between the Soviet Union and Germany anyway, and the genocide of the Jews would have been completed.

All of this would have been theoretically possible if the dictators had been able to cooperate even for a common interest.

So was it in everyone's interest that Finland fought alone?

Entirely possible.