Order of the Leningrad Military DistrictNovember 29, 1939 The Soviet people's and the Red Army's patience gave way. Time to give a good lesson to presumptuous and brazen political gamblers, which have thrown down an impudent challenge to the Soviet people, and completely destroy a nest of anti-Soviet provocations and threats to Leningrad! Comrades, Red Army men, commanders, commissars and political workers! According to the sacred will of the Soviet government and our great people, I order: The troops of the Leningrad military district to cross the border, smash the Finnish troops, and once and for all secure the safety of the north-western boundaries of the Soviet Union and the Lenin's city – the cradle of the proletarian revolution. We go into Finland not as combatants, but as friends and liberators, freeing the Finnish people from the clutches of the landowners and capitalists. We are not against the Finnish people but against the Cajander-Erkko government, clutching the Finnish people and provoking war against the USSR. We respect freedom and independence of Finland, which was received by Finnish people as a result of the October Revolution and the victory of Soviet rule. For this independence the Russian Bolsheviks led by Lenin and Stalin have fought together with the Finnish people. For the safety of the north-western boundaries of the USSR and the Lenin's glory city! For our beloved Motherland! For the Great Stalin! Forward, the sons of the Soviet people, the warriors of the Red Army, until the complete destruction of the enemy!
War Council member |