The Soviets decide to take all of Finland back

I think the topic name says it all. Let's say the Soviets have decided they don't just want the lands they annexed after the Winter War, they have decided they must bring Communism to the holdout in the north, could Finland keep them out (With summer coming, and dwindling supplies), would Sweden get more involved?

 

taking finland would certainly involve heavy losses for the soviets, plus the posssibility of further international help.

 

But apparently the "Soviet Supermen" were invincible.

Regards,
Gordon

 

I think this must be dealt in different time sectors as the situation changed all the while:

In 1940 by the autumn the Germans came into picture and stopped the Russians from attacking. This of course had a lot to do with their Barbarossa plan but for Finland it saved the country.

After Barbarossa the Red Army could not try to occupy Finland until 1944 and we managed to stop them. I think it would have taken the Russians several months to prepare new forces for an attack so it was time to concentrate forces on the Germans front. At the same time I think the Russians made a clever move with several axis allied countries and proposed peace. This took place in Sept 1944 with Finland and Russia could move more troops to the German front and the Finns would have to battle the Germans in Lapland.

All in all the Russians could have taken Finland if they wished but this would have led to a huge country with partisan war and I don´t think the Russians were really keen on that, look at the countries where this happened.

Anyway, with more spesific date or year I can answer more on the Finnish question, if interested.

 

Despite of the huge cost, the USSR could have annexed Finland.

As Kai says, maybe not in summer 1940 when the Red Army was still not the greatest war machine of the century and the Germans were already present there, but in 1944 they could have if they wanted.