From Ukraine on the Black Sea to the three Baltic brothers, they all have one thing in common, that is, they were all former Republics of the Soviet Union.
To some extent, these countries served as a "buffer zone" between the Soviet Union and Europe, shielding the Russian mainland from bulletproof weapons.
However, there was an exception among the Soviet Union's neighbors, which not only maintained independence, but had not yet been annexed by the Soviet Union, but also became the place that Stalin could not seek in his lifetime.
This place is Finland.
Finland has been part of Sweden since the 12th century, and has been with Sweden for many years.
At first Finland didn't deserve its own name.
For a long time, "Osterland" was the name for this land in the east of Sweden.
It wasn't until around the 15th century that "Finland" began to become synonymous with "Osterland".
Beginning in the 18th century, a province in southwestern Finland was called "Finland Headquarters".
So this land bordering Sweden to the west and Russia to the east was simply named "Finland".
Sweden in the 17th century was still the bearer of Northern Europe.
At that time, Sweden could easily punch Tsarist Russia and kick the Holy Roman Empire, and its sphere of influence once covered the entire Baltic Coastal Region, and its national strength entered a period of strength, known as the "Nordic Lion".
Finland, which followed Sweden, did not drink any soup, because it was the glory of Swedish history, and all that was left for Finland was humiliation.
Finland became meat in someone else's mouth.
In 1709, Peter the Great, who had hardened, completely annihilated the main force of the Swedish army and sent King Carl XII of Sweden to the Ottoman Empire for refuge.
After this battle, the king of the North changed hands.
In 1721, Peter the Great continued to abuse Sweden while it was hot in order to find a way out of the sea for Russia.
Eventually, it took East Karelia in southeastern Finland from Sweden and the mouth of the Baltic Sea from Finland.
By this time the Russian Empire had replaced Sweden as the new ruler in northern Europe and the Baltic sea.
Sweden, which lost its Nordic hegemony, struggled to survive in the shadow of the Russian Empire for a century.
In the face of the "earth-eating" Russians, the weakened Sweden did not buy peace by "remaining neutral".
According to the tradition of Great Russia, if a piece of land is mine, then the whole land must be mine.
Tsar Alexander I continued this tradition of Great Russia, continuing to hold the soft persimmon of Sweden, determined to cut the wool to the end.
Finland bring it to you.
In 1809, war broke out again between Russia and Switzerland.
At this time, Sweden had no strength in a war against the powerful Russian macho, and was quickly defeated by a strong fighting nation.
Finland's fat was finally swallowed up by the Russian Empire.
Finland seceded from Sweden and became the Grand Duchy of Finland under the Russian Empire, with Tsar Alexander I personally serving as Grand Duke of Finland until 1917.
Since Finland had been under Swedish rule for more than 600 years, and Swedish culture was deeply rooted in the daily lives of Finns, the Tsar did not interfere too much in Finland at the beginning of his reign, but encouraged Finland to develop its indigenous culture to achieve the de-Swedishization of Finland.
So during the Period of the Grand Duchy of Finland, Russia granted Finland great legal and religious freedom for most of the time, and even an independent parliament was formed in 1860, laying the foundation for the establishment of a modern Finnish government.
At the end of the 19th century, in order to consolidate its rule, Tsarist Russia, which had indulged Finland for nearly a century, began to compress Finland's autonomy, realized de-"Swedishization" and began to vigorously promote "Russification".
However, this behavior ignited the anger of the Finnish people, and the sense of national independence made the Finns no longer have the mentality of "subordinating" to the imperial powers.
But at this time, Finland was not yet an opponent of Tsarist Russia, and the rebellion could only be carried out in secret.
The Finns are waiting for an opportunity, an independent moment.
The timing didn't make them wait too long.
At the sound of a cannon from the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Empire collapsed, and according to Lenin's principle of national self-determination, all the peoples of the former Russian Empire had the right to gain independent status.
The Finns waited, and the Finns cried out.
On 6 December 1917, Finland declared its independence.
In 1918, Soviet Russia issued the Declaration of the Revolutionary Government on Finland's Independence, which recognized Finland's independent status.
But Lenin's Soviet Russia did not want to let Finland go easily, because the newly independent Finland "surnamed capital".
For Russia, a country with a great power chauvinist tradition, the land that does not belong to Russia has tried to annex it, not to mention the territory that once belonged to Russia, and it is even more meat that cannot be slept without taking it back.
In the eyes of Soviet Russia, I have recognized your independence, then the red flag of the Soviets must be planted at the head of the city of Helsinki, and the name of Finland should be "Surname Society".
So the Soviet Union propped up the Red Guards in Finland against the bourgeois government forces led by Mannerheim.
The Soviet top brass was convinced that as soon as Mannerheim was destroyed and Soviet power was established in Finland, the cut flesh would again be part of Soviet Russia.
However, with the help of Germany, the Finnish government army did not let the Soviet-supported Red Guards succeed, and eventually defeated the Soviet reinforcements and maintained their independence.
On October 14, 1920, The Soviet Union had to recognize Finland's "surname capital", and the two sides signed the Dolpat Treaty, which stipulated:
Soviet Russia recognized Finland's independence within the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Finland and ceded the Bechaimo region to Finland.
This was the first attempt by Red Soviet Russia to annex Finland, but it ended in failure.
In 1922, Stalin became a Soviet spokesman.
Stalin, who had always had "Great Russianism", was committed to restoring the "basic disk" of the Tsarist Period, and the territory that once belonged to the Russian Empire would be the homeland that the Soviet Union needed to recover.
Therefore, independent Finland and the three Baltic brothers, in Stalin's eyes, were all lost flesh and bones of the Soviet Union, and they must be returned to the arms of the Soviet "mother".
Finland, in particular, had a border only 32 kilometers from st. Petersburg, the tsar's imperial capital, and for the sake of st. Petersburg's strategic security, the Soviet Union had to "recognize" Finland.
The pragmatic Stalin understood that only when the Soviet Union itself developed and grew, the field that had been lost would have the strength to take it back.
In 1937, the Soviet Union completed the Second Five-Year Plan and achieved socialist industrialization.
It took Stalin less than 15 years to pull the Soviet Union from an agrarian state into the ranks of industrial countries.
Stalin, who felt that he had done it, made up his mind to offer to exchange territory with Finland, and if Finland was not interested, he would send troops to make the whole of Finland completely red.
In August 1939, Stalin presented Finland with a very excessive, insincere, and clear territorial quid pro quo:
Finland gave the Karelian Isthmus between Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland to the Soviet Union as a buffer zone between the two countries and to get St. Petersburg out of the haze.
The Soviet Union ceded Ribora and Polayavi to Finland in Eastern Karelia.
In Stalin's words, the Soviet Union was willing to exchange 5500 square kilometers for 2700 square kilometers, and the Soviet Union lost a lot.
What did Stalin want?
The Karelian Isthmus is one of the most important industrial areas in Finland, and Vyborg on the Isthmus is the second largest city in Finland.
What did Stalin give to Finland?
The two plots of land are just a forest.
Finn: Do you see me like a fool?
Stalin: Fight.
On November 26, 1939, the Soviet Union created the "Manilla Shelling" as a pretext for direct armed aggression against Finland, and the Winter War broke out.
In the last three months of the war, Stalin invested 1.2 million troops and suffered nearly 500,000 casualties (the result of purging the entire Soviet command class), and Finland's 200,000 troops were also killed or wounded.
Finland, a small country and a small country, resisted the Soviet invasion and did not let Stalin realize his wish that the red flag be planted on the head of Helsinki.
But forced by the absolute power of the Soviet Union, Finland was unable to resist and finally signed the Moscow Peace Agreement in humiliation.
Finland was forced to cede 11 per cent of its territory and 30 per cent of its assets.
Stalin got the buffer he wanted between the two countries, Karelia.
This was the second time that the Red Soviet Union wanted to annex Finland and lost again.
Although part of Finland was taken, Stalin was furious with the heavy casualties.
Moreover, one Karelia is not enough, he wants the whole of Finland.
According to Stalin's previous plan, after the Soviet army was sent to Finland, the "Finnish Democratic Republic" headed by the leader of the Finnish Communist Party, Kusinin, was established.
This was Stalin's instrument of aggression and division of Finland, and once the Soviets occupied all of Finland, the puppet regime became the instrument of the Soviet Union to control Finland, allowing Finland to be incorporated into the Soviet Union and part of the Soviet Union like the three Baltic brothers.
However, the dream was shattered.
An enraged Stalin decided to merge the puppet regime with the Soviet-occupied Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and elevate it to the Karelian-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic.
The 16th republic of the USSR was born (existed only for 16 years).
The addition of the word "Finland" to the name of the country is enough to see the sinister intentions of Stalin.
On the one hand, it split Finland and made Finland two countries;
On the other hand, it laid the groundwork for the future invasion and annexation of finland as a whole.
The Finns clearly felt the murderous intent from their next-door neighbors, and their hostility toward the Soviet Union was not only not curtailed, but more pronounced and reckless.
The Finnish hostility toward the Soviet Union was enthusiastically responded to by the Germans.
Germany transferred a large number of advanced weapons and equipment to Finland and revealed to the Soviet Union its plans to attack the Soviet Union.
The Finns gladly accepted the "goodwill" of the Germans.
In 1941 the Soviet-Finnish war continued.
The Finn-German forces launched an all-out offensive against the Soviet Union with the aim of recovering the territory lost by Finland in the Winter War.
The war pointed out that Finland had achieved its set goals, regained the land it had lost a year earlier, and also regained most of the territory of East Karelia, which had been occupied by the Soviet Union for a long time, and the dream of Finland's reunification would be realized.
However, after Germany's defeat, Finland had to bear the anger of the Soviet counterattack again, and Stalin was furious and sent Finland back to the central region before agreeing to negotiate.
After the end of World War II, Finland signed the Treaty of Paris with the Soviet Union as a defeated country due to its inability to collude with Germany.
Although the Soviet Union regained some territory, the ultimate goal of annexing Finland was doomed to fail due to the new world order and world pattern formulated after World War II.
Stalin's lifelong failure to realize his dream of annexing Finland is a lifelong regret.
Although Finland paid a heavy price in both wars, it eventually retained its independence and became the only country in the Soviet Union's European neighbors.