Fans pick 100 books like The Winter War

The story of the Winter War between Finland and Soviet Russia is a dramatic David versus Goliath encounter. When close to half a million Soviet troops poured into Finland in 1939, Stalin expected Finnish defenses to collapse or surrender. But they held firm. The Finns not only survived the initial attacks but succeeded in inflicting devastating casualties before superior Russian numbers eventually forced a peace settlement. This is a detailed and compelling guide to Finland's vital, but almost forgotten role in World War II. It reveals the untold story of determination and mastery of winter warfare that characterized Finland's fight for survival on the Easternn Front.

“Helsinki, 10:30 a.m., November 30, 1939. Soviet bombers drop from a cloud bank to unload their bombs on the capital city of Finland.

In the weeks to come the world will watch admiringly as the tiny army of a small Baltic republic wages the kind of war that inspires legends against the invading military might of the Soviet Union.”  

The Winter War between Finland and Russia flies under the radar of most general readers mainly because Finland, alone up in a cold, dark corner of Europe, got almost no help, so that its five million people had to face the mighty Red Army on its own.

It was a different kind of war, with undermanned Finnish soldiers on skis using unorthodox guerrilla tactics on in unimaginably difficult Arctic fighting conditions.

Trotter overlays a  thorough understanding of the conflict on the hard realities of the far north for a description that takes the reader… show more.

Finnish Simo Häyhä is the world's most famous sniper. The statement that best describes him is: One shot–one hit. Simo Häyhä still holds the top spot in the calculated world statistics for snipers with 542 kills. Häyhä still serves as a role model for all snipers, regardless of nationality.

In the Winter War on the Kollaa line, Häyhä made history by eliminating more than five hundred enemies. Häyhä was rewarded for his achievements in numerous different ways, such as by promoting him from lance sergeant directly to second lieutenant, by awarding him the Kollaa Memorial Cross, and by awarding him as the best sniper on the war front with a model 28 rifle manufactured by the SAKO arms factory. I have had the honor of holding that award rifle in my hand. It vividly reminded me of my own military sniper training in Kajaani.

Häyhä's war ended dramatically on March… show more.

This definitive study explores the Soviet invasion of Finland and details the major events of the Winter War of November 1939 to March 1940. The Russian attack, which was expected to be swift and decisive, was blunted by the extraordinary fighting qualities of the Finnish Army and high number of casualties they inflicted on the Russians. The challenges caused by the weather, the wilderness terrain, the Mannerheim Line defenses, and the superbly executed Finnish military tactics resulted in a fascinating David vs Goliath struggle.

This book is an excellent description of the harsh events of the Winter War, which still touch us today.

A war always needs at least two sides; in this case, the attacking side was the Russians and the Finns were defending their own country. The Soviet Union initially wanted to seize the buffer zone only to protect Leningrad, but the war soon expanded to occupy the whole of Finland. The Finns did not agree with the Russians at all and fought tenaciously for their independence and neutrality.

I warmly recommend that all readers familiarize themselves with the book's content, which presents the actions and traditional life values of both warring parties in a completely new light.

With its stronghold, this book reminds me of the horrors of the Winter War, the heavy battles, and painful losses experienced by Finns. The price of freedom was terrible.

It also affects me very strongly, as well as the rest of us younger representatives of the next generation, who today get to live in peace in a democratic and free legal state without the dictatorship of Russia's tyranny.

I warmly recommend that all readers familiarize themselves with the book's content. This emphasized to me even more the importance of freedom. Whatever it is, it's always something worth fighting for, regardless of which country you live in.

The Russian attack on Finland was supposed to lead to a quick occupation, but it turned out differently. The Finns defended tenaciously.

The Russians' certainty of victory soon turned to despair. Most of the mighty Russian army was forced to fight in a foreign country under extreme conditions in the grip of severe frosts, suffering huge losses. The Winter War finally destroyed the external international reputation of the Soviet Union's glorious Red Army.

This book examines several sources using three key battles of the Winter War and draws a sharp demarcation between the ill-prepared Russian troops and the Finns, who used their troops sparingly, utilizing the terrain and using inventive guerilla tactics to defend their homeland. Detailed maps help the reader follow the events.

I, too, have adopted these teachings after graduating from the army as a reserve officer.

Interviews with Finnish and Russian war veterans and the extensive article archives provide a versatile description of the background of the Winter War and the actual combat events. The author's deep involvement gives, at least to me, a truer picture of the actual warfare and its various stages until the end of peace.

The special skills of the Finnish soldier in winter conditions, combined with his unyieldingness and dedication to his own cause, gave me a truthful answer to what the Russians initially did not believe in and were not prepared for - the strong resistance of the Finnish troops.

Finnish men and women work seamlessly to preserve the freedom of association. The author's fluent language, solid facts, and good book illustrations from both the battle and the home front make this book worth reading.

This is the best (to be fair, the only) English-language novel about how the Soviet economy was supposed to work and how it actually worked in the 1950s and 1960s. (The author says it is “not a novel” but a Russian fairytale.)

I was reluctant to read it, and expected to find fault with it, but I found it both moving and utterly convincing. It has all the ingredients of a war story: the various characters are trying to survive, to find love, to protect their families, to serve the nation, or to better humanity, while being ground between the wheels of great-power politics and everyday existence.

The book’s only omission (I learned later, after years of research) is that it does not account sufficiently for the role of the secret police in Soviet-era workplace surveillance and the selection of managers.

This book is the best proof that history can also be simply fun and insanely comical. The ten days that Khrushchev spent traveling through the U.S. in 1959, visiting both Hollywood and the farm of President Eisenhower, who gave him a calf, show, as if in a snow globe, all the comedy and tragedy of Soviet-American relations: the mutual fascination, the great similarities of wanting to please the world and dominate space, and the great mistrust that both sides could never quite put aside. And yet, these ten crazy days invite us to dream and speculate what would have been if the relations between the USA and the USSR had always been as good and cordial as in that September 1959. The US-Soviet story as a road movie with a happy ending!