Vintage Military - Part 81

Winter War, Finland 1940

In 1939, after Hitler attacked Poland to start World War II, the Soviet Union under Stalin attacked Finland on Nov. 30, 1939 in an attempt to grab Finnish territory.  Thus began what was called the Winter War.  LIFE magazine reported on it in the Jan. 29, 1940 issue in an article and photos by Carl Mydans.

Mydans reported on the Russians fighting the Finns along the Kemi River in northern Finland.  The Finns managed to hold off the Russians in that location, but not others.  Mydans didn't take photos of the battle, but he photographed tanks, supply trucks, and dead and wounded soldiers, and he reported on activities behind the front lines.

He took hundreds of photos that are now in the LIFE photo archive.  Some of these photos show us another scene behind the front lines: Finns relaxing at a sauna.  The photo above appeared in the Jan. 29, 1940 issue of LIFE, showing the Finns outside their sauna (above).  In accordance with LIFE magazine policy, it doesn't show frontal nudity.

But other photos in the photo archive that did not appear in the magazine are more revealing.  Here's another photo of the Finns outside the sauna ...

and another one with full frontal nudity.

After they enjoyed the broiling hot sauna, the Finns went outside to cool off naked, where it was 30 degrees below zero, according to the magazine photo caption.  Here's one guy ...

here's another guy ...

and here they both are.

The Winter War between Finland and Russia ended with an armistice and treaty on March 12, 1940.  Finland ceded to Russia the territory that Russia had captured along the Russian border.  This amounted to 11% of Finland, and that land is still part of Russia to this day.

If you wonder what modern Russia is trying to do by invading the Ukraine and grabbing territory along the Russian border, then proposing a peace agreement where Russia would keep that territory, look no farther than the 1940 Winter War with Finland, where that strategy succeeded.