The Winter War in popular culture has had a deep and wide influence in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and elsewhere. The

Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

began three months after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

had started and had full media attention, as the other European fronts had a calm period.

Films and television

The Soviet documentary film ''The Mannerheim Line'' (1940) presents the official view of the

between

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

-helping Soviets and the Finns, including its causes, denouement and outcome. The play '' There Shall Be No Night'' (1940) by the American playwright

Robert E. Sherwood Robert Emmet Sherwood (April 4, 1896 – November 14, 1955) was an American playwright and screenwriter. He is the author of ''Waterloo Bridge, Idiot's Delight, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Rebecca, There Shall Be No Night, The Best Years of Our L ...

was inspired by a moving Christmas 1939 broadcast to America by the war correspondent Bill White of CBS. The play was produced on Broadway in 1940 and won the 1941 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The American film '' Ski Patrol'' (1940), made by the Hollywood master

Milton Krasner Milton R. Krasner, A.S.C. (February 17, 1904 – July 17, 1988) was an American cinematographer who won an Academy Award for '' Three Coins in the Fountain'' (1954). Career Working in films since the 1930s, Krasner is remembered for his work ...

, features a Finnish reserve unit defending the border from the Soviets. The film took great historical liberties in its storyline. The Finnish movie '' Talvisota'' (1989) tells the story of a Finnish platoon of reservists from Kauhava that belonged to the 23rd Infantry Regiment, which was almost only of men from Southern Ostrobothnia. The documentary '' Fire and Ice: The Winter War of Finland and Russia'' (2006) shows how the Winter War influenced World War II and how Finland mobilised against the world's largest military power. In 2011,

Philip Kaufman Philip Kaufman (born October 23, 1936) is an American film director and screenwriter who has directed fifteen films over a career spanning more than six decades. He has been described as a "maverick" and an "iconoclast," notable for his versati ...

began filming

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

's ''

Hemingway & Gellhorn ''Hemingway & Gellhorn'' is a 2012 television film directed by Philip Kaufman about the lives of journalist Martha Gellhorn and her husband, writer Ernest Hemingway. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and aired on HBO on May 28, ...

'' (first airdate May 28, 2012), which features Martha Gellhorn (played by Nicole Kidman) reporting from

during The

Steven Wiig Steven Ray Wiig (born December 30, 1972) is an American film actor, director, producer and musician. He appeared in the films '' Into the Wild'', '' Metallica: Some Kind of Monster'', ''Milk'', and '' The Master''. He is also the drummer in the ...

portrays Simo Häyhä, who led a group of Finnish soldiers to shelter.

Games

In a 1992 column in '' Pelit'', "Wexteen" ( Jyrki J. J. Kasvi) lamented the difficulty of modelling the war in interactive entertainment. According to Wexteen, if the game mechanics are based on troop strengths, troops would march through Helsinki, and if it was based on historical events, they would March through Moscow. In 1987, a turn-based strategy game, '' Talvisota'', was released for

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, then vice-p ...

Literature

At the end of, and for a year after, the Winter War, in 1940–1941, much literature was published in the Soviet Union. Books were very narrow by their

military history Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians norma ...

and

operations Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

, but they had a strong political message. The overall campaign was disastrous and so literature found its pride in the details of battles and military heroes. For example, the breakthrough of the

Mannerheim Line The Mannerheim Line ( fi, Mannerheim-linja, sv, Mannerheimlinjen) was a defensive fortification line on the Karelian Isthmus built by Finland against the Soviet Union. While this was never an officially designated name, during the Winter War it ...

was represented as a "legendary" performance by the Red Army. The boys' adventure story '' Biggles Sees It Through'' (1940) by

W.E. Johns William Earl Johns (5 February 189321 June 1968) was an English First World War pilot, and writer of adventure stories, usually written under the pen name Capt. W. E. Johns: best known for creating the fictional air-adventurer ''Biggles''. Ear ...

is set during the final stages of the war. Squadron Leader James Bigglesworth is allowed by the British government to go in a party of volunteers to "help the Finns in their struggle against Soviet aggression". They fly reconnaissance raids from a base at Oskar, in a Bristol Blenheim bomber, and encounter a Polish scientist with secret papers on new aircraft alloys, as well as von Stalhein, their old World War I enemy. ''Phantom Patrol'' (1940) by

Arthur Catherall Arthur Catherall (1906–1980) was an English author, mostly of works for children. Catherall was born in Bolton, England. During the Second World War he served with the RAF in Burma and East Bengal. He also travelled widely in Europe, Africa a ...

, writing as AR Channel, is another boys' adventure story about a group of

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts may refer to: * Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement. * Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement. * An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are ...

in Finland during the Winter War that becomes involved in guerilla activity for the Finnish forces.

Music

Already during the war, in February 1940,

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

calypso musician

Atilla the Hun Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Bulgars, among others, in Central and Ea ...

recorded a song, ''Finland'' and urged Finland, "Defeat the aims of Soviet Russia".

References

{{reflist Winter War Cultural history of World War II World War II and the media

Films and television

Games

Literature

Music

See also

References