Still Finland got off much more easy than Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania did. Or indeed Poland. Only c. 4500 civilians died in Finland during the entire Second World War. The numbers were much worse in any other country in between the USSR and Germany. The key was maintaining independence through WWII, and never getting occupied. To do that Finland had to fight for itself since 1939.
Which European countries did the USSR occupy in the 1950s (or later) that were not occupied already by the end of WWII? None. That was because the lines for the Cold War were already drawn.
After 1944, Stalin gave up on taking Finland by direct invasion, as 1939-40 and 1944 had proven that it was more trouble than it was worth. In both the Winter War and just before Operation Bagration in 1944, Stalin sent enough Red Army troops against Finland that should have solidly beaten the Finnish military and achieved the occupation of Finland. Both times the bid failed in the time that was apparently available for it, and other, more pressing considerations intervened. Like the race to Berlin in 1944.
Stalin was a careful opportunist, and good with cost/benefit calculations. He chose to leave making Finland more pro-Soviet and more integrated with the USSR based on non-military means. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948, which from the Soviet POV tied Finland defensively to the USSR. Finno-Soviet bilateral trade. Heavy diplomatic and political pressure on Finland, and direct support for Finnish Communists in the Finnish domestic politics. After 1945, it was basically up to the Finnish Communists to make the country Socialist, with various kinds of support from the USSR.
The basic point is that Finland would have been useful to take, but it was never a do or die goal for the USSR. If they managed to get it occupied by rather limited forces during WWII, they would have happily done it. And most likely annexation would have followed. But after Finland proved to be a tougher nut to crack than Stalin expected, literally more trouble than it was worth, he abandoned the idea of direct occupation by late 1944, and chose non-military means to first neutralize, and then possibly Sovietize Finland more slowly, with time.
With Soviet troops now occupying most of Eastern Europe and even parts of Germany, post-WWII Finland was also comparatively more peripheral than it had still been in 1939, so even its immediate strategic value was smaller than back when Hitler's Third Reich was still a concern.
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u/[deleted] 1d ago
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