Misplaced Pages

Moscow Armistice

The areas ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union after the Continuation War. Porkkala was returned to Finland in 1956.
Type	Bilateral treaty
Signed	19 September 1944 (1944-09-19)
Location	Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR
Parties	Soviet Union  United Kingdom  Finland
Ratifiers	Soviet Union  United Kingdom  Finland

The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom on the other side on 19 September 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Armistice restored the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, with a number of modifications.

The final peace treaty between Finland and many of the Allies was signed in Paris in 1947.

Conditions for peace

The conditions for peace were similar to what had been agreed in the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940: Finland was obliged to cede parts of Karelia and Salla, as well as certain islands in the Gulf of Finland. The new armistice also handed all of Petsamo to the Soviet Union, and Finland was further compelled to lease Porkkala to the Soviet Union for a period of fifty years (the area was returned to Finnish control in 1956). Territories ceded to the Soviet Union constituted approximately 11.50% (44,106.23 km) of Finland's territory (382,561.23 km) prior to the Winter War and the Continuation War as dictated by the Treaty of Tartu.

Other conditions included Finnish payment of nearly $300,000,000 ($5.2 billion in today's US dollars) in the form of various commodities over six years to the Soviet Union as war reparations. Finland also agreed to legalise the Communist Party of Finland (after it had made some changes to the party rules) and ban parties that the Soviet Union considered fascist. Further, the individuals that the Soviets considered responsible for the war had to be arrested and put on trial, the best-known case being that of Risto Ryti. The armistice compelled Finland to drive German troops from its territory, leading to a military campaign in Lapland.

Surrendered territory

See also

• Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940
• Allied Control Commission (Finland)
• Finlandization
• Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces
• Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944
• King Michael's Coup
• Karelian question, contemporary debate on the status of the ceded territories

References

1. ^ "Return of Porkkala by Soviets 50 years ago had strings attached". Helsingin Sanomat. 25 January 2006.
2. Armistice Agreement between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on the one hand, and Finland on the other
3. "HS Home 3.9.2002 – Last war reparation train crossed Finnish-Soviet border 50 years ago". 2012-02-06. Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2022-09-19.
4. (in Finnish) Jukka Nevakivi (2006) Jatkosodasta nykypäivään. (From Continuation War to Today. In: Suomen poliittinen historia 1809–2006. WSOY, Helsinki
5. Jakobson, Max (former Finnish Ambassador to the UN) Finnish wartime leaders on trial for "war guilt" 60 years ago Helsingin Sanomat International edition, 28 October 2005

Further reading

• Malbone W. Graham. (1945). "Armistices – 1944 Style". The American Journal of International Law 39, 2: 286–95.

External links

• Text of the Armistice Agreement.

• Continuation War
• Peace treaties of Finland
• 1944 in Finland
• 1944 in Russia
• Treaties of the Soviet Union
• Finland–Soviet Union relations
• World War II treaties
• Peace treaties of the Soviet Union
• Treaties concluded in 1944
• Treaties entered into force in 1944
• September 1944 events
• Moscow in World War II
• 1944 in Moscow