Vladimir Putin’s views about the prospect of NATO expansion near Russia’s borders are well-known by now. The devastated landscape of Ukraine, littered with the dead bodies of Ukrainian civilians and the burned-out husks of Russian tanks, tells you all you really need to know about what Putin is willing to do in the name of keeping another country from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the mutual defense pact and organization that the US spearheaded during the Cold War to unify opposition against the Soviet Union.
But Putin’s forceful attempt to hold Ukraine in Russia’s orbit and keep it out of NATO’s grasp seems to have had consequences he didn’t expect. Two European countries that had stayed out of NATO for decades have now signaled that they want in. Finland and Sweden—both within uncomfortable reach of Russia—have said that they want to join the organization.
Both countries have a good deal of history remaining relatively neutral in the standoff between West and East. And the road to actually joining NATO won’t necessarily be a smooth one.
The Fighting Finns (But for Whom?)
Finland’s military experience with Russia—which it borders—is unique. Finland was controlled by Sweden until 1809, when conflict with Russia led to Swedish troops retreating back to Sweden. Finland became an autonomous duchy of Russia that year, and its level of autonomy waxed and waned for over 100 years. (For a long time, Finland was one of the few places in the Russian Empire where Jews could freely practice their religion, though they were still not full citizens.)
In 1918, Finland declared itself independent. A cold peace with Russia ensued until World War II.
In 1939, just after the outbreak of the larger war, Russia attacked Finland, after the Finns refused to give up territory that the Russians wanted as a buffer between Germany’s new territory and Leningrad. During the so-called Winter War, the Finns held off the Russians for several months before the Russians were able to change their tactics and press in on the Finns. In 1940, the two countries signed a peace treaty that gave Russia nine percent of Finland’s territory.
When the Germans and Russians finally began fighting one another, Finland allowed the Germans to use Finnish territory to attack the Soviets, and fighting between Russia and Finland began again, with the Finns essentially joining Germany’s war effort as a minor Axis country.
(Bizarrely, this led to some Jewish Finnish soldiers fighting on the side of the Nazis against Russia. The Finns in general kept their Jewish population safe, though a few were deported. In 2019, the Finnish government admitted that Finns who had joined SS units had likely killed Jews and other civilians in Ukraine and other countries.)
In 1944, the Soviet Union and Finland signed an armistice, which required that the Finns expel any Germans inside their borders—which led to a short war, known as the Lapland War, between the Finns and the Nazis.
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