Why Finland "joined" the Axis

Why did the Finnish join the Axis?

Now before you angrily type in the comment that the Finns never joined the Axis, I know

that: "There was no wartime alliance between Finland

and the German Reich at all."

Now, you know why the “join” in the title was in quotation marks.

Yet, the Finns from 1941 to 1944 fought along side the Germans on the Eastern Front.

And at first, this non-official alliance seems rather natural, yet there are some aspects

that make this cooperation far more unlikely than one might suspect.

The first point is about politics, here we don’t have a perfect match, actually far

from it.

Finland was the only fully functioning democratic system in the German sphere of influence.

And it was not limited to the system alone: “[…] the fact remains that the leading

figures in Finnish government stood much closer ideologically to the Scandinavian countries

and the Western powers than to the fascist regimes in Europe.

The most distinguished proponents of this democratic world view were the prime minster

himself and Field Marshal Mannerheim.”

Yet, it gets worse, because in the nazi’s racial theories the Finns were not exactly

at the top: "According to the obscure racial theories

of the Nazis, the Finns were even to be classified as problematic."

Furthermore, the Finns did not comply with the Nazi’s racial ideology and actions:

"The Finns did not identify at all with Hitler's race-ideological war of extermination against

the USSR, however much they adopted the anti-communist propaganda.

Jewish officers and soldiers served in their army until the end of the war!"

So, in terms of politics and especially racial ideology there was a mismatch or even complete

mismatch.

One might argue that the Soviet Union was a natural enemy of both the German Reich and

the Finnish Republic.

Yet, there is one major issue, the recent Winter War from 1939 to 1940, because in that

conflict Germany had actively prevented the Finns from receiving support.

Remember at this time the Germans and Soviets were Allies due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop

pact that put Finland into the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union.

“Hitler would do nothing at this point to jeopardize the arrangement [Molotov-Ribbentrop

pact].

Thus when the Soviets attacked Finland in November 1939, starting the so-called Winter

War, Berlin provided no help to Helsinki, despite its appeals (though the Italians considered

sending aid).”

As outlined in my video on Germany’s Role in the Winter War, the German leadership several

times took even a pro-Soviet stance and at least once agreed to support the Soviet Navy.

The result of the Winter War was that Finland lost large parts of Karelia.