Moscow Armistice

The areas ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union after the Continuation War. Porkkala was returned to Finland in 1956.

Finland and the Soviet Union signed the Moscow Armistice on September 19, 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Moscow Armistice should not be confused with the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, which ended the earlier Winter War between the two states.

The final peace treaty between Finland and the Soviet Union 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 (although, in the end, the area was returned to Finnish control in 1956).

Other conditions included Finnish payment of $300,000,000 to the Soviet Union as war reparations. Finland also agreed to legalize communist parties and ban organizations that the Soviet Union considered fascist. And the armistice compelled Finland to drive German troops from its territory, leading to a military campaign in Lapland.

See also

• Lapland War
• Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces
• Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944
• King Michael's Coup