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Leningrad...
...the second largest center of industry and culture in the Soviet Union...
...a city with a populaton of 3.5 million people
32 km - the distance of one artillery shot - was between it and the Finnish border.
November 1939
Finland... a country of many lakes and forests.
Finland's rulers turned the country, and especially the Korelian isthmus, into a bridgehead for agression against the USSR, for aggression against Leningrad.
8 lines of Finnish fortifications were built right next to our border.
They formed a forfield before the main line of fortifications -- the Mannerheim Line.
The Mannerheim Line of reinforced concrete and granite-and-earth fortifications cut across the entire Karelian isthmus.
Behind it was another system of fortifications engirdling Vyborg/Viipuri with a mighty semicircle.
This fist of concrete, steel and granite was raised over Leningrad...
...was ready to strike at Leningrad at any time on orders of Finland's foreign masters.
In November 1939 the Finnish military junta engaged in military actions starting with vile provocations on the border.
November 30, 1939, at 8:00, on orders of Red Army High Command, troops of the Leningrad military district crossed the border to deliver a crushing blow to the Finnish warmongers.
Along with the Red Army units, the warships of the Baltic Sea Fleet came to the nation's defense.
After successful battles our Baltic Fleet captured several important islands in the Gulf of Finland.
On December 1 our units entered Terijoki.