• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

WI: Present-day Finland ISOTed back to 1939

SinghSong

Well-known member
Location
Slough
Pronouns
he/him
In this scenario, the entirety of present-day Finland, along with all its infrastructure and the people residing there, gets ISOTed back in time to the same day (23rd June) in 1939. What do you think would happen next- how would you envision things panning out, how well (or poorly) would present-day Finland fare, how would their apparent arrival from the future be received by the various downtime world leaders, and how radically differently would you envision WW2 progressing ITTL?
 
In this scenario, the entirety of present-day Finland, along with all its infrastructure and the people residing there, gets ISOTed back in time to the same day (23rd June) in 1939. What do you think would happen next- how would you envision things panning out, how well (or poorly) would present-day Finland fare, how would their apparent arrival from the future be received by the various downtime world leaders, and how radically differently would you envision WW2 progressing ITTL?

With modern weapons, Finland crushes the Soviet Union.
 
I find these ones quite interesting - because you have a really strong mismatch.

1. Finland 2021 is strong, with powerful 21st century military.
2. USSR 1939 is actually pretty strong, with vast strategic depth.

Finland's military advantage is brittle and hard to keep at that edge. Far more people can be mobilised in the long run but where are all the shiny 21st century munitions coming from? It's population not really used to the massive existential fear of the USSR.

The USSR isn't used to having a small but super powerful neighbour. USSR has a large army "ready" to go, which can also be easily shattered, whilst also being a rather slow to ramp up military power that can to some degree throw endless resources at the Finns.

Also in this scenario there's potential conflict baked in, as the borders are Finland 2021 vs USSR 2021, so there's a borderland of Finland 1939 sitting between the two. A DMZ of frightened 1939 Finns! Both sides have strong incentive to move in quickly.
 
Last edited:
With modern weapons, Finland crushes the Soviet Union.
If they did though, what would the world look like afterwards? Would Finland necessarily want to crush the Soviet Union, if it opened the door for the Nazis to potentially win Operation Barbarossa against the shattered remnants of the Soviets' armed forces, and dominate the continent?
 
If they did though, what would the world look like afterwards? Would Finland necessarily want to crush the Soviet Union, if it opened the door for the Nazis to potentially win Operation Barbarossa against the shattered remnants of the Soviets' armed forces, and dominate the continent?

Presumably, they would also crush Nazi Germany.
 
Presumably, they would also crush Nazi Germany.
Would they have enough manpower, resources and military strength to do both, though? And whichever of the two (Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union) they focused on defeating first, how would they prevent the other from strengthening themselves by moving in to seize a share of the spoils of war from their fallen nemesis?
 
Would they have enough manpower, resources and military strength to do both, though? And whichever of the two (Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union) they focused on defeating first, how would they prevent the other from strengthening themselves by moving in to seize a share of the spoils of war from their fallen nemesis?

Id imagine they'd give a lot of tech and historical info to Britain, France etc. Yes that might have repercussions down the line but the priorities would be defeating first the USSR and the probably Germany
 
Would they have enough manpower, resources and military strength to do both, though? And whichever of the two (Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union) they focused on defeating first, how would they prevent the other from strengthening themselves by moving in to seize a share of the spoils of war from their fallen nemesis?

While not having enough manpower they know enough to tell the allies to watch the Ardennes and oh shit Germany just got itself a meatgrinder it can't win.

Italy's staying out to.
 
It actually gets even more interesting because the Moscow Peace treaty demanded the evacuation of the Finnish Civilian population from the area. As in all 410,000 people.

Now, given it's been 82 years we can presume that the number of people who actually exist in both Finland and Karelia is pretty small. But if you consider that perhaps 10% of the population are going to be in the situation of 'oh wait my parents/grandparents/great-grandparents are living there'...
 
Back
Top