[Nateman]

Unfortunately, the Finns only gave the Soviet Army a bloody nose, the Soviets eventually KO’d the Finns.

It's true they were eventually defeated but it was not in vain. The Finns did such a good job of fighting back they convinced Hitler that the Soviets were a rotten structure just waiting for him to cave it in. Can you imagine how horrible the world would be today if the Soviet-Nazi alliance had held together?

[GreyFriar]

Nate,

Hitler had plans to invade and conquer the USSR before the Winter War. I do have to agree that the Soviet’s performance showed them weaker, at the command level, than many though them to be. However, Hitler in Mein Kampf, saw Germany’s “Living Room” in the East, i.e. the USSR, and he had always intended to conquer the Slavs.