[ought-six]

“poking the bear, see what it gets you.”

How did Finland “poke the bear” in 1939?

It didn’t, of course. But Russia poked Finland by making ludicrous demands upon Finland to surrender Finnish territory to Russia, for “security reasons.” Finland told Russia to pound sand, and Russia invaded.

[hanamizu]

How did Finland “poke the bear” in 1939?

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From Russia’s point of view, Finland poked the bear by its very existence as an independent nation. At the end of WWI Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Eastern Poland all became independent nations out of territory once part of Russia. The Soviets tried to take back Poland in the early 20s but were beaten. They tried the same with the Finns and were beaten the first time. The second Soviet invasion forced the Finns to give up territory. Stalin and Hitler signed an agreement giving the Baltic Republics and eastern Poland back to the USSR.

And that’s how things stood until the breakup of the USSR. The Baltics declared independence, but Poland never got its lost territory back, neither did Finland.

Other nations that have the bad fortune to border Russia/USSR have also found them to be a less than great neighbor.