Shelling of Mainila

The Mainila incident was an attack by the Soviet army on a Soviet village, a false flag operation and the casus belli for the Soviet-Finnish Winter War.

On November 27, 1939, the artillery of the Red Army shelled the Soviet border town Mainila (Russian Майнило ). The Soviet Union announced the following day the existing non-aggression pact of 1932, ended on 29 November, the diplomatic relations with Finland and began a day later the Winter War.

Similar to the sham of Germany raid on the Gleiwitz radio station, which served as a pretext for Germany Polish campaign, was claimed by the Soviet Union, the fire had gone out of the Finnish side.