Carl Gustaf Mannerheim was the commander of Finland's army through the Winter War of 1939-40 and the subsequent War of Continuation. He was formerly a general in the Russian Imperial Army. He was as resolute in putting up the fight as he was in accepting a bitter peace.
In March 1940, after 16 weeks of battle, Mannerheim addressed his soldiers: "Our Army still stands unconquered before an enemy which in spite of terrible losses has grown in numbers." The underwhelming scale of Western support and the overwhelming size of an enemy "whose life-philosophy and moral values are different from ours" meant that although Stalin failed to achieve his maximalist goals, Finland had to forfeit land, but not its people. "We must be ready to defend our diminished Fatherland with the same resolution and the same fire with which we defended our undivided Fatherland," he said.
Mannerheim's speech was circulated in President Volodymyr Zelensky's office in the first months of the war in Ukraine, but was put to one side.
Youth. It's a wonder that anyone ever outgrows it.