Moscow Armistice

Finnish and Soviet officers gather for negotiations on September 5, 1944

The conditions for peace were similar to what had been agreed in the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940: Finland was obliged to cede parts of Karelia and Salla, as well as certain islands in the Gulf of Finland. The new armistice also handed all of Petsamo to the Soviet Union, and Finland was further compelled to lease Porkkala to the Soviet Union for a period of fifty years (the area was returned to Finnish control in 1956).[1] Territories ceded to the Soviet Union constituted approximately 11.50% (44,106.23 km²) of Finland's territory (382,561.23 km²) prior to the Winter War and the Continuation War as dictated by the Treaty of Tartu.

Other conditions included Finnish payment of nearly $300,000,000 ($5.2 billion in today's US dollars) in the form of various commodities over six years to the Soviet Union as war reparations.[3] Finland also agreed to legalise the Communist Party of Finland (after it had made some changes to the party rules) and ban parties that the Soviet Union considered fascist.[4] Further, the individuals that the Soviets considered responsible for the war had to be arrested and put on trial, the best-known case being that of Risto Ryti.[5] The armistice compelled Finland to drive German troops from its territory, leading to a military campaign in Lapland.

• Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940
• Allied Control Commission (Finland)
• Finlandization
• Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces
• Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944
• King Michael's Coup
• Karelian question, contemporary debate on the status of the ceded territories

• Malbone W. Graham. (1945). "Armistices – 1944 Style". The American Journal of International Law 39, 2: 286–95.

• Text of the Armistice Agreement.