War, snow and the deadliest sniper in history: The bestselling novel that revives the forgotten epic of Finland's defense against the USSR

"In 1939, as the world prepared to plunge into the chaos of World War II, a small, frozen country withstood the onslaught of the Soviet Union. Three million Finns against 171 million Russians. One hundred and five days of combat at -50C (-58F). This forgotten story is what Olivier Norek, 50, a former police officer and author of crime novels, brings to light in The Winter Warriors, which has already sold more than 300,000 copies in France."

"His new work not only revives the so-called Winter War, but also mirrors the present with Vladimir Putin's current aggression. I didn't want to write about the war in Ukraine, says the author, visiting Madrid. But I did want to understand it. And to understand it, I thought I had to tell the story of a war from a century earlier. Because forgotten history is doomed to repeat itself."

"It all began, he recounts, one morning in 2022, while listening to the radio. I heard Vladimir Putin threatening us with a nuclear winter. In 2022, no one was prepared for that. Not me either. And when I'm afraid, I investigate. I wanted to understand a century of relations between Russia and the rest of the world, to discover if the past could give me the intellectual tools to understand tomorrow."

"On that journey through history, Norek stumbled upon an almost mythical episode: the war that pitted the Soviet Union against Finland between 1939 and 1940. I encountered 105 days at -51C (-59.8F), and a gigantic army trying to subdue a tiny country... and failing. And at the center of it all, a man: Simo Hayha, a five-foot-two (1.57 meters) farmer with an angelic face and deadly aim, who became Russia's worst nightmare. An unlikely hero."

Three million Finns resisted a Soviet invasion of 171 million Russians during the Winter War of 1939–1940, enduring 105 days of combat in temperatures near −50°C. A small, mobile Finnish force used terrain, weather, and marksmanship to frustrate a much larger Red Army. Simo Hayha, a five-foot-two farmer nicknamed the White Death, achieved more than 500 confirmed sniper kills and became an emblem of Finnish resilience. The episode reveals strategic and human factors that enabled successful resistance against overwhelming odds. Renewed attention to the conflict draws parallels with contemporary Russian aggression and anxieties about nuclear threats.

Read at english.elpais.com