THE RUSSO-FINNISH War of 1939-40 is now almost forgotten. In this new book the American military historian William Trotter tells of the spirited Finnish resistance to the Russian invasion. Their backs-to-the-wall determination stirred hearts across Europe throughout the dark days of that winter.

Conflict between Russia and her diminutive neighbour had been intermittent ever since Peter the Great selected the delta of the river Neva, a bug-infested swamp, for the site of his new capital, St Petersburg. The city is barely a hundred miles from the Finnish border and, in October 1939, Stalin