Finland's alignment as a constrained strategic choice

Finnish alignment with the Axis is presented as a constrained response to a Soviet Union that had already invaded and threatened the country's survival. Finland's leaders remembered the Winter War and faced the prospect of renewed Soviet pressure. They did not need to admire Germany to see it as the only powerful state offering help against that danger. Geography and the collapse of other Scandinavian options left Finland with few plausible external partners in 1941.