Background
As part of the 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty which formally ended the Soviet-Finnish Winter War, Hanko was leased to the Soviet Union as a naval base. The civilian population was forced to evacuate before Soviet forces arrived. The leased area included several surrounding islands, several coastal artillery sites (among them the important fort of Russarö), important harbor facilities, and an area suitable for an airfield, which the Soviets quickly constructed. Troop transport rights from the Soviet Union to Hanko and back put severe strain on Finnish-Soviet relations, and played a part both in Finland's decision to allow German troops to transit Northern Finland, and later, to go to war with the Soviet Union. Though Hanko had originally been leased as a naval base, ground forces were far more numerous, with only a small naval detachment being present at the base.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Hanko (1941)
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