Reaction in Finland and Abroad
The Finnish Democratic Republic failed to gain support among Finnish workers as the Soviet Union had hoped. Instead, in the face of the invasion, Finnish society became strongly united in what is called the "Spirit of the Winter War". The Democratic Republic also failed to gain any international recognition aside from the Soviet Union itself, although a number of prominent left-wing activists and writers such as Jawaharlal Nehru, George Bernard Shaw, Martin Andersen Nexø and John Steinbeck voiced their support for the government. In Nazi Germany, state newspapers gave their support for the People's Republic because of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Joseph Stalin was well aware of the domestic political situation in Finland based on Soviet intelligence information, and thus did not anticipate that the establishment of the People's Republic would cause any revolutionary action or popular uprisings against the existing Finnish Government.
Read more about this topic: Finnish Democratic Republic
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