The finnish did have some fights with the russians...

whatever the germans had to do with it... i have heard that they had sent some bf109s to them but that's all

For a review of the overall "Winter War", check http://www.feldgrau.com/wwar.html

Basically, Russia's war against Finland (1939-1940) added a buffer between the Finnish border and Leningrad.  During that war, foreign support for Finland came mostly from Swedish volunteers.  Promised support from the "Allies" didn't materialize in time, given the situation in Europe.

Note that the Soviets timed their invasion of Finland to match their invasion of Poland, and the western preoccupation with Germany.

While the Finns extracted a heavy toll on the more numerous Soviets, numbers ground them down.  THey lost some territory.  In return, the Russians gained some needed experience in fighting in heavy winter conditions.

In the "Continuation War", Finland accepted military aid from the Germans (the only ones in a condition to offer aid, because it also served their purposes) and when Germany invaded Russia in 1941, the Finns came in to recover the lost territory.  The "alliance" with Germany was one of convenience only, since the Finn's aim was to recover territory lost.  If I recall correctly, the Finns stopped their advance at the 1939 border.  Because of this, after the war, the Finns were not "absorbed" behind the Iron Curtain, but were within a certain "sphere of influence" but neutral in world affairs.  This is why, post war, the Finns used Migs, etc.

Finland used an eclectic mix of aircraft from all sides.  Apart from the well known Buffaloes (if it was such a bad airplane, why were there a number of Finnish aces in the airplane?) and German aircraft (Ju-88, 109Gs, etc), they had a number of Morane Saulnier MS.406 fighters, which morphed into the "Morko-Moranes" (a Russian engine shoe horned into the French airplane), Blenheims, etc.

In short, Finland was neither "Axis" nor "Allied", and definitely not "Neutral".  It was a true case of "self-preservation".  They ticked off the Germans because they wouldn't press on to Leningrad (something that would probably have broken the seige of Leningrad early on ad caused the city to fall..)..

Finland's war with Russia is always interesting reading.

Ah the Fins, one can only think of Quisling....
I remember a Finnish proverb, where two men are in a large ditch, with Russians coming at them from all sides (this is in the Winter War) one says "there are so many of them!" the other replies "how will we bury them all?"
The Fins led a very confusing war, which involved some bizarre side switching.....


A.

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As I understand it, Russia changed sides - not Finland. As Felix pointed out, Finland was protecting its own interests & allied to neither side in WWII. The border dispute with Russia just happened to coincide with it. Finland was involved in 3 separate wars with Russia during this time. http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/scandinavia/fin193945.html

German Forces invaded the USSR on June 22nd 1941, breaking the Non-aggression pact of Aug. 23rd 1939. This changed the whole situation, effectively bringing Soviet Russia over to the Allied side & making Finland an ally of Germany, technically at least as Finland had no allegiance to either of the main protagonists in the wider conflict. This explains the variety of different aircraft types used by the Finnish Air Force between 1939 & 1945. Details of types here. http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/color.html

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Apart from ceding part of its territory during the Winter War (November 1939 -  March 1940) Finland did not lose.
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Interesting stuff. I recall seeing a map of the situation at that time, and it led me to believe that Finland was basically "taken over" by the Nazis (it was probably in a 60s-era US school textbook). But it sounds like they were pragmatic about their situation (geographically vulnerable, outgunned and outmanned by both sides), and tried to play both sides a bit in order to protect their own.