interpreter said:
How can someone from Finland not know Finnish history? Here is a direct quote from Wikipedia's article on the winter war:
"The Soviet forces did not accomplish their objective of the total conquest of Finland."
I dare say I know quite a lot more about the nitty-gritty of the Finnish history than you do, my friend. While Wikipedia certainly serves as a good starting point for someone with limited to non-existent previous knowledge of the subject, to learn the nitty-gritty in order to understand the big picture one needs to dig deeper than a Wikipedia article.
Indeed, had you followed the source of the quote you cite here, "The Soviet forces did not accomplish their objective of the total conquest of Finland," you would have learned, in detail, that
Stalin's objective was to secure Leningrad and the Soviet access to the Baltic, about the Soviet territorial demands, the unsuccessful diplomatic efforts and negotiations of the spring/summer 1939, and how, after these negotiations with the Finns failed to achieve Stalin's stated territorial claims, did Stalin order the military and navy to draw up "counter-offensive" plans in case Germany and/or Britain and France used Finland as a "springboard" for "anti-Soviet ambitions." This was the end of July/August 1939. The infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed in August 1939.
From this point on, when diplomacy and negotiations failed to achive the Soviet objectives, attention turned to war preparations. The devil is in the details, you see. So yes, while the objective of the
war was the speedy subjugation of Finland, this was not Stalin's original or primary objective, which was
to secure Leningrad. The invasion was a tool to that end, not an end in itself, as you seem to try to portray it. And
the Soviets did indeed achieve their objective to secure Leningrad with this war with the territories Finland was forced to cede.