Development of the anti-tank defense during the Soviet-Finnish War in the assessment of the Red Army command

The article is devoted to the study of the evolution of the forces and means of combating armored vehicles during the Soviet-Finnish War and to the research of their assessment by the Red Army command. The article provides the data on the structure of the Finnish anti-tank defense. The use of the armored vehicles and anti-tank artillery of the Red Army is described. The speeches by the Soviet commanders at the conference dedicated to the results of the Soviet-Finnish War are cited.
Grounded on the experience of fighting in Finland, the Red Army command noted that the anti-tank guns remained the main means of combating armored vehicles. The Finnish army built its defense on the basis of engineering antitank devices: anti-tank obstacles, ditches and scarps. Besides, the enemy infantry armed with hand-held anti-tank weapons was capable of inflicting significant losses on the attacking tanks if it was possible to cut them off from the infantry. Finally, the decisive factor in overcoming the anti-tank defenses was the interaction of the armored vehicle crews with the infantrymen and the escort artillery crews.
The article is based both on the historiography devoted to the SovietFinnish War and on the unpublished materials from the Russian State Military Archives, Fund 34 980, “Collected documents on the Soviet-Finnish War”.

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