The significance of the Kandalaksha area in operational and tactical military planning prior to the Russo-Finnish war

The paper aims to highlight the significance of the Kandalaksha direction in military planning during the latter half of the 1930s, specifically in the northern battlefields. By examining available sources on Soviet military planning and materials from the 54th Infantry Division stored in the State Archives of the Murmansk region, this study traces the changes in perspectives regarding the importance of the Kandalaksha direction at the tactical and operational-tactical levels between 1936 and 1939. The analysis revealed conflicting aspects of operational-tactical planning, stemming from the challenge of selecting priority directions for military operations with limited military resources. Furthermore, the article examines the impact of the military command’s views on the Kandalaksha direction during 1936-1939 on the subsequent military and political developments spanning from 1936 to 1941. During this period, the Kandalaksha direction gained strategic importance due to its unique geographical position and the establishment of railway and motor roads leading to the Soviet-Finnish border. Notably, military planning in the Kandalaksha direction during this period can be characterized as lacking a systematic approach. Initially, the Kandalaksha direction was not specifically chosen by the military command as the priority direction of military operations, but gradually they realized that it should assume an important role in military operations in northern Karelia and the Arctic. Consequently, the study concluded that further in-depth research into military planning in the North is necessary.