Combat has changed since Finland's bloody Winter War with Russia, but this classic tactic endures

• Combat has changed dramatically in the 86 years since the Winter War between Finland and Russia.
• Lessons from the war still apply to Finland's Jaeger Brigade, specializing in Arctic combat.
• Control of the roads could be a key feature in a future conflict.

Combat has changed in the decades since Finland's Winter War with Russia, but one key lesson still shapes how it thinks about fighting in the Arctic.

Dense forests and deep snow force armies onto narrow roads, and disrupting those roadways can shape the battle.

In northern Finland today, soldiers are still training for that reality as they prepare for a potential future fight in the Arctic.

Business Insider recently traveled to the snow-blanketed Lapland region and observed the Finnish Army's elite Jaeger Brigade in action as it led roughly 20 NATO soldiers through an annual Arctic warfare and cold-weather survival course.

Maj. Mikael Aikio, the Jaeger Brigade's Arctic section leader who oversees the course, said in an interview that in the frozen Arctic and heavily forested terrain, vehicles quickly become restricted to plowed roads and narrow supply routes, potential bottlenecks for an invading force if leveraged strategically.

That constraint, which is known in warfare as canalization, means large formations can be slowed, isolated, and destroyed if an enemy seizes, targets, or disrupts key stretches of roadway.

After World War II broke out and Finland refused Soviet demands to cede border territory near Leningrad, the Red Army invaded on November 30, 1939, in what many expected would be a swift victory.

The Soviet Union entered the war with overwhelming numerical superiority, while Finland relied on a much smaller, lightly equipped force. Yet the Red Army paid a far higher price. In just over three months of fighting, Soviet casualties reached into the hundreds of thousands, far exceeding Finland's losses.

The Finns forced enemy troops into narrow, defenseless, or difficult terrain and then employed their "motti" strategy to split Soviet columns like firewood. The Finns were able to harass isolated troops cut off from support with snipers and raids by ski troops, inflicting heavy casualties and crushing morale.

One prominent battle unfolded along the Raate Road in Suomussalmi, a narrow forest supply route where Soviet columns were forced into a long, vulnerable line. Finnish forces cut the road at multiple points and destroyed the trapped units. The Red Army suffered substantial losses.

The Soviets ultimately won the war, but they paid an extremely heavy price for the victory.

In the 86 years since the end of the Winter War, weapons technology has changed dramatically. Vehicles are more capable, sensors are more advanced, and long-range fires are much more precise.

However, Aikio, the Finnish major, stressed that the terrain in northern Finland has not changed.

"The weapons are different, and you have different technologies that you have now that you didn't back then, but the terrain is pretty much the same," Aikio said. And that still limits where soldiers and vehicles can move.

During the Jaeger Brigade's Arctic warfare course, dismounted soldiers learn to use skis and snowmobiles to maneuver on the battlefield. Heavy tracked vehicles and trucks mostly have to stick to the roads, though; it doesn't matter if it's a tank from the late 1930s or a massive supply truck today — the same problems that existed during World War II persist.

Even modern armored vehicles would be heavily influenced by the harsh terrain, forcing large formations and their logistics onto limited maneuver corridors. A single Russian tank, for instance, might be able to get creative and drive through the heavy snow, but this becomes less reliable at scale.

Given those constraints, Finland's thinking is not about replicating 1939 but rather forcing an attacker into predictable corridors, attriting supplies, breaking force cohesion, and straining logistics to weaken an adversary. That would be backed by modern combat capabilities, such as aircraft and significant artillery, as well as allied assets.

The effectiveness of these tactics has been seen in modern warfighting.

In Ukraine, large Russian formations have struggled when constrained to limited road networks, particularly when logistics faltered, and the Ukrainians were able to disrupt supply routes. The comparison with the Winter War isn't exact, but it underscores how terrain and sustainment still shape how armies move.

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