People's Power (Kansan valta) Nr. 4, Dec 7, 1939:

SOVIET AIRPLANES OVER VIIPURI*)

The airplanes took off almost simultaneously. The sky was covered in mist but ist didn't bother the pilots sitting in the cockpits. Hardly anything can get those people in confusion. When their motherland tells, they are ready for whatever heroic deed is needed.

This time the military pilots were ordered to fly deep into the enemy's rear and bomb its military bases. The ships of the sky headed to the north, the Finnish port of Viipuri as their target. The Soviet aerial vessels made their crossing at a dizzying speed. A short time and they were able to see the outline of Viipuri, one of the largest ports in Finland. All of a sudden they were over the city.

One could see how the streets started to vacate ... The hired White Finn scribblers consume paper in tons to create all sorts of fables describing the mercilessness and cruelty of the Red Army. Especially they "describe" the Soviet pilots. The cowardly White Finns do not find any other weapon than a cheap lie and slander.

The Red Army does not fight against the people of Finland. The Soviet pilots do not bomb peaceful inhabitants. The interests, life and peace of the people of Finland are much more closer to them than ever to the hirelings of imperialists, the clique of Cajander-Tanner-Erkko.

Before taking off for Viipuri the pilots were given following instructions:

Remember, once again, that the Red Army is not fighting against the people of Finland, it is not fighting against peaceful inhabitants. Not a single bomb on apartment buildings, not a single bomb on the population. Whoever violates this order, will got the severest punishment. Reminders like this are in fact unnecessary. Soviet pilots are real humanists of our times. They never fight against anybody unarmed.

Oh yes, there we have the Viipuri airport. The poor flight installation of the White Finns. No-one else but the Soviet airplanes fill the sky. After a few minutes the Viipuri airport is turned upside down, all its buildings caught in fire. In a laconic military way: everything there is completely destroyed.

At a short distance one can notice the Viipuri power station. What a fine target! Whover else but a Soviet pilot had at once thrown a bomb on this electric station, available here as if of being offered with an open hand. And yes, the Soviet pilots did had a full reason to level it down onto the ground. The energy from this station will be used to the needs of the White Finn military bases in the Karelian isthmus. At any minute the current could be switched into the barbed wire obstacles on the isthmus.

But the Soviet pilots are far-sighted. They think about tomorrow. Better days will soon dawn to the much suffered people of Finland. The working people of this city, one of the largest in Finland, have the need for this electric station.

Our flying heroes did not drop a single bomb on the power station. Soon they discovered the high voltage line going from Viipuri to the Karelian isthmus. With accurate targeting this line was brought down. There will be no current any more going to the barbed fire fences of the notorius fortification line now proudly called by the White Finns as the Mannerheim Line.

But soon it might suffer the same fate as the Polish "Maginot Line". Finnish peasants will store their rich potato crops there.

***

The Soviet flight detachment returned to their base unharmed. After a while they listened in the commentary of Comrade Molotov about the wish of Roosevelt that the peaceful citizens of cities should not be exposed to aerial bombings ... After hearing Comrade Molotov's explanation these courage filled youths smiled ... A strange opinion this president of the United States does have about our Soviet pilots, indeed ...

K. Arenin.
The regular Red Army.

People's Power (Kansan valta) Nr. 10, December 15, 1939:

Soviet pilots — Eagles of Liberty

The pilots of the Soviet Air Fleet are the same flesh and blood than the working people. Like the Red Army and Red Navy the Red Air Fleet is only charged with defending the working class, the creator of values of mankind.

The Soviet Defence Forces, including the Soviet pilots, has the most challenging task than any military force ever had. It has been entrusted in giving toilers assistance in their fight for freedom.

The Soviet pilots are no ordinary military pilots moving around destroying and demolishing everything. No. The Soviet pilot destroys only such that is directed against the working class. Against what disturbs their peace, exploits their necessities. Where ever in the world these eagles of liberty come into sight, there they bring peace and belief in life for the working class.

Now, this time the Soviet pilots were assigned to liberate the small and harassed people of Finland. Its stupid rules are willing to let the working people of Finland be ruined, to be sacrificed for the sake of their imperialist masters.

With a mighty roar resound the engines of the Soviet airplanes when flying over the forests and lakes of Finland, brightly shine the red stars under their wings. To the friends of the Soviet pilots these stars bring joy and hope but to the enemies a fear of death.

Peacefully fly the red-starred birds over electric stations, industrial plants, cities, rural communities etc. The targets like these would have been hit by some other pilot without feeling any mercy but a Soviet pilot leaves them intact, because he knows that the working class needs them, they are its property. He, on the contrary, fights to give them protection.

The common enemies of the people of Finland and of the Soviet pilots, White war hounds, do their best to spread hate among the people of Finland against these pilots as well as against the Red Army. Using force they drag the population along with them when retreating in front of the advancing Red Army. In these cases there might become casualties that the Soviet pilots cannot avoid. By dragging the civilian population with the retreating troops the White rulers of Finland exposes it to all horrors of the war.

Together with the people of Finland the Red Army, navy and pilots will weep out from the soil of Finland every last lackey of the imperialists. The toiling people of Finland will win an everlasting peace. In freedom it will build its happiness creating a rich and fourishing Finland from a pauperized one.

The toiling people of Finland! If you see a red-starred airplane flying over our [sic] villages and cities, so be aware that it is steered by a Soviet pilot, you working brother and friend. With the red-starred wings this red eagle will bring peace and self-determination to the exhausted working people of Finland — without enslavers, withour Messrs. Cajander, Erkko, Tanner, without those curs of the imperialists.

K. L.

*) The city of Viipuri, the whole Karelian isthmus and other parts of Finland, too, were ceded to the Soviet Union in the peace of Moscow, March 13, 1940. The whole population, 400,000, of those areas was resettled over the rest of Finland.

The magazine "People's Power" was dropped from Soviet airplanes. It was an organ of the Kuusinen government set up by the Soviets on the first days of the Winter War. — Translated from Finnish by Pauli Kruhse.

A double page report about Soviet air raids on Helsinki by the Finnish magazine "Suomen Kuvalehti", December 1939.

Molotov's statement on bombing of civilian targets.

Contemporary press reports and other material.
The Winter War | Finland in the Soviet foreign policy 1939-1940