Wikipedia:Peer review/Continuation War/archive1

Continuation War

Listing the Continuation War for peer review in hopes of nominating for FAC as its predecessor the Winter War is a FA and would nice to have the two major wars equal in quality. First time PR for this article, which is already a GA. Improvements regarding citation quality & reliability, article detail, and prose most appreciated.

Thanks, JumbledPasta (talk) 03:57, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

Jens

• Numerous reasons have been proposed for the Finnish decision to invade, – this comes a bit out of the blue, because it was not yet stated that the war started with an invasion by Finland. I recommend to add a sentence that summarises the entire war – as the second or third sentence of the lead. The winter war article has such a sentence (it's second sentence of the lead).

^ Introductory/broad summary sentence added to lead: "The Continuation War began with a Finnish declaration of war on 25 June 1941, fifteen months after the end of the Winter War, and ended on 19 September 1944 with the Moscow Armistice."

• The "In popular culture" section only contains Finnish culture. Not sure if this is a bias issue; is there anything from the Soviets?

^ From a fairly deep Google search of Russian literature and movies, there doesn't seem to be much Russian/Soviet material solely focusing on the Continuation War (most likely due to how the war[s] tarnished their reputation and revealed their military ineptitude). The most notable things I've found is a film by Yuli Raizman called A Propos of the Truce with Finland (1944). It's more of a documentary but it is a good illustration of the Soviet propaganda's presentation of the war (it even won a State Stalin Prize, which is awarded for advancing the Soviet Union or the cause of socialism). However, a consulation with someone more knowledgeable in Russian literature/film is definitely necessary.

• Finland purchased and received donations of war materiel – the formulation is not optimal, it would actually mean that Finland purchased donations, which does not make sense.

^ Changed to,"Finland both received donations and purchased war materiel during and immediately after the Winter War."

• In December, the Soviet Union, Germany and the United Kingdom all voiced opinions concerning suitable Finnish presidential candidates. Risto Ryti was the sole candidate not objected to by any of the three powers and was elected on 19 December. – Here, I lack the background to understand why it was necessary for the other powers to agree who may become president. This does not need to be explained here I think, but I would like to have links. Risto Ryti needs an wikilink (we always link in both the lead, and then again in the main text). Is there maybe even an article on that presidential election that could be linked?

^ I've searched around a bit regarding the circumstances of the elections and there is an short article for the 1940 Finnish presidential election that contains some info. The info stated there doesn't mention German or British influences, however, it does include how Molotov interfered by claiming to the Finnish Ambassador to the USSR that if Mannerheim, Svinhufvud, or Toivo Mikael Kivimäki became president that the Soviets would consider Finland unwilling to fulfill the Winter War peace treaty. Oddly, Ryti's wikipage claims that he was both anti-Soviet and anti-Nazi, which conflicts with the article's statement that he was not objected by any of the powers (he seems to only not be objected by Molotov from the election article, since he had signed the 1940 treaty as PM). Therefore, I changed the statement to include the wikilink and some information about how he was not objected by the Soviets due to his past experiences. 

• was replaced with the more flexible Pavel Dmitrievich Orlov – not sure about the use of "flexible" here, is there a better word?

^ Changed wording to, "Ambassador Ivan Stepanovich Zotov was replaced with the more tolerant and permissive Pavel Dmitrievich Orlov."

• The inner circle of Finnish leadership, led by Ryti and Mannerheim – Mannerheim was not yet mentioned in the main text, should be introduced and linked.

^ Added introduction for Mannerheim: "The same day of the invasion (established earlier in section as 11/30/1939), Field Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim, who was chairman of Finland's Defence Council at the time, assumed the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces."

• which were not informed until 9 June that mobilisation of reservists, because of tensions between Germany and the Soviet Union, would be required – maybe better write "mobilisation of reservists would be required because of …"?

^ Changed wording to, "The Finnish decisions were made by the inner circle of political and military leaders, without the knowledge of the rest of the government. Due to tensions between Germany and the Soviet Union, the government was not informed until 9 June that mobilisation of reservists would be required."

• So far, it reads really well, and I can only find some few minor issues. I will try to have a look at the rest soon. --Jens Lallensack (talk) 22:53, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

Since JumbledPasta has not edited since early March, I am going to close this PR. They can open a new one when they return and they address the above in the article. Z1720 (talk) 22:41, 8 April 2023 (UTC)