title: Secondary education

text: In classical and medieval times, secondary education was provided by the church for the sons of nobility and to boys preparing for universities and the priesthood. As trade required navigational and scientific skills, the church reluctantly expanded the curriculum and widened the intake. With the Reformation the state wrestled the control of learning from the church, and with Comenius and John Locke education changed from being repetition of Latin text to building up knowledge in the child. Education was for the few. Up to the middle of the 19th century, secondary schools were organised to satisfy the needs of different social classes with the labouring classes getting 4 years, the merchant class 5 years, and the elite getting 7 years. The rights to a secondary education were codified after 1945, and some countries are moving to mandatory and free secondary education for all youth under 19.


title: Secondary education

text: The 1997 International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) describes seven levels that can be used to compare education internationally. Within a country these can be implemented in different ways, with different age levels and local denominations. The seven levels are:


title: Secondary education

text: Within this system, Levels 1 and 2 – that is, primary education and lower secondary – together form basic education. Beyond that, national governments may attach the label of secondary education to Levels 2 through 4 together, Levels 2 and 3 together, or Level 2 alone. These level definitions were put together for statistical purposes, and to allow the gathering of comparative data nationally and internationally. They were approved by the UNESCO General Conference at its 29th session in November 1997. Though they may be dated, they do provide a universal set of definitions and remain unchanged in the 2011 update.


title: Secondary education

text: The start of lower secondary education is characterised by the transition from the single-class-teacher, who delivers all content to a cohort of pupils, to one where content is delivered by a series of subject specialists. Its educational aim is to complete provision of basic education (thereby completing the delivery of basic skills) and to lay the foundations for lifelong learning.


title: Secondary education

text: The end of lower secondary education often coincides with the end of compulsory education in countries where that exists.


title: Secondary education

text: (Upper) secondary education starts on the completion of basic education, which also is defined as completion of lower secondary education. The educational focus is varied according to the student's interests and future direction. Education at this level is usually voluntary.


title: Secondary education

text: More subjects may be dropped, and increased specialism occurs. Completion of (upper) secondary education provides the entry requirements to Level 5 tertiary education, the entry requirements to technical or vocational education (Level 4, non tertiary course), or direct entry into the workplace.


title: Secondary education

text: In 2012 the ISCED published further work on education levels where it codified particular paths and redefined the tertiary levels. Lower secondary education and (upper) secondary education could last between 2 and 5 years, and the transition between two often would be when students were allowed some subject choice.


title: Secondary education

text: Terminology for secondary schools varies by country, and the exact meaning of any of these varies. Secondary schools may also be called "academies", "colleges", "gymnasiums", "high schools", "lyceums", "middle schools", "preparatory schools", "sixth-form colleges", "upper schools", or "vocational schools", among other names. For further information about nomenclature, see the section below by country.


title: Secondary education

text: A form of education for adolescents became necessary in all societies that had an alphabet and engaged in commerce. In Western Europe, formal secondary education can be traced back to the Athenian educational reforms of 320BC. Though their civilisation was eclipsed and they were enslaved, Hellenistic Athenian teachers were valued in the Roman system. The Roman and Hellenistic schools of rhetoric taught the seven liberal arts and sciences – "grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music" and "astronomy" – which were regarded as a preparation for the study at a tertiary level of theology, law and medicine. Boys would have been prepared to enter these schools by private tutors at home. Girls would have only received tuition at home.


title: Secondary education

text: England provides a good case study. When Augustine of Canterbury brought Christianity there in 597, no schools existed. He needed trained priests to conduct church services and boys to sing in the choir. He had to create both the grammar schools that taught Latin, to enable the English to study for the priesthood, and song schools (choir schools) that trained the 'sons of gentlefolk' to sing in cathedral choirs. In the case of Canterbury (597) and Rochester (604), both still exist. Bede in his Ecclesiastical history (732) tells that the Canterbury school taught more than the 'intended reading and understanding of Latin', but 'the rules of metric, astronomy and the computus as well as the works of the saints' Even at this stage, there was tension, as the church was worried that knowledge of Latin would give the student access to non-Christian texts that it would not wish them to read.


title: Secondary education

text: Over the centuries leading to the renaissance and reformation the church was the main provider of secondary education. Various invasions and schisms within the controlling church challenged the focus of the schools, and the curriculum and language of instruction waxed and waned. From 1100, With the growth of the towns, grammar schools 'free' of the church were founded, and some church grammar schools were handed over to the laïty. Universities were founded that didn't just train students for the priesthood.


title: Secondary education

text: Whereas in mainland Europe the Renaissance preceded the Reformation, local conditions in England caused the Reformation to come first. The Reformation was about, among other things, allowing the laïty to interpret the Bible in their own way without the intervention of priests, and preferably in the vernacular. This stimulated the foundation of free Grammar schools- who searched for a less constrained curriculum. Colonialisation required navigation, mensuration, languages and administrative skills. The laïty wanted these taught to their sons. After Gutenberg1455 had mastered moveable metal type printing and Tyndale had translated the Bible into English (1525), Latin became a skill reserved for the catholic church and sons of conservative nobility. Schools started to be set up for the sons of merchants in Europe and the colonies too- for example Boston Latin Grammar School (1635).


title: Secondary education

text: Comenius (1592–1670), a Moravian protestant proposed a new model of education- where ideas were developed from the familiar to the theoretical rather than through repetition, where languages were taught in the vernacular and supported universal education. In his "Didactica Magna" (Great Didactic), he outlined a system of schools that is the exact counterpart of many western school systems: kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school, six-form college, university.


title: Secondary education

text: Locke's "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" (1693) stressed the importance of a broader intellectual training, moral development and physical hardening.


title: Secondary education

text: The grammar schools of the period can be categorised in three groups: the nine leading schools, seven of them boarding institutions which maintained the traditional curriculum of the classics, and mostly served 'the aristocracy and the squirearchy' ; most of the old endowed grammar schools serving a broad social base in their immediate localities which also stuck to the old curriculum; the grammar schools situated in the larger cities, serving the families of merchants and tradesmen who embraced change.


title: Secondary education

text: During the 18th century their social base widened and their curriculum developed, particularly in mathematics and the natural sciences. But this was not universal education and was self-selecting by wealth The industrial revolution changed that. Industry required an educated workforce where all workers needed to have completed a basic education. In France, Louis XIV, wrestled the control of education from the Jesuits, Condorcet set up Collèges for universal lower secondary education throughout the country, then Napoleon set up a regulated system of Lycee. In England, Robert Peel's Factory Act of 1802 required an employer to provide instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic during at least the first four years of the seven years of apprenticeship. The state had accepted responsibility for the basic education of the poor.


title: Secondary education

text: The provision of school places remained inadequate, so an Order in Council dated 10 April 1839 created the Committee of the Privy Council on Education.


title: Secondary education

text: There was considerable opposition to the idea that children of all classes should receive basic education, all the initiatives such as industrial schools and Sunday schools were initially a private or church initiative. With the Great Exhibition of 1851, it became clear just how far behind the English education system had fallen.


title: Secondary education

text: Three reports were commissioned to examine the education of upper, middle and labouring class children. The Clarendon Commission sought to improve the nine Great Public Schools. The Taunton Commission looked at the 782 endowed grammar schools (private and public). They found varying quality and a patchy geographical coverage, with two thirds of all towns not having any secondary school. There was no clear conception of the purpose of secondary education. There were only thirteen girls' schools and their tuition was superficial, unorganised and unscientific. They recommended a system of first-grade schools targeted at a leaving age of 18 as preparation for upper and upper-middle-class boys entering university, second-grade targeted at a leaving age of 16 for boys preparing for the army or the newer professions, and third-grade targeted at a leaving age of 14 for boys of small tenant farmers, small tradesmen, and superior artisans. This resulted in the 1869 Endowed Schools Act which advocated that girls should enjoy the same education as boys.


title: Secondary education

text: The Newcastle Commission inquired "into the state of public education in England and to consider and report what measures, if any, are required for the extension of sound and cheap elementary instruction to all classes of the people". It produced 1861 Newcastle Report and this led to the 1870 Elementary Education Act (Forster Act).


title: Secondary education

text: The school boards set up by the 1870 Elementary Education Act (Forster Act) and were stopped from providing secondary education by the Cockerton Judgement of 1899. The school leaving age at this time was 10. The Judgement prompted the 1902 Education Act (Balfour Act). Compulsory education was extended to 12. The new Local Education Authorities (LEA)s that were formed from the school boards; started to open Higher Grade Elementary Schools (ISCED Level2) or county schools to supplement the endowed grammar schools. These LEAs were allowed to build second-grade secondary schools that in the main became the future secondary modern schools.


title: Secondary education

text: In the ""1904 Regulations for Secondary Schools"", the Board of Education determined that secondary schools should offer :


title: Secondary education

text: a four year subject-based course leading to a certificate in English language and literature, geography, history, a foreign language, mathematics, science, drawing, manual work, physical training, and, for girls, housewifery.


title: Secondary education

text: The Education Act 1918 (Fisher Act) extended compulsory full-time education to 14, and recommended compulsory part-time education from 14 to 18.


title: Secondary education

text: The Hadlow report, "Education the Adolescent" (1926) proposed that there should be a break point at eleven, establishing primary schools and secondary schools.


title: Secondary education

text: The United Nations, founded in 1947, was committed to education for all but the definition was difficult to formulate.


title: Secondary education

text: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) declared that elementary and fundamental education, which it didn't define, was a right to be enjoyed by all. The Education Act 1944 (Butler Act) made sweeping changes to the funding of state education using the tripartite system, but wasn't allowed to tackle private schools. It introduced the GCE 'O'level at 16, and the 'A' at 18, but only raised the school leaving age until 15, making the exam inaccessible to the majority. But one year of ISCED Level 3 (Upper) secondary education was mandatory and free.


title: Secondary education

text: In 1972 the school leaving was raised to 16. The Education and Skills Act 2008, when it came into force in the 2013 academic year, initially required participation in some form of education or training until the school year in which the child turned 17, followed by the age being raised to the young person's 18th birthday in 2015. This was referred to as raising the "participation age" to distinguish it from the school leaving age which remains at 16. Thus the UK is following the ISCED Level 3 (Upper) secondary education guideline.


title: Secondary education

text: The United Nations was strong in its commitment to education for all but fell into linguistic difficulty defining that right.


title: Secondary education

text: 1. The purpose of the Organization is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.”


title: Secondary education

text: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) declared that elementary and fundamental education was a right to be enjoyed by all, but again could not define either elementary and fundamental education.


title: Secondary education

text: Article 26 :(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.


title: Secondary education

text: It was assumed that elementary education was basic education, the entitlement for children- and fundamental education was a right for the working man, but for a lawyer the definition is neither qualitative (stating what education means) or quantitative saying when it starts and when it is completed. The term secondary is not defined or mentioned. Together this has enabled countries to terminate free, compulsory, basic education at 11 or only continue education past eleven to boys.


title: Secondary education

text: Article 28, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) stated that primary education should be free and compulsory while different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, should be available and accessible to every


title: Secondary education

text: In 1990, at Jomtien again tried to define the content basic education and how it should be delivered. ‘Basic education’ is defined as ‘action designed to meet ‘basic learning needs’. ‘primary schooling’ is considered as ‘the main delivery system of basic education’.


title: Secondary education

text: addressing the basic learning needs of all means: early childhood care and development opportunities; relevant, quality primary schooling or equivalent out-of-school education for children; and literacy, basic knowledge and life skills training for youth and adults.’


title: Secondary education

text: The assumption being made that basic knowledge and life skills training for youth was the function of secondary education. This was codified by the ISCED documents. The Dakar Framework for Action 2010 goal 2 states: Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory (primary in the sense basic) education of good quality. The Dakar Framework for Action 2010 goal 5 states: Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.


title: Secondary education

text: In 1996, the Council of Europe adopted the Revised European Social Charter, which guarantees secondary education.


title: Secondary education

text: “My goal is to make sure every child, girl and boy, they get the opportunity to go to school." “It is their basic human right, so I will be working on that and I will never stop until I see the last child going to school.”


title: Secondary education

text: In 2017, Human Rights Watch adopted a policy calling on states to take immediate measures to ensure that secondary education is accessible to all free of charge, and compulsory through the end of lower-secondary school. This was a call for secondary education to be included as part of the minimum core of the right to education, and seen as an immediate obligation.


title: Secondary education

text: UNESCO believes that in order to prepare young people for life and work in a rapidly changing world, secondary-level education systems need to be re-oriented to impart a broad repertoire of life-skills. These skills should include the key generic competencies, non occupation-specific practical capabilities, ICT, the ability to learn independently, to work in teams, entrepreneurship and civic responsibility.


title: Secondary education

text: They may be best instilled through a shared foundational learning period and by deferring the directing of students into academic and vocational streams for as long as possible, and then there should be flexibility to ensure the free movement of students between the streams depending on their aptitudes and inclinations. Accreditation in one stream should have equal recognition in the other as well as for access to higher education. This will equip young people with multiple skills so that they are prepared to enter and re-enter the workforce several times in their working lives, as wage employees or self-employed entrepreneurs, and to re-train themselves when their skills become obsolete.


title: Secondary education

text: It recognizes that there is no single model that will suit all countries, or even all communities in a given country. Secondary-level education policy should be under continuous review to keep in step with scientific and technological, economic and societal change.


title: Secondary education

text: Adolescence is associated with a time of significant growth where identity, belongingness, and socialization, especially among peer groups is particularly important. Secondary schools play an important role in youth's socialization, development and forming their ideas and approach to justice, democracy and human rights.


title: Secondary education

text: Education systems that promote education for justice, that is, respect for the rule of law (RoL) together with international human rights and fundamental freedoms strengthen the relationship between learners and public institutions with the objective of empowering young people to become champions of peace and justice. Teachers are on the front line of this work and, along with families, play a formative role in shaping the future of youth's attitudes and behaviours.


title: Secondary education

text: Career and Life Planning Education (CLPE) activities as well as (Career) Development Education take place at secondary schools in Hong Kong. Students’ transition from study to work is important in Hong Kong and career education in senior secondary schooling in this country is hence provided. Job shadowing is not yet done in their secondary schools however.


title: Secondary education

text: Each country has developed the form of education most appropriate for them. There is an attempt to compare the effectiveness by using the results from the PISA that, each third year, assesses the scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading of a representative sample of 5000 fifteen year olds from each country.


title: Susan Downey

text: Susan Nicole Downey (née Levin; born November 6, 1973) is an American film producer. Until February 2009, she was co-president of Dark Castle Entertainment and executive vice president of production at Silver Pictures, Joel Silver's production company. Susan is married to Robert Downey Jr. The couple has formed their own production house named Team Downey.


title: Susan Downey

text: Levin was born in Schaumburg, Illinois, to Rosie and Elliott Levin, a businessman. She became interested in the movie business at age 12. She graduated from Schaumburg High School as class valedictorian in 1991. She is Jewish.


title: Susan Downey

text: Interested in pursuing a career in film production, Levin moved to California and graduated "summa cum laude" from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. She began her career at "Threshold Entertainment", where she oversaw the development and production of projects based on well-known properties for both the company's film and television slates. These include the feature films "Mortal Kombat" and "", as well as the 22-episode TV series "" which ran on both TNT and in syndication.


title: Susan Downey

text: Downey held the dual posts of co-president of Dark Castle Entertainment and Executive Vice President of Production at Silver Pictures. Joining Silver Pictures in 1999, she oversaw the development and production of feature films released under both banners, including "Thir13en Ghosts" and "Swordfish".


title: Susan Downey

text: In 2002, she made her producing debut as a co-producer on "Ghost Ship" and then co-produced the 2003 release "Cradle 2 the Grave". Downey went on to produce the features "Gothika" and "House of Wax", and also served as an executive producer on the critically acclaimed comedic thriller "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang".


title: Susan Downey

text: Downey later produced Neil Jordan's psychological drama "The Brave One", starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard; Guy Ritchie's comedy "RocknRolla", starring Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandiwe Newton, Idris Elba, Chris Bridges and Jeremy Piven; the horror thriller "Orphan", starring Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard; and the thriller "Whiteout", starring Kate Beckinsale.


title: Susan Downey

text: She was also an executive producer on the Hughes brothers' post-apocalyptic drama "The Book of Eli", starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.


title: Susan Downey

text: Downey was working on production for Guy Ritchie's crime film "RocknRolla", during which her husband Robert Downey Jr., visited her office at Silver Pictures and learned about Ritchie's plans for a new "Sherlock Holmes" film; at her husband's request, Susan set up a meeting with Ritchie, and soon the film had Robert Downey Jr. as its lead. The film became the first time since 2005's "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" that the Downeys had worked together, and according to Robert Downey Jr., the couple enjoyed it very much because they did not have to "miss each other" during the long production.


title: Susan Downey

text: "Sherlock Holmes" opened to good reviews and record-breaking box office over the Christmas holiday in 2009. It was the couple's most financially successful joint venture to date, and netted Robert Downey Jr. his third Golden Globe Award, his first for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In his satirical, self-deprecating acceptance speech, he started off by thanking his wife: "First of all, I would like to thank Susan Downey for telling me that Matt Damon was going to win, 'so don't bother to prepare a speech.' That was at about 10AM." He continued his speech by noting all the people he supposedly wasn't going to thank (indirectly thanking them for giving him a chance to be in the movie) and again singled out his wife for tribute: "I mean, I really don't want to thank my wife, because I could be bussing tables at the Daily Grill right now if not for her."


title: Susan Downey

text: Susan worked with the production staff of "Iron Man 2", "Due Date" and "" alongside her husband, allowing the couple to work together again after the first "Sherlock Holmes" completed production.


title: Susan Downey

text: In June 2010, Robert and Susan Downey announced the formation of their Warner Bros.-based production company Team Downey, and hired David Gambino to be president of production. Their first producing project is "Yucatan", a heist film originally crafted by Steve McQueen as a star vehicle for himself.


title: Susan Downey

text: Columbia Pictures announced on October 20 it had obtained the rights to Neil Strauss' non-fiction 2009 bestseller "Emergency! This Book Will Save Your Life." The book is to be developed into a feature produced by Team Downey.


title: Susan Downey

text: The Downeys are also developing a musical project for Warner Bros. from a pitch by "Next to Normal" composers Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt.


title: Susan Downey

text: In 2011, Team Downey announced plans to produce the tragic, shark-infested tale of the USS "Indianapolis" and the exoneration of her captain (decades later) due to the efforts of schoolboy Hunter Scott.


title: Susan Downey

text: By October 2020, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey announced plans to expand the Warner Bros. "Sherlock Holmes" film series into a media franchise, with Team Downey working on installments including additional films, spin-offs, and television series for HBO Max, and other media in a shared universe. Though they do not intend to copy the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which Robert had starred in from 2008 to 2019, the pair acknowledged that they felt that working with Marvel Studios taught them much with regards to world building. In April 2022, Susan Downey announced two television series set in the films' universe to be in development for HBO Max, in addition to a third film starring her husband and Jude Law.


title: Susan Downey

text: Susan Levin's first full-credit producer job was for the 2003 thriller "Gothika", starring Halle Berry and Levin's future husband, actor Robert Downey Jr. Downey – who was in the process of divorcing his first wife, Deborah Falconer — has said that his most memorable recollection about shooting "Gothika" was "romancing the producer"; Levin stated to James Lipton on "Inside the Actors Studio" that while she thought Downey was "an amazing actor that we were lucky to have in our movie", her first impression of him was that he was "weird". The two quietly struck up a romance – though she turned down his romantic advances twice for fear that their relationship would not last through the completion of shooting because "he's an actor; I have a real job". The couple eventually made their relationship public in the fall of 2003.


title: Susan Downey

text: Downey proposed to Levin on November 5, 2003, the night before her 30th birthday. and were married on August 27, 2005, in a Jewish ceremony at Amagansett, New York. She gave birth to their first son, Exton Elias Downey, on February 7, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. On July 9, 2014, Downey Jr. announced via his Facebook and Twitter that he and his wife were expecting a daughter in November. Their daughter, Avri Roel, was born on November 4, 2014.


title: Susan Downey

text: Susan is a stepmother to Robert's first son from his first marriage, Indio Falconer Downey, born in September 1993.


title: Susan Downey

text: Downey credits his wife with helping him with his former drug and alcohol habits, which he quit in 2003, and revitalising his career. "The old saying is true – behind every good man there's an incredible woman. I owe a huge amount – if not all – of my success to Susan. We make a great team, and all that luck I spoke about, that's Susan". "Sherlock Holmes" director Guy Ritchie describes the couple as "the greatest illustration of a symbiotic marriage that I've ever seen. It's a real yin and yang, and it's made him a joy to work with. Robert would be a pain in the ass if he didn't have Susan to police him". One of Downey's biceps bears a tattoo which reads "Suzie Q" as a tribute to her.


title: BD Wong

text: Bradley Darryl Wong (born October 24, 1960) is an American actor. Wong won a Tony Award for his performance as Song Liling in "M. Butterfly", becoming the only actor in Broadway history to receive the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. He was nominated for a Critic's Choice Television Award for his role as Whiterose in "Mr. Robot", for which he also earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.


title: BD Wong

text: Wong is known for such roles as on "", Father Ray Mukada on "Oz", Dr. John Lee on "Awake", Dr. Henry Wu in the "Jurassic Park" franchise, Hugo Strange in "Gotham", and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme in the film "Seven Years in Tibet". Wong is the host of the HLN medical documentary series "Something's Killing Me with BD Wong". He has also done extensive voiceover work and stage acting. Wong voiced Captain Li Shang from the Disney animated film "Mulan" as well as its 2004 direct-to-video sequel, "Mulan II", and the 2005 video game "Kingdom Hearts II".


title: BD Wong

text: Wong was born and raised in San Francisco, to Roberta Christine Wong ("née" Leong), a telephone-company supervisor, and William D. Wong, a postal worker. He has one older brother and one younger brother. He is of Chinese descent, with family from Hong Kong.


title: BD Wong

text: Wong attended Lincoln High School, where he discovered his love of acting and starred as the lead in numerous school plays, before attending San Francisco State University. He received an honorary doctorate from San Francisco State University on May 27, 2022.


title: BD Wong

text: Wong gained wide attention as a result of his Broadway debut in "M. Butterfly" opposite John Lithgow. The play won multiple awards, including several for Wong, who at that time ceased using his full name in favor of his initials. He has since ceased the use of punctuation in his initials.


title: BD Wong

text: He is notable as the only actor to be honored with the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. In addition to his long-running stint on "" as FBI psychiatrist Dr. George Huang, he has had recurring roles in "All American Girl" and played Father Ray Mukada on all six seasons of "Oz", with guest appearances on "The X-Files" and "Sesame Street".


title: BD Wong

text: On the big screen, he has appeared in "The Freshman" (1990), the 1991 remake of "Father of the Bride" and its 1995 sequel, "Father of the Bride Part II", "Jurassic Park" (1993), "Executive Decision" (1996), and "Slappy and the Stinkers" (1997). He also provided the voice of Captain Li Shang in Disney's "Mulan" (1998), its direct-to-video sequel, and the video game "Kingdom Hearts II". He returned to Broadway as Linus in a revival of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", alongside Anthony Rapp, Roger Bart, and Kristin Chenoweth, and the 2004 revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Pacific Overtures".


title: BD Wong

text: In 1990 Wong objected to Actor's Equity that the plan to use Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce in the role of The Engineer in the Broadway run of "Miss Saigon", which Pryce had played since the beginning of the show's 10-year extended run in London, would take jobs away from actors of Asian descent. Although the union barred Pryce from acting the role in response to Wong's complaint, vociferous opposition from Charlton Heston and a threat by the musical's creator and producer, Cameron Mackintosh, to cancel the American production entirely, induced the union to reverse course. Pryce went on to win a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for the role.


title: BD Wong

text: In 2008, Wong starred in the one-man show "Herringbone", in which he portrayed 12 roles, at McCarter Theatre at Princeton University. He brought the show to the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego the following year. In 2012, Wong starred in "Herringbone" to benefit Dixon Place in New York for two performances. The production, recorded live for a 2014 CD release, was his first appearance in New York of the material, timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the original New York production.


title: BD Wong

text: In 2014, Wong starred in the U.S. premiere of James Fenton's acclaimed adaptation of "The Orphan of Zhao", a classic Chinese legend that has its roots in the fourth century BC, directed by Carey Perloff at American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.). "The Orphan of Zhao" is an epic story of self-sacrifice and revenge. In the aftermath of a political coup, a country doctor is forced to sacrifice his son in order to save the last heir of a noble and massacred clan. "The Orphan of Zhao" was a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse.


title: BD Wong

text: Wong announced his departure from the cast of "Law & Order: SVU" in July 2011, to join another NBC police drama, "Awake", in which he portrayed Dr. Johnathan Lee, a confrontational therapist of an LAPD detective (portrayed by Jason Isaacs) who lived in two realities. Wong guest-starred in a episode of "Law & Order: SVU" titled "Father Dearest" (which aired May 2, 2012).


title: BD Wong

text: In 2015, he was named Artist-in-Residence at La Jolla Playhouse. Wong guest-starred on "" Episode 1.13 titled "The Walking Dead" (which aired February 3, 2015), where he portrayed Navy Lieutenant Commander Dr. Gabriel Lin.


title: BD Wong

text: Wong also played the enigmatic Whiterose, head of the hacker collective Dark Army, who lives a double life as Zhang, the Chinese Minister of State Security, on USA Network's "Mr. Robot". He was credited as a recurring role for the show's second season and promoted to main cast for the third season, which debuted October 11, 2017.


title: BD Wong

text: On August 13, 2017, Wong began hosting the new HLN series "Something's Killing Me with BD Wong". The documentary explores strange and unexplainable, real medical ailments and attacks that may be gradual or descend rapidly. But in either case, if a cause and cure are not found immediately, these real-life patients will die.


title: BD Wong

text: Wong donates his time and resources to a number of LGBT and arts-related charities, such as the Ali Forney Center, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Materials for the Arts, and Rosie's Theater Kids, of which he is also a board member.


title: BD Wong

text: Wong is openly gay. He began a long-term relationship with talent agent Richie Jackson in 1988. In 2000, the couple had twin sons—Boaz Dov, who died 90 minutes after birth, and Jackson Foo Wong—through a surrogate mother using Wong's sperm and an egg donated by Jackson's sister. In 2003, Wong wrote a memoir about his experiences with surrogacy titled "Following Foo: The Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man" (ISBN 9780060529536). Wong and Jackson ended their relationship in 2004. Wong co-parents his son with his ex-partner Jackson and Jackson's husband, Jordan Roth. His son Jackson Foo is openly gay, having come out at age 15.


title: BD Wong

text: On October 7, 2018, Wong married Richert John Frederickson Schnorr, his partner of eight years, in Brooklyn, New York City.


title: Cook Islands

text: The Cook Islands (Cook Islands Māori: "Kūki 'Āirani") is a self-governing island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It comprises 15 islands whose total land area is . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean.


title: Cook Islands

text: Since 2001, the Cook Islands has run its own foreign and defence policy. In recent decades, the Cook Islands have adopted an increasingly assertive foreign policy, and a Cook Islander, Henry Puna, currently serves as Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum. Most Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand, but they also have the status of Cook Islands nationals, which is not given to other New Zealand citizens. The Cook Islands have been an active member of the Pacific Community since 1980.


title: Cook Islands

text: The Cook Islands' main population centres are on the island of Rarotonga (13,007 in 2016), where there is an international airport. The census of 2016 put the total population at 17,459. There is also a larger population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand and Australia: in the 2018 New Zealand census, 80,532 people said they were Cook Islanders, or of Cook Islands descent. The last Australian census recorded 28,000 Cook Islanders living in Australia, many with Australian citizenship.


title: Cook Islands

text: With over 168,000 visitors travelling to the islands in 2018, tourism is the country's main industry, and the leading element of the economy, ahead of offshore banking, pearls, and marine and fruit exports.


title: Cook Islands

text: The Cook Islands were first settled around AD 1000 by Polynesian people who are thought to have migrated from Tahiti, an island to the northeast of the main island of Rarotonga.


title: Cook Islands

text: The first European contact with the islands took place in 1595 when the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira sighted the island of Pukapuka, which he named "San Bernardo" (Saint Bernard). Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, a Portuguese captain at the service of the Spanish Crown, made the first European landing in the islands when he set foot on Rakahanga in 1606, calling the island "Gente Hermosa" (Beautiful People).


title: Cook Islands

text: The British navigator Captain James Cook arrived in 1773 and again in 1777 giving the island of Manuae the name "Hervey Island". The "Hervey Islands" later came to be applied to the entire southern group. The name "Cook Islands", in honour of Cook, first appeared on a Russian naval chart published by Adam Johann von Krusenstern in the 1820s.


title: Cook Islands

text: In 1813 John Williams, a missionary on the colonial brig "Endeavour" (not the same ship as Cook's) made the first recorded European sighting of Rarotonga. The first recorded landing on Rarotonga by Europeans was in 1814 by the "Cumberland"; trouble broke out between the sailors and the Islanders and many were killed on both sides. The islands saw no more Europeans until English missionaries arrived in 1821. Christianity quickly took hold in the culture and many islanders are Christians today.


title: Cook Islands

text: The islands were a popular stop in the 19th century for whaling ships from the United States, Britain and Australia. They visited, from at least 1826, to obtain water, food, and firewood. Their favourite islands were Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Mangaia and Penrhyn.


title: Cook Islands

text: The Cook Islands became aligned to the United Kingdom in 1890, largely because of the fear of British residents that France might occupy the islands as it already had Tahiti. On 6 September 1900, the islanders' leaders presented a petition asking that the islands (including Niue "if possible") should be annexed as British territory. On 8 and 9 October 1900, seven instruments of cession of Rarotonga and other islands were signed by their chiefs and people. A British Proclamation was issued, stating that the cessions were accepted and the islands declared parts of Her Britannic Majesty's dominions. However, it did not include Aitutaki. Even though the inhabitants regarded themselves as British subjects, the Crown's title was unclear until the island was formally annexed by that Proclamation. In 1901 the islands were included within the boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand by Order in Council under the Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895 of the United Kingdom. The boundary change became effective on 11 June 1901, and the Cook Islands have had a formal relationship with New Zealand since that time.


title: Cook Islands

text: The Cook Islands responded to the call for service when World War One began, immediately sending five contingents, close to 500 men, to the war. The island's young men volunteered at the outbreak of the war to reinforce the Maori Contingents and the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Rifles. A Patriotic Fund was set up very quickly, raising funds to support the war effort. The Cook Islanders were trained at Narrow Neck Camp in Devonport, and the first recruits departed on 13 October 1915 on the SS Te Anau. The ship arrived in Egypt just as the New Zealand units were about to be transferred to the Western Front. In September, 1916, the Pioneer Battalion, a combination of Cook Islanders, Maori and Pakeha soldiers, saw heavy action in the Allied attack on Flers, the first battle of the Somme. Three Cook Islanders from this first contingent died from enemy action and at least ten died of disease as they struggled to adapt to the conditions in Europe. The 2nd and 3rd Cook Island Contingents were part of the Sinai-Palestine campaign, first in a logistical role for the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Rifles at their Moascar base and later in ammunition supply for the Royal Artillery. After the war, the men returned to the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in New Zealand, and this, along with European diseases meant that a large number did not survive and died in New Zealand or on their return home over the coming years.


title: Cook Islands

text: When the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 came into effect on 1 January 1949, Cook Islanders who were British subjects automatically gained New Zealand citizenship. The islands remained a New Zealand dependent territory until the New Zealand Government decided to grant them self-governing status. On 4 August 1965, a constitution was promulgated. The first Monday in August is celebrated each year as Constitution Day. Albert Henry of the Cook Islands Party was elected as the first Premier and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Henry led the nation until 1978, when he was accused of vote-rigging and resigned. He was stripped of his knighthood in 1979. He was succeeded by Tom Davis of the Democratic Party who held that position until March 1983.


title: Cook Islands

text: On 13 July 2017, the Cook Islands established Marae Moana, making it become the world's largest protected area by size.


title: Cook Islands

text: In March 2019, it was reported that the Cook Islands had plans to change its name and remove the reference to Captain James Cook in favour of "a title that reflects its 'Polynesian nature'". It was later reported in May 2019 that the proposed name change had been poorly received by the Cook Islands diaspora. As a compromise, it was decided that the English name of the islands would not be altered, but that a new Cook Islands Māori name would be adopted to replace the current name, a transliteration from English. Discussions over the name continued in 2020.


title: Cook Islands

text: The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean, north-east of New Zealand, between American Samoa and French Polynesia. There are 15 major islands spread over of ocean, divided into two distinct groups: the Southern Cook Islands and the Northern Cook Islands of coral atolls.


title: Cook Islands

text: The islands were formed by volcanic activity; the northern group is older and consists of six atolls, which are sunken volcanoes topped by coral growth. The climate is moderate to tropical. The Cook Islands consist of 15 islands and two reefs. From March to December, the Cook Islands are in the path of tropical cyclones, the most notable of which were the cyclones Martin and Percy. Two terrestrial ecoregions lie within the islands' territory: the Central Polynesian tropical moist forests and the Cook Islands tropical moist forests.


title: Cook Islands

text: The Cook Islands are a representative democracy with a parliamentary system in an associated state relationship with New Zealand. Executive power is exercised by the government, with the Prime Minister as head of government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Parliament of the Cook Islands. While the country is de jure unicameral, there are two legislative bodies with the House of Ariki acting as a de facto upper house.


title: Cook Islands

text: There is a multi-party system. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The head of state is the of New Zealand, who is represented in the Cook Islands by the 's Representative.


title: Cook Islands

text: The islands are self-governing in "free association" with New Zealand. Under the Cook Islands constitution, New Zealand cannot pass laws for the Cook Islands. Rarotonga has its own foreign service and diplomatic network. Cook Islands nationals have the right to become citizens of New Zealand and can receive New Zealand government services when in New Zealand, but the reverse is not true; New Zealand citizens are not Cook Islands nationals. Despite this, , the Cook Islands had diplomatic relations in its own name with 52 other countries. The Cook Islands is not a United Nations member state, but, along with Niue, has had their "full treaty-making capacity" recognised by the United Nations Secretariat, and is a full member of the World Health Organization (WHO), UNESCO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Maritime Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, all UN specialized agencies, and is an associate member of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and a Member of the Assembly of States of the International Criminal Court.


title: Cook Islands

text: On 11 June 1980, the United States signed a treaty with the Cook Islands specifying the maritime border between the Cook Islands and American Samoa and also relinquishing any American claims to Penrhyn, Pukapuka, Manihiki, and Rakahanga. In 1990 the Cook Islands and France signed a treaty that delimited the boundary between the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. In late August 2012, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the islands. In 2017, the Cook Islands signed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.


title: Cook Islands

text: Defence is the responsibility of New Zealand, in consultation with the Cook Islands and at its request.


title: Cook Islands

text: Male homosexuality is "de jure" illegal in the Cook Islands and is punishable by a maximum term of seven years imprisonment; however, the law is not enforced, and legislation to change it is pending.


title: Cook Islands

text: There are island councils on all of the inhabited outer islands (Outer Islands Local Government Act 1987 with amendments up to 2004, and Palmerston Island Local Government Act 1993) except Nassau, which is governed by Pukapuka (Suwarrow, with only one caretaker living on the island, also governed by Pukapuka, is not counted with the inhabited islands in this context). Each council is headed by a mayor.


title: Cook Islands

text: The three "Vaka" councils of Rarotonga established in 1997 ("Rarotonga Local Government Act 1997"), also headed by mayors, were abolished in February 2008, despite much controversy.


title: Cook Islands

text: On the lowest level, there are village committees. Nassau, which is governed by Pukapuka, has an island committee (Nassau Island Committee), which advises the Pukapuka Island Council on matters concerning its own island.


title: Cook Islands

text: In the Cook Islands the Church is separate from the state, and most of the population is Christian. The religious distribution is as follows:


title: Cook Islands

text: The various Protestant groups account for 62.8% of the believers, the most followed denomination being the Cook Islands Christian Church with 49.1%. Other Protestant Christian groups include Seventh-day Adventist 7.9%, Assemblies of God 3.7% and Apostolic Church 2.1%. The main non-Protestant group is Roman Catholics with 17% of the population. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes up 4.4%.


title: Cook Islands

text: The economy is strongly affected by geography. It is isolated from foreign markets, and has some inadequate infrastructure; it lacks major natural resources, has limited manufacturing and suffers moderately from natural disasters. Tourism provides the economic base that makes up approximately 67.5% of GDP. Additionally, the economy is supported by foreign aid, largely from New Zealand. China has also contributed foreign aid, which has resulted in, among other projects, the Police Headquarters building. The Cook Islands is expanding its agriculture, mining and fishing sectors, with varying success.


title: Cook Islands

text: Since approximately 1989, the Cook Islands have become a location specialising in so-called asset protection trusts, by which investors shelter assets from the reach of creditors and legal authorities. According to "The New York Times", the Cooks have "laws devised to protect foreigners' assets from legal claims in their home countries", which were apparently crafted specifically to thwart the long arm of American justice; creditors must travel to the Cook Islands and argue their cases under Cooks law, often at prohibitive expense. Unlike other foreign jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, the Cooks "generally disregard foreign court orders" and do not require that bank accounts, real estate, or other assets protected from scrutiny (it is illegal to disclose names or any information about Cooks trusts) be physically located within the archipelago. Taxes on trusts and trust employees account for some 8% of the Cook Islands economy, behind tourism but ahead of fishing.


title: Cook Islands

text: In recent years, the Cook Islands has gained a reputation as a debtor paradise, through the enactment of legislation that permits debtors to shield their property from the claims of creditors.


title: Cook Islands

text: There are eleven airports in the Cook Islands, including one with a paved runway, Rarotonga International Airport, served by four passenger airlines.


title: Cook Islands

text: Newspapers in the Cook Islands are usually published in English with some articles in Cook Islands Māori. The "Cook Islands News" has been published since 1945, although it was owned by the government until 1989. Former newspapers include Te Akatauira, which was published from 1978 to 1980.


title: Cook Islands

text: The languages of the Cook Islands include English, Cook Islands Māori (or "Rarotongan"), and Pukapukan. Dialects of Cook Islands Maori include Penrhyn; Rakahanga-Manihiki; the Ngaputoru dialect of Atiu, Mitiaro, and Mauke; the Aitutaki dialect; and the Mangaian dialect. Cook Islands Maori and its dialectic variants are closely related to both Tahitian and to New Zealand Māori. Pukapukan is considered closely related to the Samoan language. English and Cook Islands Māori are official languages of the Cook Islands; per the Te Reo Maori Act. The legal definition of Cook Islands Māori includes Pukapukan.


title: Cook Islands

text: Music in the Cook Islands is varied, with Christian songs being quite popular, but traditional dancing and songs in Polynesian languages remain popular.


title: Cook Islands

text: Woodcarving is a common art form in the Cook Islands. The proximity of islands in the southern group helped produce a homogeneous style of carving but that had special developments in each island. Rarotonga is known for its fisherman's gods and staff-gods, Atiu for its wooden seats, Mitiaro, Mauke and Atiu for mace and slab gods and Mangaia for its ceremonial adzes. Most of the original wood carvings were either spirited away by early European collectors or were burned in large numbers by missionaries. Today, carving is no longer the major art form with the same spiritual and cultural emphasis given to it by the Maori in New Zealand. However, there are continual efforts to interest young people in their heritage and some good work is being turned out under the guidance of older carvers. Atiu, in particular, has a strong tradition of crafts both in carving and local fibre arts such as tapa. Mangaia is the source of many fine adzes carved in a distinctive, idiosyncratic style with the so-called double-k design. Mangaia also produces food pounders carved from the heavy calcite found in its extensive limestone caves.


title: Cook Islands

text: The outer islands produce traditional weaving of mats, basketware and hats. Particularly fine examples of rito hats are worn by women to church. They are made from the uncurled immature fibre of the coconut palm and are of very high quality. The Polynesian equivalent of Panama hats, they are highly valued and are keenly sought by Polynesian visitors from Tahiti. Often, they are decorated with hatbands made of minuscule pupu shells that are painted and stitched on by hand. Although pupu are found on other islands the collection and use of them in decorative work has become a speciality of Mangaia. The weaving of rito is a speciality of the northern islands, Manihiki, Rakahanga and Penrhyn.


title: Cook Islands

text: A major art form in the Cook Islands is tivaevae. This is, in essence, the art of handmade Island scenery patchwork quilts. Introduced by the wives of missionaries in the 19th century, the craft grew into a communal activity, which is probably one of the main reasons for its popularity.


title: Cook Islands

text: The Cook Islands has produced internationally recognised contemporary artists, especially in the main island of Rarotonga. Artists include painter (and photographer) Mahiriki Tangaroa, sculptors Eruera (Ted) Nia (originally a film maker) and master carver Mike Tavioni, painter (and Polynesian tattoo enthusiast) Upoko'ina Ian George, Aitutakian-born painter Tim Manavaroa Buchanan, Loretta Reynolds, Judith Kunzlé, Joan Rolls Gragg, Kay George (who is also known for her fabric designs), Apii Rongo, Varu Samuel, and multi-media, installation and community-project artist Ani O'Neill, all of whom currently live on the main island of Rarotonga. Atiuan-based Andrea Eimke is an artist who works in the medium of tapa and other textiles, and also co-authored the book 'Tivaivai – The Social Fabric of the Cook Islands' with British academic Susanne Kuechler. Many of these artists have studied at university art schools in New Zealand and continue to enjoy close links with the New Zealand art scene.


title: Cook Islands

text: New Zealand-based Cook Islander artists include Michel Tuffery, print-maker David Teata, Richard Shortland Cooper, Sylvia Marsters and Jim Vivieaere.


title: Cook Islands

text: On Rarotonga, the main commercial galleries are Beachcomber Contemporary Art (Taputapuatea, Avarua) run by Ben & Trevon Bergman, and The Art Studio Gallery (Arorangi) run by Ian and Kay George. The Cook Islands National Museum also exhibits art.


title: Continuation War

text: The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II. In Soviet historiography, the war was called the Finnish Front of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its overall war efforts on the Eastern Front and provided Finland with critical material support and military assistance, including economic aid.


title: Continuation War

text: The Continuation War began 15 months after the end of the Winter War, also fought between Finland and the USSR. Numerous reasons have been proposed for the Finnish decision to invade, with regaining territory lost during the Winter War being regarded as the most common. Other justifications for the conflict included Finnish President Risto Ryti's vision of a Greater Finland and Commander-in-Chief Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim's desire to annex East Karelia. Plans for the attack were developed jointly between the "Wehrmacht" and a faction of Finnish political and military leaders, with the rest of the government remaining ignorant. Despite the co-operation in the conflict, Finland never formally signed the Tripartite Pact, though it did sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. Finnish leadership justified its alliance with Germany as self-defence.


title: Continuation War

text: On 22 June 1941, Germany launched an invasion of the Soviet Union. Three days later, the Soviet Union conducted an air raid on Finnish cities, prompting Finland to declare war and allow German troops stationed in Finland to begin offensive warfare. By September 1941, Finland had regained its post–Winter War concessions to the Soviet Union: the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia. However, the Finnish Army continued the offensive past the 1939 border during the conquest of East Karelia, including Petrozavodsk, and halted only around from the centre of Leningrad. It participated in besieging the city by cutting the northern supply routes and by digging in until 1944.


title: Continuation War

text: In Lapland, joint German-Finnish forces failed to capture Murmansk or to cut the Kirov (Murmansk) Railway, a transit route for Soviet lend-lease equipment. The conflict stabilised with only minor skirmishes until the tide of the war turned against the Germans and the Soviet strategic Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive occurred in June 1944. The attack drove the Finns from most of the territories that they had gained during the war, but the Finnish Army halted the offensive in August 1944.


title: Continuation War

text: Hostilities between Finland and the USSR ended with a ceasefire, which was called on 5 September 1944, formalised by the signing of the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944. One of the conditions of this agreement was the expulsion, or disarming, of any German troops in Finnish territory, leading to the Lapland War between Finland and Germany.


title: Continuation War

text: World War II was concluded formally for Finland and the minor Axis powers with the signing of the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947. This confirmed the territorial provisions of the 1944 armistice: the restoration of borders per the 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty, the ceding of the municipality of Petsamo (, "Pechengsky raion") and the leasing of Porkkala Peninsula to the Soviets. Furthermore, Finland was required to pay US$300 million (equivalent to US$5.8 billion in 2021) in war reparations to the Soviet Union, accept partial responsibility for the war and to acknowledge that it had been a German ally. Because of Soviet pressure, Finland was also forced to refuse Marshall Plan aid.


title: Continuation War

text: Casualties were 63,200 Finns and 23,200 Germans dead or missing during the war and 158,000 Finns and 60,400 Germans wounded. Estimates of dead or missing Soviets range from 250,000 to 305,000, and 575,000 have been estimated to have been wounded or fallen sick.


title: Continuation War

text: On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in which both parties agreed to divide the independent countries of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania into spheres of interest, with Finland falling within the Soviet sphere. One week later, Germany invaded Poland, leading to the United Kingdom and France declaring war on Germany. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on 17 September. Moscow turned its attention to the Baltic states, demanding that they allow Soviet military bases to be established and troops stationed on their soil. The Baltic governments acquiesced to these demands and signed agreements in September and October.


title: Continuation War

text: In October 1939, the Soviet Union attempted to negotiate with Finland to cede Finnish territory on the Karelian Isthmus and the islands of the Gulf of Finland, and to establish a Soviet military base near the Finnish capital of Helsinki. The Finnish government refused, and the Red Army invaded Finland on 30 November 1939. The USSR was expelled from the League of Nations and was condemned by the international community for the illegal attack. Foreign support for Finland was promised, but very little actual help materialised, except from Sweden. The Moscow Peace Treaty concluded the 105-day Winter War on 13 March 1940 and started the Interim Peace. By the terms of the treaty, Finland ceded 9% of its national territory and 13% of its economic capacity to the Soviet Union. Some 420,000 evacuees were resettled from the ceded territories. Finland avoided total conquest of the country by the Soviet Union and retained its sovereignty.


title: Continuation War

text: Prior to the war, Finnish foreign policy had been based on multilateral guarantees of support from the League of Nations and Nordic countries, but this policy was considered a failure. After the war, Finnish public opinion favored the reconquest of Finnish Karelia. The government declared national defence to be its first priority, and military expenditure rose to nearly half of public spending. Finland purchased and received donations of war materiel during and immediately after the Winter War. Likewise, Finnish leadership wanted to preserve the spirit of unanimity that was felt throughout the country during the Winter War. The divisive White Guard tradition of the Finnish Civil War's 16 May victory-day celebration was therefore discontinued.


title: Continuation War

text: The Soviet Union had received the Hanko Naval Base, on Finland's southern coast near the capital Helsinki, where it deployed over 30,000 Soviet military personnel. Relations between Finland and the Soviet Union remained strained after the signing of the one-sided peace treaty, and there were disputes regarding the implementation of the treaty. Finland sought security against further territorial depredations by the USSR and proposed mutual defence agreements with Norway and Sweden, but these initiatives were quashed by Moscow.


title: Continuation War

text: After the Winter War, Germany was viewed with distrust by the Finnish, as it was considered an ally of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, the Finnish government sought to restore diplomatic relations with Germany, but also continued its Western-orientated policy and negotiated a war trade agreement with the United Kingdom. The agreement was renounced after the German invasion of Denmark and Norway on 9 April 1940 resulted in the UK cutting all trade and traffic communications with the Nordic countries. With the fall of France, a Western orientation was no longer considered a viable option in Finnish foreign policy. On 15 and 16 June, the Soviet Union occupied three Baltic countries almost without any resistance and Soviet puppet regimes were installed. Within two months Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were incorporated into the USSR and by mid–1940, the two remaining northern democracies, Finland and Sweden, were encircled by the hostile states of Germany and the Soviet Union.


title: Continuation War

text: On 23 June, shortly after the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states began, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov contacted the Finnish government to demand that a mining licence be issued to the Soviet Union for the nickel mines in Pechengsky District () or, alternatively, permission for the establishment of a joint Soviet-Finnish company to operate there. A licence to mine the deposit had already been granted to a British-Canadian company and so the demand was rejected by Finland. The following month, the Soviets demanded that Finland destroy the fortifications on the Åland Islands and to grant the Soviets the right to use Finnish railways to transport Soviet troops to the newly acquired Soviet base at Hanko. The Finns very reluctantly agreed to those demands. On 24 July, Molotov accused the Finnish government of persecuting the communist Finland – Soviet Union Peace and Friendship Society and soon afterward publicly declared support for the group. The society organised demonstrations in Finland, some of which turned into riots.


title: Continuation War

text: Russian-language sources, such as the book "Stalin's Missed Chance", maintain that Soviet policies leading up to the Continuation War were best explained as defensive measures by offensive means. The Soviet division of occupied Poland with Germany, the Soviet annexation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and the Soviet invasion of Finland during the Winter War are described as elements in the Soviet construction of a security zone or buffer region from the perceived threat from the capitalist powers of Western Europe. Postwar Russian-language sources consider establishment of Soviet satellite states in the Warsaw Pact countries and the Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 as the culmination of the Soviet defence plan. Western historians, such as Norman Davies and John Lukacs, dispute this view and describe pre-war Soviet policy as an attempt to stay out of the war and regain land lost after the fall of the Russian Empire.


title: Continuation War

text: On 31 July 1940, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler gave the order to plan an assault on the Soviet Union, meaning Germany had to reassess its position regarding both Finland and Romania. Until then, Germany had rejected Finnish appeals to purchase arms, but with the prospect of an invasion of Russia, that policy was reversed, and in August, the secret sale of weapons to Finland was permitted. Military authorities signed an agreement on 12 September, and an official exchange of diplomatic notes was sent on 22 September. Meanwhile, German troops were allowed to transit through Sweden and Finland. That change in policy meant Germany had effectively redrawn the border of the German and Soviet spheres of influence in violation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.


title: Continuation War

text: In response to that new situation, Molotov visited Berlin on 12–13 November 1940. He requested for Germany to withdraw its troops from Finland and to stop enabling Finnish anti-Soviet sentiments. He also reminded the Germans of the 1939 pact. Hitler inquired how the Soviets planned to settle the "Finnish question" to which Molotov responded that it would mirror the events in Bessarabia and the Baltic states. Hitler rejected that course of action. 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.


title: Continuation War

text: In January 1941, Moscow demanded Finland relinquish control of the Petsamo mining area to the Soviets, but Finland, emboldened by a rebuilt defence force and German support, rejected the proposition. On 18 December 1940, Hitler officially approved Operation Barbarossa, paving the way for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, in which he expected both Finland and Romania to participate. Meanwhile, Finnish Major General Paavo Talvela met with German Franz Halder and Hermann Göring in Berlin, the first time that the Germans had advised the Finnish government, in-carefully couched diplomatic terms, that they were preparing for war with the Soviet Union. Outlines of the actual plan were revealed in January 1941 and regular contact between Finnish and German military leaders began in February.


title: Continuation War

text: In the late spring of 1941, the USSR made a number of goodwill gestures to prevent Finland from completely falling under German influence. Ambassador Ivan Zotov was replaced with the more flexible Pavel Orlov. Furthermore, the Soviet government announced that it no longer opposed a rapprochement between Finland and Sweden. Those conciliatory measures, however, did not have any effect on Finnish policy. Finland wished to re-enter the war mainly because of the Soviet invasion of Finland during the Winter War, which had taken place after Finnish intentions of relying on the League of Nations and Nordic neutrality to avoid conflicts had failed because of lack of outside support. Finland primarily aimed to reverse its territorial losses from the March 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty and, depending on the success of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, to possibly expand its borders, especially into East Karelia. Some right-wing groups, such as the Academic Karelia Society, supported a Greater Finland ideology.


title: Continuation War

text: The matter of when and why Finland prepared for war is still somewhat opaque. Historian William R. Trotter stated that "it has so far proven impossible to pinpoint the exact date on which Finland was taken into confidence about Operation Barbarossa" and that "neither the Finns nor the Germans were entirely candid with one another as to their national aims and methods. In any case, the step from contingency planning to actual operations, when it came, was little more than a formality".


title: Continuation War

text: The inner circle of Finnish leadership, led by Ryti and Mannerheim, actively planned joint operations with Germany under a veil of ambiguous neutrality and without formal agreements after an alliance with Sweden had proved fruitless, according to a meta-analysis by Finnish historian Olli Vehviläinen. He likewise refuted the so-called "driftwood theory" that Finland had been merely a piece of driftwood that was swept uncontrollably in the rapids of great power politics. Even then, most historians conclude that Finland had no realistic alternative to co-operating with Germany. On 20 May, the Germans invited a number of Finnish officers to discuss the coordination of Operation Barbarossa. The participants met on 25–28 May in Salzburg and Berlin and continued their meeting in Helsinki from 3 to 6 June. They agreed upon the arrival of German troops, Finnish mobilization and a general division of operations. They also agreed that the Finnish Army would start mobilization on 15 June, but the Germans did not reveal the actual date of the assault. The Finnish decisions were made by the inner circle of political and military leaders, without the knowledge of the rest of the government, which were not informed until 9 June that mobilisation of reservists, because of tensions between Germany and the Soviet Union, would be required.


title: Continuation War

text: Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact, though it did sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, a less formal alliance, which the German leadership saw as a "litmus test of loyalty". The Finnish leadership stated they would fight against the Soviets only to the extent needed to redress the balance of the 1940 treaty, though some historians consider that it had wider territorial goals under the slogan "shorter borders, longer peace". During the war, the Finnish leadership generally referred to the Germans as "brothers-in-arms" but also denied that they were allies of Germany – instead claiming to be "co-belligerents". For Hitler, the distinction was irrelevant since he saw Finland as an ally. The 1947 Paris Peace Treaty signed by Finland described Finland as having been "an ally of Hitlerite Germany" during the Continuation War. In a 2008 poll of 28 Finnish historians carried out by "Helsingin Sanomat", 16 said that Finland had been an ally of Nazi Germany, six said it had not been and six did not take a position.


title: Continuation War

text: The Northern Front () of the Leningrad Military District was commanded by Lieutenant General Markian Popov and numbered around 450,000 soldiers in 18 divisions and 40 independent battalions in the Finnish region. During the Interim Peace, the Soviet Military had relaid operational plans to conquer Finland, but with the German attack, Operation Barbarossa, begun on 22 June 1941, the Soviets required its best units and latest materiel to be deployed against the Germans and so abandoned plans for a renewed offensive against Finland. The 23rd Army was deployed in the Karelian Isthmus, the 7th Army to Ladoga Karelia and the 14th Army to the Murmansk–Salla area of Lapland. The Northern Front also commanded eight aviation divisions. As the initial German strike against the Soviet Air Forces had not affected air units located near Finland, it could deploy around 700 aircraft supported by a number of Soviet Navy wings. The Red Banner Baltic Fleet comprised 2 battleships, 2 light cruisers, 47 destroyers or large torpedo boats, 75 submarines, over 200 smaller craft as well as hundreds of aircraft—and outnumbered the "Kriegsmarine".


title: Continuation War

text: The Finnish Army () mobilised between 475,000 and 500,000 soldiers in 14 divisions and 3 brigades for the invasion, commanded by Field Marshal () Mannerheim. The army was organised as follows:


title: Continuation War

text: Although initially deployed for a static defence, the Finnish Army was to later launch an attack to the south, on both sides of Lake Ladoga, putting pressure on Leningrad and thus supporting the advance of the German Army Group North. Finnish intelligence had overestimated the strength of the Red Army, when in fact it was numerically inferior to Finnish forces at various points along the border. The army, especially its artillery, was stronger than it had been during the Winter War but included only one armoured battalion and had a general lack of motorised transportation. The Finnish Air Force () had 235 aircraft in July 1941 and 384 by September 1944, despite losses. Even with the increase in aircraft, the air force was constantly outnumbered by the Soviets.


title: Continuation War

text: The Army of Norway, or , comprising four divisions totaling 67,000 German soldiers, held the arctic front, which stretched approximately through Finnish Lapland. This army would also be tasked with striking Murmansk and the Kirov (Murmansk) Railway during Operation Silver Fox. The Army of Norway was under the direct command of the "Oberkommando des Heeres" () and was organised into Mountain Corps Norway and XXXVI Mountain Corps with the Finnish Finnish III Corps and 14th Division attached to it. The "Oberkommando der Luftwaffe" () assigned 60 aircraft from "Luftflotte 5" (Air Fleet 5) to provide air support to the Army of Norway and the Finnish Army, in addition to its main responsibility of defending Norwegian air space. In contrast to the front in Finland, a total of 149 divisions and 3,050,000 soldiers were deployed for the rest of Operation Barbarossa.


title: Continuation War

text: In the evening of 21 June 1941, German mine-layers hiding in the Archipelago Sea deployed two large minefields across the Gulf of Finland. Later that night, German bombers flew along the gulf to Leningrad, mining the harbour and the river Neva, making a refueling stop at Utti, Finland, on the return leg. In the early hours of 22 June, Finnish forces launched Operation Kilpapurjehdus ("Regatta"), deploying troops in the demilitarised Åland. Although the 1921 Åland convention had clauses allowing Finland to defend the islands in the event of an attack, the coordination of this operation with the German invasion and the arrest of the Soviet consulate staff stationed on the islands, meant that the deployment was a deliberate violation of the treaty, according to Finnish historian Mauno Jokipii.


title: Continuation War

text: On the morning of 22 June Hitler's proclamation read: "Together with their Finnish comrades in arms the heroes from Narvik stand at the edge of the Arctic Ocean. German troops under command of the conqueror of Norway, and the Finnish freedom fighters under their Marshal's command, are protecting Finnish territory."


title: Continuation War

text: Following the launch of Operation Barbarossa at around 3:15 a.m. on 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union sent seven bombers on a retaliatory airstrike into Finland, hitting targets at 6:06 a.m. Helsinki time as reported by the Finnish coastal defence ship "Väinämöinen". On the morning of 25 June, the Soviet Union launched another air offensive, with 460 fighters and bombers targeting 19 airfields in Finland, however inaccurate intelligence and poor bombing accuracy resulted in several raids hitting Finnish cities, or municipalities, causing considerable damage. 23 Soviet bombers were lost in this strike while the Finnish forces lost no aircraft. Although the USSR claimed that the airstrikes were directed against German targets, particularly airfields, in Finland, the Finnish government used the attacks as justification for the approval of a "defensive war". According to historian David Kirby, the message was intended more for public opinion in Finland than abroad, where the country was viewed as an ally of the Axis powers.


title: Continuation War

text: The Finnish plans for the offensive in Ladoga Karelia were finalised on 28 June 1941, and the first stages of the operation began on 10 July. By 16 July, VI Corps had reached the northern shore of Lake Ladoga, dividing the Soviet 7th Army, which had been tasked with defending the area. The USSR struggled to contain the German assault, and soon the Soviet high command, "Stavka", pulled all available units stationed along the Finnish border into the beleaguered front line. Additional reinforcements were drawn from the 237th Rifle Division and the Soviet 10th Mechanised Corps, excluding the 198th Motorised Division, both of which were stationed in Ladoga Karelia, but this stripped much of the reserve strength of the Soviet units defending that area.


title: Continuation War

text: The Finnish II Corps started its offensive in the north of the Karelian Isthmus on 31 July. Other Finnish forces reached the shores of Lake Ladoga on 9 August, encircling most of the three defending Soviet divisions on the northwestern coast of the lake in a pocket ("motti" in Finnish); these divisions were later evacuated across the lake. On 22 August, the Finnish IV Corps began its offensive south of II Corps and advanced towards Vyborg (). By 23 August, II Corps had reached the Vuoksi River to the east and encircled the Soviet forces defending Vyborg.


title: Continuation War

text: The Soviet order to withdraw came too late, resulting in significant losses in materiel, although most of the troops were later evacuated via the Koivisto Islands. After suffering severe losses, the Soviet 23rd Army was unable to halt the offensive, and by 2 September the Finnish Army had reached the old 1939 border. The advance by Finnish and German forces split the Soviet Northern Front into the Leningrad Front and the Karelian Front. On 31 August, Finnish Headquarters ordered II and IV Corps, which had advanced the furthest, to halt their advance along a line that ran from the Gulf of Finland via Beloostrov– Sestra River– Okhta River–Lembolovo to Ladoga. The line ran past the former 1939 border, and approximately from Leningrad. There, they were ordered to take up a defensive position. On 1 September, the IV Corps engaged and defeated the Soviet 23rd Army near the town of Porlampi. Sporadic fighting continued around Beloostrov until the Soviets evicted the Finns on 20 September. The front on the Isthmus stabilised and the siege of Leningrad began.


title: Continuation War

text: The Finnish Army of Karelia started its attack in East Karelia towards Petrozavodsk, Lake Onega and the Svir River on 9 September. German Army Group North advanced from the south of Leningrad towards the Svir River and captured Tikhvin but were forced to retreat to the Volkhov River by Soviet counterattacks. Soviet forces repeatedly attempted to expel the Finns from their bridgehead south of the Svir during October and December but were repulsed; Soviet units attacked the German 163rd Infantry Division in October 1941, which was operating under Finnish command across the Svir, but failed to dislodge it. Despite these failed attacks, the Finnish attack in East Karelia had been blunted and their advance had halted by 6 December. During the five-month campaign, the Finns suffered 75,000 casualties, of whom 26,355 had died, while the Soviets had 230,000 casualties, of whom 50,000 became prisoners of war.


title: Continuation War

text: The German objective in Finnish Lapland was to take Murmansk and cut the Kirov (Murmansk) Railway running from Murmansk to Leningrad by capturing Salla and Kandalaksha. Murmansk was the only year-round ice-free port in the north and a threat to the nickel mine at Petsamo. The joint Finnish–German Operation Silver Fox (; ) was started on 29 June 1941 by the German Army of Norway, which had the Finnish 3rd and 6th Divisions under its command, against the defending Soviet 14th Army and 54th Rifle Division. By November, the operation had stalled from the Kirov Railway due to unacclimatised German troops, heavy Soviet resistance, poor terrain, arctic weather and diplomatic pressure by the United States on the Finns regarding the lend-lease deliveries to Murmansk. The offensive and its three sub-operations failed to achieve their objectives. Both sides dug in and the arctic theatre remained stable, excluding minor skirmishes, until the Soviet Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive in October 1944.


title: Continuation War

text: The crucial arctic lend-lease convoys from the US and the UK via Murmansk and Kirov Railway to the bulk of the Soviet forces continued throughout World War II. The US supplied almost $11 billion in materials: 400,000 jeeps and trucks; 12,000 armored vehicles (including 7,000 tanks, which could equip some 20 US armoured divisions); 11,400 aircraft; and of food. As a similar example, British shipments of Matilda, Valentine and Tetrarch tanks accounted for only 6 percent of total Soviet tank production, but over 25 percent of medium and heavy tanks produced for the Red Army.


title: Continuation War

text: The "Wehrmacht" rapidly advanced deep into Soviet territory early in the Operation Barbarossa campaign, leading the Finnish government to believe that Germany would defeat the Soviet Union quickly. President Ryti envisioned a Greater Finland, where Finland and other Finnic people would live inside a "natural defence borderline" by incorporating the Kola Peninsula, East Karelia and perhaps even northern Ingria. In public, the proposed frontier was introduced with the slogan "short border, long peace". Some members of the Finnish Parliament, such as members of the Social Democratic Party and the Swedish People's Party, opposed the idea, arguing that maintaining the 1939 frontier would be enough. Finnish Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim, often called the war an anti-Communist crusade, hoping to defeat "Bolshevism once and for all". On 10 July, Mannerheim drafted his order of the day, the Sword Scabbard Declaration, in which he pledged to liberate Karelia; in December 1941 in private letters, he made known his doubts of the need to push beyond the previous borders. The Finnish government assured the United States that it was unaware of the order.


title: Continuation War

text: According to Vehviläinen, most Finns thought that the scope of the new offensive was only to regain what had been taken in the Winter War. He further stated that the term 'Continuation War' was created at the start of the conflict by the Finnish government to justify the invasion to the population as a continuation of the defensive Winter War. The government also wished to emphasise that it was not an official ally of Germany, but a 'co-belligerent' fighting against a common enemy and with purely Finnish aims. Vehviläinen wrote that the authenticity of the government's claim changed when the Finnish Army crossed the old frontier of 1939 and began to annex Soviet territory. British author Jonathan Clements asserted that by December 1941, Finnish soldiers had started questioning whether they were fighting a war of national defence or foreign conquest.


title: Continuation War

text: By the autumn of 1941, the Finnish military leadership started to doubt Germany's capability to finish the war quickly. The Finnish Defence Forces suffered relatively severe losses during their advance, and, overall, German victory became uncertain as German troops were halted near Moscow. German troops in northern Finland faced circumstances they were unprepared for and failed to reach their targets. As the front lines stabilised, Finland attempted to start peace negotiations with the USSR. Mannerheim refused to assault Leningrad, which would inextricably tie Finland to Germany; he regarded his objectives for the war to be achieved, a decision that angered the Germans.


title: Continuation War

text: Due to the war effort, the Finnish economy suffered from a lack of labour, as well as food shortages and increased prices. To combat this, the Finnish government demobilised part of the army to prevent industrial and agricultural production from collapsing. In October, Finland informed Germany that it would need of grain to manage until next year's harvest. The German authorities would have rejected the request, but Hitler himself agreed. Annual grain deliveries of equaled almost half of the Finnish domestic crop. In November, Finland joined the Anti-Comintern Pact.


title: Continuation War

text: Finland maintained good relations with a number of other Western powers. Foreign volunteers from Sweden and Estonia were among the foreigners who joined Finnish ranks. Infantry Regiment 200, called ("Finnish boys"), mostly comprised Estonians, and the Swedes mustered the Swedish Volunteer Battalion. The Finnish government stressed that Finland was fighting as a co-belligerent with Germany against the USSR only to protect itself and that it was still the same democratic country as it had been in the Winter War. For example, Finland maintained diplomatic relations with the exiled Norwegian government and more than once criticised German occupation policy in Norway. Relations between Finland and the United States were more complex since the American public was sympathetic to the "brave little democracy" and had anticommunist sentiments. At first, the United States sympathised with the Finnish cause, but the situation became problematic after the Finnish Army had crossed the 1939 border. Finnish and German troops were a threat to the Kirov Railway and the northern supply line between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. On 25 October 1941, the US demanded that Finland cease all hostilities against the USSR and to withdraw behind the 1939 border. In public, President Ryti rejected the demands, but in private, he wrote to Mannerheim on 5 November and asked him to halt the offensive. Mannerheim agreed and secretly instructed General Hjalmar Siilasvuo and his III Corps to end the assault on the Kirov Railway.


title: Continuation War

text: On 12 July 1941, the United Kingdom signed an agreement of joint action with the Soviet Union. Under German pressure, Finland closed the British legation in Helsinki and cut diplomatic relations with Britain on 1 August. The most sizable British action on Finnish soil was the Raid on Kirkenes and Petsamo, an aircraft-carrier strike on German and Finnish ships on 31 July 1941. The attack accomplished little except the loss of one Norwegian ship and three British aircraft, but it was intended to demonstrate British support for its Soviet ally. From September to October in 1941, a total of 39 Hawker Hurricanes of No. 151 Wing RAF, based at Murmansk, reinforced and provided pilot-training to the Soviet Air Forces during Operation Benedict to protect arctic convoys. On 28 November, the British government presented Finland with an ultimatum demanding for the Finns to cease military operations by 3 December. Unofficially, Finland informed the Allies that Finnish troops would halt their advance in the next few days. The reply did not satisfy London, which declared war on Finland on 6 December. The Commonwealth nations of Canada, Australia, India and New Zealand soon followed suit. In private, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had sent a letter to Mannerheim on 29 November in which Churchill was "deeply grieved" that the British would have to declare war on Finland because of the British alliance with the Soviets. Mannerheim repatriated British volunteers under his command to the United Kingdom via Sweden. According to Clements, the declaration of war was mostly for appearance's sake.


title: Continuation War

text: Unconventional warfare was fought in both the Finnish and Soviet wildernesses. Finnish long-range reconnaissance patrols, organised both by the Intelligence Division's Detached Battalion 4 and by local units, patrolled behind Soviet lines. Soviet partisans, both resistance fighters and regular long-range patrol detachments, conducted a number of operations in Finland and in Eastern Karelia from 1941 to 1944. In summer 1942, the USSR formed the 1st Partisan Brigade. The unit was 'partisan' in name only, as it was essentially 600 men and women on long-range patrol intended to disrupt Finnish operations. The 1st Partisan Brigade was able to infiltrate beyond Finnish patrol lines, but was intercepted, and rendered ineffective, in August 1942 at Lake Segozero. Irregular partisans distributed propaganda newspapers, such as Finnish translations of the official Communist Party paper "Pravda" (). Notable Soviet politician, Yuri Andropov, took part in these partisan guerrilla actions. Finnish sources state that, although Soviet partisan activity in East Karelia disrupted Finnish military supply and communication assets, almost two thirds of the attacks targeted civilians, killing 200 and injuring 50, including children and elderly.


title: Continuation War

text: Between 1942 and 1943, military operations were limited, although the front did see some action. In January 1942, the Soviet Karelian Front attempted to retake Medvezhyegorsk (), which had been lost to the Finns in late 1941. With the arrival of spring in April, Soviet forces went on the offensive on the Svir River front, in the Kestenga () region further north in Lapland as well as in the far north at Petsamo with the 14th Rifle Division's amphibious landings supported by the Northern Fleet. All Soviet offensives started promisingly, but due either to the Soviets overextending their lines or stubborn defensive resistance, the offensives were repulsed. After Finnish and German counterattacks in Kestenga, the front lines were generally stalemated. In September 1942, the USSR attacked again at Medvezhyegorsk, but despite five days of fighting, the Soviets only managed to push the Finnish lines back on a roughly -long stretch of the front. Later that month, a Soviet landing with two battalions in Petsamo was defeated by a German counterattack. In November 1941, Hitler decided to separate the German forces fighting in Lapland from the Army of Norway and create the Army of Lapland, commanded by Eduard Dietl through . In June 1942, the Army of Lapland was redesignated the 20th Mountain Army.


title: Continuation War

text: In the early stages of the war, the Finnish Army overran the former 1939 border, but ceased their advance from the center of Leningrad. Multiple authors have stated that Finland participated in the siege of Leningrad (), but the full extent and nature of their participation is debated and a clear consensus has yet to emerge. American historian David Glantz, writes that the Finnish Army generally maintained their lines and contributed little to the siege from 1941 to 1944, whereas Russian historian Nikolai Baryshnikov stated in 2002 that Finland tacitly supported Hitler's starvation policy for the city. However, in 2009 British historian Michael Jones disputed Baryshnikov's claim and asserted that the Finnish Army cut off the city's northern supply routes but did not take further military action. In 2006, American author Lisa A. Kirchenbaum wrote that the siege started "when German and Finnish troops severed all land routes in and out of Leningrad."


title: Continuation War

text: According to Clements, Mannerheim personally refused Hitler's request of assaulting Leningrad during their meeting on 4 June 1942. Mannerheim explained to Hitler that "Finland had every reason to wish to stay out of any further provocation of the Soviet Union." In 2014, author Jeff Rutherford described the city as being "ensnared" between the German and Finnish armies. British historian John Barber described it as a "siege by the German and Finnish armies from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944 [...]" in his foreword in 2017. Likewise, in 2017, Alexis Peri wrote that the city was "completely cut off, save a heavily patrolled water passage over Lake Ladoga" by "Hitler's Army Group North and his Finnish allies."


title: Continuation War

text: The 150 speedboats, two minelayers and four steamships of the Finnish Ladoga Naval Detachment, as well as numerous shore batteries, had been stationed on Lake Ladoga since August 1941. Finnish Lieutenant General Paavo Talvela proposed on 17 May 1942 to create a joint Finnish–German–Italian unit on the lake to disrupt Soviet supply convoys to Leningrad. The unit was named Naval Detachment K and comprised four Italian MAS torpedo motorboats of the XII Squadriglia MAS, four German KM-type minelayers and the Finnish torpedo-motorboat "Sisu". The detachment began operations in August 1942 and sank numerous smaller Soviet watercraft and flatboats and assaulted enemy bases and beach fronts until it was dissolved in the winter of 1942–43. Twenty-three Siebel ferries and nine infantry transports of the German "Einsatzstab Fähre Ost" were also deployed to Lake Ladoga and unsuccessfully assaulted the island of Sukho, which protected the main supply route to Leningrad, in October 1942.


title: Continuation War

text: Despite the siege of the city, the Soviet Baltic Fleet was still able to operate from Leningrad. The Finnish Navy's flagship had been sunk in September 1941 in the gulf by mines during the failed diversionary Operation Nordwind (1941). In early 1942, Soviet forces recaptured the island of Gogland, but lost it and the Bolshoy Tyuters islands to Finnish forces later in spring 1942. During the winter between 1941 and 1942, the Soviet Baltic Fleet decided to use their large submarine fleet in offensive operations. Though initial submarine operations in the summer of 1942 were successful, the and Finnish Navy soon intensified their anti-submarine efforts, making Soviet submarine operations later in 1942 costly. The underwater offensive carried out by the Soviets convinced the Germans to lay anti-submarine nets as well as supporting minefields between Porkkala Peninsula and Naissaar, which proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for Soviet submarines. On the Arctic Ocean, Finnish radio intelligence intercepted Allied messages on supply convoys to Murmansk, such as PQ 17 and PQ 18, and relayed the information to the "Abwehr", German intelligence.


title: Continuation War

text: On 19 July 1941, the Finns created a military administration in occupied East Karelia with the goal of preparing the region for eventual incorporation into Finland. The Finns aimed to expel the Russian portion of the local population (constituting to about a half), who were deemed "non-national", from the area once the war was over, and replace them with the local Finnic peoples, such as Karelians, Finns, Ingrians and Vepsians. Most of the East Karelian population had already been evacuated before the Finnish forces arrived, but about 85,000 people — mostly elderly, women and children — were left behind, less than half of whom were Karelians. A significant number of civilians, almost 30 percent of the remaining Russians, were interned in concentration camps.


title: Continuation War

text: The winter between 1941 and 1942 was particularly harsh for the Finnish urban population due to poor harvests and a shortage of agricultural labourers. However, conditions were much worse for Russians in Finnish concentration camps. More than 3,500 people died, mostly from starvation, amounting to 13.8 per cent of those detained, while the corresponding figure for the free population of the occupied territories was 2.6 per cent, and 1.4 per cent for Finland. Conditions gradually improved, ethnic discrimination in wage levels and food rations was terminated, and new schools were established for the Russian-speaking population the following year, after Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim called for the International Committee of the Red Cross from Geneva to inspect the camps. By the end of the occupation, mortality rates had dropped to the same levels as in Finland.


title: Continuation War

text: Finland had a small Jewish population of approximately 2,300 people, of whom 300 were refugees. They had full civil rights and fought with other Finns in the ranks of the Finnish Army. The field synagogue in East Karelia was one of the very few functioning synagogues on the Axis side during the war. There were several cases of Jewish officers of the Finnish Army being awarded the German Iron Cross, which they declined. German soldiers were treated by Jewish medical officers—who sometimes saved the soldiers' lives. German command mentioned Finnish Jews at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, wishing to transport them to the Majdanek concentration camp in occupied Poland. "SS" leader Heinrich Himmler also raised the topic of Finnish Jews during his visit in Finland in the summer of 1942; Finnish Prime Minister Jukka Rangell replied that Finland did not have a Jewish question. In November 1942, the Minister of the Interior Toivo Horelli and the head of State Police Arno Anthoni secretly deported eight Jewish refugees to the "Gestapo", raising protests among Finnish Social Democrat Party ministers. Only one of the deportees survived. After the incident, the Finnish government refused to transfer any more Jews to German detainment.