The Soviet Plans for the North Western Theatre of Operations in 1939-1944

This publication, by Ohto Manninen, issued by the National Defence College Helsinki 2004, deals with "The Soviet Union's assessment of the threat to its territory remained quite constant throughout the late 1930s, and the operative plan for 1939 began on the assumption that Germany and Poland would attack the Soviet Union simultaneously from the west - with the probable participation of the Italian navy - while Japan would attack from the east. It was estimated that Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Finland would join the war only if the operations of the Red Army and the Red Navy did not meet with success from the outset."