In 1939 the Soviets easily subdued the baltic states of Estonia Latvia and Lithuania but they had difficulty breaking the resistance of who?

Answer 1

I can only assume you are talking about Finland.

In the fall of 1939, all three Baltic states all received demands from the Soviet Union to allow the establishment of military bases on the teritories of the four countries.

In addition to making the same demand of Finland, they also demanded territorial concessions of the Finns.

The three Baltic countries agreed while Finland refused and on November 30 1939, the Soviets attacked Finland.

The Finns did a fantastic job defending themselves against the Soviet hordes but by February of 1940 were close to collapse.

As a resultof this and pressure from western allies, Finland accepted Russias terms and the Moscow Peace Treaty, which ceded large areas of Finnish teritory to the Soviet Union, was signed on March 12, 1940.

What is unclear is why, with the defenders close to collapse, did the Soviet's, even if they got more than the territorial concessions they had originaly demanded, agree to the peace. While the Soviet troops on the ground were also close to collapse, the Soviets had reserves to draw on while the Finns did not.

Had the Soviets continued the offensive, they very likely would very quickly have taken the whole of the country.

One likely explanation is that Stalin did not know how low on ammunition and close to collapse the Finns were.

Another holds that Stalin viewed occupying Finland as being akin to "putting a hedgehog in his pocket".

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania remained, nominally at least, free until June 1940 when the Soviets occupied the three baltic states and later illegaly annexed them.