1940 Chronology: 6 March

Finland: A Finnish delegation led by Juho Kusti Paasikivi, an experienced politician and diplomat, arrives in Moscow. General Mannerheim, seeing it is useless to continue the one-sided struggle, has accepted that there must be talks with the Soviet Union.

The Western powers still continue to offer aid, but send only small quantities of mostly outof-date arms.

Juho Kusti Paasikivi
(from Wikipedia)
Juho Kusti Paasikivi (November 27, 1870 – December 14, 1956) was the seventh President of Finland (1946–1956). He also served as Prime Minister of Finland (1918 and 1944–1946), and was generally an influential figure in Finnish economics and politics for over fifty years. He is particularly remembered as a main architect of Finland's foreign policy after the Second World War.

He was born as Johan Gustaf Hellsten in 1870 at Hämeenkoski in Päijänne Tavastia in Southern Finland, the son of August Hellsten, a merchant, and Karolina Wilhelmina Selin. He Finnicized his name to Juho Kusti Paasikivi in 1885.

General Mannerheim
(from Wikipedia)
Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was the Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defence Forces, Marshal of Finland and a politician. He was Regent of Finland (1918–1919) and the sixth President of Finland (1944–1946).

Mannerheim was born in the Grand Principality of Finland, a territory of Imperial Russia, into a family of Swedish-speaking nobles settled in Finland since the late 18th century. His paternal German ancestor Marhein had emigrated to Sweden during the 17th century. His maternal ancestry has its roots in Södermanland, Sweden.

He made a career in the Russian army, rising to general. He also had a prominent place in the ceremonies for Tsar Nicholas II's coronation and later had several private meetings with the Russian Tzar. After the Bolshevik revolution, Finland declared its independence but was soon embroiled in a civil war along class lines. The workers overwhelmingly held a socialist ("Red") creed; whereas the bourgeois, farmers, and businessmen held a capitalist ("White") creed. Mannerheim became the military chief of the Finnish Whites and defeated the Reds and communists. Twenty years later, when Finland was at war with the Soviet Union from 1939–1944, Mannerheim was appointed commander of the country's armed forces.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary