 On 1 December 1939 , the Soviet Union formed a puppet government called the Finnish Democratic Republic , which was headed by O. W. Kuusinen . The government was also called " The Terijoki Government , " after the village of Terijoki , which was the first settlement captured by the advancing Soviet army . After the war , the puppet government was disbanded . From the very outset of the war , working @-@ class Finns stood behind the legal government in Helsinki . Finnish national unity against the Soviet invasion was later called the spirit of the Winter War . 
