at the time of the operation , joseph stalin , the supreme commander of the soviet armed Bearing_arms forces Hostile_encounter , was personally interested in taking Conquering estonia , viewing Perception_active it as a precondition to forcing Hostile_encounter finland out of the war .

it began Process_start with a soviet invasion Attack of finland on 30 november 1939 , three months after the outbreak of world war ii , and ended Process_end three and a half months later with the moscow peace treaty on 13 march 1940 .