The first one stated the medal was ‘established to commemorate the war of 1939–1940 and the unanimous will to defend it and the deeds done for the benefit of the motherland.’ Other articles related how the additions to the medal were to be granted. The document was separated into 12 articles, these listing several criteria and regulations in regards to its issue. Two examples displaying Coastal Defence and Home Group glasps. The first medals were presented in September of that year and between then and 1992, over 700,000 of all versions were awarded. The dully titled document, Number 418 Finnish Code of Regulations 1940, would be the birth certificate for the 1939-1940 War Service Medal. On the 2nd August 1940, at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, President Kyösti Kallio signed the document that Minister of Defense Rudolf Walden had brought with him. A pair of Winter War medals with clasps for Summa and Taipale. In the wake of the Winter War, a new medal was designed in order to honour those who had helped to keep Finland’s independence. It is one of the ways a nation pays homage to those who have served in the nation’s best interests. Service medals are awarded to soldiers and civilians for fulfilling certain criteria.

Finnish winter war uniform