Stalin's external politics was more opportunistic than imperialist. The border 'adjustments' that occurred had more to do with recovery of territory perceived as having belonged to Russia in the more or less recent past (please, I don't want to discuss this in detail for now), and in the case of Finland we see demand for some stretchs of territory to be ceded by Finland in exchange for other stretches (possibly worthless...) further north, as well as the famous Hango fortress lease. The justification in this case was acquisition of more depth for the Leningrad defenses, FWIW.

I have no inkling at all of a plan to take over Finland militarily (the "All Your Marbles Belong To Us" option), as in the case of the Baltic Republics, but then Molotov did not tell me all, and besides all plans would be liable to switch at a bat of an eyelid.

Possibly off-topic, Kai, after 1945 what exactly happened so that Finland managed to deflect an occuation like Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc, and not entering the Warsaw Pact?

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