Or was it its own conflict? It takes place during World War 2 but it seems in some ways to be its own separate conflict as well. IMDB historians, please enlighten me!
shareConflict? It was full scale war and very much part of WW2.
shareThe war probably wouldn't have happened if not for the Molotov-Ribbontrop Pact basically ensuring that the Germans would plug their ears and sing a song while the Russians took back all their wayward children (like the Baltic states). The ultimate motivation though stems from the 1917 revolution and the Russian Civil War, wherein Finland broke away in the first place. Since the Soviet Union acted alone and Finland had no allies, you could say the Winter War was a completely self-contained war, but I consider it to be a lesser theatre in an already ongoing World War.
Both answers are basically correct.