The French and the British were planning to send an official expeditionary force, but the war ended before these plans could be realized. Russian emigrants and Jewish refugees were, however, still excluded. In January 1940 after heavy losses among Finnish troops this decision was modified so that basically all able-bodied men were to be accepted at the discretion of Finnish embassies. Also, the volunteers were to be come as organized, trained units with own officers. Since the Finnish army lacked arms and equipment, the volunteers were to accepted only if they came with their own arms and basic military gear.

German and Russian volunteers were not permitted. Scandinavians, Hungarians, British and French volunteers. In December 1939 the Finnish government decided that volunteers would be accepted only from countries definitely friendly to the Finnish cause. In many countries the general opinion was very favourable to the Finnish cause but since none of the western democratic governments was ready to send regular troops to assist Finland, spontaneous volunteer movements started organizing volunteers to help the Finnish David against the Soviet Goliath. When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939 the assault was condemned widely.

Background and motivation for the volunteer movement

Finnish winter war uniform