- For other meanings of this and similar names, see Porkkala
(disambiguation). The peninsula had great strategic value, as
coastal artillery based there would be able to reach more than
halfway across the Gulf of Finland. If the same power controlled
the Estonian coast, on the opposite side of the gulf, it would
then be able to block Saint Petersburg's naval access to the
Baltic Sea. The distance to Estonia at the closest point is only
36 km (22 mi). Porkkala is furthermore located only 30
kilometers (19 mi) from Helsinki, the Finnish capital, and a
foreign power based there would be able to exert significant
pressure on the Finnish government. At the end of the Second
World War the Soviet Union secured the rights of lease to a
naval base at Porkkala, in accordance with the Moscow armistice
agreement that ended the Continuation War, between Finland and
the Soviets on September 19, 1944. Porkkala thus replaced the
peninsula of Hanko, which had been leased to the Soviets as a
naval base in 1940–41. A large area