I wonder what the cleansing element of it in Finland was, given that they voted to join the Axis.
Soviets attacked Finland, and brought it in to the war. Finland didn't want to become a part of Soviet Union (btw no-one did willingly) and Axis was fighting against Soviet Union.
Enemy of your enemy is my friend.
you mean WWII? If so, this is just wrong, no-one in Finland "voted" to join the Axis, she was not technically a part of Axis and didn't want to side with Germany at all. GB and Sweden were first asked but they weren't able to help in the defence from Soviet Union. AFAIK they weren't fighting anywhere but their own territory
Finland did cross the old borders in parts, but we specifically didn’t participate in the Siege of Leningrad and refused all German demands for assistance.
Finland had quite a few far right figures in its government at the time who were obsessed with "Greater Finland", for which they needed to occupy and annex East Karelia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_military_administratio...