The Winter War took place from 1939 to 1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union. On the morning of the first day of the Winter War on 30 November 1939, the Red Army invaded Ilomantsi along two axes of advance. The invading force consisted of three regiments of the 155th Division. Two of the regiments headed toward Möhkö. The third, the 786th Rifle Regiment of 6000 men, continued in the direction of Kallioniemi.

During the first days of December, a force made up of young boys hastily began to prepare defenses on the banks of the Koitajoki River at Kallioniemi. These positions were occupied by one company of Captain Viljo Kivikko’s Infantry Battalion.

The leading Russian elements arrived at the Kallioniemi ferry jetty on 9 December 1939. The ferry crossing was 400 metres to the northeast of the present bridge at the site of the boat docks. The enemy built a makeshift footbridge no wider than two heavy logs side by side next to the ferry crossing and immediately attempted to cross the 200-metre-wide river, but was met by murderous machine-gun fire from the opposite bank.

After the failed attempt at Kallioniemi, the Russian forces tried again at a point two kilometres south of the bridge and managed to move troops to the opposite bank over the frozen river. Estimates of the strength of this force vary, but it is known that about 200 Russian soldiers were killed in subsequent action in the vicinity of Linnalampi Lake, which was the closest point to Ilomantsi parish village that the invaders reached.

Tanks that had spearheaded the advance to the ferry jetty were knocked out by a single gun that the defenders moved continuously between Möhkö and Kallioniemi on an ad hoc basis.

By the end of 1939, the Front had stabilised on the Koitajoki line, and the area saw no significant action during the remainder of the Winter War. When fighting ended on 13 March 1940, the initial contacts between the Finnish forces and the Red Army delegations occurred on the ice of the Koitajoki river.

The three first years of the Continuation War of 1941 to –1944, between Finland and the Soviet Union, were a period of calm at Kallioniemi. A dramatic change occurred in July 1944 when the Finnish forces launched hasty preparations for an enemy attack. The main body of Group Raappana marched via Kallioniemi in the direction of Lehtovaara, Ilaja and Hattuvaara.