Finnish Civil War

The October Revolution (1917)

The svoboda appeared to the Finns as merely the Russian military going out of control. They often looted, were frequently intoxicated, generally acted violently and occasionally executed their own officers. In the virtual absence of police forces or militarily trained Finnish troops, the svoboda prompted the revival and creation of numerous White Guards. These Guards were local units, set up by local initiative. Some had roots in the "Security Guards" established during the General Strike of 1905, but it was the svoboda of the Russian troops which prompted the establishment of the majority of the White Guard.

After the October Revolution the roles of Finland's two major political forces were reversed. Now it was the non-Socialists who were eager for maximal autonomy (or independence from Russia) and the Social Democrats who believed the Bolshevists to be possible allies against the "capitalist oppressors." The Senate, led by the Finnish national hero Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, proposed a Declaration of Independence, which the Parliament adopted on December 6th, 1917.

The Social Democrats and the revolution

The strained political situation deteroriated during 1917. Finland saw agricultural strikes, skirmishes over food and inflation, local strikes intended to support or influence local government, and finally the aformentioned general strike in November. The leadership of the Social Democratic Party could not control this increasingly violent mass movement, and popular support swung between parliamentary and extra-parliamentary action. Ever since 1906, the parliamentary road had proved disappointing, and after the October Revolution the Russian revolutionary leadership pressed the Finnish Social Democrats to seize power. The Social Democratic party was accused of ineffectiveness within Finland and from Saint Petersburg.

On November 16, during the general strike, the newly formed Workers' Revolutionary Central Council voted to seize power by a narrow majority, but the supreme revolutionary organ, the executive committee, could not recruit qualified members, and the revolution had to be called off. The organization of Red Guards surged, although the enthusiasm soon waned as the general strike and the revolution came to nothing. The initiative was seized by the Revolutionary Central Council, which comprised the trade unions and the Social Democratic Party; though, by this time the party leadership had lost much of their credibility and authority — initially due to the party's failure to gain any political advantage from their majority in parliament.

White Guards had been organized throughout the year of 1917, and in December numbered nearly 40,000. In response, the organization of Red Guards was stepped up in November, and numbered nearly 30,000 at the end of the year. After Finland's declaration of independence the parliament empowered the Senate on January 12, 1918 to create a "strong police authority." Soon it became obvious that this was a move towards legalising the White Guards while excluding the Red Guards and others that sympathized with the Social Democrats (who now constituted the opposition in parliament with almost 50% of the votes and seats). On January 25, the Senate decreed the White Guards to be troops of Finland's government, and the point of no return was passed. Many leading Social Democrats joined in when the war broke out independently in three different towns, but formally the rebellion was not supported by the executive organs of the party.

The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic's programme and draft constitution, written by Otto Ville Kuusinen, was heavily influenced by the Social Democrats; it was also inspired by the generally liberal ideas of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the Swiss cantonal system. The main goal was social reform, and the declared means to achieve this was parliamentary democracy based on the principle of sovereignty of the people and of national self-determination. Bolshevist thoughts such as proletarian dictatorship and massive socialization were not parts of their programme. The rebellion in Finland thus differed from the October Revolution and from the various uprisings on the European continent that followed the world war, e.g., Béla Kun's revolt in Hungary, the Spartacists in Berlin, and the "Bavarian Soviet Republic."

Conflict

White Guard in Nummi. White Guards became the white army through a senate decision on 25.01.1918. The red leadership ordered the mobilization of Red Guards on 27.01.1918.The Reds were alarmed by the government's decision to employ the White Guards as the nucleus of a national army and to use "the Butchers" -- as the Left described them -- to disarm the 40,000 Russian troops that remained in Finland, since the Left believed that Red Finns would also be targeted.

The first serious battles were on the night of January 19, followed by the Senate's declaration on January 25 transforming the White Guards into the Army of Finland, and on January 26 the order of rebellion was issued. Bolshevist Russia had already declared its intention to support the new Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. The Reds seized control of the capital, Helsinki, in the early hours of January 28, and members of the Senate of Finland were relocated to the city of Vaasa on the Finnish west coast, where the White Guards had a strong position and the contacts to the west were good. Vaasa acted as the capital of (white) Finland from 29 January to 3 May.

It is often pointed out that leaders of the White and the Red sides acted independently of each other in these final days, and that, in a way, it was coincidental that the White Army was formally established on the very same day that the Red rebellion commenced. It is also obvious that the leaders acted without any formal democratic authorization, but on the other hand, their judgement was generally respected within their respective factions and met with no articulated opposition from within them. In other words, the process leading to the Civil War was more of a general distrust between Reds and Whites, and less dependent on the particular events at the end of January 1918.

The last stages of World War I were still being fought in central Europe at the time, and both Bolshevist Russia and Imperial Germany had their own interests in Finland.

Many Whites feared that the Russian troops would take the side of the Reds. The Russian Bolshevik government now also expressed support for the Reds, despite their official recognition of Finland's independence only three weeks before, because they wanted the Communist World Revolution to continue in Finland.

Unburied bodies – outcome of the Battle of TampereThe White side was dominated by middle class "activists" — members of Finland's pro-German independence movement. As far as they were concerned, close contact with communist Russia was tantamount to forfeiture of the recently won independence. They were also influenced by German interests, because Germany had secretly given assistance, including the volunteer "Jäger" troops (Jääkärit) that had been secretly trained in Germany during the Great War.

The Whites regrouped in the northern and central parts of the country, under the political leadership of the initially absent president of the Senate Pehr Evind Svinhufvud and the military command of Mannerheim.

Initially, both sides of the conflict would agree to rules of engagement. The turning point was the Suinula massacre early in the war. A troop of White Guard men had managed to escape from Red-controlled Tampere on January 1. They captured the Aitolahti people's hall in nearby Suinula the following day. A Red detachment was sent from Tampere, and this detachment of 300 riflemen quickly overpowered the Whites and imprisoned them, with promises not to harm them. However, a backup force of 200 was sent from Tampere, and their leader Hyrskymurto had given the order not to take prisoners. When they arrived a Russian trooper hit one of the prisoners with a sword, prompting Hyrskymurto gave the order to shoot the captures troops. Only 15 men escaped alive, out of which only 5 made it all the way back to White territory. After this incident the Whites took revenge with similar shootings, and escalation of violence leading to massacre and terrorism began.

The Reds' situation in the south worsened after the arrival of White Jäger troops on February 25 and the subsequent withdrawal of Russian forces according to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 3, 1918).

White forces launced a counterattack in "The Tampere Operation" on March 15, lasting until April 6 when they captured Tampere seizing 10,000 Red prisoners. This was a determining factor indicating that the Civil War might be won by the Whites, as it meant a strategically important bridge-head was taken.

On April 3, German troops landed at Hanko in support of the Whites, advanced rapidly eastward and took Helsinki on April 13. This was followed by another Red defeat at Viipuri on April 28-29, and the last Red strongholds fell by May 7.

Outcome

The civil war had ended, but it left Finnish society divided into two groups. A "Red terror" campaign against the right wing was followed by a "White terror" against supporters of the revolutionary movement. Disease, hunger, and maltreatment killed thousands detained in concentration camps. The conflict and its immediate aftermath are believed to have killed more than 30,000 out of a population of three million.

In addition, an unknown number of Red children were orphaned or sent into foster care as their parents were either interned (there were as many as 75,000 Red internees) or deemed unfit to raise patriotic children for an independent Finland.

Many Red children suffered from the social stigma of being representatives of the defeated treacherous proletariat. These feelings were especially strong in the children that were separated from their parents.

A large number of Finnish Reds fled to Russia at the end of the Civil War and in the years shortly thereafter. Most of them were lost in Stalin's Great Purges. The exact number is unknown.

While the Whites celebrated the "War of Independence" against Russia and Bolshevism, the Left refused for many years to participate in commemorations of Finland's pre-Civil War independence. The Communist Party was outlawed in 1923 and 1930, while the Social Democrats remained in opposition for most of the inter-war period. Svinhufvud became president (1931-1937) on a platform of keeping Social Democrats out of the Cabinet.

Finland, the first Nordic (and European) country to adopt true universal suffrage became the last to adopt parliamentarism.

The Civil War and pre-war polarization lead (directly and indirectly) to Finland developing a mentality more like 19th century Prussia, with the military forces and conservative ideologies having earned great prestige for their success. This was highly unlike other Scandinavian countries where popular movements and liberal ideologies had won modern democracy.

Another legacy of the Civil War was an anti-democratic and anti-parliamentarian current which remained in public opinion and was particularly popular among academic youth until the end of the Continuation War when such utterances became dangerous. One further result was the Lapua Movement of the late 1920s, which was a reaction to the increased popularity and threatening influence of "Socialists" (reformist Social Democrats). However, after the Lapua Movement's failed coup d'état in 1932, the anti-parliamentarians lost much of their popularity and could no longer dominate: neither in any major political party, nor in the public debate.

Before the Civil War, the Scandinavian countries had been the first to recognize Finland's independence. After the Civil War relations cooled -- mutually. When Finland, in the mid-1930s, again oriented towards Scandinavia, the reception was less enthusiastic than the Finns had expected and ultimately Finland had to fight the Winter War on her own. Bitter debate followed: was this coolness typical of the Scandinavian countries, or was it an unfortunate consequence of the impression the nations had gained from Finland's Civil War and its aftermath?