The Finnish Civil War was a part of the First World War (1914-1918) and the Russian Revolution 1917. The Civil War was fought from the end of January until half of May 1918, between the "Reds" (punaiset), i.e. Social Democrats and the "Whites" (valkoiset), i.e. forces commanded by the Conservative Senate. The Reds were supported by the Soviet-Russia. The Whites got military assistance from the German Empire and Sweden. The Reds lost the war and the Whites were the winners. In addition, the hegemony of Russia was diminished in Finland. However, the country was bound to the German Empire due to the war. Finland became an independent, democratic republic after the German Empire lost in the First World War.
Finns have many names for this conflict: vapaussota (War of Liberty), kansalaissota or sisällissota (Civil War), luokkasota (Class War), punakapina (Red Rebellion), torpparikapina (Crofters' Rebellion), veljessota (the war between brothers) even vallankumous (Revolution). Present-day historians point out that all of these different names have their merits, although their propagandist charges differ. The most neutral names for the war are: "The Civil War" and "The War of the Year 1918".
The Civil War and the Continuation War (1941-1944) have been the two most controversial and emotionally loaded events in the history of modern Finland. They are often seen as the hinges or pivots of Finland's fate; both have also had a great influence on the foreign relations of Finland.
Background
In a large view the main factor behind the Finnish Civil War was the First World War and its detrimental effects on the Russian Empire, finally leading to revolution and a total collapse of the nation. Finland as a part of Russia was closely connected to the turmoil and furthermore to the war between Germany and Russia. Both empires had political and military interests in Finland. In a more local view the background of the conflict between the Finns can be traced to political polarization both within the Finnish society due to undemocratic power of the estates and the crisis between Imperial Russia and the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. The latter commenced in 1889 as an outcome of Russian Pan-Slavism, and was intensified in 1899 with the attempted Russification of Finland, named as "the first period of oppression 1899-1905". As one consequence Finland's army was abolished.
Until then, due to the broad autonomy, the Finno-Russian relations had been exceptionally peaceful and steady compared to the other parts of the Russian Empire. As this policy collapsed, both the Left and the Right started to radicalize and at first opposed the Imperial system together. The Rightist radicalization was in response to attempts at Russian cultural and constitutional hegemony, and would ultimately lead to covert collaboration with Imperial Germany, which had emerged as a new Great Power in the Baltic region after its 1871 unification.
Due to the deviation within the Finnish society, estate vs. common people, the Leftist radicalization started soon to focus on social problems also. This reaction was caused by the rapid growth of Finnish population and emergence of industrial and agrarian workers and propertyless peasantry without land of their own. The Industrial Revolution had started to spread to Finland, later however than in the Western Europe (1800-1850). Therefore, at least some of the social problems caused by industrialism could be diminished by learning from the first experiences, e.g. in England. As a result the social conditions, income and self-confidence of the workers enhanced slowly but consistedly between 1880-1914. However, even if the standard of living among the common people rose, the rift between rich and poor clearly widened as trade profits increased markedly.
Tensions during Russia's failed war against Japan led, among other things, to a general strike in 1905. In an attempt to quell the general unrest, exceptionally broad universal suffrage and parlamentarism was introduced to Finland. This soon led to near 50% turnouts for the Social Democrats, but no improvements for their voters, as the true function and power of the new Parliament was prevented by the actions of the Russian Tsar (in his role as Grand Duke of Finland), who had regained his might after the crisis of 1905-1906.
The February Revolution (1917)
A renewed attempt of russification, called "the second period of oppression 1908-1917" began soon after the "days of freedom" in 1905-1906 continuing until the Russian February Revolution in 1917. The Russian Tsar was dethroned on March 15 and the personal union between Finland and Russia ceased. The main reason for the collapse of the Russian Empire was a domestic crises caused by the war-weariness and defeat in the battles against the German army in the First World War. The Tsar's power was transferred to The Russian Duma and Provisional Government, which was non-socialistic. The revolt in Russia offered the Finnish Parliament true political power for the first time and the field was open for independent Finland, new democratic development in the society and increasing economical possibilities. Unfortunately, the social deviation and the heritage of the "ancient regime" led to severe battle of power between Social Democrats and Conservatives. Socialists tried to both retain the already achieved rights and rapidly accomplish a marked influence in the society. Conservatives had fear of losing part of the long-term status of social and economical power. Finally, the development during the year 1917 caused a destruction of the Finnish state and society and an economical, political and military crisis.
The original and "legal" form of autonomy was returned to the Finns in March 1917 after the February Revolution. Social Democratic party had gained an absolute majority in the Parliament of Finland after the general elections of 1916. Therefore, the new Finland's Senate was formed by Oskari Tokoi, Social Democrat and trade Union leader (the first Social Democratic prime-minister in the world). In theory the Tokoi' senate was in the 1917 conditions an exeptionally broad coalition-cabinet including six socialists and six non-socialists. However, in practice the senate appeared to be a weak cabinet. It was not able to solve any major local Finnish problems as the main political groups, neither on the Left nor on the Right, accepted any compromizes with their opponents. Furthermore, the most experienced politicians of the parties did not want to join the cabinet. The Tokoi's Senate had to deal with several major problems during 1917. Large scale strikes spread throughout the country in industry and agriculture since April 1917, aiming at eight-hour working time and higher salaries. There was also a lack of food products (mainly cereals, deficit caused by the World War) and unemployment was increasing as a result of decreasing industrial production in the country due to the chaos in Russia. In addition to a slow but consistent increase in the standard of living of the Finnish workers during 1880-1914, the First World War had initiated a marked economical growth, which enhanced income of the working people during 1915-1916. All this collapsed due to the Russian revolution and a marked uncertanty spread among the common people. Still, the most important factor decreasing the authority of the state organizations during the Finnish crisis of 1917 was a more or less spontaneous transfer of political power to the street level i.e. mass meetings, protests, strike organizations and street councils established by workers and common soldiers.
A major factor in the fight for power between the Left and Right was the Tokoi Senate's bill, the so-called "Power Act", enacted by the Parliament in July 1917. The Act contained a political plan by the Social Democrats to markedly increase the power of the Parliament having socialist majority. In addition, it was an attempt to enhance independence of Finland as the bill restricted Russia's influence on domestic Finnish matters. The socialists carried out their plan in co-operation with the Russian bolshevics led by V.I. Lenin, who planned a revolt against the Provisional Government in July 1917. Both the Finnish Conservatives and the Russian Provisional Government opposed the "Power Act" as it would decrease their political power. Finally, non-socialists won the battle; Lenin was defeated during the "July days", the Senate's bill was not accepted by the Russian Government, more army troops were sent to Finland and in co-operation with the Finnish Right the Parliament was dissolved and new elections were announced. Subsequently the Left lost their absolute majority in the Parliament in October 1917.
Finland's autonomy had been restored by the Provisional Government of Russia, but in the process the police force was virtually abolished in the country. In the spring of 1917, both on the Left and on the Right, the general uncertanty in the country induced local formation of unarmed groups for controlling the order in the society. Later, in summer and especially in autumn 1917, in the situation of political frustration, connected with the battle of power, the collapse of the Finnish Parliament and breakdown of the society, the groups were reformed to resemble armed military troops. The Protection Guards (later White Guards) were organized by leaders of the local societies, usually Conservative academics, industrialists and major landowners, while the Worker's Order Guards (later Red Guards) were often collectively invited through their local party sections and the labor union. The birth of two separate, competing armed forces in Finland was one of the main factors leading to the final collapse of the Finnish society and establishment of a "douple power" often preceeding Civil Wars.
The October Revolution (1917)
Lenin's Bolshevist October Revolution on November 7 transferred the political power in Russia to the radical, left-wing socialists and Soviet-Russia was born. Enthusiasm rose in Berlin, Germany also, as the German "East Policy" had finally started to effect the warfare. The German Warlords had got caught in a heavy and exhausting war between two major frontlines, in the west and in the east. The main idea of the Germans was to try to arrange marked disorder or even another revolution in Russia in order to force Russians to search for peace. Therefore, it was the German leaders who sheltered the journey of Lenin and his comrades from Switzerland to St. Petersburg in April 1917. Lenin had openly expressed the need for revolution inside Russia and then for peace with Germany. In other words; V.I. Lenin was the most powerful weapon that Germany could ever launch on the Russian territory during the First World War.
In Finland the polarization and mutual fear between the Left wing and the Right wing had increased dramatically since the dissolvation of the Finnish Parliament. In the general elections of October 1917 the Right reached majority in the Parliament and a purely non-Socialist cabinet was appointed. Aggravating all this was another general strike in Finland in the latter half of November, initiated by Social Democrats. The motive for the strike was to pressure the Conservative senate and regain the political power, which Social Democrats had lost in Autumn 1917. In addition, as the situation of V.I. Lenin and Bolshevics was under threat in St. Petersburg, they pressed the Finnish socialists to support the Russians and seize power. The majority of Finnish socialists were, however, moderate and for parlamentaristic means. Still, on November 16 at 5 a.m. as the general strike had appeared to be successfull, the Workers' Revolutionary Central Council, established for the strike, voted to seize power by a narrow majority. In the end, the supreme revolutionary organ, the executive committee, could not recruit qualified members, comissaars and the "shortest revolution" had to be called off on November 16 at 7 p.m.. All this split the Finnish Social Democrats in two: a majority supporting parlamentarism and a minority demanding revolution. However, it would be decisive for the future that there were powerful leaders who swung between the main lines.
During the strike the Worker's Order Guards began to affect the political development in the main cities of southern Finland, e.g. with several political executions. In addition, the first armed conflicts between the White Guards and the "Red" ones occurred; 10 to 15 casulties were reported. The Finnish Civil War would have probably broken out already in November 1917 if there had been enough weapons in the country to arm both the Guards. On the other hand, the "fight for weapons", which was initiated in November, was an important factor in the final escalation to the War.
Finnish Sovereignity
During the October Revolution, the roles of Finland's two major political forces, socialists and non-socialists, were reversed. Now it was the non-Socialists who were most eager for independence from Russia as the sovereignity would be benefical for them in leading the domestic politics and controlling the Left. Thus the Senate, led by Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, proposed a Declaration of Independence, which the Parliament adopted on December 6th, 1917. The political conditions and divisions within the Finns in late 1917 made it seem "logical", for the Social Democrats to have tried to prevent independence in order to avoid Conservative dominance. The Socialists did vote against the Svinhufvud proposal in the Parliament on December sixth and presented their own declaration of independency, but it contained no true differences. Thus both the major political groups agreed on the need for Finland's sovereignity, but they strongly disagreed on the leadership of the Finnish state.
However, sovereignity of a minor nation like Finland was not at all clear by its own decition and declaration. Political acceptance of the leading powers of Europe was required and the key to this was still in the city of St. Petersburg. It took three weeks before the Conservative cabinet finally faced the fact that they had to negotiate for Russian recognition with V.I. Lenin. And in this process the Finnish socialists supported P.E. Svinhufvud by asking Lenin to let the Finnish people go. During December 1917 the bolshevics were under pressure in discussions for peace with Germany at Brest-Litovsk. Furthermore, the new Soviet-Russia was in deep domestic crisis e.g. with a almost completely demoralized army and the outcome of the November Revolution still quite uncertain. Even though V.I. Lenin was an anarcist and opportunist, he was an intelligent realist also, seeing clearly that in order to keep the main parts of Russia the bolshevics had to give up Finland. Thus the Finns were finally able, on the last hour of December 31 1917, to get Lenin's signature on the agreement which opened the gates for freedom for Finland.
The Warfare
Escalation
In the wise afterwards, the Civil War has labelled everything, that happened during 1917 only as a precursor for the war. Thus escalation to the conflict has been seen to have started even from the February Revolution. However, instead of accumulation of problems there were also many separate attempts to gain new order in 1917 by the main political groups, but all of them came to nothing. The general strike in November had finally cut off all the possibilities for compromize between the Left and Right. The right-wing Conservatives came to realize that the radical part of the working people could really thread the status of the former estates and it had to be hampered, even with guns. Similarly, the left-wing socialists felt they could easily overcome the "ruins of the ancient regime" with weapons. As many times before in the course of history, during late 1917 the moderate, peacefull men and women started to leave the scene and the mighty, aggressive men with riffles stepped forward to take the control.
The final and rapid escalation to the war began in the beginning of January 1918. The most radical Worker's Order Guards from Helsinki, Kotka and Turku changed their names to Red Guards and challenged the moderate majority of the Social Democratic party to internal fight for power. In the end, the radical minority won as the leaders, who had swang between parlamentarism and revolution decided to go for the latter. At the same time the Conservative Senate and the Parliament decided to create a "strong police authority" on January 12 1918. Soon it became obvious, that this was a move towards legalising the White Guards, which provoked the Red Guards even more. Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, a former Russian army officer, was appointed chief of the White Guards since January 15 and his task was to build up the Finnish White Army. His opponent, a former Russian army officer too, Ali Aaltonen was appointed to lead the Worker's Order Guards of Finland already in December 1917. Later in January his army was named the Finnish Red Guard. Mannerheim placed his headquarters in Vaasa, Aaltonen in Helsinki.
The first serious battles were fought January 19 on, in Carelia, especially in town Viipuri in the southeastern corner of Finland. The fight between the Whites and the Red delt both with the control of Viipuri and fight for weapons. Part of the activity was based on the local soldiers, but the highest staffs were behind it also. Finally the Conservative Senate declared the White Guards into the White Army of Finland on January 25. The Red Guards did not submit to this and furthermore they were waiting for a large lot of weapons, promised by Lenin and coming by trains, on which the Whites attacked during January 27.
The red order of revolution was issued on January 26 and the moment for the start of the main activity was the evening January 27. The corresponding date of the Whites was the early morning of January 28 1918. Thus an "official" date for the beginning of the Finnish Civil War is an open case. A symbolic date and event might be January 26 1918, when a group of Reds from the Helsinki guard climbed the tower of Helsinki Worker's hall and lit up a red lantern to mark the start of the second major rebellion in the history of Finland.
Brothers in Arms
Finland was divided in the Red Finland and White Finland. The Red Finland was led by the People's Delegation of Finland (Kullervo Manner) in Helsinki. Bolshevist Russia declared its intention to support the coming Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. The members of the Senate of Finland were relocated to the city of Vaasa forming the Vaasa Senate. The town located 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 the White Finland from 29 January to 3 May. The Vaasa Cabinet was searching for military and political help from Germany, although General Mannerheim opposed it.
The Finnish Civil War was fought along the railways as the railroads were the most important means of transportation for troops and supply. The front settled in the beginning of the conflict along a line through southern Finland (from west to east): Pori-Ikaalinen-Vilppula-Länkipohja-Padasjoki-Heinola-Savitaipale-Lappeenranta-Antrea-Rautu. The Reds controlled the area south and the Whites the area north from the line. The number of troops varied on both sides from 50 000 to 90 000 soldiers. The Red Guards were formed mostly with volunteers. There were 11 000-15 000 volunteers on the White side, the rest of the men being drafted soldiers. The main motives of the volunteers to join the guard were economical factors (salary, food), idealism and pressure from the environment or more personal pressuring. The speciality of the Red side was female Red Guards (2 000 women, mostly young girls) built up in the industrial centres of southern Finland. In addition, both armies used child soldiers, mainly of age 15-17 years.
Red Guards and Russian Army
The Reds seized power in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, in the early hours of January 28. In addition, they had the initiative of the battles in the beginning of the war, until March 14 1918. However, Reds were not able to utilize the given momentum as the worker's army was not ready for the warfare. First of all there was a marked lack of skilled leaders both at the higher staff level and in the battle fields. Secondly the men of the Guards could be called more or less armed civils than true army soldiers; the military training had been poor and the discipline among the troops was even worse. Thus, the "attack phase" of the Reds resulted in only minor or no battle success at all in any parts of the main front line. The only (small scale) victories, which the Finnish Red Guard achieved, occurred in the end of the war during the retreat from southern Finland to Russia; the battles of Hauho and Tuulos, Syrjäntaka on April 28-29 1918. The neglible results of the Reds warfare led to changes in the leadership; Ali Aaltonen was soon replaced by Eero Haapalainen and he was followed by a triumvirate Eino Rahja, Adolf Taimi and Evert Eloranta, the last commander of the Red Guards being Kullervo Manner.
When the Civil War started there were from 60 000 to 80 000 Russian soldiers left of the former Tsar's army in Finland. After Finland's independency Lenin could only hope, that the crisis between the Finns would cause a revolt in the country and ease the threatened status of bolsevics in St. Petersburg. As the War of the Year 1918 began Lenin tried to send the army into battle for the Red Finland. However, only 7 000 to 10 000 soldiers were active in the war between the Reds and the Whites. The rest "suffered" from homesickness, war tirement and demoralization. In the end, only 1 000-4 000 fighters could be talked into the battlefields. They participated the battles as formations of 100 to 1 000 men occasionally in different parts of the front line and thus could not have any true importance in the war. The exeption was the southeastern front, close to St. Petersburg, but the main motive to fight there was the defence of the Russian capital. In addition, there were a few skilled Russian army officers e.g. M. Svetshnikov leading the battles in western Finland during February 1918. Still, the Finno-Russian formations could not advance northwards anywhere, to win the war, although the defensive capability of the Whites was low in February. The number of Russian soldiers active in the Civil War declined markedly after the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations were halted and Germany attacked Soviet-Russia on February 18 1918, resulting as a total collapse of what was left of the former mighty Russian army. This led to the final peace and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3 and since then the bolsevics could support the Finnish Reds only by sending weapons and supply.
White Guards and German Army
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The Finnish White Army captured the initiative in the war from the Reds with a large counterattack by March 15 1918, and never lost it anymore. The military condition of the common soldiers (i.e. armed civilians) among the White Guards did not differ much from that in the Red ones as the training had been short and poor in most of the troops. The Whites had two major advantages compared to the Reds; the professional leadership by general Mannerheim and his staff (including Swedish officers, and Finnish ones from the former Tsar's army) and the "Jäger" troops (Jääkärit) trained in Germany and in the East Front during 1915-1917. Mannerheim's grand plan was to invade Finland's most important industrial town Tampere in southwest first. The battle of Tampere lasting until April 6 became desicive for the course of the whole war and it was the largest fight in Scandinavia so far. The attack led to the most blood consuming turmoil of the Civil War as the ability of the Reds for defence had risen and the Whites used brand new, somewhat better trained detachments. The Whites lost 500-1 000 men dead, whereas 1 000-2 000 fighters died and 11 000 were inprisoned on the Red side. In the battle of Tampere "brother rose against brother", a Finn against Finn, as the main part of the Russian army had retreated to Russia during March and the German troops were still on their way to Finland's coast. After the defeat in Tampere the Red army retreated eastwards and the military focus of the White army moved towards Viipuri. The main city of Carelia was taken on April 29. The last strongholds of the Finnish Red Army fell in southwestern Finland by May 5.
The German Empire joined the Finnish Civil War supporting the attack phase of the Whites. The Finnish Right, especially the Activits had since autumn 1917 asked the Germans to invade and free the country from the Russian hegemony, but the request was denied due to the plans for an armistice and peace negotiations with russians. The situation was complitely altered as bolsevics, mainly Lev Trotski, cut off the peace negotiations (had started on December 22 ) on February 10 and the German Warlords decided to put Russia in order. In addition, the activity of the British naval troops in the northeastern Russia, Kola Peninsula, was an increasing concern in Berlin. The Germans initiated the final attack of February 18 and before it they had demanded "requests for help" from the smaller countries west of Russia in order to mask the hit. Finland asked for help on February 14. The German army, the Baltic Sea Division led by Rudiger von der Goltz with 9 500 soldiers, made an invasion west of Helsinki at town Hanko on April 3 1918 and Brigade Brandenstein, with 2 500 fighters, invaded town Loviisa on the southeastern coast on April 7. The main troops advanced rapidly eastwards from Hanko taking Helsinki on April 13 and the Brandenstein Brigade invaded town Lahti on April 19 and cut the connection between the western and eastern Red Guards. The main detachment advanced from Helsinki northwards taking towns Hyvinkää and Riihimäki on April 21-22 and finally town Hämeenlinna on April 26 1918. Thus the contrast between the high perfomance of the German top detachments and the inability of the more or less demoralized Russian troops in the Civil War is quite striking.
The People's Delegation of Finland fled from Helsinki on April 8 and from Viipuri to St. Petersburg on April 25. The Finnish Civil War ceased on May 14, when the Russian troops of a small number retreated from the coastal artillery basis of the Carelian Isthmus. The White Finland celebrated the Grand Victory in Helsinki on May 16 1918.
Red and White Terror
According to the earlier view of the war-time terror in 1918, both sides of the conflict would have agreed to rules of engagement and the major turning points would have been the Suinula massacre conducted by the Reds and the Varkaus massacre carried out by the Whites. After these incidents the both sides started to take revenge with similar executions and an escalation of mostly local violence leading to massacre and terrorism began. However, the latest and more objective results of the studies concerning political violence during the Civil War indicate, that the terror was a part of the general warfare. Thus at least a third of the Red terror and perhaps most of the White terror was centrally led. The Reds executed people they saw as main leaders and supporters ("class enemies") of the White power, including e.g. industrialists, politicians and major landowners. On the White side the main goal was to gain "a final control" over the recently occupied areas through executions of Red guard and party leaders and those, who participated in the Red terror and the war. In this respect too, the fight between the Finns resembled many other Civil Wars in history. In total 1 650 Whites were shot in the Red terror, the corresponding number of the dead Reds being 7 000-9 000 in the White terror.
The Aftermath
| Lives Lost | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reason | Reds | Whites | Other | Total |
| Killed in action | 5,199 | 3,414 | 790 | 9,403 |
| Executed, shot or murdered | 7,370 | 1,424 | 926 | 9,720 |
| Prison camp deaths | 11,652 | 4 | 1,790 | 13,446 |
| Died after release from camp | 607 | - | 6 | 613 |
| Missing | 1,767 | 46 | 380 | 2,193 |
| Other causes | 443 | 291 | 531 | 1,265 |
| Total | 27,038 | 5,179 | 4,423 | 36,640 |
| Source: National Archive | ||||
Outcome of Wrath
The Civil War was in many ways a major catastrophy to the Finnish nation and society. As a result of the turmoil almost 37 000 people perished. The deviation within the Finns became deeper causing bitterness, fear, desire for revenge and hatered. A typical feature of the war was, that only about 10 000 casulties were lost in the true battles. Most of the death was caused by the red and white terror and high mortality in the prison camps. In addition, about 20 000 children were orphaned due to the turmoil. A large number of Finnish Reds fled to Russia at the end of the Civil War and in the years shortly thereafter also.
The Finnish society was split in many ways. Conservatives and moderate non-socialists disagreed strongly on the Form of Government, the former demanding monarchy and restricted parlamentarism, the latter urging for social reforms and full scale democracy. In foreign policy both the groups leaned on Germany and its mighty army; in the end of May the Finnish Senate asked the germans to remain in country. The new senate was formed by J.K. Paasikivi having a monarchist majority. The Finnish Parliament was incomplete as most of the Social Democratic representatives were hampered to join it. The Finnish worker movement broke down in three parts due to the war; moderate Social Democrats, left-wing socialists in Finland and communists acting in Soviet-Russia with the support of bolsevics.
Finland was bound politically and economically to the German Empire via the agreements signed in March 1918. Germans demanded them in the context of the invasion to Finland. Furhermore they proposed a military pact in summer 1918. The white general Mannerheim resigned his post on May 25 due to disagreements with the Senate on the German hegemony in the country. Finally, the monarchist Senate chose a german prince Friedrich Karl to be the King of Finland on October 9 and altered the Form of Government to monarchy.
The economical condition in the country had weakened markedly due to the 1918 conflict. The war preceeding level was reached again in year 1925. The most severe was problem food deficit. The food supply had been weak already in 1917, but no large scale starvation existed with the exception of some northern and northeastern parts of Finland. The War of the Year 1918, which according to the Finnish Warlords would solve all the problems, led to severe starvation in the southern Finland also.
Prison camps
The White and German troops captured about 80 000 red prisoners by the end of the war on May 5 1918. Finally there was 74 000 prisoners left, after the peak of the white terror had passed and a few thousand Reds had been set free also. The largest prison camps were Suomenlinna island in front of Helsinki, Hämeenlinna, Lahti, Viipuri, Tammisaari, Riihimäki and Tampere. The Finnish Senate made a decision, that the Reds would be kept in prison camps in order to study the quilt of the rebellions individually. Together with the severe food deficit the policy led to high mortality in the camps. In addition, part of the catastrophy was caused by mentality of punishment, anger and indifference by winners of the war. The condition of the prisoners weakened rapidly during May as the food supply had been poor during the retreat phase of the Red Army in April also. They were abandoned, by the White Finland and their own leaders, who had fled to Russia. The mortality rate in the camps was highest from the beginning to the half of summer 1918: in June 2 900 and in July 4 900 people starved to death or died to diseases caused by hunger. The corresponding values for August were 2 150 and for September 1 000 prisoners. They were buried in mass graves in vicinity of the camps. The highest mortality rate 34 % was in the Tammisaari camp, in the other camps the level varied between 5 and 20 %. In total 11 000- 13 000 Finns were perished.
The Compromise
Similarly, as the faith of the Finns was decided in St. Petersburg in March 15 1917, the lot of the nation was resolved again in Berlin on November 11 1918 as Germany lost the First World War. The grand plans of the German Warlords came finally to nothing and a revolution had spread among the common people throughout the country due to lack of food, war tirement and defeat in the battles of the West Front. The German troops left Helsinki on December 16 and the prince Friedrich Karl gave up his crown on December 20 1918. Thus, Finland became an independent country and the Form of Government was changed back from monarchy to a democratic republic.
After the Civil War, in 1919 a moderate Social Democrat Väinö Voionmaa wrote: "Those, who still trust on the future of this nation, must have an exeptionally strong faith. Along the war this young independent country has lost almost everything... ". At the same time, a moderate non-socialist, the coming first president of Finland K.J. Ståhlberg (elected on July 25 1919), struggling for parlamentarism wrote: "It is urgent to get the life and development in this country back to the path, that we already reached in 1906 and which the turmoil of war turned us away from".
Together with the other moderate non-socialists and socialists they constructed a Finnish compromise leading to a stable and broad parlamentarism. It was based on both the defeat of the Red Finland in the Civil War and on the fact, that the most important political goals of the White Finland did not come true as Germany lost the World War. After the "foreign bayonets" had left Finland, the Finns had to find each other. As for the Civil War the conciliation led to a slow, but consistent national unification. The compromise has turned out to be surprisingly permanent. During years 1920-1992 it was tested in both right-wing and left-wing radicalism, the crisis of the Second World War and the pressure by the Soviet Union after the war. Still, it was not the politicians, who finally "made it", apparently all this happened because it was what the majority of the Finns really "wanted" - and had freedom for it.
References
- Risto Alapuro (1988): State and Revolution in Finland.
- Pertti Haapala (1995): Kun yhteiskunta hajosi. Suomi 1914-1920.
- Anthony F. Upton (1980-1981): Revolution in Finland 1917-1918, 1-2.
- Marko Tikka (2004): Kenttäoikeudet, including an english summary Court-Martial without Law.
See also
