The monarchists leaned on the Swedish regime's 1772 monarchist constitution (accepted by Russia in 1809), belittled the Declaration of Independence of 1917, and proposed a modernised, monarchist constitution for Finland.
The republicans argued that the 1772 law lost validity in the February Revolution, that the authority of the Russian czar was assumed by the Finnish Parliament on 15 November 1917, and that the Republic of Finland had been adopted on 6 December that year.
The royalists responded by applying the 1772 law to select a new monarch for the country without reference to Parliament. The Finnish labour movement was divided into three parts: moderate social democrats in Finland; radical socialists in Finland; and communists in Soviet Russia.
Finland possessed large ore reserves and a well-developed forest industry. From 1809 to 1898, a period called Pax Russica, the peripheral authority of the Finns gradually increased, and Russo-Finnish relations were exceptionally peaceful in comparison with other parts of the Russian Empire.
The upper social strata took the lead and gained domestic authority from the Russian czar in 1809.
The Czar's power was transferred to the State Duma (Russian Parliament) and the right-wing Provisional Government, but this new authority was challenged by the Petrograd Soviet (city council), leading to dual power in the country. The autonomous status of 1809–1899 was returned to the Finns by the March 1917 manifesto of the Russian Provisional Government.
Eventually, both political factions supported an independent Finland, despite strong disagreement over the composition of the nation's leadership. Nationalism had become a "civic religion" in Finland by the end of nineteenth century, but the goal during the general strike of 1905 was a return to the autonomy of 1809–1898, not full independence.
The monarchists leaned on the Swedish regime's 1772 monarchist constitution (accepted by Russia in 1809), belittled the Declaration of Independence of 1917, and proposed a modernised, monarchist constitution for Finland.
Finland's population grew rapidly in the nineteenth century (from 860,000 in 1810 to 3,130,000 in 1917), and a class of agrarian and industrial workers, as well as crofters, emerged over the period.
Russia's defeat in the Crimean War in the 1850s led to attempts to speed up the modernisation of the country.
Economically, the Grand Duchy of Finland benefited from having an independent domestic state budget, a central bank with national currency, the markka (deployed 1860), and customs organisation and the industrial progress of 1860–1916.
The Fennoman movement aimed to include the common people in a non-political role; the labour movement, youth associations and the temperance movement were initially led "from above". Between 1870 and 1916 industrialisation gradually improved social conditions and the self-confidence of workers, but while the standard of living of the common people rose in absolute terms, the rift between rich and poor deepened markedly.
This was a reaction to the domestic dispute, ongoing since the 1880s, between the Finnish nobility-bourgeoisie and the labour movement concerning voting rights for the common people. Despite their obligations as obedient, peaceful and non-political inhabitants of the Grand Duchy (who had, only a few decades earlier, accepted the class system as the natural order of their life), the commoners began to demand their civil rights and citizenship in Finnish society.
The most commonly used rifle was the Russian Mosin–Nagant Model 1891.
Finland possessed large ore reserves and a well-developed forest industry. From 1809 to 1898, a period called Pax Russica, the peripheral authority of the Finns gradually increased, and Russo-Finnish relations were exceptionally peaceful in comparison with other parts of the Russian Empire.
All this encouraged Finnish nationalism and cultural unity through the birth of the Fennoman movement, which bound the Finns to the domestic administration and led to the idea that the Grand Duchy was an increasingly autonomous state of the Russian Empire. In 1899, the Russian Empire initiated a policy of integration through the Russification of Finland.
From 1899 to 1906, the movement became conclusively independent, shedding the paternalistic thinking of the Fennoman estates, and it was represented by the Finnish Social Democratic Party, established in 1899.
The conservatives were alarmed by the continuous increase of the socialists' influence since 1899, which reached a climax in 1917. The "Law of Supreme Power" incorporated a plan by the socialists to substantially increase the authority of Parliament, as a reaction to the non-parliamentary and conservative leadership of the Finnish Senate between 1906 and 1916.
The political struggle for democracy was solved outside Finland, in international politics: the Russian Empire's failed 1904–1905 war against Japan led to the 1905 Revolution in Russia and to a general strike in Finland.
The political struggle for democracy was solved outside Finland, in international politics: the Russian Empire's failed 1904–1905 war against Japan led to the 1905 Revolution in Russia and to a general strike in Finland.
The reform led to the social democrats obtaining about fifty percent of the popular vote, but the Czar regained his authority after the crisis of 1905.
The minority were Red Guards, these were partly underground groups formed in industrialised towns and industrial centres, such as Helsinki, Kotka and Tampere, based on the original Red Guards that had been formed during 1905–1906 in Finland. The presence of the two opposing armed forces created a state of dual power and divided sovereignty on Finnish society.
Eventually, both political factions supported an independent Finland, despite strong disagreement over the composition of the nation's leadership. Nationalism had become a "civic religion" in Finland by the end of nineteenth century, but the goal during the general strike of 1905 was a return to the autonomy of 1809–1898, not full independence.
From 1899 to 1906, the movement became conclusively independent, shedding the paternalistic thinking of the Fennoman estates, and it was represented by the Finnish Social Democratic Party, established in 1899.
In an attempt to quell the general unrest, the system of estates was abolished in the Parliamentary Reform of 1906.
The party encompassed a higher proportion of the population than any other socialist movement in the world. The Reform of 1906 was a giant leap towards the political and social liberalisation of the common Finnish people because the Russian House of Romanov had been the most autocratic and conservative ruler in Europe.
The conservatives were alarmed by the continuous increase of the socialists' influence since 1899, which reached a climax in 1917. The "Law of Supreme Power" incorporated a plan by the socialists to substantially increase the authority of Parliament, as a reaction to the non-parliamentary and conservative leadership of the Finnish Senate between 1906 and 1916.
A section of the conservatives had always supported monarchy and opposed democracy; others had approved of parliamentarianism since the revolutionary reform of 1906, but after the crisis of 1917–1918, concluded that empowering the common people would not work.
Subsequently, during the more severe programme of Russification, called "the Second Period of Oppression" by the Finns, the Czar neutralised the power of the Finnish Parliament between 1908 and 1917.
International Encyclopedia of the First World War. Jalonen, Jussi: Tampere, Battle of, in: 1914-1918-online.
During World War I and the rise of Germanism, the pro-Swedish Svecomans began their covert collaboration with Imperial Germany and, from 1915 to 1917, a Jäger (jääkäri; jägar) battalion consisting of 1,900 Finnish volunteers was trained in Germany. ===Domestic politics=== The major reasons for rising political tensions among Finns were the autocratic rule of the Russian czar and the undemocratic class system of the estates of the realm.
Kjell Westö's epic novel "Where We Once Went" (Där vi en gång gått), published in 2006, deals with the period of 1915–1930 from both the Red and the White sides.
The Fennoman movement aimed to include the common people in a non-political role; the labour movement, youth associations and the temperance movement were initially led "from above". Between 1870 and 1916 industrialisation gradually improved social conditions and the self-confidence of workers, but while the standard of living of the common people rose in absolute terms, the rift between rich and poor deepened markedly.
Both factions collaborated with their equivalents in Russia, deepening the split in the nation. The Social Democratic Party gained an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections of 1916.
The conservatives were alarmed by the continuous increase of the socialists' influence since 1899, which reached a climax in 1917. The "Law of Supreme Power" incorporated a plan by the socialists to substantially increase the authority of Parliament, as a reaction to the non-parliamentary and conservative leadership of the Finnish Senate between 1906 and 1916.
Under the pressures of the Great War, the Russian Empire collapsed, leading to the February and October Revolutions in 1917.
During World War I and the rise of Germanism, the pro-Swedish Svecomans began their covert collaboration with Imperial Germany and, from 1915 to 1917, a Jäger (jääkäri; jägar) battalion consisting of 1,900 Finnish volunteers was trained in Germany. ===Domestic politics=== The major reasons for rising political tensions among Finns were the autocratic rule of the Russian czar and the undemocratic class system of the estates of the realm.
Finland's population grew rapidly in the nineteenth century (from 860,000 in 1810 to 3,130,000 in 1917), and a class of agrarian and industrial workers, as well as crofters, emerged over the period.
Subsequently, during the more severe programme of Russification, called "the Second Period of Oppression" by the Finns, the Czar neutralised the power of the Finnish Parliament between 1908 and 1917.
Overall domestic politics led to a contest for leadership of the Finnish state during the ten years before the collapse of the Russian Empire. ===February Revolution=== ====Build-up==== The Second Period of Russification was halted on 15 March 1917 by the February Revolution, which removed the czar, Nicholas II.
The Czar's power was transferred to the State Duma (Russian Parliament) and the right-wing Provisional Government, but this new authority was challenged by the Petrograd Soviet (city council), leading to dual power in the country. The autonomous status of 1809–1899 was returned to the Finns by the March 1917 manifesto of the Russian Provisional Government.
A new Senate was formed in March 1917 by Oskari Tokoi, but it did not reflect the socialists' large parliamentary majority: it comprised six social democrats and six non-socialists.
The conservatives were alarmed by the continuous increase of the socialists' influence since 1899, which reached a climax in 1917. The "Law of Supreme Power" incorporated a plan by the socialists to substantially increase the authority of Parliament, as a reaction to the non-parliamentary and conservative leadership of the Finnish Senate between 1906 and 1916.
They had been plotting a revolt against the Provisional Government since April 1917, and pro-Soviet demonstrations during the July Days brought matters to a head.
In the aftermath of these events, the "Law of Supreme Power" was overruled and the social democrats eventually backed down; more Russian troops were sent to Finland and, with the co-operation and insistence of the Finnish conservatives, Parliament was dissolved and new elections announced. In the October 1917 elections, the social democrats lost their absolute majority, which radicalised the labour movement and decreased support for moderate politics.
The crisis of July 1917 did not bring about the Red Revolution of January 1918 on its own, but together with political developments based on the commoners' interpretation of the ideas of Fennomania and socialism, the events favoured a Finnish revolution.
By late 1917, following the dissolution of Parliament, in the absence of a strong government and national armed forces, the security groups began assuming a broader and more paramilitary character.
The Workers' Order Guards (työväen järjestyskaartit; arbetarnas ordningsgardet) and the Red Guards (punakaartit; röda gardet) were recruited through the local social democratic party sections and from the labour unions. ===October Revolution=== The Bolsheviks' and Vladimir Lenin's October Revolution of 7 November 1917 transferred political power in Petrograd to the radical, left-wing socialists.
The German government's decision to arrange safe-conduct for Lenin and his comrades from exile in Switzerland to Petrograd in April 1917, was a success.
An armistice between Germany and the Bolshevik regime came into force on 6 December and peace negotiations began on 22 December 1917 at Brest-Litovsk. November 1917 became another watershed in the 1917–1918 rivalry for the leadership of Finland.
An agricultural worker was shot during a local strike on 9 August 1917 at Ypäjä and a Civil Guard member was killed in a local political crisis at Malmi on 24 September.
Parliament seized the sovereign power in Finland on 15 November 1917 based on the socialists' "Law of Supreme Power" and ratified their proposals of an eight-hour working day and universal suffrage in local elections, from July 1917. The purely non-socialist, conservative-led government of Pehr Evind Svinhufvud was appointed on 27 November.
This nomination was both a long-term aim of the conservatives and a response to the challenges of the labour movement during November 1917.
There were 149 Civil Guards on 31 August 1917 in Finland, counting local units and subsidiary White Guards in towns and rural communes; 251 on 30 September; 315 on 31 October; 380 on 30 November and 408 on 26 January 1918.
The first attempt at serious military training among the Guards was the establishment of a 200-strong cavalry school at the Saksanniemi estate in the vicinity of the town of Porvoo, in September 1917.
The vanguard of the Finnish Jägers and German weaponry arrived in Finland during October–November 1917 on the freighter and the German U-boat ; around 50 Jägers had returned by the end of 1917. After political defeats in July and October 1917, the social democrats put forward an uncompromising program called "We Demand" (Me vaadimme; Vi kräver) on 1 November, in order to push for political concessions.
They insisted upon a return to the political status before the dissolution of Parliament in July 1917, disbandment of the Civil Guards and elections to establish a Finnish Constituent Assembly.
The program failed and the socialists initiated a general strike during 14–19 November to increase political pressure on the conservatives, who had opposed the "Law of Supreme Power" and the parliamentary proclamation of sovereign power on 15 November. Revolution became the goal of the radicalised socialists after the loss of political control, and events in November 1917 offered momentum for a socialist uprising.
Lenin and in turn, he began to encourage the Finnish Bolsheviks in Petrograd. Among the labour movement, a more marked consequence of the events of 1917 was the rise of the Workers' Order Guards.
There were 20–60 separate guards between 31 August and 30 September 1917, but on 20 October, after defeat in parliamentary elections, the Finnish labour movement proclaimed the need to establish more worker units.
The announcement led to a rush of recruits: on 31 October the number of guards was 100–150; 342 on 30 November 1917 and 375 on 26 January 1918.
Since May 1917, the paramilitary organisations of the left had grown in two phases, the majority of them as Workers' Order Guards.
Eventually, the political rivalries of 1917 led to an arms race and an escalation towards civil war. ===Independence of Finland=== The disintegration of Russia offered Finns an historic opportunity to gain national independence.
The economic collapse of Russia and the power struggle of the Finnish state in 1917 were among the key factors that brought sovereignty to the fore in Finland. Svinhufvud's Senate introduced Finland's Declaration of Independence on 4 December 1917 and Parliament adopted it on 6 December.
The socialists, having been reluctant to enter talks with the Russian leadership in July 1917, sent two delegations to Petrograd to request that Lenin approve Finnish sovereignty. In December 1917, Lenin was under intense pressure from the Germans to conclude peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk and the Bolsheviks' rule was in crisis, with an inexperienced administration and the demoralised army facing powerful political and military opponents.
As a result, Svinhufvud's delegation won Lenin's concession of sovereignty on 31 December 1917. By the beginning of the Civil War, Austria-Hungary, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland had recognised Finnish independence.
A section of the conservatives had always supported monarchy and opposed democracy; others had approved of parliamentarianism since the revolutionary reform of 1906, but after the crisis of 1917–1918, concluded that empowering the common people would not work.
Finnish activists leaning on Germanism had been seeking German aid in freeing Finland from Soviet hegemony since late 1917, but because of the pressure they were facing at the Western Front, the Germans did not want to jeopardise their armistice and peace negotiations with the Soviet Union.
The monarchists leaned on the Swedish regime's 1772 monarchist constitution (accepted by Russia in 1809), belittled the Declaration of Independence of 1917, and proposed a modernised, monarchist constitution for Finland.
The republicans argued that the 1772 law lost validity in the February Revolution, that the authority of the Russian czar was assumed by the Finnish Parliament on 15 November 1917, and that the Republic of Finland had been adopted on 6 December that year.
After the power struggle of 1917 and the bloody civil war, the former Fennomans and the social democrats who had supported "ultra-democratic" means in Red Finland declared a commitment to revolutionary Bolshevism–communism and to the dictatorship of the proletariat, under the control of Lenin. In May 1918, a conservative-monarchist Senate was formed by J.
The Civil War and the aftermath diminished independence of Finland, compared to the status it had held at the turn of the year 1917–1918. The economic condition of Finland deteriorated drastically from 1918; recovery to pre-conflict levels was achieved only in 1925.
The most acute crisis was in food supply, already deficient in 1917, though large-scale starvation had been avoided that year.
Hoover arranged for the delivery of food shipments and persuaded the Allies to relax their blockade of the Baltic Sea, which had obstructed food supplies to Finland, and to allow food into the country. ===Compromise=== On 15 March 1917, the fate of Finns had been decided outside Finland, in Petrograd.
In the end, the power vacuum and interregnum of 1917–1919 gave way to the Finnish compromise.
Jenni Linturi's multilayered "Malmi 1917" (2013) describes contradictory emotions and attitudes in a village drifting towards civil war. Väinö Linna's trilogy turned the general tide, and after it, several books were written mainly from the Red viewpoint: The Tampere-trilogy by Erkki Lepokorpi in 1977; Juhani Syrjä's "Juho 18" in 1998; "The Command" (Käsky) by Leena Lander in 2003; and "Sandra" by Heidi Köngäs in 2017.
The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of Finland between White Finland and Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition from a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire to an independent state.
The Reds carried out an unsuccessful general offensive in February 1918, supplied with weapons by Soviet Russia.
Geopolitically less important than the continental Moscow–Warsaw gateway, Finland, isolated by the Baltic Sea was a peaceful side front until early 1918.
The crisis of July 1917 did not bring about the Red Revolution of January 1918 on its own, but together with political developments based on the commoners' interpretation of the ideas of Fennomania and socialism, the events favoured a Finnish revolution.
There were 149 Civil Guards on 31 August 1917 in Finland, counting local units and subsidiary White Guards in towns and rural communes; 251 on 30 September; 315 on 31 October; 380 on 30 November and 408 on 26 January 1918.
The announcement led to a rush of recruits: on 31 October the number of guards was 100–150; 342 on 30 November 1917 and 375 on 26 January 1918.
In turn, the Germans hastened Finland's separation from Russia so as to move the country to within their sphere of influence. ==Warfare== ===Escalation=== The final escalation towards war began in early January 1918, as each military or political action of the Reds or the Whites resulted in a corresponding counteraction by the other.
The first local battles were fought during 9–21 January 1918 in southern and southeastern Finland, mainly to win the arms race and to control Vyborg (Viipuri; Viborg). On 12 January 1918, Parliament authorised the Svinhufvud Senate to establish internal order and discipline on behalf of the state.
White troops tried to capture the shipment: 20–30 Finns, Red and White, died in the Battle of Kämärä at the Karelian Isthmus on 27 January 1918.
The elimination of these strongholds was a priority for both armies in February 1918. Red Finland was led by the People's Delegation (kansanvaltuuskunta; folkdelegationen), established on 28 January 1918 in Helsinki.
A Red-initiated Finno–Russian treaty and peace agreement was signed on 1 March 1918, where Red Finland was called the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Suomen sosialistinen työväentasavalta; Finlands socialistiska arbetarrepublik).
The significance of the Russo–Finnish Treaty evaporated quickly due to the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between the Bolsheviks and the German Empire on 3 March 1918. Lenin's policy on the right of nations to self-determination aimed at preventing the disintegration of Russia during the period of military weakness.
The Finnish Bolsheviks, influential, though few in number, favoured annexation of Finland by Russia. The government of White Finland, Pehr Evind Svinhufvud's first senate, was called the Vaasa Senate after its relocation to the safer west-coast city of Vaasa, which acted as the capital of the Whites from 29 January to 3 May 1918.
The Whites captured Haapamäki at the end of January 1918, leading to the Battle of Vilppula. ====Red Guards and Soviet troops==== The Finnish Red Guards seized the early initiative in the war by taking control of Helsinki on 28 January 1918 and by undertaking a general offensive lasting from February till early March 1918.
The common troops were more or less armed civilians, whose military training, discipline and combat morale were both inadequate and low. Ali Aaltonen was replaced on 28 January 1918 by Eero Haapalainen as commander-in-chief.
The Reds achieved some local victories as they retreated from southern Finland toward Russia, such as against German troops in the Battle of Syrjäntaka on 28–29 April in Tuulos. Around 50,000 of the former czar's army troops were stationed in Finland in January 1918.
The majority of the troops returned to Russia by the end of March 1918.
On 30 January 1918, Mannerheim proclaimed to Russian soldiers in Finland that the White Army did not fight against Russia, but that the objective of the White campaign was to beat the Finnish Reds and the Soviet troops supporting them. The number of Soviet soldiers active in the civil war declined markedly once Germany attacked Russia on 18 February 1918.
The majority of the unit arrived in Vaasa on 25 February 1918.
White Guard leaders faced a similar problem when drafting young men to the army in February 1918: 30,000 obvious supporters of the Finnish labour movement never showed up.
In February 1918, the Swedish Navy escorted the German naval squadron transporting Finnish Jägers and German weapons and allowed it to pass through Swedish territorial waters.
The weakness of Finland offered Sweden a chance to take over the geopolitically vital Finnish Åland Islands, east of Stockholm, but the German army's Finland operation stalled this plan. ====German intervention==== In March 1918, the German Empire intervened in the Finnish Civil War on the side of the White Army.
The offensive led to a rapid collapse of the Soviet forces and to the signing of the first Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the Bolsheviks on 3 March 1918.
The Finnish Civil War opened a low-cost access route to Fennoscandia, where the geopolitical status was altered as a British Naval squadron invaded the Soviet harbour of Murmansk by the Arctic Ocean on 9 March 1918.
The leader of the German war effort, General Erich Ludendorff, wanted to keep Petrograd under threat of attack via the Vyborg-Narva area and to install a German-led monarchy in Finland. On 5 March 1918, a German naval squadron landed on the Åland Islands (in mid-February 1918, the islands had been occupied by a Swedish military expedition, which departed from there in May).
On 3 April 1918, the 10,000-strong Baltic Sea Division (Ostsee-Division), led by General Rüdiger von der Goltz, launched the main attack at Hanko, west of Helsinki.
The final blow to the cause of the Finnish Reds was dealt when the Bolsheviks broke off the peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, leading to the German eastern offensive in February 1918. ===Decisive engagements=== ====Battle of Tampere==== In February 1918, General Mannerheim deliberated on where to focus the general offensive of the Whites.
He launched the main assault on 16 March 1918, at Längelmäki north-east of the town, through the right flank of the Reds' defence.
The fight for the area of Tampere began on 28 March, on the eve of Easter 1918, later called "Bloody Maundy Thursday", in the Kalevankangas cemetery.
The battle ended 6 April 1918 with the surrender of Red forces in the Pyynikki and Pispala sections of Tampere. The Reds, now on the defensive, showed increased motivation to fight during the battle.
The White Army lost 700–900 men, including 50 Jägers, the highest number of deaths the Jäger battalion suffered in a single battle of the 1918 war.
The eastern parts of the city, consisting mostly of wooden buildings, were completely destroyed. ====Battle of Helsinki==== After peace talks between Germans and the Finnish Reds were broken off on 11 April 1918, the battle for the capital of Finland began.
The German army celebrated the victory with a military parade in the centre of Helsinki on 14 April 1918. ====Battle of Lahti==== On 19 April 1918, Detachment Brandenstein took over the town of Lahti.
Local engagements broke out in the town and the surrounding area between 22 April and 1 May 1918 as several thousand western Red Guards and Red civilian refugees tried to push through on their way to Russia.
The Reds' defence collapsed gradually, and eventually the Whites conquered Patterinmäki—the Reds' symbolic last stand of the 1918 uprising—in the early hours of 29 April 1918.
In February 1918, a Desk of Securing Occupied Areas was implemented by the highest-ranking White staff, and the White troops were given Instructions for Wartime Judicature, later called the Shoot on the Spot Declaration.
The two major centres for Red Terror were Toijala and Kouvola, where 300–350 Whites were executed between February and April 1918. The White Guards executed Red Guard and party leaders, Red troops, socialist members of the Finnish Parliament and local Red administrators, and those active in implementing Red Terror.
Comprehensive White Terror started with their general offensive in March 1918 and increased constantly.
Together with the harsh prison-camp treatment of the Reds during 1918, the executions inflicted the deepest mental scars on the Finns, regardless of their political allegiance.
Some of those who carried out the killings were traumatised, a phenomenon that was later documented. ===End=== On 8 April 1918, after the defeat in Tampere and the German army intervention, the People's Delegation retreated from Helsinki to Vyborg.
The war of 1918 ended on 15 May 1918, when the Whites took over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from the Russian troops.
White Finland and General Mannerheim celebrated the victory with a large military parade in Helsinki on 16 May 1918. The Red Guards had been defeated.
The Vaasa Senate returned to Helsinki on 4 May 1918, but the capital was under the control of the German army.
Legislation making provision for a Treason Court (valtiorikosoikeus; domstolen för statsförbrytelser) was enacted on 29 May 1918.
The physical and mental condition of the prisoners declined in May 1918.
Moreover, 700 severely weakened prisoners died soon after release from the camps. Most prisoners were paroled or pardoned by the end of 1918, after a shift in the political situation.
The Social Democratic Party had its first official party meeting after the Civil War on 25 December 1918, at which the party proclaimed a commitment to parliamentary means and disavowed Bolshevism and communism.
The leaders of Red Finland, who had fled to Russia, established the Communist Party of Finland in Moscow on 29 August 1918.
After the power struggle of 1917 and the bloody civil war, the former Fennomans and the social democrats who had supported "ultra-democratic" means in Red Finland declared a commitment to revolutionary Bolshevism–communism and to the dictatorship of the proletariat, under the control of Lenin. In May 1918, a conservative-monarchist Senate was formed by J.
3 March 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and 7 March German-Finnish agreements bound White Finland to the German Empire's sphere of influence.
The Civil War weakened the Finnish Parliament; it became a Rump Parliament that included only three socialist representatives. On 9 October 1918, under pressure from Germany, the Senate and Parliament elected a German prince, Friedrich Karl, the brother-in-law of German Emperor William II, to become the King of Finland.
The Civil War and the aftermath diminished independence of Finland, compared to the status it had held at the turn of the year 1917–1918. The economic condition of Finland deteriorated drastically from 1918; recovery to pre-conflict levels was achieved only in 1925.
Late in 1918, Finnish politician Rudolf Holsti appealed for relief to Herbert Hoover, the American chairman of the Committee for Relief in Belgium.
On 11 November 1918, the future of the nation was determined in Berlin, as a result of Germany's surrender to end World War I.
The German Empire collapsed in the German Revolution of 1918–19, caused by lack of food, war-weariness and defeat in the battles of the Western Front.
General Rüdiger von der Goltz and his division left Helsinki on 16 December 1918, and Prince Friedrich Karl, who had not yet been crowned, abandoned his role four days later.
The new system of government was confirmed by the Constitution Act (Suomen hallitusmuoto; regeringsform för Finland) on 17 July 1919. The first local elections based on universal suffrage in Finland were held during 17–28 December 1918, and the first free parliamentary election took place after the Civil War on 3 March 1919.
His party colleague, Kyösti Kallio urged in his Nivala address of 5 May 1918: "We must rebuild a Finnish nation, which is not divided into the Reds and Whites.
Koskenniemi in "Young Anthony" (Nuori Anssi) in 1918.
The war tales of the Reds were kept silent. The first neutrally critical books were written soon after the war, notably, "Devout Misery" (Hurskas kurjuus) written by the Nobel Prize laureate Frans Emil Sillanpää in 1919; "Dead Apple Trees" (Kuolleet omenapuut) by Joel Lehtonen in 1918; and "Homecoming" (Hemkomsten) by Runar Schildt in 1919.
Lauri Viita's book "Scrambled Ground" (Moreeni) from 1950 presented the life and experiences of a worker family in the Tampere of 1918, including a point of view from outsiders to the Civil War. Between 1959 and 1962, Väinö Linna described in his trilogy "Under the North Star" (Täällä Pohjantähden alla) the Civil War and World War II from the viewpoint of the common people.
Part II of Linna's work opened a larger view of these events and included tales of the Reds in the 1918 war.
At the same time, a new outlook on the war was opened by Paavo Haavikko's book "Private Matters" (Yksityisiä asioita), Veijo Meri's "The Events of 1918" (Vuoden 1918 tapahtumat) and Paavo Rintala's "My Grandmother and Mannerheim" (Mummoni ja Mannerheim), all published in 1960.
Westö's book "Mirage 38" (Hägring 38) from 2013, describes post-war traumas of the 1918 war and Finnish mentality in the 1930s.
As early as 1957, 1918, a film directed by Toivo Särkkä and based on Jarl Hemmer's play and novel A Man and His Conscience, was screened at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival.
However, perhaps the most famous film about the Finnish Civil War is the 1968 film Here, Beneath the North Star, directed by Edvin Laine and based on the first two books of Väinö Linna's Under the North Star trilogy. In 2012, the dramatized documentary Dead or Alive 1918 (or The Battle of Näsilinna 1918; Taistelu Näsilinnasta 1918) was made, which tells the story of the Battle of Tampere during the Civil War.
There were 6,100 Red prisoners left at the end of the year and 4,000 at the end of 1919.
The new system of government was confirmed by the Constitution Act (Suomen hallitusmuoto; regeringsform för Finland) on 17 July 1919. The first local elections based on universal suffrage in Finland were held during 17–28 December 1918, and the first free parliamentary election took place after the Civil War on 3 March 1919.
The United States and the United Kingdom recognised Finnish sovereignty on 6–7 May 1919.
The war tales of the Reds were kept silent. The first neutrally critical books were written soon after the war, notably, "Devout Misery" (Hurskas kurjuus) written by the Nobel Prize laureate Frans Emil Sillanpää in 1919; "Dead Apple Trees" (Kuolleet omenapuut) by Joel Lehtonen in 1918; and "Homecoming" (Hemkomsten) by Runar Schildt in 1919.
In January 1920, 3,000 prisoners were pardoned and civil rights were returned to 40,000 former Reds.
The Civil War and the aftermath diminished independence of Finland, compared to the status it had held at the turn of the year 1917–1918. The economic condition of Finland deteriorated drastically from 1918; recovery to pre-conflict levels was achieved only in 1925.
In 1927, the Social Democratic Party government led by Väinö Tanner pardoned the last 50 prisoners.
In poetry, Bertel Gripenberg, who had volunteered for the White Army, celebrated its cause in "The Great Age" (Den stora tiden) in 1928 and V.
Westö's book "Mirage 38" (Hägring 38) from 2013, describes post-war traumas of the 1918 war and Finnish mentality in the 1930s.
These were followed by Jarl Hemmer in 1931 with the book "A Man and His Conscience" (En man och hans samvete) and Oiva Paloheimo in 1942 with "Restless Childhood" (Levoton lapsuus).
These were followed by Jarl Hemmer in 1931 with the book "A Man and His Conscience" (En man och hans samvete) and Oiva Paloheimo in 1942 with "Restless Childhood" (Levoton lapsuus).
Lauri Viita's book "Scrambled Ground" (Moreeni) from 1950 presented the life and experiences of a worker family in the Tampere of 1918, including a point of view from outsiders to the Civil War. Between 1959 and 1962, Väinö Linna described in his trilogy "Under the North Star" (Täällä Pohjantähden alla) the Civil War and World War II from the viewpoint of the common people.
As early as 1957, 1918, a film directed by Toivo Särkkä and based on Jarl Hemmer's play and novel A Man and His Conscience, was screened at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival.
Lauri Viita's book "Scrambled Ground" (Moreeni) from 1950 presented the life and experiences of a worker family in the Tampere of 1918, including a point of view from outsiders to the Civil War. Between 1959 and 1962, Väinö Linna described in his trilogy "Under the North Star" (Täällä Pohjantähden alla) the Civil War and World War II from the viewpoint of the common people.
At the same time, a new outlook on the war was opened by Paavo Haavikko's book "Private Matters" (Yksityisiä asioita), Veijo Meri's "The Events of 1918" (Vuoden 1918 tapahtumat) and Paavo Rintala's "My Grandmother and Mannerheim" (Mummoni ja Mannerheim), all published in 1960.
Lauri Viita's book "Scrambled Ground" (Moreeni) from 1950 presented the life and experiences of a worker family in the Tampere of 1918, including a point of view from outsiders to the Civil War. Between 1959 and 1962, Väinö Linna described in his trilogy "Under the North Star" (Täällä Pohjantähden alla) the Civil War and World War II from the viewpoint of the common people.
In poetry, Viljo Kajava, who had experienced the Battle of Tampere at the age of nine, presented a pacifist view of the Civil War in his "Poems of Tampere" (Tampereen runot) in 1966.
However, perhaps the most famous film about the Finnish Civil War is the 1968 film Here, Beneath the North Star, directed by Edvin Laine and based on the first two books of Väinö Linna's Under the North Star trilogy. In 2012, the dramatized documentary Dead or Alive 1918 (or The Battle of Näsilinna 1918; Taistelu Näsilinnasta 1918) was made, which tells the story of the Battle of Tampere during the Civil War.
The Finnish government paid reparations to 11,600 prisoners in 1973.
Jenni Linturi's multilayered "Malmi 1917" (2013) describes contradictory emotions and attitudes in a village drifting towards civil war. Väinö Linna's trilogy turned the general tide, and after it, several books were written mainly from the Red viewpoint: The Tampere-trilogy by Erkki Lepokorpi in 1977; Juhani Syrjä's "Juho 18" in 1998; "The Command" (Käsky) by Leena Lander in 2003; and "Sandra" by Heidi Köngäs in 2017.
Jenni Linturi's multilayered "Malmi 1917" (2013) describes contradictory emotions and attitudes in a village drifting towards civil war. Väinö Linna's trilogy turned the general tide, and after it, several books were written mainly from the Red viewpoint: The Tampere-trilogy by Erkki Lepokorpi in 1977; Juhani Syrjä's "Juho 18" in 1998; "The Command" (Käsky) by Leena Lander in 2003; and "Sandra" by Heidi Köngäs in 2017.
Jenni Linturi's multilayered "Malmi 1917" (2013) describes contradictory emotions and attitudes in a village drifting towards civil war. Väinö Linna's trilogy turned the general tide, and after it, several books were written mainly from the Red viewpoint: The Tampere-trilogy by Erkki Lepokorpi in 1977; Juhani Syrjä's "Juho 18" in 1998; "The Command" (Käsky) by Leena Lander in 2003; and "Sandra" by Heidi Köngäs in 2017.
Kjell Westö's epic novel "Where We Once Went" (Där vi en gång gått), published in 2006, deals with the period of 1915–1930 from both the Red and the White sides.
The same battle is described in the novel "Corpse Bearer" (Kylmien kyytimies) by Antti Tuuri from 2007.
The most recent films about the civil war include the 2007 film The Border, directed by Lauri Törhönen, and the 2008 film Tears of April, directed by Aku Louhimies and based on Leena Lander's novel The Command.
The most recent films about the civil war include the 2007 film The Border, directed by Lauri Törhönen, and the 2008 film Tears of April, directed by Aku Louhimies and based on Leena Lander's novel The Command.
However, perhaps the most famous film about the Finnish Civil War is the 1968 film Here, Beneath the North Star, directed by Edvin Laine and based on the first two books of Väinö Linna's Under the North Star trilogy. In 2012, the dramatized documentary Dead or Alive 1918 (or The Battle of Näsilinna 1918; Taistelu Näsilinnasta 1918) was made, which tells the story of the Battle of Tampere during the Civil War.
Westö's book "Mirage 38" (Hägring 38) from 2013, describes post-war traumas of the 1918 war and Finnish mentality in the 1930s.
Jenni Linturi's multilayered "Malmi 1917" (2013) describes contradictory emotions and attitudes in a village drifting towards civil war. Väinö Linna's trilogy turned the general tide, and after it, several books were written mainly from the Red viewpoint: The Tampere-trilogy by Erkki Lepokorpi in 1977; Juhani Syrjä's "Juho 18" in 1998; "The Command" (Käsky) by Leena Lander in 2003; and "Sandra" by Heidi Köngäs in 2017.
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