Download Sisällissota 1918

Civil War 1918
Causes of the Civil War
Lack of policing authority
The Russian authorities in Finland crumbled after the Russian revolution in March. Finland did not have its
own police or military service, so authority was transferred to the local level in villages and towns. Civil
Guards and Workers’ Guards, set up from spring 1917 onwards, gradually took their diverging stands on the
main social issues. Thus, two power-wielding authorities appeared in Finland.
Daily problems
The First World War was evident in Finland, among other things as a shortage of food. After the March
revolution in particular, grain imports from Russia died out. In addition, devaluation, price inflation and
growing unemployment generated uncertainty, which caused anger and fear in the population, especially the
less privileged classes.
Emergency Powers Act and elections
To the workers’ great joy, the socialists won the 1916 parliamentary elections. The socialist majority in
Parliament was working towards national independence and approved an emergency powers act that
transferred the emperor’s domestic powers to the Parliament. The temporary Russian government had no
concern for the new law and dismantled the Finnish Parliament in summer 1917. In the next elections, the
socialists were left in opposition. Embittered, they proclaimed the new Parliament unlawful.
October Revolution
The Bolshevik revolution of October 1917 had immediate effects on Finland. November saw a general strike
that escalated into violence and made a proletarian revolution a genuine threat for the bourgeoisie. The need
for a revolution was the stance of the most radical socialists. A workers’ revolution was also Lenin's hope in
recognising Finland’s independence on new year's eve 1917.
Strikes and demonstrations
The workers and bourgeois alike were shaken by several strikes and demonstrations during 1917. In addition to
November’s general strike, there were up to 500 other industrial actions. Their main demands included the
eight-hour workday, increased employment and the freedom of tenant farmers. The strikes contributed to
social unrest and to the society’s belief in the united power of the working classes.
A people divided in twain
Finland had long been a class society, in which the gulf between the gentility and the working population was
deep. The division deepened further during 1917 when diverse political, military and economic problems had a
very concrete impact on citizens. Eventually, it was questions concerning the exercise of power that finally
tore Finns apart.
War breaks out
The situation that had gradually become inflamed during 1917 exploded in January 1918. Both factions were
feverishly gathering weapons and a conflict was inevitable. Finland’s bourgeois Senate declared on 25 January
that the Civil Guards were the new Finnish Army and appointed C.G.E. Mannerheim as the Commander-inChief. The Red Guards did not approve. The Civil War began when the Reds took over Helsinki on 27–28
January 1918.
Consequences of the Civil War
Life amid hatred
Hatred was rife after the civil war. The Whites responded to the Reds’ wartime actions with a series of
punishments known as the White Terror. The terror led to the death of 1,424 Whites, 7,370 Reds and 926
civilians. The Red Terror during the war had consisted mainly of random violence, whereas the White Terror
involved the systematic cleansing of conquered areas, using field court-martials, executions and mass graves.
Refugees
Some 10,000 Red Guards and their relatives fled from the lost war and the White authority to Soviet Russia.
Some continued to fight in the Russian Civil War with the Bolsheviks, others were enlisted by the British
Army. Verner Lehtimäki led the Murmansk Legion, which fought in British uniform – for instance against
Finnish government troops arriving in White Karelia.
Prison camps
After the war, the Whites maintained prison camps around Finland, containing at worst around 74,000
prisoners. Camp conditions were inhumane, and malnutrition and disease claimed more than 11,000 lives.
Some died after their release from the camps, due to overeating once they reached their homes after being
starved.
Political change
The Civil War was a turning point for Finnish politics. White Finland wielded the highest power, both
politically and spiritually. The workers who had not been involved in the war restarted the Social Democratic
Party following the line of moderate socialism. The revolutionaries who had fled to Soviet Russia, on the other
hand, established the Communist Party of Finland, cooperating closely with the Bolsheviks.
Postwar life
Life in Finland was difficult after the war. Countless families had been broken, nearly 37,000 had died and
there were around 20,000 war orphans. The country had been further impoverished and the World War had
caused severe food shortages. The traumatic experience of war made the country’s dichotomy even sharper
and longer-lasting.
People and phenomena
The fate of a cobbler
Cobbler Aleksanteri Kataja was convicted for aiding and abetting high treason and for involvement in a robbery
made during the revolt. According to the minutes of the war crimes court, Kataja had joined the Guard for
financial reasons and had not taken part in battles but worked in the army’s clothing provision. He was
suspected of having masterminded the looting of a shoe factory. Petitions made by his wife Anni Kataja and
others were rejected, even though Kataja’s landlord vouched for the shoemaker's decency and honesty.
Children’s war
One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Finnish Civil War was the low average age of the troops on both
sides of the front. One in four of the fallen soldiers was aged under 20. The youngest Red Guard killed in
battle was aged only nine. Child soldiers were not regarded as morally dubious; rather, they were glorified for
their heroism.
Flying divisions
The flying divisions were shock and reconnaissance forces used on both sides of the front. Usually they
consisted of groups of boys, all from a local village, who had local knowledge and motivation for carrying out
reconnaissance and battles in the area. The flying divisions often cleaned up after the main troops had moved
on to their next destination, and executed prisoners. The youngest members were only 13–14 years old.
War orphans
The civil war split even orphans into two camps: those from the White side were granted a pension, but Red
orphans were left to subsist on relief for the poor. White Finland wanted to re-educate the Red orphans, and
hundreds of children were sent to Ostrobothnia and to foster homes that would provide a patriotic and
religious education. Local governments, parishes, charities, private individuals and workers’ associations
looked after civil war orphans all the way up to the 1930s.
[picture]: Red orphanage maintained by the Finnish Workers’ Youth on Enonsaari in Lahti, in 1928.
War invalids
A law on pensions for war invalids, designated the “Debt of Honour” was passed already in 1919 to repay
disabled White war veterans for their loss of income and to maintain their social status. Veterans on the losing
side, Reds, were not covered by the law. According to bourgeois members of parliament, the Red invalids’
disabilities were due to subversive activity that did not entitle them to compensation. Pensions were not
granted to Red invalids until the 1940s.
Women of the Red Guards
Women participated in the Red Guards, both in armed and unarmed service, in civilian administration, in
service and medical troops, and on revolutionary boards and committees. Some ten percent of the active Red
women were killed during the war or executed afterwards. The fact that they dressed in trousers caused
confusion on the opposing side and gave rise to myths regarding the Red women’s sexual insatiability.
Women of the White Guards
The White side did not approve of women taking to arms. However, their women looked after most of the
Civil Guards’ services, provisioning and nursing. Some White women undertook intelligence activities or
acted as scribes for the field court-martials.
Red Cross
Women who worked as war nurses were identified by an armband bearing a red cross. However, after the
war, Red nurses were sentenced for supporting revolutionary activity, because the Red Guards’ medical
service was not subject to the official Red Cross, as the White side had been. Some women who had been
nurses before the war were freed, but those trained by the Red Guards were convicted as criminals.
War epidemics
The population was exposed to new viruses and bacteria carried by the troops and prisoners from one area to
another. Some of the most fateful diseases were the Spanish Flu, smallpox, scarlet fever and diphtheria, which
spread particularly during the large-scale prisoners’ transfer of spring 1918. In wartime, access to food,
vaccinations and medicines was limited. Most of the lives claimed by disease were due to lack of medication or
the difficulty of recovering due to poor nutrition.
[picture]: Patients of the Hämeenlinna Garrison hospital.
Prison camp memorabilia
We are still reminded of the prison camps by keepsakes built by the prisoners during their time there, such as
wooden crosses, jewellery boxes, carved spoons and picture frames, and by postcards sent from camp. Police
Commissioner Armas Lumme from Pori built a scale model of a ship at the Turku County Prison in 1920-21.
Memorials and monuments
From trauma to historic event
The traumas of the Civil War have been passed on from one generation to the next, all the way to modern
times. Although for many families it is still important to recall the events of 1918, things are not quite as redand-white as they were. Most Red and White families have continued to live side by side, and they have also
intermingled. The national grief has become a part of the history of local districts and families.
Passing on stories
In the time after the war, it was an important part of the losing side's culture to tell horror stories and fables.
The workers’ tales recalled heroic rebels and defiant women defending their families, as well as innocent
victims of war and cruel landlords who refused to help their workers. The need for such narration only began
to abate in the 1960s.
Memorial events
Rituals such as laying wreaths on graves are used by people to reinforce their views and to take a stand on the
whatever the ritual symbolises. If a monument is not linked to a story or a ritual, it fades into the landscape and
is eventually disregarded.
White history
For half a century, the official account of the war was the White one. White victory ceremonies were held
annually, but gathering at Red graves was long forbidden and any literature on the class war was confiscated.
The Second World War created a sense of national unity that changed the nature of remembrance. The Red
faction was allowed to erect its own memorials and the Whites gave up on their public celebrations of the
“liberation”. A real turning point in the public handling of the civil war did not take place until the 1960s,
however.
The many names of the war
The events of 1918 have been known by many names in Finland, reflecting the social and political contexts of
the time or the user's ideology. The Finnish Civil War has become established as the most neutral and
internationally understandable term. Most historic terms used for the war, including "Red Revolt",
"Revolution", "Winter of Rebellion", "War of Liberation”, “Class War” and “War of Brothers” are tinged with
partiality in one way or another.
Memorial of the Ekenäs Red Prison Camp in 2008
Finnish President Tarja Halonen took part in the 90th anniversary memorial of the Red prisoners’ camp in
Ekenäs in 2008. The matter caused a stir, because the President had not attended the memorial of a White
historical society earlier in the same year. The President blamed the choice on scheduling issues but was
criticised for partisanship and for honouring the memory of armed revolutionaries.
Memorial for the capture of Tampere
Some of the traumas of the civil war were processed in Tampere during the “One Day in Tampere, 1918”
event held in 2008. A memorial procession and historical re-enactments carried out by theatrical groups
attracted more than ten thousand attendees. The live re-enactments made it possible to experience and
remember some of the events of the past. Although the past can never fully be replicated and modern man can
never experience war in the way that it was then, the event was educational, detraumatising and cathartic.