User:RelHistBuff/sandbox/FCW
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Finnish Civil War | |||||||
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 Finnish Jägers in Vaasa after returning from Germany. |
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Whites: White Guards, German Empire, Swedish volunteers |
Reds: Red Guards, Bolshevist Russia |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim | Ali Aaltonen, Eero Haapalainen, Eino Rahja, Kullervo Manner |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 80,000-90,000, 550 Swedish volunteers, 13,000 Germans[1] |
80,000-90,000, 4,000-10,000 Russians[1] |
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| Casualties | |||||||
| 3,414 killed in action, 1,400-1,650 executed, 46 missing[2] |
5,199 killed in action, 7,000-9,000 executed, 2,000 missing, 11,000-13,000 dead in prison camps[2] |
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The Finnish Civil War was a part of the First World War (1914-1918) and the Russian Revolution of 1917. The war was fought from January 27, 1918 to May 15, 1918, between Finland's Social Democrats—commonly called the "Reds" (punaiset) led by the Red Peoples Delegation of Finland—and the "Whites" (valkoiset), who were forces commanded by the conservative Senate. The Reds were supported by Bolshevist Russia, while the Whites received military assistance from the German Empire and Swedish volunteers, both as troops and weapons. All these nations had economical, political and military interests in Finland. The Whites were the victors and the Reds lost the war. A result of the war was that the hegemony of Russia was diminished in Finland, but the country was bound to the German Empire during the war and the political system was transferred to monarchy. Finland eventually became an independent, democratic republic after the German Empire lost the First World War. As internal wars in general, the Civil War has been the most controversial and emotionally loaded event in the history of modern Finland. Approx. 37,000 people died (1 % of the total population) during the conflict, in the fronts of the war and moreover due to political terror and high prison camp mortality. The turmoil collapsed the economy, split the political apparatus and devided the Finnish nation for several years. The nation was slowly united by a compromize between moderate political groups on the Left and Right. The Civil war is the only conflict in the history of Finland that has caused a major dispute even of the name of the war. [3]
Finland had been a northwestern part of the Russian Empire since 1809, autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, led by the Russian tsar and priviliged, Finnish estates with no democratic wrights for the common people. The strongly polarized political and social structure began to alter due to industrial revolution and rapid growth of population during the nineteenth century. It forced the old establishment to allow economical freedom and initiated rise of new, mainly Finnish speaking, working and middle classes. Their standard of living, schooling and self-confidence rose slowly but steadily, nationalism, socialism and liberalism serving as the political tools. All this resulted in a pressure for changes in the political system as well. At first it seemed that the problems were solved by the general strike of 1905 (due to defeat of Russia in the Russian-Japanese war). However, the Tsar could still regain his power and in practice withdraw the power of the new Finnish parliament (established in 1906) based on exeptionally broad universal suffrage.
Parallel to this coarse of development, the Russian Empire faced heavy pressure from the other European mights, the power policy resulting finally in the First World War in 1914. Already before the war the Finno-Russian relations had ended up in crisis as the Russian leaders aimed at unifying the large Empire because of the increasing foreign threats. This led to decrease of the Finnish autonomy, resulting in a unite opposition by the Finns and the first serious plans for the sovereignty of Finland. In the end, the defeat in the World War caused a total collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, in the February and October revolutions. The destruction of the mother country resulted in a corresponding breakdown of the Finnish society during 1917. As the Russian and Finnish state and their organizations lost the grip, all the pressures between the old regime and the new political groups became open, causing a heavy battle for political power, without compromizes, breaking the society further.
The Social Democrats on the left and Conservatives on the right were the major opponents competing for the leadership of the Finnish state that based now on the true power of the parliament from 1906 and senate. Both groups collaborated with the corresponding political forces of Russia, thus enhancing the split of the nation. In addition, there were economical problems such as unemployment and lack of food increasing the fewer within the Finns. The destruction of Russia offered the Finns a historical possibility to gain sovereignty. However, the national split turned the idea of independency to a means of reaching leadership of the state. Finally, Finland got sovereignty on December 6 1917 as the Conservative senate urged for separation from the Bolsevist regime of the new Soviet-Russia. The Social Democrats supported the senate due to the fear of loosing support among the nationalistic common people and hoping to reach a political majority later.
Although there were several internal attempts to form new order in the society by the leading groups, the political battle escalated to deepening crisis. As there were no commonly accepted police or other organizations for controlling the order in the society since March 1917, the major political groups began to build their own local security forces. The weakness or lack of governmental power gave increasing room to these organizations. Finally this resulted in formation of two separate armed military troops, the White and Red Guards with a circle of growing fear, feelings of threat and violence among the Finns. By the beginning of the year 1918 a "dual power" and "multiple sovereignty" had been formed in Finland and the Guards had become independent means of power. The bloody internal war was induced after the White Guard was ordered to be the official army in the country and the Red guards did not approve this.
