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The Red Guards (Finnish: Punakaarti) formed the army of Red Finland during the Finnish Civil War in 1918. The combined strength of the Red Guard was about 30,000 at the beginning of the Civil War, and peaked at 90,000-120,000 during the course of the conflict. The leadership of the Red Guards altered during the war: Ali Aaltonen, Eero Haapalainen, Eino Rahja and in the end Kullervo Manner. The government of Red Finland was called "The People's Deputation". The Red Guards were in power from 28th January to the end of April 1918 in South Finland. The Red Guards' general staff were located in Helsinki; the other major cities controlled by the Red forces were Tampere, Turku, Pori and Viipuri, and during the civil war there were over 15,000 men and women enlisted in the Red Guards, under the command of Red leaders Hugo Salmela and Eino Rahja, a famous bolshevist and Lenin's bodyguard. Red Tampere came to its end on 5th March, 1918 after bloody battles when Mannerheim's White Guards conquered the city. Thousands of Red Guards were imprisoned, hundreds of them were executed and the rest were transported to POW camps. Helsinki was in White control by April 12th, 1918.
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