Topic of today is quite an important thing, the Independece of Finland.
After the Finnish War 1808-09 (part of the Napoleonic wars) Grand Duchy of Finland was an autonomous part of Russia. Finns were not entirely happy with their situation and there were ideas of independence every now and then. The culmination was the World War 1 and Russian Revolution, which after several twists and turns lead to the declaration of independence on 6th of December 1917. First countries to recognize the independece were Russian Soviet Federation (led by Vladimir Lenin), France, Sweden and German Empire Janury 4th 1918. German Empire was involved in the independence process, mainly opposing Russia.
As I wrote, there were no war for independence, but it was a long process and political parties were not in consensus how to proceed. The nation was divided in two parties, especially after the independence usually called Whites and Reds. Whites were the official representativies of Finland, usually richer, upper class and more or less supported by Germans, while the Reds were the common folk, poorer, lower class and supported by Soviet Russia. Shortly after the declaration the government was not strong enough and a civil war was started, brother fighting brother. The war has many names, Red Rebellion, Civil War, Freedom War, Events of 1918 and so on, depending how objective or subjective you are/were and on which side you were.
The sides were quite equal, 80 000 to 90 000 on each side, but German support was stronger than Russian and after four bloody months the Whites won. Roughly 36 000 died or went missing in total, over 13 000 died on prison camps and almost 10 000 were executed. Both sides were quilty on many crimes and the nation was strongly divided for a long time, several decades in fact. Only recently (100 years later) there has been more open and objective discussion and research on this very sensitive subject. Future president C.G.E. Mannerheim was the commander of White army, having gained experience in Imperial Russian Army in Russo-Japanese War and on Eastern Front of WW1.
How all this affected World War 2 and Winter War, please return next week!
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| The Maiden of Finland and the blue and white flag (1906) |
--- In Other News ---
Again there are some posts from terrific Thursday group and again most of the snow has melted. And my nine year old son made a monthly visit to the local library yesterday and got himself of children's storybook (perfectly suitable for his age) and a book titled "World War I" (I translated the title for you). I hope I have some meaningful discussions in the near future... :)
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