Civil war in Finland and the genocide of the Russian population. How "Red Finland" perished
Some St Petersburg University historians believe that the White-Finnish terror of 1918 was the cause of the White and Red Terror* in the Civil War. In the newspapers of Petrograd, these events were widely covered according to the words of Russians of all classes who fled from the extermination from the Principality of Finland.
Here is what a Russian émigré writer wrote about this I.S. Shmelev-
“... In the 18th year, they,” Ivan Sergeevich wrote about the Finns, “destroyed, shot from above 10 thousand white Russian officers! Yes, sir! And they showed a fig to General Yudenich: we do not want to help against the Bolsheviks. Yes, and there are more. Now they have tasted the fruits of their planting.”**
The first information about the massive White Terror can be logically attributed to April-June 1918. This period can be characterized as the beginning of the frontal stage of the civil war and, therefore, as new round mutual bitterness. First of all, one should note the bloody suppression of the communist revolution in Finland and its coverage in the Soviet press.
The "experience" of Finland is interesting in that it preceded the Russian experience of terror and was one of the reasons for the bitterness of the civil war in Russia on both sides..
If in Finland during the civil war military and civilian losses on both sides amounted to 25 thousand people, then after the suppression of the revolution, the White Finns shot about 8 thousand people and up to 90 thousand participants in the revolution ended up in prisons.
The figures in the Bolshevik press, based on the testimonies of Finnish emigrants, were much higher. Data were given about 20 thousand executed Red Finns. Soviet newspaper reports about these events were accompanied by numerous examples of white terror in Finland. In Vyborg, after the city was occupied by the Whites, 600 people were shot (the corpses were stacked in three tiers in two sheds). After the occupation of Kotka, 500 people suffered the same fate, Helsingfors - 270 people, Raumo - 500 people, etc.
Executions of prisoners were often preceded by sophisticated torture.The description of such cases occupied a significant place in publications about the events in Finland, sometimes with deliberate naturalism. " They chopped off the heads of three workers with axes, dragged their brains out of two, beat others with logs in the face, flattening their noses and cheekbones, and cut off the hands of others with an ax. The brutal White Guards cut off the tongues of their victims, then cut off their ears and gouged out their eyes. Having fun enough over the defenseless workers, they cut off their heads at the end”, - wrote in April 1918 Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
In addition to numerous executions, hundreds of people died from torture and starvation in concentration camps formed in Finland in the summer of 1918. In concentration camps, according to the Bolsheviks, they were shot through one, the prisoners' eyes were gouged out, they were raised on bayonets, bodies were dissected with sabers and axes, and other types of torture were used.
Famine victims were more numerous in concentration camps.
In Ekenasse, out of 800 prisoners, 400 died of starvation, in Kuokino, out of 3,000, 800, in Sveaborg, 40 died only in the first days, and subsequently, every third out of 6,000 prisoners. In the Tammerfoor camp, for the period from June 6 to 31, 1918, he died of exhaustion, according to official information, 1347 people.
The total number of prisoners in concentration camps reached, according to foreign public organizations, 70 thousand people (with a population of Finland of 3 million people) - in this case, the real scale of the punitive policy was higher than that given by the newspapers.
Reports about new victims of the White Finnish terror were published by the Soviet periodical press almost every day, starting from April 1918. The fact that these events took place in a neighboring country did not reduce the impact of information on newspaper readers. As events unfolded in Finland, readers could compare them with the situation in Russia and make certain predictions about the development of the situation already in Russian conditions, in particular, on the possible behavior of the victorious Russian counter-revolution. Subsequently, this cruelty in the suppression of the Finnish revolution was indicated as one of the reasons for the introduction of the Red Terror in Soviet Russia.
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Civil War and intervention in the USSR. Encyclopedia. M., 1983. S. 499.
Petrograd truth. 1918. July 28, November 23.
Kataya S. L. Terror of the bourgeoisie in Finland. Pg., 1919. S. 6-10; Labor banner. May 13, 1918; Truth. 1918.
June 15; Northern commune. June 28, 1918.
News of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 1918. 13 Apr.
Labor banner. 1918. April 14, May 16.
Petrograd truth. 1918. June 12; Bystryansky V. Counter-revolution and its methods (White terror before and now). Pg., 1920. S. 7.
Kataya S.A. Terror of the bourgeoisie in Finland. S. 22.
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I. S. Ratkovsky « Red terror and the activities of the Cheka in 1918". Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University. 2006
*The "Red Terror" was announced on September 2 as a response to a wave of murders and riots in the summer of 1918, after the assassination attempt on Lenin on August 30. The Red Terror was stopped by the decision of the VI All-Russian Congress of Soviets on November 6, 1918; in fact, in most regions of Russia it was completed in September-October. It was a brief but intense and, most importantly, visual, shocking repression.
As we can see, the White-Finnish terror made a great contribution to the announcement of the Red Terror
** Ilyin I.A. Sobr. op. Correspondence of two Ivans (1935-1946). M., 2000. S.294
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Read more about Finnish terror.
May 1st, 2012
The history of the Finnish state dates back to 1917. A month and a half after the October Revolution, on December 6 (19), 1917, the Finnish Parliament, under the leadership of Per Evind Svinhufvud, approved the declaration of state independence of Finland. Already 12 days later - on December 18 (31), the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Republic adopted a Decree recognizing the independence of Finland, signed personally by V. I. Lenin. The prerequisites for Finnish statehood were formed precisely in the Russian Empire. The Grand Duchy of Finland became part of Russia after Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809. Finland enjoyed wide autonomy, having its own bank, post office, customs, and since 1863 also the official Finnish language. It is the Russian period that becomes the time of the flowering of the national identity of the Finns, the flowering of Finnish culture, Finnish. On such favorable soil, the ideas of the brotherhood of the Finno-Ugric peoples, the ideas of the independence of the Grand Duchy of Finland and the unification of the Finno-Ugric peoples around it are formed.
It was these ideas that the leaders of Finland tried to put into practice after the collapse of the Russian Empire. Most of us are aware of the intervention of the troops of the Entente countries - France and Great Britain, during the Civil War. However, the Finnish intervention on the Northwestern Front remains, as a rule, an unknown page in history.
Declaration of Independence of Finland Decree of the Council of People's Commissars recognizing the independence of Finland
However, even then the Soviet government planned to start a socialist revolution in Finland through the hands of its Finnish supporters. The uprising broke out in Helsinki on the evening of January 27, 1918. The same date is also considered the date of the start of the Finnish Civil War. On January 28, the entire capital, as well as most of the cities of Southern Finland, were under the control of the Red Finns. On the same day, the Council of People's Deputies of Finland (Suomen kansanvaltuuskunta) was created, headed by the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, Kullervo Manner, and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic was proclaimed ( Suomen sosialistinen tyoväentasavalta).
Front line in February 1918
The attempt of the Red offensive in the northern direction failed, and in early March the Whites, under the command of General Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, went over to the counteroffensive. March 8 - April 6 there is a decisive battle for Tampere, in which the Reds are defeated. Almost at the same time, the Whites are victorious on the Karelian Isthmus near the village of Rautu (the current village of Sosnovo). During the Civil War, military assistance to the White Finns was constantly provided by Swedish volunteers, and after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3 with Soviet Russia, the troops of Kaiser Germany also intervened. On March 5, German troops landed on the Åland Islands, on April 3, an expeditionary force of about 9.5 thousand people under the command of General Rüdiger von der Goltz landed on the Hanko Peninsula, where it strikes in the back with red and begins an offensive on Helsinki, which was taken on April 13. On April 19, Lahti was taken by the White Finns, and the Red groups were thus cut. On April 26, the Soviet government of Finland fled to Petrograd, on the same day the White Finns took Viipuri (Vyborg), where they carried out mass terror against the Russian population and the Red Guards who did not have time to escape. The civil war in Finland was actually over, on May 7, the remnants of the red units were defeated on the Karelian Isthmus, and on May 16, 1918, a victory parade was held in Helsinki.
But in the meantime, the Civil War in Russia had already flared up ...
Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army General
Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim
Having gained independence, and waging war with the Red Guards, the Finnish state decided not to stop at the borders of the Grand Duchy of Finland. At that time, among the Finnish intelligentsia, the ideas of Panfilanism, that is, the unity of the Finno-Ugric peoples, as well as the ideas of Great Finland, which were supposed to include the territories adjacent to Finland, inhabited by these peoples, gained great popularity - Karelia (including the Kola Peninsula), Ingria (neighborhood of Petrograd) and Estonia. The Russian Empire collapsed, and new ones arose on its territory. public entities, sometimes considering a significant expansion of their territory in the future.
Thus, during the Civil War, the Finnish leadership planned to expel Soviet troops not only from Finland, but also from the territories, the accession of which was planned in the near future. So on February 23, 1918, at the Antrea railway station (now Kamennogorsk), Mannerheim pronounces the "Oath of the Sword", in which he mentions: "I will not sheathe my sword ... until the last warrior and hooligan of Lenin is expelled from both Finland and Eastern Karelia". War on Soviet Russia was not declared, but since mid-January (that is, before the start of the Finnish Civil War), Finland has been secretly sending to Karelia partisan detachments, whose task was the actual occupation of Karelia and assistance to the Finnish troops during the invasion. Detachments occupy the city of Kem and the village of Ukhta (now the village of Kalevala). On March 6, in Helsinki (at that time occupied by the Reds), a Provisional Karelian Committee was created, and on March 15, Mannerheim approved the "Wallenius plan" aimed at the invasion of Finnish troops into Karelia and the seizure of Russian territory along the line Pechenga - Kola Peninsula - White Sea - Vygozero - Onega lake - Svir river - Lake Ladoga. Parts of the Finnish army were to unite at Petrograd, which was supposed to be turned into a free city-republic controlled by Finland.
Russian territories that were supposed to be annexed according to the Wallenius plan
In March 1918, by agreement with the Soviet government, British, French and Canadian troops landed in Murmansk in order to prevent the invasion of the White Finns. Already in May, after the victory in the Civil War, the White Finns begin an offensive in Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. On May 10, they attempted to attack the polar ice-free port of Pechenga, but the attack was repulsed by the Red Guards. In October 1918 and January 1919, Finnish troops occupied the Rebolsk and Porosozersk (Porayarvi) volosts in the west of Russian Karelia, respectively. In November 1918, after the surrender of Germany in the First World War, the withdrawal of German troops from Russian territory begins, and the Germans lose the opportunity to assist the Finns. In this regard, in December 1918, Finland changes its foreign policy orientation in favor of the Entente.
Areas occupied by the area are shown in light yellow.
Finnish troops as of January 1919
The Finns are striving to create a state of the Finno-Ugric peoples in another direction. After the withdrawal of German troops from the Baltic States, Soviet troops attempt to occupy this region, but they meet resistance from the already formed troops of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - young states (Lithuania declared itself the successor to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), proclaimed during German occupation. They are assisted by the troops of the Entente and the Russian White movement. At the end of November 1918, the Red Guards took Narva, which was part of the young Estonian Republic, after the capture of Narva, the Estland Labor Commune was proclaimed there ( Eesti Töörahwa Kommuuna ) and formed the Soviet government of Estonia, headed by Viktor Kingisepp. Thus began the Estonian War of Independence ( Eesti Vabadussõda). The Estonian army, led by Major General Ernest Pydder (on December 23, he transferred his powers to Johan Laidoner), retreats towards Reval (Tallinn). The Red Army occupied Dorpat (Tartu) and about half of the territory of Estonia and by January 6 was 35 kilometers from Tallinn. On January 7, the Estonian army launches a counteroffensive.
Ernest Pydder Johan Laidoner Viktor Kingisepp
Tartu was taken on January 14, Narva on January 19. In early February, units of the Red Army were finally forced out of Estonia. In May, the Estonian army is advancing on Pskov.
The allies of the Estonian army fought mainly in their own interests. Russian White movement used Estonian army(like other national armies that arose on the territory of Russia) as a temporary ally in the fight against the Bolsheviks, England and France fought for their own geopolitical interests in the Baltics (back in the middle of the 19th century, before Crimean War, British Foreign Secretary Henry Palmerston approved a plan for separating the Baltic states and Finland from Russia). Finland sent a volunteer corps of about 3.5 thousand people to Estonia. Finland's aspirations were to first drive the Reds out of Estonia, and then make Estonia part of Finland, as a federation of Finno-Ugric peoples. At the same time, Finland did not send volunteers to Latvia - Latvians do not belong to the Finno-Ugric peoples.
But back to Karelia. By July 1919, in the Karelian village of Ukhta (now the town of Kalevala), with the assistance of Finnish detachments that secretly penetrated there, a separatist North Karelian state was formed. Even earlier, on the morning of April 21, 1919, the Finnish troops, who had already occupied, as mentioned above, Reboly and Porosozero, crossed the Finnish-Russian border in the Eastern Ladoga region and in the evening of the same day occupied the village of Vidlitsa, and two days later - the city of Olonets, where a puppet Olonets government is created. On April 25, the White Finns go to the Yarn River, finding themselves 10 kilometers from Petrozavodsk, where they meet resistance from parts of the Red Army. The rest of the White Finnish detachments at the same time force the Svir and go to the city of Lodeynoye Pole. Anglo-French-Canadian troops were approaching Petrozavodsk from the north; the defense of Petrozavodsk lasted two months. At the same time, Finnish troops with smaller forces were conducting an offensive in North Karelia, using the North Karelian state to try to tear away the whole of Karelia.
On June 27, 1919, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive, occupying Olonets by July 8, and knocking the Finns out of the border line. However, the world did not settle on this. Finland refused to negotiate peace, and Finnish troops continued to occupy part of North Karelia.
On June 27, just on the day of the end of the defense of Petrozavodsk, Finnish units under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Yurie Elfengren cross the border on the Karelian Isthmus and find themselves in close proximity to Petrograd. However, they occupy territories inhabited mainly by Ingrian Finns, who at the beginning of June raised an anti-Bolshevik uprising, having become dissatisfied with the surplus appropriations carried out by the Bolsheviks, as well as punitive operations, which were a response to the population's evasion from mobilization into the Red Army. The Finnish troops meet resistance from the Red Army, in particular, the Finnish Red Army detachments, formed from the Red Finns who fled from Finland after the defeat in the Civil War, enter the battle with them. Two days later, Finnish troops retreat beyond the border line. On July 9, in the border village of Kiryasalo, the Republic of Northern Ingria is proclaimed, headed by local Santeri Termonen. In September 1919, the Finnish units crossed the border again and held the territory of Northern Ingria for about a year. The republic becomes a state controlled by Finland, and in November, Yurie Elfengren himself takes the post of Chairman of the State Council.
Flag of the North Karelian State Flag of the Republic of Northern Ingria
Postage Stamp Olonets Government Postage stamp of the Republic of Northern Ingria
From September 1919 to March 1920, the Red Army completely liberates Karelia from the interventionist troops of the Entente, after which it begins to fight the Finns. On May 18, 1920, Soviet troops took the village of Ukhta without a fight, after which the government of the North Karelian state fled to Finland. By July 21, the Red Army liberated from the Finnish troops most Russian Karelia. In the hands of the Finns, only the Rebolsk and Porosozersk volosts remained.
Yourie Elfengren North Ingrian Regiment in Kirjasalo
In July 1920, in the Estonian city of Tartu (where a peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Estonia was signed five months earlier), peace negotiations between Soviet Russia and Finland begin. Representatives of the Finnish side demand the transfer of Eastern Karelia. Soviet side in order to secure Petrograd demands half of the Karelian Isthmus and an island in the Gulf of Finland from Finland. Negotiations last four months, but on October 14, 1920, the peace treaty was nevertheless signed. Finland as a whole remained within the borders of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Soviet Russia transferred to Finland the ice-free port of Pechenga (Petsamo) in the Arctic, thanks to which Finland received access to the Barents Sea. On the Karelian Isthmus, the old border was also left, drawn along the Sestra River (Rayajoki). Rebolsk and Porosozersk volosts, as well as Northern Ingria, remained with Soviet Russia, and Finnish troops were withdrawn from these territories within a month and a half.
Finnish occupation of Karelia. The territories occupied at different times (dates of occupation are indicated) are allocated
light yellow color.
The Treaty of Tartu was intended to end hostilities between Russia and Finland. However, peace did not come here either. The Finnish leadership regarded it as a temporary truce and did not plan to give up its claims to Karelia at all. Finnish nationalist circles perceived the Treaty of Tartu as shameful and longed for revenge. Not even two months had passed since the signing of the peace, as on December 10, 1920, the United Karelian Government was created in Vyborg. Further, the Finns used the same tactics as in 1919 - during the summer of 1921 they sent partisan detachments to the territory of Soviet Karelia, which gradually occupied the border villages and engaged in reconnaissance, as well as carried out agitation and arming of the local population and thus organized the Karelian national insurrection. In October 1921, in Soviet Karelia, on the territory of the Tungudskaya volost, an underground Provisional Karelian Committee was created ( Karjalan Valiaikainen hallitus), headed by Vasily Levonen, Hjalmari Takkinen and Osipp Borisainen.
On November 6, 1921, Finnish partisan detachments begin an armed uprising in Eastern Karelia, on the same day the Finnish army, led by Major Paavo Talvela, crosses the border. Thus, the Finnish intervention in the Russian Civil War resumes, although the Civil War in the North-West had already ceased by that time (not counting the Kronstadt uprising of 1921). The Finns counted on the weakness of the Red Army after the Civil War and a fairly easy victory. Leading the offensive, the Finnish detachments destroyed communications and destroyed Soviet authorities in all settlements. New detachments were sent from Finland. If at the beginning of the war the number of Finnish troops was 2.5 thousand people, then by the end of December the figure approached 6 thousand. There were detachments formed from the participants of the Kronstadt uprising, who fled to Finland after it was suppressed. On the basis of the Provisional Karelian Committee, the puppet North Karelian state was recreated, which was again planted in the village of Ukhta, occupied by Finnish troops. In Finnish historiography, these events are called the "East Karelian uprising" ( Itakarjalaisten kansannosu), and it is reported that the Finns came to the aid of the Karelian brothers, who voluntarily raised an uprising against the Bolsheviks who oppressed them. In Soviet historiography, what was happening was interpreted as "a bandit kulak uprising financed by the imperialist circles of Finland." As you can see, both points of view are politicized.
Soviet poster dedicated to the Finnish intervention in 1921
On December 18, 1921, the territory of Karelia was declared under a state of siege. The Karelian Front was restored, headed by Alexander Sedyakin. Additional units of the Red Army were transferred to Karelia. Red Finns who fled after the Finnish Civil War to Soviet Russia are fighting in the ranks of the Red Army. The Finnish revolutionary Toivo Antikainen formed a ski rifle battalion, which in December 1921 carried out several raids on the rear of the White Finns. The battalion of the Petrograd International military school commanded by the Estonian Alexander Inno.
Light yellow color shows the territory occupied
White Finns as of December 25, 1921
On December 26, Soviet units strike from the side of Petrozavodsk, and after a week and a half they occupy Porosozero, Padany and Reboly, and on January 25, 1922 they occupy the village of Kestenga. On January 15, in Helsinki, Finnish workers hold a demonstration in protest against the "Karelian adventure" of the White Finns. On February 7, the troops of the Red Army enter the village of Ukhta, the North Karelian state dissolves itself, and its leaders flee to Finland. By February 17, 1922, the Red Army finally knocks the Finns out of the state border line, military operations actually stop there. On March 21, an armistice was signed in Moscow.
Paavo Talvela. Finnish major, leader
East Karelian operation
Alexander Sedyakin. Commander of Karelian Toivo Antikainen. Finnish creator
front of the Red Army and the head of the defeat of the ski battalion of the Red Army
White Finnish troops
On June 1, 1922, a peace treaty was concluded in Moscow between Soviet Russia and Finland, according to which both parties were obliged to reduce the number border troops.
Award for participation in the war
against the White Finns in 1921-1922.
After the spring of 1922, the Finns no longer crossed the Soviet border with weapons. However, peace between neighboring states remained "cool". Finland's claims to Karelia and the Kola Peninsula not only did not disappear, but vice versa, they began to gain even more popularity and sometimes turn into more radical forms - some Finnish nationalist organizations sometimes promoted the idea of creating Great Finland to the Polar Urals, which also had to enter the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Cis-Urals and the Volga region. A rather powerful propaganda acted in Finland, as a result of which the Finns formed the image of Russia as the eternal enemy of Finland. In the 1930s, the government of the USSR, observing such unfriendly political rhetoric from its northwestern neighbor, sometimes expressed concerns about the security of Leningrad, just 30 kilometers from which the Soviet-Finnish border passed. However, Soviet propaganda also forms a negative image of Finland as a "bourgeois" state, headed by an "aggressive imperialist clique" and in which the working class is supposedly oppressed. In 1932, a non-aggression pact was concluded between the USSR and Finland, however, even after that, relations between the two states remain very tense. And at a critical moment there was a detonation - in 1939, when the Second World War, the tension of interstate relations resulted in the Soviet-Finnish (Winter) War of 1939-1940, followed in 1941 by Finland's participation in the Great Patriotic War in alliance with Nazi Germany. The establishment of good-neighborly relations between the USSR and Finland, unfortunately, cost a lot of losses.
One of the first actions of the proletariat, which immediately followed the October Revolution, was the revolution in Finland.
Here, immediately after the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, the strike movement began to rise, engulfing the city and countryside. The industrial proletariat demanded an 8-hour working day, higher wages, better food supplies. The strikes of agricultural workers were held under the slogans of increasing wages and reducing the working day. Ruined small tenants - torpari - refused to work for landowners and pay rent.
However, the working people of Finland did not have a truly revolutionary leadership. Even the left wing of the Social Democratic Party was not then ready to lead revolutionary struggle. The right-wing Social Democrats, who entered the bourgeois government, did nothing to really alleviate the plight of the masses.
True, in April 1917, the workers managed to achieve the actual introduction of an 8-hour working day at enterprises, and in July, at the suggestion of the Social Democrats, the Seimas voted laws on an 8-hour working day, the democratization of local self-government, and declared himself the bearer of supreme power in the country. However, the Kerensky government refused to approve these laws and dispersed the Sejm.
The Finnish bourgeoisie feared most of all the development of the proletarian revolutionary movement. Preparing to suppress it, she began to strengthen her armed detachments - shutskor, created in the spring of 1917 to fight strikes.
In a number of places, the Shutskorites carried out massacres against the striking workers. In response, the workers set about, as they did in 1905, the creation of Red Guard detachments.
The victory of the October Socialist Revolution inspired the Finnish working class. On November 13, 1917, a general strike began in the country.
Detachments of workers occupied many railway stations, telephone, telegraph, arrested the most active reactionaries. The revolutionary actions of the working class forced the Sejm to re-adopt the laws that had been rejected by the Kerensky government in July, but it did not go beyond that.
The demands of the working people for the fight against hunger and unemployment, for social insurance and others remained unsatisfied.
The Red Guard demanded the taking of power by the proletariat. V. I. Lenin, in a letter to the leaders of the left wing of the Finnish Social Democracy, O. V. Kuusinen, Yu. high development and a long political school of democratic institutions will help them to successfully carry out the socialist reorganization of Finland."
But in the Central Revolutionary Council, which led the strike, supporters of the seizure of power were in the minority, and the council, hoping that the bourgeoisie, frightened by the action of the workers, would voluntarily agree to the creation of a Social Democratic government, on November 19 stopped the strike.
The subsequent course of events showed the groundlessness of these calculations. At the end of November, the bourgeois majority of the Sejm entrusted the formation of a government to the reactionary leader Svinhufvud. The Svinhufvud government immediately turned to Germany with a request to send troops to suppress the revolutionary movement. Germany had been secretly supplying weapons to the Shutskorites before that.
On December 6, the Sejm declared the independence of Finland. On December 31, the Soviet government recognized Finland as an independent, sovereign state.
Meanwhile, a revolutionary crisis was rapidly brewing in the country. The food situation sharply worsened. The masses of the people were starving, there were cases of starvation. The bourgeoisie hid food. Searches carried out by the Red Guard in Vyborg found large stocks of food in bourgeois houses. The government, exacerbating the difficulties, exported food to the north of Finland, where it created a base for the impending war against the working class.
On January 12, 1918, the bourgeois majority of the Seimas granted Svyaihuvud virtually dictatorial powers. The shutskor, hated by the workers, was taken into state custody. The attacks of the Shutskorites against the workers became more frequent. Detachments of the Shutskor began to flock to the middle and northern parts of the country, where the former tsarist general Mannerheim, appointed commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the bourgeoisie, and part of the government members secretly left.
In this situation, on the evening of January 27, 1918, a revolution began in Finland. The Red Guard occupied government offices and banks in Helsinki. The next day, January 28, a revolutionary government was created - the Council of People's Deputies. It included O. Kuusinen, Y. Sirola, A. Taimi and others. The Council of People's Deputies sent greetings to the Soviet government of Russia and the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of Estonia. The leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Finland addressed the international proletariat with an appeal that ended with a call for a socialist revolution.
The revolution quickly won in Southern Finland with its industrial centers and organized working class. Here new revolutionary government bodies authorities. But the vast northern part of the country, where the majority of the population were peasants and the kulak stratum was strong, remained under power. bourgeoisie and was the basis of the counter-revolution.
The revolutionary government immediately declared the land rented by the Torparians their property, which immediately attracted them to the side of the revolution. It increased the taxation of the rich, exempted the poorest sections of the population from taxes, abolished the collection in favor of the church, obliged employers to pay workers wages during strikes. However, the revolutionary government did not put forward the slogans of a socialist revolution. In the draft constitution he developed, it proposed to establish not the dictatorship of the proletariat, but some kind of "pure" democracy, in which private ownership of the means of production and land was to be preserved. Such a prospect weakened the revolutionary impulse of the proletariat.
In relation to class enemies, unjustified indulgence was manifested. There was no body to fight against the actively acting counter-revolution. Labor service for the bourgeoisie was almost never carried out. Private banks and wealthy deposits were not expropriated.
However, it often happened that the logic of a fierce class struggle prompted the Council of People's Deputies to act more revolutionary than its program and act as an organ of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The bourgeoisie was actually deprived of political rights, its newspapers were closed, and their organizations were dissolved. Enterprises and estates in the event of sabotage or the flight of the owners were transferred to the disposal of the working people. The Finnish Bank was nationalized.
Meanwhile, the counter-revolutionaries who had settled in the northern regions opened military operations against the revolutionary government. The active bourgeois propaganda that unfolded claimed that the White Finns were fighting for the "liberation" of Finland, and the "Reds" allegedly wanted to subjugate Finland to Russia and take away the land from the peasants.
The bourgeoisie succeeded in inciting the peasants against the revolution and, by introducing conscription, drew them into the counter-revolutionary white army. This army was well armed and had a qualified command staff. About 2 thousand Finnish soldiers from the Jaeger battalion, formed in Germany to participate in the war against Russia, and about 1.5 thousand armed "volunteers" from Sweden arrived to help the White Finns.
The working class was far less prepared for armed struggle. There were not enough weapons, there were no trained commanders, organized intelligence, and reserves. In addition, the revolutionary government missed the military initiative. But the workers were determined to fight. Thousands of volunteers joined the Red Guard.
It grew to 80 thousand people and opposed the white army at the front, crossing the whole country from the Gulf of Bothnia to Lake Ladoga.
The working people of Soviet Russia followed the heroic struggle of the Finnish revolutionaries with great sympathy. In greeting the revolutionary workers of Finland, the Soviet government expressed the hope that they would carry the struggle to a victorious end and promised support. Soviet Russia was then itself in an exceptionally difficult situation, but, fulfilling its internationalist duty, it helped revolutionary Finland with weapons and shared food with it. Russian volunteers fought in the ranks of the Finnish Red Guard. March 1, 1918 between the RSFSR and the Finnish
The Republic signed an agreement on strengthening friendship and brotherhood.
In two months of fighting, the Whites managed to achieve some territorial successes, but the south, with the most important industrial cities remained in the hands of the Red Guard.
In an effort to obtain foreign aid, the bourgeoisie was ready to sacrifice the independence of the country. On March 7, 1918, the White Finns concluded a peace treaty with Germany, an agreement on trade and navigation, as well as a secret military agreement, pledging not to negotiate territorial changes without its sanction, to provide Germany with military bases, to detain ships of the anti-German coalition, to allow German capital on equal terms with the Finnish to exploit the resources of Finland.
On March 20, Mannerheim asked the German government to send German troops as soon as possible, pointing out that "delay would have fatal consequences."
On April 3, the Germans landed in Hanko the 12,000-strong "Baltic division" under the command of General von der Goltz, and a little later, at Lovisa, another detachment of many thousands. The appearance in the rear of the Red Guard of experienced and well-armed German troops, supported by warships and aircraft, sharply changed the balance of forces in favor of the counter-revolution.
A few days later, the counter-revolutionaries captured the city of Tampere. On April 13, the Germans captured the heroically resisting capital of the country - Helsinki.
By agreement with the German interventionists, the right-wing Social Democrats (Tanner and others) published an appeal in which they slandered the Finnish revolution and Soviet Russia, argued the futility of further struggle, and called on the workers to lay down their arms.
The revolutionary government moved to Vyborg. Continuing the heroic resistance, the Red Guard detachments retreated to the east. On April 29, Vyborg fell, and in the first days of May, the rest of the Red Guards were also defeated. Several thousand revolutionary workers made their way into Soviet Russia.
The main reasons for the defeat of the revolution in Finland were the inconsistency and indecision of the left wing of the Social Democratic Party, the treacherous policy of the Tannerites, the absence of a strong alliance between the working class and the peasantry, which the bourgeoisie managed to deceive with nationalist slogans, and especially military assistance to the Finnish counter-revolution from Germany.
However, the revolution was great importance. It was the first proletarian revolution since October. Despite the fact that the revolutionary government did not have a clear socialist program, in practice it carried out not only general democratic, but also some socialist measures. Subsequently, the revolutionary experience helped the advanced workers to free themselves from social democratic survivals and found in August 1918 on the basis of the left wing of the Social Democratic Party the Communist Party of Finland.
After the defeat of the revolution, the Finnish bourgeoisie established a regime of unheard-of white terror in the country. About 90 thousand people, including thousands of women, were arrested; more than 30 thousand of them were shot, tortured or died in prisons from starvation and disease, tens of thousands were sentenced to long prison terms, exiled to hard labor. The social gains of the working class were liquidated.
The executioner of the revolution, the German General von der Goltz actually had the highest power in the country.
Finland was declared a monarchy headed by the German prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse, son-in-law of Wilhelm II. Only the defeat of Germany in the World War and the German November Revolution forced the Finnish bourgeoisie to abandon their monarchist projects. In 1919 the Seimas adopted a republican constitution.
June 4th, 2018
The first Soviet-Finnish war - fighting between the White Finnish troops and units of the Red Army on the territory of Soviet Russia from March 1918 to October 1920.
At first it was conducted informally. Since March 1918, during the Civil War in Finland, the White Finnish troops, pursuing the enemy (Finnish "Reds"), crossed the Russian-Finnish border and in a number of places went to Eastern Karelia.
At the same time, the ongoing military operations were not always partisan in nature. Officially, the war with the RSFSR was declared by the democratic government of Finland on May 15, 1918 after the defeat of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic.
The first Soviet-Finnish war was part of the Russian Civil War and the Foreign Military Intervention in northern Russia.
It ended on October 14, 1920 with the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty between the RSFSR and Finland, which fixed a number of territorial concessions from Soviet Russia.
background
October Revolution 1917 in Petrograd marked the beginning of the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in all largest cities Russia. At the same time, centers for the unification of anti-Bolshevik forces were emerging throughout the country. A civil war broke out in Russia.
The fall of the Russian autocracy and the October Revolution of 1917 allowed the Finnish Senate to declare independence on December 6, 1917. On December 18 (31), 1917, the independence of the Republic of Finland was recognized by the Council of People's Commissars. Finland recognized, in turn, the government of the Bolsheviks. At the same time, unrest intensified in the country and the struggle between the “reds” and “whites” intensified, which by January 1918 had escalated into a civil war. White Finnish detachments controlled the northern and central parts of the country, while the southern part with the majority major cities, where the de-Bolshevized units of the former Russian imperial army, was occupied by detachments of the Finnish Red Guard.
By the spring of 1919, the Bolshevik government was in a difficult position. The supreme ruler of Russia, Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin, were approaching Moscow from the northeast and south. In the Northern region and Estonia, Russian military volunteer units were completing their formations, the goal of which was red Petrograd.
Causes
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, when huge territories were torn away from Russia, showed the weakness of the Soviet government and caused discontent on the part of various social groups.
Uprisings broke out, such as the Yaroslavl, Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising, Tambov, even independent territories were proclaimed. In the case of Ingria, the North Karelian state, the Rebolskaya volost, Porayarvi, the rebels hoped for help from neighboring Finland, with which they had mutual language and historical connections. On the wave of success in Finland, whites hoped for more. Soviet Russia was surrounded by white armies and could not resist Germany. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia were also an example of a successful struggle against Bolshevism, relying on foreign support. The idea of Greater Finland was widely spread. According to the Finnish researcher Toivo Nigord, General Mannerheim had the opportunity to go down in history as a liberator from the Bolsheviks, if not all of Russia, then Petrograd for sure. Therefore, events can be divided into two stages. First: international struggle against the Bolsheviks, everywhere, in the hope of victory white movement in general in Russia. And the second stage, when it became clear that Soviet authority will stand, and one can only hope for tactical successes on the ground, relying on the national movement and foreign aid. The concepts of occupation and liberation in this historical period are extremely relative and vague. In Soviet historiography, it was customary to consider only the territorial and military aspects of the war. But at the same time, the 30,000 migrants who left for Finland show the attitude of the population towards Sovietization.
On February 23, 1918, while at the Antrea station (now Kamennogorsk), referring to the troops, the Supreme Commander of the Finnish Army, General Carl Gustav Mannerheim, delivered his speech on it, the “sword oath”, in which he stated that he “would not sheathe his sword, ... before Lenin's last warrior and hooligan is expelled from both Finland and East Karelia." However, there was no official declaration of war from Finland. The desire of General Manerheim to become the savior of "old Russia" in Finland was treated negatively. At a minimum, they demanded the support of Western countries and guarantees that White Russia would recognize Finnish independence. The White movement failed to create a united front, which sharply reduced the chances of success. Other leaders of the white movement refused to recognize the independence of Finland. And for more active actions, without risk to their country, allies were needed.
On February 27, the Finnish government sent a petition to Germany that, as a country at war against Russia, considering Finland as an ally of Germany, it would demand that Russia make peace with Finland on the basis of joining East Karelia to Finland. The future border with Russia proposed by the Finns was to run along the line of the Eastern coast of Lake Ladoga - Lake Onega - the White Sea.
By the beginning of March, a plan was developed at Mannerheim's headquarters to organize "national uprisings in Eastern Karelia" and special Finnish instructors were allocated - military personnel to create centers of uprising.
On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between Soviet Russia and the countries of the Quadruple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria). Russian garrisons were withdrawn from Finland. The Red Finns were defeated and fled to Karelia.
On March 6, the commander of the Northern Military District (Fin. Pohjolan sotilaspiiri), senior lieutenant of the rangers Kurt Wallenius, suggested that Mannerheim launch an offensive in Eastern Karelia.
On March 6-7, an official statement appeared by the head of the Finnish state, regent Per Evind Svinhufvud, that Finland was ready to make peace with Soviet Russia on "moderate Brest conditions", that is, if East Karelia, part of Murmansk, were ceded to Finland. railway and the entire Kola Peninsula.
On March 7-8, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany responded to the request of the Finnish government that Germany would not wage war for Finnish interests with the Soviet government, which signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and would not support Finland's military actions if they moved them beyond its borders.
On March 7, the Finnish Prime Minister claims Eastern Karelia and the Kola Peninsula, and on March 15, the Finnish General Mannerheim approves the Wallenius Plan, which provides for the seizure of part of the former territory Russian Empire to the line Petsamo (Pechenga) - Kola Peninsula - White Sea - Lake Onega - Svir River - Lake Ladoga.
By mid-May 1918, the White Finns controlled the entire territory of the former Grand Duchy of Finland and began military operations to conquer East Karelia and the Kola Peninsula.
The landing of German troops in Finland and their occupation of Helsingfors caused serious concern among the Entente countries that fought against Germany. Starting from March 1918, in Murmansk, by agreement with the Bolshevik government, Entente troops landed to protect Murmansk and the railway from a possible offensive by the German-Finnish troops. From the Red Finns who retreated to the east, the British formed the Murmansk Legion, led by Oskari Tokoi, to act against the White Finns associated with the Germans.
In November 1918, Germany capitulated and began to withdraw its troops from the territories of the former Russian Empire, which fell under German occupation as a result of the hostilities of the First World War and the conditions of the Brest Peace, including from the territories of the Baltic countries. On December 30, 1918, Finnish troops under the command of General Wetzer landed in Estonia, where they assisted the Estonian government in the fight against the Bolshevik troops.
In January 1919, the Finns occupied the Porosozernaya volost of the Povenets district.
April 21-22 Olonetskaya volunteer army from the territory of Finland launched a massive offensive in Eastern Karelia in the Olonets direction.
On April 21, the volunteers occupied Vidlitsa, on April 23 - Tuloksa, in the evening of the same day - the city of Olonets, on April 24 they occupied Veshkelitsa, on April 25 they approached Pryazha, went to the Sulazhgora region and began to threaten Petrozavodsk directly. At the same time, English, Canadian and White Guard troops threatened Petrozavodsk from the north. At the end of April, the Red Army managed to hold back the advance of the volunteers on Petrozavodsk.
In May, the White Guard troops in Estonia began hostilities, threatening Petrograd.
In May and June, on the eastern and northern shores of Lake Ladoga, Red Army detachments held back the offensive of the Finnish volunteers. In May-June 1919, Finnish volunteers advanced on the area of Lodeynoye Pole and crossed the Svir.
At the end of June 1919, the counteroffensive of the Red Army began in the Vidlitsky direction and on July 8, 1919, in the Olonets sector of the Karelian front. Finnish volunteers were thrown back over the border line.
On May 18, 1920, units of the Red Army liquidated the North Karelian state with its capital in the village of Ukhta (Arkhangelsk province), which received financial and military assistance from the Finnish government. Only in July 1920, the Finns were driven out of most of eastern Karelia. Finnish troops remained only in the Rebolsk and Porosozersk volosts of Eastern Karelia.
In 1920, under the Tartu Peace Treaty, Soviet Russia made significant territorial concessions - independent Finland received Western Karelia up to the Sestra River, the Pechenga region in the Arctic, western part Rybachy Peninsula and most of the Sredny Peninsula.
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