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Finnish Civil War Units
Finnish Civil War Units
Whites started their attack in 15th of March. Town of Tampere was main target of
their attack. First White troops advanced toward Tampere and surrounded it by
25th of March. Next phase of their attack was to conquer Tampere - battle
started in 3rd of April and ended to remaining Reds surrendering (some units
managed to escape) three days later. in 3rd of April German troops (of Ostsee
Division) landed to Hanko and 7th of April also in Loviisa. German troops
attacked from Hanko to Helsinki, this made Red Guard leadership (Military
Committee) to escape from Helsinki first to Viipuri and from there to Petrograd.
Reds didn't manage to build large defence lines anymore (they had no connections
to their leadership after it escaped from Helsinki), even if they still had some
70,000 armed men left. Large amounts of Reds started their escape towards
Russian border. When German troops from Loviisa also advanced towards north
cutting the route of retreat to Russia from the situation of Reds got really
desperate. Several bitter battles were fought, but Red units had no change of
winning and they surrendered one by one. Fighting ended officially in 4th of
April, but some isolated Red units were encountered still during the next few
weeks. Battle losses of both sides were reasonably small, Whites lost about 3100
dead and 9000 wounded while Reds lost some 3400 dead. During war both sides
executed their POWs in many occations. After the war large amounts of Reds died
in prison camps mostly to hunger and pesticide, but also to executions.
RED GUARD:
Reasons behind reds starting a rebellion were numerous but social democratic
party seriously losing elections, inspiration from Russian revolution, poor
conditions of that part of farming population that cultivated rented land, food
shortage and high unempoyment get to just about any list.
The most early sign of Red Guards can be found from "Protection Guards of
Workers" organised for general strike of year 1905, which was also reason behind
organising first "Security Guards" that later become Suojeluskuntas. First
violent clash between the these two happened already in July of 1906 in
Hakaniemi Square in Helsinki. 2nd era of Russian oppression starting from 1905
calmed things between the two sides until 1917 as it offered a common enemy to
both sides - Imperial Russia with its czar, ohrana and police.
Minor political violence was going on starting from July of 1917, but the
general strike in November really changed things. It planted the seeds of
violence (34 people died to political violence and political murders during it)
also recreating (much stronger) hate between Red Guards and Suojeluskunta.
Finland become independent in 6th of December 1917, but Russian Army was still
present (at January of 1918 some 42500 soldiers of Russian units were still in
Finland) and new Bolshevik leadership had no hurry to call them off. Instead
Bolsheviks started to support Finnish Red Guard by supplying it with weaponry,
offering specialists to train it and work as advisors in it and even trying
(with little success) to order Russian troops to fight on its side.
First battles of war were in night of 19th - 20th of January, first orders for
rebellion were issued starting from 26th of January. Red Guard had mainly
working and non-land owning farming population and its organisations were mainly
local. It had its HQ in Helsinki and also local HQs in Tampere and Viipuri, but
these typically had somewhat limited power over local organisations and units.
During war Red Guard stopped public works and used wages to get more volunteers,
later on also calling in of male-population with universal conscription was
tried (with very limited success). Typically Red Guard lacked real organisation
in its units higher then company-level and each company had been gathered from
men from same working place, village or local branch of union. Power base of Red
Guard was in industrialised towns and among non land owning population in
countryside of Southern Finland.
WHITE ARMY:
Early on leading idea of White Army was freeing Finland from Russian rule by
disarming Russian troops and using violence to do this if necessary. As war
progressed it became more and more clear the Red Guard was the main enemy
instead of Russians, but this just lead into Red Guard being seen as traitors
who had sided up with Russian oppressors. Whites had some major advantages, 2000
Finnish volunteers that had travelled to Germany in 1915 - 1916 had received
German military training and had been battle-hardened as "Prussian Jaeger
Battalion 27" in battles of eastern front. White Army also received large
amounts of weaponry (that Germans had captured from Russian earlier) from
Germany during the war. These two factors allowed building of superior trained
troops during the war and arming them.
White Army can be divided to three kinds of troops:
Suojeluskunta troops, that were local voluntary units that were united under
nation-wide leadership after war started.
Recruited (volunteers) troops: 2 Grenadier Regiments (2 battalion strong
each), Uudenmaa Dragoon Regiment and 6 artillery batteries.
Recruited (called in with legislation): 6 Jaeger Regiments (3 battalions
each), Karelian Cavalry Regiment, 11 artillery batteries and 6 field telegraph
units.
Leadership of Suojeluskunta organisations had some roots in other earlier
Finnish organisations that had wanted to end Russian rule in Finland. Some of
them like Kagaani and Voimaliitto had been planning use of violence for this
purpose already earlier, in 1918 many of their leading figures appeared to
Military Council, which organised starting of White Army. Typically
Suojeluskunta organisations were local and this combined with suspicion
concerning trust-worthiness of those officers that had earlier served in Russian
Army. Local Suojeluskunta organisations often had their roots in "security
guards" established for general strike of 1905, but it was the "svoboda" of
Russian military after Russian revolution, which really got most of the large
amount of them established. Basically "svoboda" was Russian military going off
control: They were shooting their officers, acting violently, being intoxicated,
looting everything they wanted etc. As Kerenski government had disestablished
police earlier there were no police to take care about public safety. When war
started local Suojeluskunta units were (more or less) organised under one
nation-wide leadership. Hired (hiring them started in 14th of February)
recruited units basically had the situation as Suojeluskunta units, but they
were established during the war.
Finnish Senate (Government) made in 18th of February 1918 a declaration, which
used 1878 law of recruitment allowing calling in male population to military
service. The law was used to establish 6 Jaeger Regiments, 11 artillery
batteries, Karelian Cavalry Regiment (which never got near being a real
regiment, it never had more then 420 men) and some other smaller units. These
units were the first actual units of Finnish Army. Jaegers returning from
Germany in 25th of February 1918 were used as officers and NCOs for these new
units.
TRAINING AND LEADERSHIP:
Training of rank and file troops:
White Army:
Suojeluskunta troops: Lacking, they had existed disguised as "voluntary fire
soldiers & NCOs from Finnish military units (of Russian Army) disbanded in
1901 and few Finnish-born red officers from Russia. Some Russian advisors
also held ranks in higher leadership of Red Guard. Basically Red Guard
leadership was less competent then White Army one, especially political
leaders selected to it had none-existent military experience, which soon
become visible.
Lower ranks: These were even more incompetent. Red Guard selected its low
rank leadership (platoon and company commanders) by voting. The situation of
voted leadership was not easy - if troops started running or got too many
casualties or even if orders were not liked by troops they could vote
another leader any time. In case that battle had went poorly troops would
easily start doubting their leadership and if any suspicion of betrayal
appeared getting the situation became really hazardous to voted leadership.
Being shot by own troops without any investigation was not unheard end to
leadership in Red Guard.