Finnish Revolution of 1918

[Sentinel]

Wikipedia Article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Civil_War)


The Civil War in Finland was fought from January to May 1918, between the "Reds" (punaiset), i.e. Social Democrats together with Communists, and the "Whites" (valkoiset), i.e. forces commanded by the Conservative Senate that in the preceding autumn had succeeded a National Unity Senate, intending to maintain the status quo (retain independence and constitutional monarchy without parliamentarism).

Finns have many names for this conflict: vapaussota (War of Liberty), kansalaissota or sis�llissota (Civil War), luokkasota (Class War), punakapina (Red Rebellion), torpparikapina (Crofters' Rebellion), veljessota (the war between brothers) even vallankumous (Revolution). Present-day historians point out that all of these different names have their merits, although their propagandist charges differ.

The Civil War and the Continuation War have been the two most controversial and emotionally loaded events in the history of modern Finland. They are often seen as the hinges or pivots of Finland's fate; both have also had a great influence on the foreign relations of Finland.

In January 1918 the Red guards took power in the industrialised, southern part of the recently independent Finland. They consisted of land-renting, poor crofters from the countryside and industrial workers from the cities. They were inspired by the october revolution in Russia, and got some material aid from the bolheviks.
The Senate fled to the northern city of Vaasa, and organised a counter-revolutionary army of White guards, swedish volunteers and german-trained elite soldiers, under marshal Mannerheim.

The Reds lacked professional leadership, and their attacks towards the north were thrown back, and eventually their main stronghold, the industrial city of Tampere, was besieged. Then a division of german troops assisting the whites landed on the south coast and sealed the revolution's fate.

Soon, the revolution was defeated, and tens of thousands of finnish workers died in concentration camps during the so called White terror.

What are your opinions on this conflict? Should (could?) Lenin have sent more troops to aid the Reds in Finland? What would a red victory in Finland 1918 have led to, a soviet republic of Finland or something else?

Being of finnish heritage myself, I'm interested in how this historical conflict is viewed by the international communist movement.

[ComradeOm]

Originally posted by The [email protected] 16 2006, 12:33 PM
What are your opinions on this conflict? Should (could?) Lenin have sent more troops to aid the Reds in Finland? What would a red victory in Finland 1918 have led to, a soviet republic of Finland or something else?
Considering the position in Russia Lenin was in no position to send any aid. The Bolsheviks barely survived as it was.

[Fistful of Steel]

^I would agree with you there. I doubt Lenin could've spared any of the Red Army as much as he'd've liked to see a neighbouring country communist, he had to deal with the White forces and consolidate his own power in Russia.

[bezdomni]

Historically, Russia has always wanted to invade Finland.

The USSR tried it again during World War II, didn't they?

[Sentinel]

I'm a Finn myself

Me too, although born and raised in Sweden. :)


Lenin was expecting Finland would join the communist sphere by itself.
I've heard that Lenin said something like "revolution should not be imported", but it was a long time ago I heard it, and I cannot remember where. So I'm not sure if he meant the finnish situation, or if he even actually said it.. Is it correct, or would he have sent more aid if the situation had allowed? :huh:


By the way, there was plenty of Russian soldiers fighting for the Reds in the Civil War

Do you mean the Russian army troops remaining in Finland? I've understood they were winthrawn after the peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Germany, signed in Brest-Litovsk, before the more crucial moments of the finnish conflict.

The reds got weapons and artillery from them, at least, but not that much help in the actual fighting. Or were there other russians, volunteers?

[Zingu]

Originally posted by [email protected] 16 2006, 06:24 PM
Historically, Russia has always wanted to invade Finland.

The USSR tried it again during World War II, didn't they?
Yes, first with the Non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, Russia got Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Eastern Poland into their sphere of infulence. It was also agreed that Finland would go as well. Due to Russian military ineffiency; they attempted to fashion their own blitzkrieg in a country with almost no roads, lots of dense forests and heavy winter and brought almost all of the wrong equipment, field trajectory guns were useless in wooded area.

In 1941, Finland saw Russia as the greater evil and became co-belligerant with the Axis and invaded the Soviet Union, reclaiming the land Russia annexed during the peace treaty in the beginning of 1940. Later in 1944 Russia attacked Finland, but the Finnish Army held out once again at Karelia and peace was signed. In turn, Finland declared war on the Germany which started the Lapinsoita when the German Army retreated to Northern Norway burning everything in their path.

[Zingu]

The Finnish Civil War was pretty much apart of the Russian Civil War, very intertwined. There was still alot of Russian soldiers in Finland at the time, I don't know if they were "officially" apart of the Red Army, or they just joined the Finnish Reds on their own accord. I mean, street fighting between the Reds and the Whites was already happening before independance even got declared.

This was 1918, so things weren't that "organized" yet.

[Sentinel]

Historically, Russia has always wanted to invade Finland.

The USSR tried it again during World War II, didn't they?

Correct. Until Finland's independence (granted by Lenin, in 1917), it was an area fought over between Sweden and Russia. Russia occupied it piece by piece from the swedish, during the 18th century and totally in 1808, when they added it as a grand duchy in the Russian Empire (and even annexed the Swedish speaking archipelago between the countries). The russians also moved the capital from Turku in the west, to Helsinki.

After the Civil War, Finland was led by rightwingers, and had an open and powerful fascist movement, which even attempted a coup to seize power. Communists were persecuted. The population was still torn apart by the Civil War. It was a time of open class hate in Finland.

Many of the old "Reds" supported Stalin's attack on Finland, but not all (there were social democrats among them). The unprovoked Winter War was a hard blow for the popularity of the communist movement in Finland. But there were heroes, like the communist dissident Veikko Pöysti, who co-operated with the Russians, and mostly were shot as traitors. Many of them were trained and educated in espionage in the USSR.

[Sky]

http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/116/398.htm

The revolution in Finland broke out during an upsurge that had developed in the Finish revolutionary movement at the end of 1917 under the influence of the October Revolution in Russia. In response to terrorist acts by White Guard units, the buildings of the Senate and other central institutions in Helsinki were occupied in the early morning of 28 January 1918 by detachments of the Red Guard, which had been established in the summer of 1917. This action of the workers of Helsinki was actually followed by the workers seizure of public buildings in such cities as Turku, Tampere, Pori, Kotka, Lahti, and Viipuri. The revolution was confined primarily to southern Finland, which was the most industrially developed part of the country. The north, along the greater part of central Finland, to which several members of the bourgeois Senate had fled from Helsinki, remained under the control of the reactionary forces.

A revolutionary government—the Council of People’s Commissioners—was formed in Helsinki on January 28. Members of the council included the Social Democrats K. Manner, who was its chairman, Y. Sirola, and Otto Kuusinen. The Chief Workers’ Council was established as the supreme body of power. It had 35 members: ten from the Party Council of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, ten from the trade unions, ten from the Red Guard, and five from the Helsinki diet of workers’ organizations, which ahd been established in 1917.

On 31 January the Council of People’s Commissioners adopted a law granting to the poor peasants the land they rented; all obligations of the peasants to the landowners were annulled. On February 1 the council took control of the Bank of Finland and passed a provisional law on revolutionary courts. The private banks still operating were placed under state supervision on February 12. Many industrial establishments were taken over by the State. A draft of a democratic constitution was published on February 23. The constitution proclaimed Finland a republic, in which all power belonged to the people. Finland’s independence was provided with a firm foundation by the conclusion on March 1 of the Treaty of Strengthening Friendship and Fraternity between Russia and the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic, as the country was called in the text of the treaty of Lenin’s suggestion.

Unable to put down the revolution, the Finnish bourgeoisie started a civil war and turned for help to the German imperialists. On March 7, 1918, a treaty was concluded in Berlin between the German regime and the counterrevolutionary government of P. Svinhufvud, which had its seat in the city of Vaasa. The treaty reduced Finland to a protectorate of Germany. The first German detachment reached Ahvenanmaa on March 5, before the treaty was signed. On April 3 the Baltic Division, which numbered 12,000 men and was led by R. Von der Goltz, landed at Hanko in the rear of the Red Guard forces. On April 7 a detachment of 3000 men landed near Loviisa.

Despite the heroic resistance of the 80,000 men of the Red Guard, which, at the request of the Council of People’s Commisioners, had received arms and equipment from Russia, the counterrevolutionary forces prevailed. On April 6, the White Finnish troops under the command of General von Mannerheim gained a decisive victory near Tampere and occupied the city. On April 14, German troops captured Helsinki. Viipuri fell to the Germans on April 29. After the final defeat of the revolution in early May, the Finnish bourgeoisie dealt mercilessly with the workers. According to the most recent Finnish studies, as many as 100,000 workers were stuffed into concentration camps where more than 15,000 were murdered. More than 10,000 persons were executed outright. The leaders of the Finnish workers’ movement analyzed the failure of the revolution and concluded that one reason for its defeat was the lack of a genuinely revolutionary, mass-scale Marxist-Leninist Party. Accordingly, they undertook the establishment of the Communist Party of Finland. The party’s founding congress was held on 29 August 1918.

[Sentinel]

Thanks for linking Sky's post into my old thread Serpent. Perhaps we have new members who would like to reply.

What does everyone think of the Finnish Socialist Worker's Republic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Socialist_Workers%27_Republic) and it's constitution? I find it interesting, it was council-communist and based on national self-determination, ie the Reds wanted to create an independent socialist state in Finland -- with the Soviet of Helsinki as it's highest administrative organ -- not a soviet republic part of the USSR like many falsely claim. Here's the wiki entry for FSWR:


Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic was a short-lived socialist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism) government, established by a revolution just prior to the Finnish Civil War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Civil_War) and in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolshevik_Revolution). It did not assume this name until January 28 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_28), 1918 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918), by decree of the Helsinki Soviet (then called the People's Council of Helsinki). The revolution was initiated by the pro-Bolshevik faction of the Social Democratic Party of Finland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Finland). People’s Councils (kansanvaltuuskunta), which would today be called Soviets, were organized by Finnish Socialists, with the Soviet of Helsinki as the seat of government. The new state negotiated a treaty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty) of friendship with Soviet Russia which was finalized on March 1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1) and signed in Petrograd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrograd). The Finnish Reds were defeated in the end of April 1918 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918) in the Finnish Civil War by the Finnish White Guards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Guard_%28Finland%29) supported by the armed forces of Imperial Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Germany).
The Socialist Republic's program and draft constitution, written by Otto Ville Kuusinen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Ville_Kuusinen), was influenced by social democratic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democratic) ideals, by the generally liberal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal) ideas of the United States Declaration of Independence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence), and by the Swiss (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland) cantonal system. The main goal was social reform, and the declared means to achieve this was parliamentary democracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentarism) based on the principle of sovereignty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereignty) of the people and of national self-determination (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_self-determination). The Marxist concept of proletarian dictatorship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariat) was absent from the program, despite the interest among some Finnish Social-Democrats in establishing one. The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic was nevertheless supported by the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSFSR), which also supported moderate Communist governments in Hungary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Soviet_Republic) and Bavaria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavarian_Soviet_Republic). The Finnish Socialists began the war almost completely in control of the country's industrial south, while their White enemies controlled the larger, but sparsely populated northern regions. The entry of German-trained White Finns, and the German army itself, into Finland forced the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic to rely heavily on Soviet aid, military and economic, which was sparse as the RSFSR was busy with the Russian Civil War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Civil_War). The Reds were defeated and tens of thousands of Social-Democrats fell victim to the White Terror (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror#Finnish_White_Terror), the rest going underground or fleeing the country. In the months that followed, the party split with a faction of refugees forming the Communist Party of Finland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Finland) in exile in Moscow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow).
The Finnish Socialist Worker's Republic of 1918, which did physically exist, is not to be confused with the Finnish Democratic Republic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Democratic_Republic) -- which was a Soviet puppet 'exile government' founded by OW Kuusinen during WWII, but never actually ruled Finland.


General von MannerheimHis name was just Mannerheim, not 'von', lol. He was a 'baron' though, that and the biggest piece of shit to ever walk the earth. CGE Mannerheim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gustaf_Emil_Mannerheim)

I would agree with the article that lack of organisation was one factor, nut the lack of proper military training and combat experience among the Red guards -- compared to the Jaegers and the German intervention army -- was a much more likely reason for the defeat. I also find the claim that 'a genuinely revolutionary, mass-scale Marxist-Leninist Party' could have saved the revolution laughable.

Only a large-scale Soviet intervention could have done that.

[spartan]

I heard that there were lots of Communists who fought in the Finnish army against the USSR in the winter and continuation wars, is this true?

From what i remember the Finnish government at first didnt trust them and expected them to rebel at the first possible moment, but they apparently fought very well against the invading Soviets, and were no trouble to the Finnish government.

[Sentinel]

I heard that there were lots of Communists who fought in the Finnish army against the USSR in the winter and continuation wars, is this true?Some did, as they deemed Stalin's attack on Finland and the Baltic states -- a result of the unholy Molotov-Ribbentrop pact -- as unprovoked and imperialist in nature. But many others went underground and committed acts of sabotage against the Finnish war effort -- especially during the Continuation War, when Finland took part in the German Operation Barbarossa as a member of the Axis.

Many of these fled over the border, received training in the Soviet Union, and were then parachuted back in order to form an underground pro-soviet resistance. Overall, Stalin's attack on Finland in 1939 divided the Finnish left and alienated a large part of the previously Red masses from communism.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I know you'll be very surprised to hear this coming from a Leninist Marxist, but Lenin SOLD OUT the Finnish workers! :(

However, this was also tied in to the pro-war (Bukharin) and indecisive segments (Trotsky) preventing a more immediate signing of peace with Germany. Bukharin and co. and Trotsky and co. bear more responsibility for the defeat of the Finnish working class than Lenin does.


The [Finnish] Reds lacked professional leadership, and their attacks towards the north were thrown back, and eventually their main stronghold, the industrial city of Tampere, was besieged. Then a division of german troops assisting the whites landed on the south coast and sealed the revolution's fate.

Soon, the revolution was defeated, and tens of thousands of finnish workers died in concentration camps during the so called White terror.

Had there been a more immediate signing of peace, Germany's terms wouldn't have been as harsh, and Soviet Russia would have been in a much better position to: win the impending civil war more quickly, provide aid to the Finnish working class on the side (since the Red Army would have been formed sooner, training would not have been as much of an issue), crush the Polish bourgeoisie, and perhaps stretch out as far as saving Bela Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic.



Organizationally speaking, Lenin was surrounded by cowardly and/or immature "comrades" in the Central Committee: cowardly in regards to Zinoviev and Kamenev (who recently opposed "October," in addition to later on becoming the real authors of Stalin's revisionist "Marxism-Leninism"), and immature in regards to Trotsky and Bukharin.

[Random Precision]

Brest-Litovsk and associated negotiations was definitely not Trotsky's finest moment. In fact, he and Bukharin between them managed to pretty much save the Entente in WW1, because if they had signed a peace sooner Germany wouldn't have wasted all its resources penetrating into Russia when it was near a breakthrough on the Western front.

[Sentinel]

Brest-Litovsk and associated negotiations was definitely not Trotsky's finest moment. In fact, he and Bukharin between them managed to pretty much save the Entente in WW1, because if they had signed a peace sooner Germany wouldn't have wasted all its resources penetrating into Russia when it was near a breakthrough on the Western front.The first world war was a conflict between two blocks of imperialist factions. While it's results -- the fall of the European empires, the national liberation of eastern European peoples, the great socialist revolutions -- certainly are of relevance for the worker's movement, it was a mass slaughter of proletarians, one communists were opposed to. I would likely have argued for a Russian withdrawal from that conflict as soon as possible, for both material and ideological reasons, had I been in Trotsky's position.

But please comrades, see my questions and comment on the thread topic. ;)

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ As I said, the cursory blame belongs to Lenin regarding Finland, but moreso to pro-war and indecisive elements who constituted a majority in the party.

Now regarding military organization: My alternate-history remarks deem the lack of Finnish military organization to be irrelevant, since the Red Army would have been formed sooner. I edited my post above to give a bigger picture.

[Led Zeppelin]

It seems to me that the Russian Soviets tried to send more aid but couldn't because they were too busy fighting the whites at home. I'm sure that they would have aided them if they could, since they did the same in Poland, Germany, Iran, etc.

[Comrade Hector]

Wikipedia Article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Civil_War)



In January 1918 the Red guards took power in the industrialised, southern part of the recently independent Finland. They consisted of land-renting, poor crofters from the countryside and industrial workers from the cities. They were inspired by the october revolution in Russia, and got some material aid from the bolheviks.
The Senate fled to the northern city of Vaasa, and organised a counter-revolutionary army of White guards, swedish volunteers and german-trained elite soldiers, under marshal Mannerheim.

The Reds lacked professional leadership, and their attacks towards the north were thrown back, and eventually their main stronghold, the industrial city of Tampere, was besieged. Then a division of german troops assisting the whites landed on the south coast and sealed the revolution's fate.

Soon, the revolution was defeated, and tens of thousands of finnish workers died in concentration camps during the so called White terror.

What are your opinions on this conflict? Should (could?) Lenin have sent more troops to aid the Reds in Finland? What would a red victory in Finland 1918 have led to, a soviet republic of Finland or something else?

Being of finnish heritage myself, I'm interested in how this historical conflict is viewed by the international communist movement.

As somebody already said earlier, Lenin was in no position to spare Red Army troops what with the presence of the White Army being backed by an invasion of 17 imperialist armies. There is no doubt in my mind that Lenin and the other Bolsheviks wanted to help their comrades in Finland, but at this time it just wasn't possible. The Hungarian Soviet Republic, Slovak Soviet Republic, and the Bavarian Soviet Republic would fall for this reason as well.

[pezinski]

Lives Lost
Cause of death | Reds |Whites| Other |Total
Killed in action |5,199 |3,414 |790 |9,403
Executed | 7,370| 1,424 |926 |9,720
Prison camp | 11,652| 4 |1,790 |13,446
Missing |1,767 | 46 | 380| |2,193
Other causes |443 | 291 | 531 |1,265
Total |27,038 | 5,179 |4,423| 36,640

+ 613 Died after release from camp

More information in wikipedia ^^