The SDP proposed a comprehensive program of social reform, known as the We Demand Me vaadimme in late October , but it was rejected by parliament, now controlled by the middle class. Acts of political violence then became more frequent. Finnish society was gradually dividing into two camps, both armed, and both intent on total victory. The Bolshevik takeover in Russia in November heightened emotions in Finland.
For the middle classes, the Bolsheviks aroused the specter of living under revolutionary socialism. Workers, however, were inspired by the apparent efficacy of revolutionary action. The success of the Bolsheviks emboldened the Finnish workers to begin a general strike on November 14, , and within forty-eight hours they controlled most of the country. The most radical workers wanted to convert the general strike into a full seizure of power, but they were dissuaded by the SDP leaders, who were still committed to democratic procedures and who helped to bring an end to the strike by November Already there were armed clashes between the Red Guards and the White Guards; during and after the general strike, a number of people were killed.
Following the general strike, the middle and the upper classes were in no mood for compromise, particularly because arms shipments and the return of some jaegers from Germany were transforming the White Guard into a credible fighting force. In November a middle-class government was established under the tough and uncompromising Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, and on December 6, , it declared Finland independent. Since then, December 6 has been celebrated in Finland as Independence Day.
True to his April Theses that called for the self-determination of nations, Lenin's Bolshevik government recognized Finland's independence on December Throughout December and January , the Svinhufvud government demonstrated that it would make no concessions to the socialists and that it would rule without them. The point of no return probably was passed on January 9, , when the government authorized the White Guard to act as a state security force and to establish law and order in Finland.
That decision in turn encouraged the workers to make a preemptive strike, and in the succeeding days, revolutionary elements took over the socialist movement and called for a general uprising to begin on the night of January , Meanwhile, the government had appointed a Swedish-speaking Finn and former tsarist general, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim , as the commander of its military forces, soon to be called the Whites.
Independently of the Reds, Mannerheim also called for military action to begin on the night of January Whether or not the civil war was avoidable has been debated ever since, but both sides must share in the responsibility for its outbreak because of their unwillingness to compromise.
Within a few days of the outbreak of the civil war, the front lines had stabilized. The Whites, whose troops were mostly farmers, controlled the northern and more rural part of the country. Two factors were crucial in causing the conflict: the power vacuum in the country and class divisions. The power vacuum came about when the collapse of the tsarist regime and later the Bolshevik Revolution destroyed societal restraints; this vacuum opened up unexpected possibilities for intertwined ideologies of national independence and class struggle.
Class divisions were heightened in the rapidly modernizing society. Due to the German defeat in the First World War, Finland did not affiliate with the collapsed monarchical empire as planned, but instead was declared a republic in Nevertheless, the war resulted in a divided society.
A large segment of the population lost their civic rights, notably the rights to vote and participate in elections, after their release from prisoner-of war camps. Most of the released prisoners regained their rights in the early s. Furthermore, 10, people fled to Soviet Russia. The victors claimed their opponents had been under Bolshevik influence and overemphasized the role of Russians in the conflict.
These divisions started to dissipate in the late s but were not overcome until the Second World War. The true scale of the White terror was not acknowledged until the s. Tepora, Tuomas: Finnish Civil War , in: online.
International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. DOI : Version 1. Finnish Civil War By Tuomas Tepora. History, memory, legacy , Leiden; Boston Brill. Upton, Anthony F. Metadata Subjects. Open Access and Research Funding. Open Access for Librarians. Open Access for Academic Societies. About us. Stay updated. Corporate Social Responsiblity. Investor Relations. Review a Brill Book. Reference Works. Primary source collections. Open Access Content.
Contact us. Sales contacts. Publishing contacts. Social Media Overview. Terms and Conditions. Privacy Statement. Login to my Brill account Create Brill Account. The Finnish Civil War offers a rich account of the history and memory of the short conflict between socialist Reds and non-socialist Whites in the winter and spring of It also traces the legacy of the bloody war in Finnish society until today.
The volume brings together established scholarship of political and social history with newer approaches stemming from the cultural history of war, memory studies, gender studies, history of emotions, psychohistory and oral history. The contributors provide readers with a solid discussion of the Civil War within its international and national frameworks.
Among themes discussed are violence and terror, enemy images, Finnish irredentist campaigns in Soviet Karelia and the complex memory of the conflict. Even in victory, the Whites would splinter due to political squabbling and differing ideas on Finnish national identity. The Finnish Civil War is one of the darkest and bloodiest periods in the history of Finland. The Finnish Civil War presents not just an opportunity to study the history of the Finland, but gives insight into the maelstrom of competing interests, ideologies, and concepts of national identity that was influencing not just Finland, but the entire world in About About Further Reading.
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