After the October Revolution (occurring in November 1917) Russia came under control of Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik party. What would later be called the Soviet Union was far from forming; the Bolsheviks faced massive domestic and foreign resistance. Russia would soon descend into its own civil war, the Russian Civil War.
Support for the Reds
The Bolsheviks were quick to influence events in Finland. The remaining Russian Army and Navy garrisons in Finland, which numbered 30,000 in early 1918, were fiercely Bolshevik.[1] These occupying troops had a tremendous ideological impact, which both helped cause the civil war, and split the Finnish socialist movement.
The official Soviet document recognizing Finland’s independence. Credit: State Archives of the Russian Federation.
After Finland declared independence on December 6th 1917, a delegation of Finnish socialists travelled to Petrograd to inquire if Lenin would make good on his promise to recognize Finland’s independence. Lenin did, and on January 4th 1918, Soviet Russia became the first foreign power to recognize Finland’s independence.[2] However, Lenin continued to push the Finnish socialists to revolt.
Besides diplomatic recognition, the Russian soldiers still in Finland began to arm the Finnish socialists for the coming civil war. The Finnish Red Guard often paid the Russians for weapons. The working class in Helsinki paid 1 million Finnish marks (some of the sum stolen) to the Russian garrison for weapons.[3] In other cases, the armories were simply opened and people could loot at will.[4]It was a shipment of arms from Petrograd, promised by Vladimir Lenin that eventually prompted the Red Guard to launch the revolution.[5]
Abandonment
The leadership of Red Finland resented Russian interference in Finland, but on a more local level many Red Guard units throughout the country heavily relied on Russian military assistance. After the Finnish Civil War broke out, the Russians almost immediately reneged on their promises of assistance. The Russians may have been theoretically committed to support the Finnish working class, but as the fighting potential of the Whites became clear, most Russian troops in Finland chose not to risk their lives.
Mikail Svechnikov, one of the most prominent Russians in the Civil War, remarked on this:
“Voices were raised against interference in the Civil War. This was the attitude of the majority in the Tampere garrison. It was especially dangerous due to the fact that throughout their stay in Finland representatives of the Russian army had always emphasized in assemblies, meetings, manifestoes, etc. their solidarity with the Finnish workers and had promised to support them when the critical moment should come.”[6]
The Soviet government in Petrograd also withdrew their official support, realizing that intervention in the Finnish Civil War could affect their peace negotiations with the Germans. Leon Trotsky sent a letter to Svinhufvud detailing:
“the violent intervention of Russian military units in Finland’s internal affairs is not allowed… we regard it as essential that Russian troops be withdrawn from Finland with the utmost speed… Accept Mr. Chairman, the assurance that the Soviet government of Peoples’ Commissars is animated by feelings of respect and friendship towards the independent people of Finland.”[7]
Red Finland continued to court Russian support, mainly through the March 1st signing of the Red Finn-Soviet Treaty. Article I to XII outlined Soviet recognition of Red Finland’s People’s Deputation, but Articles XIII and XIV granted Russian citizens the same rights as Finnish citizens while in Finland.[8] Cross-border citizenship had been one of the most hotly debated issues of the Russification era and by granting it, Red Finland provided some of the best propaganda the Whites could hope for. Worse still, whatever support the Red Finns hoped to get from the treaty was for naught as two days later the Soviets signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, mandating that all Russian troops vacate Finland. [9]
Russian sailors who volunteered to fight for the Finnish Reds were known as “Black Guards”. The man second from the right in this photo is one of these Black Guards. Credit: Vapriikki Photo Archives.
Russian Volunteers
Soviet Russia would not become directly involved in the Finnish Civil War but Russian soldiers who wished to voluntarily fight for the Finnish Red Guard were free to do so, and approximately 2000 to 3000 did.[10] Some did so for ideological reasons; others for the high pay promised by the Red Guard.[11] These soldiers were taking a high risk; in the later stages of the war White soldiers would summarily execute any Russian found fighting with the Red Guard.[12]
Colonel Mikail Svechnikov. Credit: J. O. Hannula
The most prominent Russian volunteer was Colonel Mikail Svechnikov. Svechnikov served not only as the commander of the Russian troops, but was also one of the main commanders of the entire Finnish Red Guard. Even before he resigned his commission, Svechnikov was commanding the Red Northern Army and launched repeated attacks against Mannerheim’s Whites in the first two months of the war.[13] His next posting was as Red Guard Commander-in-Chief Eero Haapalainen’s Chief of Staff, effectively making Svechnikov the second-in-command for the entire Red Guard.[14] As Red Finland collapsed, Svechnikov’s final role was performing a rearguard action to evacuate Red sympathizers to Russia.[15]
Continued War
Following White Finland’s victory, conflict between Finland and Soviet Russia continued. Finland waged a series of irredentist movements, collectively labelled the Kindred Wars, to conquer land at the expense of Russia. Most of these campaigns were done in the name of Finnish nationalism and self-determination.
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Citations
[1] Juha Siltala, “Dissolution and Reintegration in Finland, 1914-1932 : How Did A Disarmed Country Become Absorbed Into Brutalization?,” Journal of Baltic Studies 46, no. 1 (March 2015): 13.
[2] David Kirby, “The Finnish Social Democratic Party and the Bolsheviks,” Journal of Contemporary History 11, no. 2 (January 1, 1976): 195.
[3] C. Jay Smith, Finland and the Russian Revolution 1917-1922 (University of Georgia Press, 1958), 33.
[4] C. Jay Smith, “Russia and the Origins of the Finnish Civil War of 1918,” The American Slavic and East European Review 14, no. 4 (1955): 491.
[5] Anthony F Upton, Finnish Revolution 1917-18 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1981), 254.
[6] John H. Hodgson, Communism in Finland: A History and Interpretation (Princeton University Press, 1967), 73.
[7] Upton, Finnish Revolution 1917-18, 262.
[8] Smith, Finland and the Russian Revolution 1917-1922, 57–58.
[9] Ibid., 40.
[10] Marko Tikka, “Warfare and Terror in 1918,” in The Finnish Civil War 1918: History, Memory, Legacy, ed. Tuomas Tepora and Aapo Roselius (Leiden ; Boston: Brill Academic Pub, 2014), 91.
[11] Kirby, “The Finnish Social Democratic Party and the Bolsheviks,” 195.
[12] Pertti Haapala et al., Tampere 1918: A Town in the Civil War, ed. Tuomas Hoppu et al., trans. Anu Planting (Tampere: Tampere Museums, Museum Centre Vaprikki, 2010), 152–53.
[13] Smith, Finland and the Russian Revolution 1917-1922, 40–41.
[14] Haapala et al., Tampere 1918: A Town in the Civil War, 82.
[15] Smith, Finland and the Russian Revolution 1917-1922, 84–85.
Banner Photo – Russian soldiers in Ruovesi. Credit: Matti Luhtala, Vapriikki Photo Archives
Finland Divided 