The Finnish Civil War was fought in 1918 between the forces of the Senate and the People’s Delegation. Both sides received assistance from foreign powers, and foreigners also took part in the fighting.
The civil war began with the Reds’ attempt at revolution in Helsinki on January 28. On that same night, the White commander-in-chief, Mannerheim, ordered the White Guards to begin disarming the Russian troops stationed in Ostrobothnia. The confiscated weapons were an essential prerequisite for the White Army’s warfare. At the beginning of the war, the Red Guards quickly took control of Helsinki and southern Finland. Lenin promised 10,000 rifles to the Finnish revolutionaries, and in early February a trainload of weapons—over a thousand rifles—arrived in Tampere. In February and early March, the Reds held the initiative, launching several unsuccessful offensives along the front. Their final attempt took place on March 13, but it was cut short when the Whites began their major counteroffnsive two days later.
The support the Reds received from Russia was weakened on March 3 by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, imposed by Germany, which ended the First World War on the Eastern Front. According to its sixth article, Soviet Russia was required—at the request of the Whites—to withdraw its military forces from Finland. The involvement of Russian soldiers in the Finnish Civil War was relatively minor. No significant military units were persuaded to join the fighting, and by the end of March, most of the Russian detachments had withdrawn from Finland. Some Russian officers, however, served in leadership positions within the Red Guard, such as Colonel Svetshnikov, who commanded attacks in the Vilppula area. In Tampere, the chief of the Reds, Hugo Salmela, was advised by Lieutenant Colonel Bulatsel, who also drew up Tampere’s first defense plan. After the Battle of Tampere in early April, he was executed in a gravel pit next to the Tampere General Hospital.
The White Army received significant reinforcements from abroad. Swedish officers began arriving in Finland as early as the beginning of February, and in total, more than a thousand Swedes fought on the White side. The Finlands Vänner (“Friends of Finland”) association recruited volunteers, forming the roughly 500-man Svenska Brigaden, or Swedish Brigade. Those who joined were idealists, professional officers seeking combat experience, and adventurers. Among the first to arrive in Finland was Olof Palme, the namesake and uncle of Sweden’s future prime minister, who helped organize the brigade. The Battle of Tampere was the Swedish Brigade’s first engagement, and it suffered heavy losses, particularly around the Kalevankangas Cemetery. On what became known as “Bloody Maundy Thursday,” about 200 White soldiers were killed. Palme also fell in the Battle of Tampere later in early April.
An important addition to the White forces were the Jägers, Finnish volunteers trained in Germany, about 1,200 of whom joined the war. Due to the uncertain outcome of the conflict, the Finnish Senate had already requested assistance from Germany in February — a move opposed by Mannerheim, who sought to resolve the war using Finland’s own forces. On March 4, the Senate issued a declaration announcing the forthcoming military aid from Germany, and on the 15th, Mannerheim launched an offensive to capture Tampere, the Reds’ most important stronghold. After fierce fighting, Tampere surrendered on April 6. The Baltic Sea Division, led by German Major General von der Goltz and numbering about 10,000 men, landed in Hanko on April 3 and captured Helsinki on the 13th, holding a victory parade there the following day. After the war, the division and von der Goltz remained stationed in Helsinki.
Colonel von Brandenstein’s German detachment of 3,000 men landed in Loviisa on April 7, with the goal of cutting off the Reds’ connections between Helsinki and St. Petersburg along the Lahti–Kouvola railway. Lahti, located at the junction of key roads and railways, held great strategic importance, and the Brandenstein detachment, operating under the Baltic Sea Division, launched an attack there on April 19. The Reds made several attempts to retake the city but were ultimately forced to surrender in early May.
After the war ended, the victory parade of the White Army, led by Mannerheim, was held in Helsinki on May 16. The German troops had significantly hastened the military defeat of the Red Guards and shortened the duration of the war. By the war’s end, Finland had become an ally of Germany, with approximately 12,000 German soldiers stationed in the country. Plans to turn Finland into a monarchy were abandoned after Germany’s defeat in the World War, and the last German troops left Finland in December 1918.
