The Finnish Civil War

The political atmosphere of the early 20th-century Finland was tense. When the Russian Empire began to collapse during the World War I, grass-roots militia groups were soon established and vied to fill the emerging power vacuum. The situation was worsened by the economic hardship and nascent famine caused by the Great War.

The Red Guards represented the Social Democratic Party of Finland and demanded a radical social reform. They were supplied by the Bolshevik government of Russia. The Civil Guards were more conservative and represented the legal government of Finland, with ties to the imperial Germany. The popularity of these two movements was roughly evenly split.

Loimaa was a rapidly growing industrial town, but also had several wealthy farms. Thus both the Red and the Civil Guards were active from early on and had plenty of volunteers. On November 21, 1917, a skirmish occurred in Vesikoski, in which four people lost their lives. As a result, the Revolutionary Committee took control of Loimaa. Finland was still formally considered a part of Russia, and, seeing that the revolution was not progressing fast enough in other parts of the country, some Red Guardians even considered declaring Loimaa an independent state.

Finland declared independence on December 6, 1917. A civil war erupted soon afterwards and lasted till May 1918. It was a short but devastating conflict, with tens of thousands dead and the industrial city of Tampere decimated. The war ultimately ended in the victory of the Civil Guards. No battles were fought in Loimaa, and the Red Guard retreated peacefully (if chaotically) when its defeat became obvious. The only person to die in the retreat was the chairman of the local revolutionary committee—he prevented Red Guardsmen, sent from another town, from looting local shops, and was shot by a frustrated subordinate.

The Allied victory in the World War I made an end of Finland’s initial vassalage to the German Empire, and the Finnish Whites began to seek integration with the Western powers instead. Finland emerged as a politically unstable but ultimately democratic and prosperous independent state with a strong Social Democratic movement committed to peaceful reformism. The World War II and the invasion of the Soviet army in 1939 created a new sense of national unity, allowing for the wounds of the Civil War to gradually heal.

Caption: Loimaa Red Guards in 1917.
Photo: Veikko Hulkko Collection.