Forgotten Soviet-Finnish War of 1917-1922

The history of the Finnish state originates in 1917. A month and a half after the October Revolution, on December 6 (19), 1917, the Finnish Parliament approved the declaration of state independence of Finland. Already after 12 days - December 18 (31), the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Republic adopted the Decree on the recognition of Finland's independence, signed personally by V. I. Lenin.

Soviet Decree on the recognition of independence of Finland

Nevertheless, after the recognition of Finland’s independence by Soviet Russia, an uprising of Finnish Red Army detachments broke out in Helsinki on January 27, 1918. The same date is considered the start date of the Finnish Civil War. The Finnish Socialist Workers Republic (Suomen sosialistinen työväentasavalta) was proclaimed on the same day. The Finnish Red Guard's further attempt to advance the offensive to the north is unsuccessful, and in early March, under the command of General Karl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, the Whites go on the counterattack. On March 5, 1918, German troops landed on the Åland Islands; on April 3, an expeditionary force of about 9.5 thousand men under the command of General Rüdiger von der Goltz landed on the Hanko Peninsula, where he stabbed in the back with red and launched an attack on Helsinki, which was taken on April 13 . On April 19, Lahti was taken by the White Finns, and the red groups were thus cut. On April 26, the Soviet government of Finland fled to Petrograd, on the same day the White Finns took Viipuri (Vyborg), where they carried out a mass terror against the Russian population and the Red Guards who did not have time to escape. The civil war in Finland was actually over, on May 7 the remnants of the red units were defeated on the Karelian Isthmus, and on May 16, 1918 a victory parade was held in Helsinki.

Gustav Mannerheim

Having gained independence and waging war with the Red Guards, the Finnish state decided not to stop at the borders of the Grand Duchy of Finland. At that time, the ideas of panfilanism, that is, the unity of the Finno-Ugric peoples, as well as the ideas of Greater Finland, which were supposed to include the territories adjacent to Finland, populated by these peoples, Karelia (including the Kola Peninsula), Ingria gained great popularity among Finnish intelligentsia. (environs of Petrograd) and Estonia. The Russian Empire collapsed, and new state entities appeared on its territory, sometimes considering in the future a significant expansion of its territory.

Thus, during the Civil War, the Finnish leadership planned to expel Soviet troops not only from Finland, but also from territories whose annexation was planned in the near future. So, on February 23, 1918, at the railway station Antrea (now Kamennogorsk), Mannerheim pronounced “The Oath of the Sword”, in which he said: “I will not put my sword into the scabbard ... until the last warrior and hooligan of Lenin is expelled both from Finland and from East Karelia. " War on Soviet Russia was not declared, but from mid-January (that is, before the start of the Finnish Civil War) Finland secretly sent partisan detachments to Karelia, whose task was the actual occupation of Karelia and assisting Finnish troops during the invasion. Units occupy the city of Kem and the village of Ukhta (now the town of Kalevala). On March 6, the Provisional Karelian Committee was created in Helsinki (occupied by the Reds at that time), and on March 15 Mannerheim approved the “Wallenius plan” aimed at the invasion of Finnish troops in Karelia and the capture of Russian territory along the Pechenga - Kola Peninsula - White Sea - Vygozero - Onega line Lake - Svir River - Lake Ladoga. Parts of the Finnish army were to join at Petrograd, which was supposed to be turned into a free republic city, controlled by Finland.

Russian territories to be annexed by Great Finland according to the Wallenius plan

In May 1918, after the victory in the Civil War, the White Finns launched an offensive in Karelia and on the Kola Peninsula. On May 10, they attempted to attack the polar ice-free port of Pechenga, but the attack was repelled by the Red Guards. In October 1918 and in January 1919, Finnish troops occupied Rebolsky and Porosozersky (Porayarvi) volosts in the west of Russian Karelia, respectively. In November 1918, after the surrender of Germany in the First World War, the withdrawal of German troops from Russian territory begins, and the Germans lose the opportunity to help the Finns. In this regard, in December 1918, Finland changed its foreign policy orientation in favor of the Entente.

Front line in February 1918

The Finns are striving to create a state of Finno-Ugric peoples in another direction. After the withdrawal of German troops from the Baltic, Soviet troops attempted to occupy this region, however, they met resistance from the already formed troops of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. At the end of November 1918, the Red Guards took Narva, which was part of the young Republic of Estonia, after the capture of Narva, the Estland Labor Commune (Eesti Töörahwa Kommuuna) was proclaimed there and the Soviet government of Estonia was formed, headed by Victor Kingisepp. The Estonian army is retreating towards Revel (Tallinn). The Red Army occupied Dorpat (Tartu) and about half of the territory of Estonia and by January 6 was 35 kilometers from Tallinn. On January 7, the Estonian army goes on the counterattack.

The territories occupied by the Finns by January 1919

The allies of the Estonian army fought mainly in their own interests. The Russian White Movement used the Estonian army (like the other national armies that arose on the territory of Russia) as a temporary ally in the fight against the Bolsheviks, England and France fought for their own geopolitical interests in the Baltic states (back in the middle of the 19th century, before the Crimean War, the head of the foreign policy British authorities Henry Palmerston approved a plan to secession of the Baltic States and Finland from Russia). Finland sent a volunteer corps of about 3,500 people to Estonia. The aspirations of Finland consisted in their intentions to first knock out the Reds from Estonia, and then make Estonia a part of Finland, as a federation of Finno-Ugric peoples. At the same time, Finland did not send volunteers to Latvia - Latvians do not belong to the Finno-Ugric peoples. However, we will return to Karelia. By July 1919, the separatist North Karelian state was formed in the Karelian village of Ukhta (now the town of Kalevala) with the assistance of Finnish troops secretly penetrating there. Even earlier, on the morning of April 21, 1919, Finnish troops, having already occupied, as mentioned above, the Rebols and Porosozero, cross the Finnish-Russian border in East Ladoga and in the evening of the same day occupy the village of Vidlitsa, and two days later - the city of Olonets, where the puppet Olonets government is being created. April 25, white Finns go to the Pryazha River, being 10 kilometers from Petrozavodsk, where they meet resistance from parts of the Red Army. The remaining Belofin detachments at the same time force Svir and go to the city of Lodeynoye Pole. Anglo-French-Canadian troops are approaching Petrozavodsk from the north, the defense of Petrozavodsk lasted two months. At the same time, Finnish forces are conducting a smaller offensive in North Karelia, using the North Karelian state to attempt to tear off all of Karelia as a whole.

Front line in Estonia as of January 1919

On June 27, 1919, the Red Army launched a counterattack, by July 8 taking Olonets, and knocking the Finns out of the border line. However, the world has not been established on this. Finland refused to negotiate peace, and Finnish troops continued to occupy part of North Karelia.

On June 27, just on the day of the end of the defense of Petrozavodsk, Finnish units led by Lt. Col. Yury Elfengren cross the border on the Karelian Isthmus and find themselves in close proximity to Petrograd. The Finnish troops meet resistance from the Red Army, in particular, the Finnish Red Army detachments formed from the Red Finns who fled from Finland after the defeat in the Civil War engage in battle with them. Two days later, Finnish troops retreat beyond the border line. On July 9, the Republic of North Ingria was proclaimed in the border village of Kiryasalo, headed by a local resident of Santeri Termonen. In September 1919, the Finnish units again crossed the border and held the territory of Northern Ingria for about a year. The Republic becomes a state controlled by Finland.

Military Formation of the North Ingermanland Republic in Kiryasalo

From September 1919 to March 1920, the Red Army completely liberated Karelia from the interventionist forces of the Entente, after which it began to fight the Finns. May 18, 1920, Soviet troops without a fight took the village of Ukhta, after which the government of the North Karelian state fled to Finland. By July 21, the Red Army liberated most of Russian Karelia from the Finnish troops. In the hands of the Finns were only Rebolskaya and Porosozersky volosts.

In July 1920, in the Estonian city of Tartu (where a peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Estonia was signed five months earlier), peace negotiations began between Soviet Russia and Finland. Representatives of the Finnish side demand the transfer of East Karelia. The Soviet side, in order to protect Petrograd, demands from Finland half of the Karelian Isthmus and the islands in the Gulf of Finland. The negotiations lasted four months, but on October 14, 1920, a peace treaty was nevertheless signed. Finland as a whole remained within the borders of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Soviet Russia handed over to Finland the ice-free port of Pechenga (Petsamo) in the Arctic, due to which Finland got access to the Barents Sea. On the Karelian Isthmus, the old border drawn along the Sestra River (Rajajoki) was also left. Rebolsky and Porosozersky volosts, as well as Northern Ingria, remained with Soviet Russia, and Finnish troops were withdrawn from these territories within a month and a half.

The territories occupied by the Finns by mid-1919

The Tartu Treaty was designed to put an end to hostilities between Russia and Finland. However, here the world did not come. The Finnish leadership regarded it as a temporary truce and did not at all plan to abandon claims to Karelia. Finnish nationalist circles took the Tartu world as shameful and longed for revenge. Less than two months after the signing of the peace, as on December 10, 1920, the United Karelian government was created in Vyborg. Then the Finns used the same tactics as in 1919 - during the summer of 1921 partisan detachments were sent to the territory of Soviet Karelia, which gradually occupied the border villages and engaged in reconnaissance, as well as campaigning and arming the local population and thus organized the Karelian national insurrection. In October 1921, an underground Provisional Karelian Committee (Karjalan väliaikainen hallitus) was created in Soviet Karelia, on the territory of the Tungud volost, led by Vasily Levonen, Yalmari Takkinen and Osipp Borisainen.

On November 6, 1921, Finnish partisan detachments begin an armed uprising in East Karelia, on the same day the Finnish army, led by Major Paavo Talvela, crosses the border. Thus, Finnish intervention in the Russian Civil War is resuming, although in the Northwest the Civil War had already stopped by then (not counting the Kronstadt Uprising of 1921). The Finns counted on the weakness of the Red Army after the Civil War and a fairly easy victory. Leading the offensive, Finnish troops destroyed communications and destroyed the organs of Soviet power in all settlements. New detachments were sent from Finland. If at the beginning of the war the number of Finnish troops was 2.5 thousand people, then by the end of December the figure was close to 6 thousand. There were detachments formed from participants in the Kronstadt uprising, after its suppression fled to Finland. On the basis of the Provisional Karelian Committee, the puppet state of North Karelia was recreated, which was again planted in the village of Ukhta, occupied by Finnish troops. In Finnish historiography, these events are called the “East Karelian Uprising” (Itäkarjalaisten kansannosu), and it is reported that the Finns came to the aid of the Karelian brothers, who voluntarily raised a rebellion against the Bolsheviks who oppressed them.

The territories occupied by the Finns by December 1921

December 18, 1921 the territory of Karelia was declared under siege. The Karelian Front was restored, led by Alexander Sedyakin. Additional units of the Red Army were transferred to Karelia. The Red Finns are fighting in the ranks of the Red Army, who fled to Soviet Russia after the Finnish Civil War. On December 26, the Soviet units strike from Petrozavodsk, and after a week and a half they occupy Porosozero, Padans and Reboly, and on January 25, 1922 they occupy the village of Kestenga. On January 15, Finnish workers hold a demonstration in Helsinki in protest against the White Finns ’Karelian adventure. On February 7, the Red Army troops enter the village of Ukhta, the North Karelian state dissolves itself, and its leaders flee to Finland. By February 17, 1922, the Red Army finally knocked Finns out of the state border line, the military operations on this actually ceased. On March 21, a truce was signed in Moscow.

On June 1, 1922, a peace treaty was concluded in Moscow between Soviet Russia and Finland, according to which both parties were obliged to reduce the number of border troops.

After the spring of 1922, the Finns no longer crossed the Soviet border with weapons. However, the peace between neighboring states remained "cool." Finland’s claims to Karelia and the Kola Peninsula not only didn’t disappear, but vice versa, began to gain even more popularity and sometimes turn into more radical forms - some Finnish nationalist organizations sometimes promoted the idea of ​​creating Great Finland to the Polar Urals, which also had to enter the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Urals and the Volga region. In Finland, throughout the 20s and 40s, powerful propaganda operated, as a result of which the Finns formed the image of Russia as the eternal enemy of Finland.