- Red Guards (Finland)
The Red Guards ( _fi. Punakaarti) formed the army of Red Finland during the
Finnish Civil War in 1918. The combined strength of the Red Guard was about 30,000 at the beginning of the Civil War, and peaked at 90,000-120,000 during the course of the conflict. The leadership of the Red Guards altered during the war:Ali Aaltonen ,Eero Haapalainen ,Eino Rahja and in the endKullervo Manner . The government of Red Finland was called "The People's Deputation". The Red Guards were in power from 28th January to the end of April 1918 in southernFinland . The Red Guards' general staff were located inHelsinki ; the other major cities controlled by the Red forces wereTampere ,Turku ,Pori andViipuri . Red Tampere came to its end on 6th April, 1918 after bloody battles whenMannerheim 's White Guards conquered the city. Thousands of Red Guards were imprisoned, hundreds of them were executed and the rest were transported to POW camps. Helsinki was in White control by April 12th, 1918. The last Red Guard,Aarne Arvonen , is now Finland's oldest ever man.During the general strike of 1905 "National Guards" were formed in Finland. These Guards included both Socialists and non-Socialists, but eventually they were divided into opposing militias. In that year, however, bloodshed was still avoided. [cite book |last= Jussila |first= Osmo|authorlink= |coauthors=Seppo Hentilä, Jukka Nevakivi |title= Suomen poliittinen historia 1809-2003 |origyear= 1999 |edition= 4th |year=2004 |publisher=
SanomaWSOY |location=Vantaa |language= Finnish |pages=p. 80]ee also
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Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic
*White Guards (Finland) References
External links
* [http://sodatkuvina.cjb.net/images/Sisallissota/Rintama/Sisallissota_Rintama_cat001.html Civil war photos]
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