The Finnish civil war and land lease problems

Abstract

Civil war broke out in Finland on 28 January 1918. The ‘Red’ revolutionaries occupied the capital and all the administrative offices there, and on the same day the ‘White’ Civic Guards of South Ostrobothnia began to disarm the Russian garrisons in the province. Thus was manifested the dual character of the war; it was a civil war and a war of independence. Encounters had already occurred in Carelia, but the events of 28 January split the country into the Red South and the White North. As the forces were marshalled, a fairly definite front line was formed at the beginning of February between the territories held by the Reds and the Whites,¹ and this remained more or less static until mid-March when the White troops began a rapid advance. The fighting ended on 15 May.

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Viljo Rasila

Viljo Rasila, born 1926, lecturer in Finnish history at the University of Tampere 1965. Dr. Rasila is trained as an agrarian historian and sociologist. His special field of research is concerned with the history of the Finnish crofters and the Civil War.