Treatment of the Red Prisoners Regarding the Finnish Civil War of 1918

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Jopa79

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*This thread was asked a permission regarding its publication
**This thread is not directly about the war, but the consequences
***To us all, what we should and should not to do


Kohde-BB3286C1-050B-4A85-6E14-D7CE9B820116.jpg

Helsinki citizens watching as the surrendered Red Guard, the prisoners of the war are being transported through the city during the Battle of Helsinki in 1918. Image: Espoo City Museum.

The Finnish Civil War of 1918 was highly characterized by terror, committed by the both sides of the war. The Red terror took place during the war, accelerating towards the end of the war as the nascent defeat in the horizon. The White terror happened also during the war, but mainly after the war as the Finnish White Guard imprisoned tens of thousands of the Finnish Red Guardsman and civilians, leading to a humanitarian crises and to more casualties which the war itself had resulted. This terror was later explained as an external matter, not belonging to the war itself, but it clearly was a part of the war. The White Finland executed an ethnic cleansing after the war, if a Red survived the aftermath, I mean, not being shot, at least her/his civil rights were denied for the two coming decades. While this occurred, the medicine, the psychology was still taking its first-steps recognizing the consequences about this kind of an event. The aftermath of the war created a remarkable trace to the Finnish history, a great trauma, a silence, it was quickly processed while all hands, even the socialist ones were needed in 1939. But the war of 1918 and the aftermath left such a scars, even at the modern days, it's a very hard topic to discuss about in the 'coffee-table-talks'. While the foreign nations had recognized the Finnish independence earlier, they later claimed withdrawing the recognition while the news of the aftermath reached them.

pju-26659.jpg

A countryside parish, Varkaus. Red Guardsmen, civilians and suspects being shut-up into a former working-class parish church, the people waiting here to being called-up into the front of the Field Court. Image: Museums of Varkaus

The White terror after the war was systematic, organized, searching a purpose. It was stressed by the global situation, the WWI, the newly gained independence, but above the all, the anger and the hate between the social classes, it was 'the pay-back-time'. The 'debts' from the pre-war era were now paid, you know, from 'eye-to-eye-method'. The White terror suppressed all the socialist and communist activities throughout the whole line. The judgement at the field-court were often personal, while the Whites hunted-down the ones which they consider inflicting them injustice before, or during the war. Having the greatest threat, of course, they were the former Red leaders in the politics, or in the Red Guard and considering their families also. The terror reached also the Russians present in Finland, because of the Imperial Russian Army was still partly present in Finland and the remnants of it supported the Finnish Red Guard during the Civil War. It's a pretty much guessing-work as the research is still inadequate, but most likely, some of the Red prisoners stayed in jail all the way until the 1930's.

pju-41616 (1).jpg

Executing the Red Guard members after the war in a farm-field uphill. The photo is probably from the early summer of 1918, the Civil War had ended in May. Image: Museums of Varkaus

sis.sota_.blogikuva.jpg

Executing the suspects and the found-guilty. It was not so accurate always, if someone didn't like the other, he/she was shot. If someone was a needed workman, let's say for instance, at the sawmill, he/she was spared.

I cannot remember, this injustice has never been spoken-out in the modern days. But probably it is admitted earlier, in different occasions and during the commemoration-days. The involved ones to the bad treatment of the Red prisoner, they were never judged. It should also be remembered, during the war, the White Senate pretty much gave plenipotentiary powers to its army. In its name, for instance, at Viipuri, the 2nd largest Finnish city then, the graves of the fallen Reds were disgraced, the bodies were dig-up and moved to the dog-cemetery in the city. Because of the foreign pressure and maybe having also 'the 2nd thoughts', the Finnish President declared an emergency- and amnesty law, freeing all the Red women and men in the prison camps. Still, the hunger and the diseases killed every day hundreds in the captivity. The released prisoners had to walk to their homes, sometimes hundreds of kilometres, many died during their walk to back home, for instance, eating a proper meal too quickly to the unprepared bowels.

It's a classic saying, -'On sentään tie jäänyt mieleen' - 'At least, I can remember the road to my home'. It describes the Red prisoners walking to their homes via the forest roads.
 
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If you are further interested of the topic, just click here. It's a trailer of a movie, regarding this thread.
 

March of the Finnish Red Guard:

'Pieni Suomen kansa,
katkoo kahleitansa,
Kärsimysten malja,
se jo kukkuroillaan on
Raakaa sortovaltaa vastaan,
Nostaa maastaan, armeijastaan,
Jalon kansan parhaat poijat taistohon'

'The little Finnish people,
Breaking her chains,
The Bowl of the Suffering fulfilled,
Against the raw tyranny,
Our boys are recruited for the Army,
The best noble ones we have for the Battleground'

'Kiihtyy yhä taisto,
vapauden vaisto,
Se köyhällistön keskuudessa kasvaa yhä vaan,
Eipä auta hallitusta,
piinat, kidutus, tai tuska,
Urhot kaatuu vapauden laulu huulillaan'

'The intensive combat,
The instinct of liberty,
The sense, It only grows among our poor ones,
It doesn't help our government,
Torment, torture, neither pain,
Our Boys will fall having the taste of liberty on their lips'

'Kylvömme kun tehdään,
se kasvaa kerran tähkään,
sadoin kerroin kirkkahampi onnen aika, uus,
Silloin Suomen kansanvalta,
kiittää sankar' poikiansa,
Ilon kyyneleitä palkaks' saapi sankaruus

'While doing our sowing,
it surely becomes harvesting,
For hundred times better is our new time of happiness,
Then, the Finnish nationhood,
it'll thank the heroes, the boys,
Tears of joy, it's the payment for honor
 
How many prisoners were taken during the war and at the end of the war?

And how many of these died in captivity?

Hi Jodel,

The exact number is hard to tell. But it was tens of thousands, the prisoners of the war. Because the Red families knew, they are also in danger, the families and the civilians also joined to the retreating Red Guard, having a purpose, to flee to the Soviet-Russia.

It is said, 11 000 Reds lost their lives while being in captivity. The number still doesn't include the lost lives after the amnesty law.

The ultimatum Red Guard surrender took place near Lahti, a town then, at the Fellman Fields. You may see in the picture, there were thousands of civilians trying to exit the war, but being surrounded by the White Army and the German Ost-See Division.

Fellman Fields.jpg
 
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The White Finland executed an ethnic cleansing after the war
Nitpick: "Ethnic cleansing" is like the least suitable term for those mass repressions, unless you are suggesting that White Finns and Red Finns were actually different ethnic groups, which I find doubtful.
 
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Nitpick: "Ethnic cleansing" is like the least suitable term for those mass repressions, unless you are suggesting that White Finns and Red Finns were actually different ethnic groups, which I find doubtful.

This may refer to the fact, that captured Russians were quite often summary executed at the spot. I'm pretty sure this happened during and after the conflict.

I don't know what happened to the captured Russian garrisons in Northern Finland at the start of the war, maybe they were spared?
 
This may refer to the fact, that captured Russians were quite often summary executed at the spot. I'm pretty sure this happened during and after the conflict.

This is pretty much true, at least, according to the research about the matter.

I don't know what happened to the captured Russian garrisons in Northern Finland at the start of the war, maybe they were spared?

In January, when war started, there were some 900 Russian soldiers in the Finnish Lapland. Surprisingly, they gave or sold their armament to the Finnish White Guard. Partly also, the Russian unwillingness to give proper support for the Finnish Red Guard was due to Treaty of Brest-Litovsk at where Russia signed an article, to not to intervene to the Finnish Civil War.

Nitpick: "Ethnic cleansing" is like the least suitable term for those mass repressions, unless you are suggesting that White Finns and Red Finns were actually different ethnic groups, which I find doubtful.

Also, national identity is considered as one trend of ethinity. While executing the White terror, the repression was a systematic destruction of the minority and the ideology, the identity which the working-class represented for.
 
Also, national identity is considered as one trend of ethinity. While executing the White terror, the repression was a systematic destruction of the minority and the ideology, the identity which the working-class represented for.
"Working class" is not an ethnicity though? Unless the people in question are, like, a hereditary worker class with its own ant like organization??
 
In the summer I read Raskolnikov's story.
He described the uprising of the Kronstadt sailors, who almost all sympathized with the Russian Social Democratic Bolsheviks. To a much lesser extent, they sympathized with the anarchists, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. They visited all ports, including Helsingfors, where they were greeted with joy. During the February Revolution, sailors killed tsarist officers, they were stopped by the Bolsheviks.
These days they were the only armed support of the Bolsheviks. The rulers were afraid of them