White Guard (Finland)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Civil Guard
Armband insignia in white and blue.
White Guard of Nummi in 1930s
Agency overview
Formed 1918
Preceding Agency Kansalliskaarti
Dissolved 1944
Superseding agency Finnish Defence Forces
Jurisdiction Finland

The White Guard (Finnish: Suojeluskunta, plural: Suojeluskunnat, Finland-Swedish: Skyddskår, literary translated as Protection/Defense Corps) was a voluntary militia that emerged victorious over the socialist Red Guard as part of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. The Finnish term Suojeluskunta has received many different approximations in English, including the literal translation Protection Corps, Security Guard, Civic Guards, National Guard, White Militia, Defence Corps, Protection Guard, and Protection Militia. They were generally known as the White Guard in the West due to their opposition to the communist Red Guards. In the White Army of Finland many participants were recruits, draftees and German trained Jägers and not part of the paramilitary as is sometimes erroneously thought.[clarification needed]

Their central organization was named Suojeluskuntajärjestö, and the organization consisted of local chapters in municipalities.

The Russian revolution of 1905 led to social and political unrest and a breakdown of security in Finland, which was then a Grand Duchy under the sovereignty of the Russian Czar. Citizen militias were formed as a response, but soon these would be transformed along political (left-right) lines. The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent independence of Finland also caused conflicts in the country. On January 27, 1918, the Finnish government ordered the disarmament of all remaining Russian garrisons with the forces of the White Guard, and on the same day the Reds proclaimed revolution, leading to a bloody civil war. White Guards, led by Gen. C.G.E. Mannerheim, constituted the bulk of the victorious White Army during the Finnish Civil War (1918).

After the war the Finnish Defence Forces and a regular police service were founded. From 1919–1934 White Guards were considered a voluntary part of the army, and separate Guard formations were in the reserve, but in 1934 all defence was consolidated into the regular army and the Guard became a voluntary defence training organization only. Politically it was neutral, although unofficially it was anti-leftist, clearly anti-Communist and conservative and largely rejected by the labor movement and the political left. However, units of it formed the main forces of the Lapua Movement's abortive coup d'état, the Mäntsälä Rebellion in 1932. White Guardsmen served in the regular army during the Second World War. The White Guard was disbanded according to the terms of the Finno-Soviet peace treaty after the Second World War.

Similar militias existed in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, lands that, like Finland, were under Russian sovereignty until the end of World War I. These militias remained in existence until World War II, evolving somewhat into home guard militias. The phenomenon should be distinguished from the Freikorps established in Germany after its defeat in World War I, although some similarities exist.

Historical context[edit]




The White Guards in the Civil War[edit]





After four months of bitter fighting, the Red Guards were defeated and the White Guards were recognized as one of the key agents in the victory, downplaying for political reasons the role of the German intervention units and the German-trained 2,000 Jaegers.[citation needed] The Civil War was portrayed as a liberation from Russian control after a 20 year long Russification programme, with the Whites stressing the links of the Reds to the Russian Bolshevik regime. However the White victory was achieved with assistance from the Germans. German influence after the war was so strong that the independence of Finland was greatly in question until the end of World War I.[citation needed]

There were reparations in the aftermath of the Civil War. As the Reds had murdered some 1,100 people in their zone of control (the so-called Red terror), the Whites retaliated ruthlessly, executing some 7,370 people after the recapture of the Red areas (the so-called White terror).[citation needed] Approximately 4,000 Whites and 4,500 Reds were killed in action. The famine of 1918 claimed another 20,000 lives. Of those who perished, some 13,000 died in the prison camps.[citation needed] Because of their ruthlessness and eagerness to retaliate, the White Guards earned the title Lahtarikaarti (Butcher Guard) among the Reds.[citation needed]

The White Guards after the Civil War[edit]

After the Civil War the function of the White Guards was unclear. In some municipalities the local White Guard was understood to be a part of the municipal administration. In others, the organisation was considered to have a primarily political role in safeguarding the result of the war.[1] The organisation was given a legal basis on August 2, 1918 by a decree of the Finnish Council of State. Changes to the decree were made later, refining the organisation's structure. From the beginning, the White Guard was considered to be a voluntary part of the Finnish military.[2]

The local White Guards' function in the following 20 years—up to the Winter War—was a mixture of Veteran Corps and Home Guards. After 1921 the White Guard organisation consisted of the General Staff, White Guard districts and local White Guard chapters. Every municipality had at least a single chapter, which in part acted as an NGO (non-governmental organization) but in military affairs was part of the national chain of command. In an economical sense, each chapter was responsible for its own funding, although it received a minor grant from the state budget.[3] The White Guard was active in numerous areas of Finnish life. It organised sports activities, especially cross-country skiing, shooting, orienteering and Finnish baseball.[4] For fundraising, the chapters organised numerous informal events and lotteries. It is estimated that about one-fifth of all get-togethers in Finland were organised by the White Guard. To this end, the White Guard chapters had several hundred choirs, orchestras and theatre groups.[5]

The Chief of the White Guard and the district chiefs were selected by the President of Finland. From 1921 until the organisation's demise, this post was occupied by Gen. Lauri Malmberg. Usually, the district chiefs and most officers in the district headquarters were from the regular army.

Only able-bodied males between 17 and 40 years of age could be full members of the White Guard. Every member was required to attend a specified amount of training on pain of losing membership. The members were required to buy their own equipment and rifle, but the local chapters helped their members if the chapters had funds for it. Until 1934 the White Guard would have formed a division in the full-scale mobilisation.[6]

In 1934 the Finnish mobilisation system was changed. The new system was based on military districts acting as the local mobilization centers. In practice, the military districts coincided with the White Guard districts. In case of mobilisation these two would be unified to act as a single home front district. After the change, the White Guard members formed the cadre of all wartime units, but no specific guard units were planned for mobilisation. On the other hand, the separate wartime White Guard units were removed from the mobilisation plans. The aim of the White Guard was no longer to provide ready fighting units but to act as a voluntary training organisation for reservists. Only the Guard chapters immediately adjacent to the eastern border had responsibility for starting the initial defence against invasion.[7] This effectively ended the role of the White Guard as a separate, political armed force.

During the war the Guard membership mostly served at the front. In the home area the Guard districts formed the local headquarters for the military districts and the oldest and youngest Guard members served in guard and anti-aircraft duties. After the Continuation War, the Finnish White Guards were disbanded in 1944, as demanded by the Soviet Union. However, the military district system as the basis for mobilisation was retained, now fully as an army structure. In the Winter War the White Guard was responsible for the carrying out of the mobilisation. A quarter of the manpower of the field army consisted of Guard members. This contribution proved important, as Guard members were the best trained and equipped personnel in an army which lacked even basic supplies.


[citation needed]

End of 1917 30,000 men
When the civil war started 35,000 men - 40,000 men [8][9]
In the end of the civil war 70,000 men [10]
In 1920 100,000 men

Relations with politicians[edit]

The frosty relations between White Guards and Socialists started to ease during the 1930s. During the 1920s Socialists had demanded the White Guards be demobilised, but as the Guard leadership and the overwhelming majority of the members remained loyal to the government during Mäntsälä rebellion, the demands were changed to making the Guards an official part of the army.

The political rift between the White Guard and the labour movement was ultimately healed during the Winter War, when leadership of the Guard and the Social Democratic Party issued a joint statement February 15, 1940, in which the Guard leadership recommended local Guards to recruit Socialists and the Party leadership recommended to its members that they join the Guards. At the same time, the employers' associations conceded to collective-bargaining agreements with the trade unions.

The White Guards' relations towards non-socialist parties were mostly warm. The Guard did not distinguish between any non-socialist political views and received the support of all non-socialist parties. Only during the Mäntsälä rebellion did these relations detoriorate, as some more radical parts of the Guard were linked with the extreme right-wing.


One of the chapters of the Treaty of Paris (1947) was disbandment of all "fascist-oid organizations". The Soviet Union considered that the White Guard and Lotta Svärd were fascist organizations, and they were disbanded.

The disbanding of the White Guard effectively ended all Finnish voluntary military training for the next several decades. The sports activities of the Guard were taken over by ordinary civilian sports associations, while the psychological work of instilling a national defence spirit was continued by the reservists' associations. However, the Guard itself is a contentious issue, which still divides the people along political lines.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland unilaterally renounced the military articles of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947. Following this, the NGOs working in fields with connections to total defence formed the National Defence Training Association of Finland (Finnish: Maanpuolustuskoulutus ry), which started to organise supplemental voluntary training primarily for Finnish Defence Forces reservists in conjunction with the Defence Forces. The legal basis for the activities was given by changing the Act on Defence Forces in 1994. More accurate basis was given by the Act on Voluntary Defence Work of 2007, which will make the Association a nominally independent public organization under political state control. As the heritage of the White Guard in Finland is very mixed, the National Defence Training Association does not consider itself to be the successor of the White Guard.

In 2007 formation of local defence troops was started, a volunteer military organization composed of reservists. Some political groups have criticized formation of these units, saying that they are too close to White guards that were abolished as fascist organization in 1944.

Dress and insignia[edit]

A selection of Suojeluskunta insignia

The first ad hoc symbols were a white armband and a small, three-branched shoot from a spruce branch, placed into the hat. The basic insignia was an embroidered badge with a white "S" topped by three single shoots of spruce branches. The badge and the "S" were embroidered with a gold-colored border. The symbol worn by General C.G.E. Mannerheim had a blue field, but in the provinces, the field was divided (party per sinister), with two or three colors representing each province. The white armband also bore the name of the municipality. Each chapter had its own flag, but generally it was a symmetric variant of the modern State Flag of Finland where the cross was extended with small swastika arms, the "S" symbol in the canton and local symbols instead of the coat of arms.[11]

The rank insignia was rather different from modern Finnish insignia. In principle, the enlisted did not have a rank system, and there was only one officer rank (suojeluskuntaupseeri), marked by a single metal spruce branch worn on the collar. However, task-specific insignia was used instead. Underofficers wore a chevron pointed downwards, and chiefs of local chapters wore 1–4 horizontal bars, the number depending on the size of the chapter. It must be kept in mind that Suojeluskunnat were a civilian organization and many members did not have formal military training. Those members who had served in the military held a separate rank in reserve.

Uniforms were Swedish and German-style and in "field gray" (Feldgrau) color.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ (Finnish)Selén, K. and Pylkkänen, A. (2004). Sarkatakkien armeija – Suojeluskunnat ja suojeluskuntalaiset. WSOY, Juva. ISBN 951-0-29418-7. Pp. 29–30.
  2. ^ (Finnish)Selén, K. and Pylkkänen, A. (2004). Sarkatakkien armeija – Suojeluskunnat ja suojeluskuntalaiset. WSOY, Juva. ISBN 951-0-29418-7. Pp. 35–36, 165.
  3. ^ (Finnish)Selén, K. and Pylkkänen, A. (2004). Sarkatakkien armeija – Suojeluskunnat ja suojeluskuntalaiset. WSOY, Juva. ISBN 951-0-29418-7. Pp. 50–51, 35–36.
  4. ^ (Finnish)Selén, K. and Pylkkänen, A. (2004). Sarkatakkien armeija – Suojeluskunnat ja suojeluskuntalaiset. WSOY, Juva. ISBN 951-0-29418-7. Chapter Pitäjän paras urheiluseura (pp. 84–94).
  5. ^ (Finnish)Selén, K. and Pylkkänen, A. (2004). Sarkatakkien armeija – Suojeluskunnat ja suojeluskuntalaiset. WSOY, Juva. ISBN 951-0-29418-7. pp. 95, 53–54).
  6. ^ (Finnish)Selén, K. and Pylkkänen, A. (2004). Sarkatakkien armeija – Suojeluskunnat ja suojeluskuntalaiset. WSOY, Juva. ISBN 951-0-29418-7. pp. 335, 53–54).
  8. ^ http://www.uppslagsverket.fi/bin/view/Uppslagsverket/Inboerdeskriget
  9. ^ http://www.palasuomenhistoriaa.net/?Suomen_historian_k%E4%E4nnekohtia:Sis%E4llissota_1918_ja_Suomen_armeijan_synty:Suojeluskuntien_alkuvaiheet_ja_sis%E4llissodan_aika
  10. ^ http://www.uppslagsverket.fi/bin/view/Uppslagsverket/Inboerdeskriget
  11. ^ http://wiki.narc.fi/portti/index.php/Suojeluskuntien_lippupiirustuskokoelma
    Also, for example, see the Myrskylä suojeluskunta flag in the National Archive.

External links[edit]

Media related to Suojeluskuntajärjestö at Wikimedia Commons