PART III: SUOJELUSKUNTA AND POLITICS

To better understand what followed short introduction to Finnish political scene following Civil War is in order. The first few years of Finnish independence were politics-wise rather turbulent times. As often with new states, in general nationalistic views were popular at the time. Following Civil War Finnish society was heavily divided into two opposite camps, one of which had supported the Whites, while another one had supported the Reds. Ending of the Civil War did not change their opinions and how to treat the Reds who had lost the war became an issue. Finnish constitution was set into operation in July of 1919 and in first presidential election that was also held that month became a competition between two candidates, who represented different views in what Finland was to become. General Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim had lead Finnish White Army into victory, represented that legacy and got much of the right wing votes. His rival Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg was jurisprudent and politician, who won the election with moderate right and moderate left wing votes and made it his work to try uniting the nation by treating with leniency the Reds who had lost the war, but not all shared that view. Finland normally has parliamentary elections followed by forming of new government every four years, but during its first six went through no less than seven governments. Newly established democracy faced both external and internal threats. Russian Civil War raged on until year 1922, although victor of the war was already starting to look rather clear at year 1920. Idea of "Greater Finland" (Suur-Suomi) promoting expansion across borders to areas inhabited by the Finns and ethnic groups closely related to them had become highly popular during World War 1. Expansion to east beyond year 1918 border in particular enjoyed widely spread popularity at the time - even government of the Finnish Reds had hoped to attach Russian Carelia into Finland. During Finnish Civil War much of the Finnish Reds from northern Finland had fled to Russia and Finnish White Army had launched some military operations across the border in Russian Carelia in order to secure its flank. Following ending of Civil War more armed excursions done by volunteers to Russian territory followed. This series of armed conflicts beyond Finland's eastern borders in 1918 - 1922 are known as Wars of Kindred Peoples (heimosodat). Often Finnish participation to Estonian War of Liberation (1918 - 1920) is also included to those.

PICTURE: Propanga poster of Akateeminen Karjala-Seura (Academic Carelia Society) also commonly known with abbreviation of its name - AKS. It was the largest and most influential of civic organizations, which were driving for creation of "Greater Finland" with expansion to the east. The organization was established in year 1922 and at most had about 4,000 members, which as the name suggests were university educated. On practical level in addition of propaganda the organization was providing help for Carelian refugees and promoting Carelian culture. Poster created by artist Toivo Vikstedt and printed by Oy Tilgmann Ab. Photo source Helsinki City Museum (Helsingin kaupunginmuseo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (100 KB).

Suojeluskunta was not a political organization on its own, but neither was it totally non-political in all ways. The political views of its members represented a spectrum from political center to extreme right, and it showed. The organization was openly anti-communist and in general did not really like moderate left-wingers either, even though it tolerated them better. Expressing party political or anti-government opinions in public had already been forbidden for Civil Guard officers along with using the organization for political purposes since 1919. Civil Guard organization was not a player in state-level politics (elections of Parliament and President) - instead starting from the early 1920's, its leadership tried at least officially their best to keep the organization non-political. But Civil Guards did have its own keen interests in municipal level elections. To secure part of their funding from local municipality or town, local Civil Guard needed political parties favorable to Civil Guard to have the majority in local municipal/town/city council. So local Civil Guards did their best to get all their members and supporters to vote in local elections. Which of the political parties supporting guardsmen voted did not really matter as long as they voted for one. Political parties supporting Civil Guard in 1920's and 1930's basically included all non-Socialist parties - the whole spectrum right from the centre of political right-wing - left wing scale. In the 1920's and 1930's Finland had several political groups, which nowadays would be considered extreme right wing and there was nothing forbidding Civil Guard's guardsmen or its officers from being members in them either. Communists and Social Democrats on the other hand were natural political enemies to Civil Guard. This was partly due to inheritance of hate from the Civil War, but also partly because due to major differences in political ideals.

PICTURE: Armband of Vapaussodan Rintamamiesten Liitto (Alliance for Veterans of Liberation War) - veterans organization for White Army soldiers of Finnish Civil War. This organization established in year 1929 had especially early on extreme right wing agenda and quickly became de facto support organization for Lapuan liike, in which much of its founding members and early leadership were also active. After Mäntsälä Rebellion it concentrated more into representing interest of veterans and financially assisting them. Year 1939 it had over 200 local chapters and some 23,000 members. Year 1940 the organization changed its name as Rintamamiesliitto (Alliance of Veterans) to facilitate membership for veterans of Winter War (1939 - 1940), but failed to attract much new membership because veterans of Winter War opted out to create their own organization Suomen Aseveljien Liitto (Alliance for Finnish Brothers in Arms), which had no such political leanings. Photo source Uusikaupunki Museum (Uudenkaupungin museo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (100 KB).

Civil Guard's hate relationship with left wing political groups was not one sided. Social Democrats and Communists attacked Civil Guard in several levels trying to weaken or completely destroy it. At the same time Civil Guards relations to trade unions (which were controlled by either Communists or Social Democrats) were also poor or even outright hostile and vice versa Civil Guard was not without contacts to strikebreaker organizations such as Vientirauha Oy (Export Peace Ltd). The high-level attacks of left-wing parties inside the political system included demands for abolishing Civil Guard in the Finnish Parliament and demands for stopping or cutting state funding from Civil Guard organization. In municipal / town level, the political left-wing majority could end funding to local Civil Guard, but not much else. The dirtier method used by some extreme left-wing groups was työmaaterrori (workplace terror) which included vocal abuse and even physical assaults against those of their co-workers, who were either guardsmen of Civil Guard and/or White Army veterans of the Civil War. The left-wing press also remained active against Civil Guard organization until late 1930's. It is worth noting that the views of the two sides did not generally meet otherwise either - in 1930's, the Finnish Social Democratic Party strongly opposed defense spending and largely even appear to have believed that further wars could be suppressed with non-violent methods like general strikes. In contrast, some educational establishments and businesses openly favored guardsmen when accepting students or hiring personnel.

"Civil Guard strife"

Civil Guard also had some political clashes with Finnish governments. First major clash is usually referred as "Civil Guard Strife" (Suojeluskuntaselkkaus) took place in summer - autumn of year 1921 and got sparked from article Tuleeko Suomi liittymään balttilaiseen puolustusliittoon? (Will Finland join into Baltic defence alliance) written by Major General Paul von Gerich to newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet. Von Gerich was District Chief of Helsinki Civil Guard District. His article was about Little Entente and other related countries succeeded angering political leaderships of numerous countries, whose support Finland very much needed in League of Nations at the time. The situation threatened to cause diplomatic crisis, which Finnish government decided to solve by getting von Gerich fired. Hence President of Finland K.J Ståhlberg ordered Commander of Civil Guard Didrik von Essen to discharge von Gerich, but von Essen refused to carry out the order because he considered it incompatible with Civil Guard's status as independent organization as determined in Civil Guard statute - making the whole matter whole lot worse.

PICTURE: Paul von Gerich (1873 - 1951) caused Civil Guard strife with his article. Maybe a biggest irony of the whole matter is that in the article he quite accurately predicted that Germany and (Soviet) Russia threat would grow strong again and become threat to countries located in between the two. Like practically all senior officers of Finnish White Army von Gerich had made long career in Russian Army, but unlike others he was descent of Baltic-German nobility and citizen of Russia proper until spring of 1918. During World War 1 he had been wounded eight times and had risen through ranks from company commander to regimental commander. During Finnish Civil War he mainly trained troops for training for new troops for White Army. He moved from Army to Civil Guard in year 1921 and wrote the fatal article that same year. Minister of Interior Heikki Ritavuori was assassinated by Ernst Tandefelt in February of 1922, who first looked like lone assassin, but five years after the murder Tandefelt confessed that there had been men plotting the assassination with him and one of them was Paul von Gerich. The resulting police investigation never got anywhere and criminal charges were never raised against von Gerich. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (131 KB).

President Ståhlberg responded discharging von Essen and replacing him as Commander of Civil Guards with Major General Karl Emil Berg, who once appointed swiftly took care of the original problem by discharging District Chief von Gerich, but in the process also lost respect of his fellow officers and ended up committing suicide only two days later. After this finding suitable new Commander for Civil Guards proved highly complicated. Activists who would have very much wanted Civil Guard to be without political oversight of any kind, which would have allowed them to use Civil Guard for their cross-border activities to Soviet Carelia, were backing General Mannerheim for the office. At the same time the whole matter raised concerns about Civil Guard's role, which was starting to appear too independent for liking for Finnish government. The government was ultimately able to name Lieutenant-Colonel Lauri Malmberg as new Commander of Civil Guards. During years following Civil War Jaeger officers were in center of hero worship for those who had supported Finnish White Army or sided with its ideological heritage. Lauri Malmberg was a Jaeger officer, who at the time had been building very respectable career in field artillery. He was originally convinced to take the office with promise that his appointment was only temporary and that he could leave after two weeks, but ended up leading Civil Guard organization more than two decades, during which time he would play larger role in its development that any other person in the organization. It is worth noting that von Gerich had at the time apparently notable support in Helsinki District, which still tried to get him re-elected as District Chief at years 1922 and 1923, but without success.

PICTURE: Lauri "Mala" Malmberg (1888 - 1948), seen here as Lieutenant General in year 1938. The uniform is light uniform m/27. The blue district shield seen the left sleeve is for General Headquarters of Civil Guard. Malmberg's family background was uncommon for the time. His mother Aino Malmberg was independence activist and feminist, who fled to United Kingdom, where she continued to promote Finland's cause. Malmberg got into field artillery when he volunteered for transfer to howitzer section of Prussian Jaeger Battalion 27 at year 1916, returned to Finland as Major and served during Civil War as artillery commander in battles of Tampere and Viipuri. Year 1921 when he was nominated as Commander of Civil Guard he was working as commander of Field Artillery Regiment 1. He would continue to serve as Commander of Civil Guard organization until year 1944 - being Commander of Home Front Troops during World War 2. While his final military rank was Lieutenant General, not being part of officer rotation and not having staff officer training in effect made assigning into to any field command during the war impossible. Photographed by Aarne Pietinen. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (81 KB).

Year 1927 National Military Parade for Commemorating Ending of Civil War

Finnish White Army had its victory parade for Civil War in Helsinki at 16^th of May 1918 and from that on Finnish military and Civil Guard arranged in Helsinki on that day annual military parade commemorating ending of the war and celebrating victory of White Army. Needless to say the event was less than popular among those Finns with left-wing political ideals and saw it has unpleasant reminder, which they could do without and considered winners of the war to use the parade for rubbing it in their faces. Hence there were notable political tensions involving the parade. Year 1927 situation concerning the parade turned rather interesting because President Relander whose task it would have been to receive the parade had fallen seriously ill and had to hand his duties for several months to his substitute, which was prime minister. Normally this would have been a major problem, but the prime minister in question happened to be Väinö Tanner, who was representing Social Democratic Party - the very same political party, whose revolutionary wing had lead the Red Guards and had lost Civil War. Tanner was one leading politicians of his party, who had not taken part in the rebellion, had continued his political also after Civil War and his party had for the first time since Civil War entered into government by forming it with National Progressive Party (Kansallinen Edistyspuolue) and Swedish People's Party (Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue) in December of 1926. Tanner faced considerable resistance from his own party to taking part in the event in his official role, while there were plenty of people in Finnish military and Civil Guards who were rather displeased about the situation as well. Ultimately Tanner considered promoting national unity and fulfilling his duties more important than securing politlcal support with-in his own political party and gained wider popularity due to it. Finnish military arranged the parade and also Civil Guards took part into it, but so many of them failed to sent their representatives into the parade, that it suggests that numerous Civil Guards were intentionally boycotting the event. Year 1940 Marshal Mannerheim as Commander of Finnish Armed Forces in interest of promoting national unity ceased tradition of military parades held at 16^th of May. In a way it was replaced with Commemoration Day of Fallen Soldiers (Kaatuneiden muistopäivä) which is annually held at 3^rd Sunday of May and Defence Forces' Flag Day (Puolustusvoimien lippupäivä), which is annually at 4^th of June with national military parade being arranged that day.

PICTURE: Prime minister Väinö Tanner receives national military parade of 16^of of May 1927 in Helsinki. The flag of unit performing past march in the photograph belonged to Carelian Guard Regiment (Karjalan Kaartin Rykmentti), which was stationed in city of Viipuri. Väinö August Tanner (until year 1895 surname Thomasson, 1881 - 1966) was among most significant Finnish politicians of early 20^th century besides never being Prime Minister only once (for a year or so) and never becoming President. Rising from humble beginnings Tanner became a lawyer and a pioneer of co-operative movement, which raised him into fame and political career. He was parliamentarian socialist, who resisted revolutionary fervor and played key role in rebuilding Social Democratic Party after Civil War. He served as minister several times and took part in Finnish - Soviet negotiations before Winter War. He represented right wing of Social Democratic Party and guided it into supporting Finnish war effort, but ended up being hated by the Soviets and not being trusted by the Germans. The Soviets saw Tanner as a leader of Finnish labor movement, who had guided the movement away from the Communists and hence developed highly hostile view towards him. When the Soviets after 1944 Armistice Treaty started demanding leading Finnish wartime politicians to be set on trial, Tanner was among those they absolutely demanded be placed on trial. He received 5.5 year prison sentence, but was released already in November of 1948, after which he returned in politics and still served two terms in Parliament. Photographed by C. Grünberg. Photo source Helsinki City Museum (Helsingin kaupunginmuseo), acquired via finna.fi, public domain.CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (217 KB).

Rise of Lapuan liike

In many countries the great depression that started in year 1929 boosted the popularity of extremist political groups and Finland was not an exception. Around 1929 - 1931, political violence perpetrated by the extreme right took a strong rise. The most dangerous of these extreme right-wing organizations was Lapuan liike (Lapua Movement), whose creation was sparked in 24^th of November 1929 when in event arranged by Communist youth group in highly conservative town of Lapua was attacked by crowd about 1,000 people lead by Vihtori Kosola, who became the leader of Lapuan liike, which in matter of months boomed into most powerful extreme right-wing political group in Finnish history. In the event the Communists were beaten and their red shirts ripped off. The second act from which the movement became known was destroying printing equipment of left-wing newspaper Työn Ääni (~Voice of Work) in city of Vaasa / Wasa in March of 1930. Early on Lapuan liike enjoyed wide support with even Social-democrats were not really protesting much about changes of legislation required by Lapuan liike for the purpose of banning Communist party and its organizations. June of 1930 Finnish government approved closing down of Communist newspapers. But illegalities perpetrated by Lapuan liike and its members and differences of views with-in its ranks soon started fracturing its early support and slowly turned public opinion against it. Not only were there notable factions with-it, but its official leadership often seem to have had poor control of the organization they were supposedly leading. Starting summer of 1930 muilutus became a standard form of political violence of Lapuan like with in total 254 muilutus either performed or attempted. In muilutus person with unwanted political ideals was forced into car, transported with it elsewhere - often to the Soviet border and forced into crossing it. Beatings were apparently common during muilutus and even three homicides happened took place as part of them. At the same time Lapuan liike was routinely pressuring legal system in attempt to foil investigations and trials of its illegal activities.

PICTURE: Asser Salo (1902 - 1938) being grabbed by men of Lapuan liike from court house of Vaasa in 4^th of June 1930 in event that got known as Vaasan mellakka (Vaasa Riot). Salo was a Communist member of Parliament and lawyer who was representing newspaper Työ Ääni in a trial against member of Lapuan liike when he was being grabbed by Lapuan liike from the court house in 4^th of June 1930. He was forced into car, taken to Lapua where he was made to swear that he would leave the province and never return. After that was put back into car and taken hundreds of kilometers away to Viitasaari before being released. During his muilutus he was threatened to be shot. The same year Salo moved to Sweden, got deported from there and then moved to Soviet Union, where he got shot in Stalin's purges at year 1938. Some 1,8000 supporters of Lapuan liike had gathered around the court house. During Vaasa Riot police officers stood by when Salo was being grabbed and the newspaper's print worker Eino Nieminen was beaten and his clothes torn off. Vaasa Riot was turning point for Lapuan liike, which after it declared "Law of Lapua" in which it set itself above the law. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (148 KB).

The Leadership of Civil Guard tried keeping Civil Guards separate from these Lapuan Liike, but methods used were not particularly effective. Using of Civil Guard uniforms in political events was forbidden in June of 1930, with punishment for misconduct being temporary suspension of membership. On the 7^th of July 1930, Lapuan liike organized its biggest show of force. Talonpoikaismarssi (March of Peasants / Demonstration of Peasants), which was a political demonstration of 12,000 Lapuan liike supporters in Finnish capital Helsinki organized to demand political actions from Finnish government against the Communists. It is worth noting that name of the particular demonstration was no co-incidence - White Army of Finnish Civil War had been commonly referred as talonpoikaisarmeija (Army of Peasants) and the geographic area where Lapua was located, Province of Vaasa in Pohjanmaa region had been the area where Finnish White Army staged in beginning of Civil War. In November of 1930 Finnish Parliament enacted the so-called "Communists Laws" (including "Protection laws of the Republic"). Basically, Communist organizations and activity were made illegal in Finland, but even that was not enough for the worst right-wing hot-heads and Lapuan liike got radicalized with its political violence now being aimed also to other perceived political enemies. The situation did not calm down and the worse was still to come.

PICTURE: Talonpoikaismarssi (Peasant March / Demonstration of Peasants) was very large political demonstration and largest show of strength by Lapuan liike. It took place in Helsinki in 7^th of July 1930. Some 12,000 supporters of Lapuan liike from all over Finland gathered to this demonstration, in which they marched through the city. In this photograph the marching crowd is seen gathered in Senate Square (Senaatintori), which Finnish military has also traditionally used for troop review for national military parades. The demonstration was originally intended to topple government lead by Kyösti Kallio, who had refused to accept demands of Lapuan liike, but President Relander convinced his government to resign already few days before the demonstration. New government lead by Svinhufvud was more welcoming towards demands of Lapuan liike, accepting many of its demands, but also had behind the scenes negotiations that resulted release of two Communist members of parliament, which Lapuan liike had captured and taken to Lapua only two days before the demonstration and somewhat vague promise of no further muilutus. Ultimately the demonstration turned into show for support for new government, while President Relander and government headed by Prime Minister Svinhufvud received the march in highly staged manner and Civil Guard provided logistical support for it. Photographed by Aarne Pietinen. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (230 KB).

Following Talonpoikaismarssi popularity of Lapuan liike was at peak of its power with some 100,000 members and enough support that it had prime opportunity for turning from popular movement into strong political party. Not only had Lapuan liike succeeded getting Kallio's government replaced by one lead by Svinhufvud and having success with the new anti-communist legislation it had demanded, but when processing of new legislation that it had demanded met obstacles in Parliament, President Relander ordered new Parliamentary elections. But Vihtori Kosola refused the option apparently due to being worried of being turned into puppet for the powerful groups with-in the movement and among its financiers. At the same time around and with-in the movement existed groups hoping for violent coup and creating of dictatorship.

Lapuan liike was more than willing to intimidate police, witnesses and personnel of legal system. Its general lack of respect for legal system was very clear from the start with its supporters referring to its actions as Lapuan laki (Law of Lapua) and vigilante-like self-help for perceived higher cause being in its core. Unofficial mottos of Lapuan liike included such as "Ei oikeutta maassa saa, ken itse sit' ei hanki" ("One cannot get justice, unless one acquires it himself") and "Me teemme mitä tahdomme" ("We will do whatever we want"). Even in those cases in which criminal charges against its men got into court of law and perpetrators were sentenced, early on the sentences tended to be from lenient end of the scale, until change of public opinion gradually started changing and its membership declining starting late 1930. Two cases of muilutus in particular were to have major role for public opinion. While Lapuan liike had been in addition of communists had occasionally also targeted also social democrats and other persons with left-wing political views, muilutus of Väinö Hakkila, social democratic 2^ndSpeaker of Parliament and mayor for city of Tampere, who was beaten and humiliated before being released was eye-opener for many. Hakkila had been in Parliament openly against new legislation demanded by Lapuan liike, but in no way was he a communist or even communist sympathizer and later during World War 2 when he was Speaker of the Parliament he was supporting Finnish Army offensive of 1941 openly in such a visible manner, that it it made his many in his party uneasy. The second muilutus that started major shift in public opinition against Lapuan liike was muilutus of former President of Finland Kaarlo Ståhlberg and his wife in October of 1930.

PICTURE: Former Finnish President Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg (1895 - 1952) and her wife Ester in Helsinki railway station after returning from Joensuu by train in aftermath of their muilutus. Two days earlier they had been forced into car by gun point and driven to Joensuu before plan of their hijackers fell apart. Ståhlberg was first President of Finland and is probably best described as moderate liberal middle-of-the-road reformer, who as jurisprudent was keen on legality of actions and highly moral person set many of the principles followed by later Presidents. He resigned running for second term and after his presidency he worked 20 year career as civil servant in Ministry of Justice. During his presidency and long career as "grey eminence" (background influencer). Ståhlberg apparently succeeded angering most if not all Finnish extremist groups of his time. He was widely respected, hence targeting him and his wife played major role in public opinion turning against Lapuan liike and contributed into its decline. Lieutenant Colonel Eero Kuussaari and Major General Kurt Wallenius, who had orchestrated the muilutus with their contacts in Lapuan liike got sacked from military and received prison sentences - although Wallenius's sentence later got overturned in supreme court. Next Finnish President after Ståhlberg was Lauri Kristian Relander (1883 - 1942), who was and also a guardsman of Civil Guard. Relander was early on friendly to Lapuan liike - which he later regretted as their actions got ever more extreme. Photographer unknown. Photo source Helsinki City Museum (Helsingin kaupunginmuseo), used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (156 KB).

Mäntsälä Rebellion:

On the 27^th of February 1932, the well-known social democrat Dr Mikko Erich was to make a speech in a Workers Hall of Ohtola in the municipality of M&aum;ntsälä. Finnish government trying to maintain legal order had been on crash-course with Lapua Movement s expanding illegal actions such as illegally closing down workers halls by nailing shut their doors and windows since previous year. Dr Erich was member of Parliament, who had earlier belonged to right-wing National Coalition Party (Kansallinen Kokoomus) before changing to Social Democratic Party and hence Lapuan liike considered him a turncoat. The Country Governor had sent police officers to secure public order in the event. The speech was interrupted by about 400 supporters of Lapuan liike, many of whom were wearing Civil Guard uniforms, surrounded the building and interrupted the speech shooting into air with few bullets also being fired into the building. Once Erich had promised to leave and never return him and public that had gathered to hear his speech were escorted by policemen to safety, while extreme right-wingers who got known as Mäntsälä men moved to hall of local Civil Guard, refused to disperse or to cede those responsible. Lapua Movement took over the command of the Mäntsälä men. Two days later (29^th of February) its leaders sent ultimatum to Finnish President, in that ultimatum they demanded the government either to accept their demands or they would destroy the Government and its representatives. The rebellion had started and basically the Lapuan liike lead Mäntsälä men now threatened the Finnish political leadership with new Civil War. Among the rebels were also armed guardsmen of Civil Guard and it soon become clear that the rebels tried to mobilize more guardsmen for their support.

PICTURE: Supporters of Lapuan liike nail shut workers hall (työväentalo) in Lapua at September of 1931. Following the event of Communist youth group that sparked creation of Lapuan liike Finnish government had first ordered the Workers hall to be kept shut, but after Social Democrats had taken the hall from the Communists in September of 1931 Ministry of Interior Ernst von Born gave them permission to re-open it. Lapuan liike responded to this by gathering its supporters to nail the hall shut at 21^st of September 1931. The event and numerous other workers halls also being nailed shut by Lapuan liike started a game of cat and mouse in between it and police plus at the same time put in collision course with Finnish government. The sign "kahvila" translates as cafe. Photographed by Paavo Fossi. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (190 KB).

The Commander of Civil Guard organization Malmberg was walking a tightrope. He had reason to be afraid that the organization he was leading was in danger of falling apart and that its guardsmen might end up fighting Finnish Army. Hence he and his chief-of-staff Colonel Palojärvi first offered their resignation, which was denied. As situation developed Malmberg failed to support the Government by first asking it to resign and then refusing for President's request to make radio speech telling guardsmen to return their homes by claiming he had sour throat. What is known suggests that his reasoning for asking the government to resign was likely that he considered it to be incompetent and unfortunately that opinion was not completely unfounded. Mäntsälä had been known strongpoint of Lapuan liike and Workers Hall in Ohtola had been their first workers hall in its province to be nailed down. Minister of Interior Ernst von Born and Country Governor Bruno Jalander had been aware of multiple threats and had received several warnings in beforehand about Dr Mikko Erich's speech event in Ohtola. Minister of Interior and County Governor had police forces under them, but those had by since proved remarkably incapable in their actions against Lapuan liike, which had police officers among its supporters. Already before these events Von Born and Jalander had become known as opponents of Lapuan liike, which had demanded their resignation already before events of Mäntsälä. It had been their decision to let Erich's speech event go on and Jalander's decision to sent 30 armed policemen to secure the event. Among the crowd that were present to hear the speech were also women and children, who had been placed in danger. Once Erich, his intended audience and police officers had left Workers hall supporters of Lapuan liike lead by Lieutenant of Finnish Navy Esra Terä headed to hall of local Civil Guard, where local Lotta Svärd served them coffee. But once it became clear to them that police was about to arrest them, those about 400 supporters of Lapuan liike decided instead of dispersing to stay in hall of local Civil Guard and Lieutenant Artturi Vuorimaa, who had been hiding in Mäntsälä due to being wanted by police for his involvement in previous muilutus of two Communist members of Parliament used his contacts, got into phone and called reinforcements - which became the starting point for Mäntsälä Rebellion.

PICTURE: Group of Mäntsälä rebels photographed outside hall of Mäntsälä Civil Guard during the rebellion. As can be seen great many of them are wearing field uniform M/27 of Civil Guard and they have number of Maxim M/09-09 machine guns and at least two men on the left have Bergmann submachine guns also quite certainly belonging to Civil Guard. Photographed by Eino Pakarinen. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (152 KB).

Other high-ranking Civil Guard leadership was divided with some joining or directly supporting the rebellion, while others did their best to keep guardsmen of Civil Guards of their area from joining it. The main method used in this was forbidding guardsmen from taking orders from anybody else except their own superiors. Probably the most notable battle of will with-in Civil Guard happened in Civil Guard District of Etelä-Pohjanmaa, where District Chief Lieutenant-Colonel Matti Laurila, who with others succeeded impeding members of Lapuan liike who had taken over district headquarters during his absence from mobilizing what would have likely been thousands of guardsmen and sending them to support the rebellion. In addition he sent Iisakki Nikkola to pick-up from Mäntsälä those guardsmen of his district, who were taken part in the mutiny.

The Government and President were preparing to use the military against the rebels. The rebels had managed to gather about 700 men in Mäntsälä and also slightly smaller groups in some other towns and municipalities. On 3^rd of March, a Presidential Headquarters for the crisis was formed, its members were Defense Minister Lahdenlaakso; Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army GHQ General-Major Oesch; Commander of Civil Guard General-Major Malmberg; Commander of Armed Forces Lieutenant-General Sihvo, and Inspector of Infantry Major-General Österman. Finnish Army surrounded Mäntsälä, military units were sent to guard all routes leading to capital Helsinki and even some tanks were being transferred to Helsinki. Lieutenant-General Sihvo in particular appear to have been ready to use Army for violently crushing the mutiny. While the government had no lack of military expertise, it was divided with three ministers representing its most right wing party, National Coalition Party (Kansallinen Kokoomus), leaving their notice of resignation, although one of them soon cancelled his. Ranks of officers of Finnish Armed Forces were somewhat divided in the matter as well. The rebels managed still to mobilize some more guardsmen of Civil Guard as their support, but failed gathering them into Mäntsälä, where leadership of Lapuan liike gathered before Finnish government gave orders for arresting them, after which also they moved to Mäntsälä. The situation had potential for violent battle breaking out between Army units and mutineers.

PICTURE: Leaders of Lapuan liike in Mäntsälä during the coup-attempt. First from the left is Major General Kurt Martti Wallenius (1893 - 1984), who was Jaeger-officer and had been Chief-of-Staff for Armed Forces General Staff before being sacked from military due to having taken part in muilutus of former President Ståhlberg and his wife in October of 1930. After being sacked he became military leader for Lapuan liike. During Winter War he still called as commander of Lapland Group and did well for a while, but refused to serve as subordinate of Swedish General Ernst Linder, who arrived with Swedish-Norwegian volunteer unit Svenska Frivilligkåren (SFK), got transferred to Viipurinlahti Gulf and sacked from Finnish Army for drunkenness in the field. Second from the left chief of Lapuan liike Vihtori Kosola (1884 - 1936) - farmer, activist of Jaeger Movement, guardsman and strike breaker who became figurehead of the movement, but apparently had quite poor control of the popular movement he was officially leading. After Lapuan liike had been abolished Kosola became leader of IKL, but apparently the party was lead by others, while during his last years he was struggling with alcoholism. Other three leaders of Lapuan liike seen in the photograph, farmer and banker Iivari Koivisto, consul and businessman Walde Sario and Lieutenant-Colonel and newspaper editor-in-chief for numerous extreme right wing magazines Arne Somersalo. Three of the men are wearing black wool sweater with blue stripes - one of the traditional wool sweater designs of Pohjanmaa region, but one that Lapuan liike and later IKL took part of their unofficial "uniform". Photographed by Eino Pakarinen. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (161 KB).

Ultimately Finnish President Svinhufvud, who was a well-known Civil Guard guardsman, kept the radio speech telling guardsmen taking part to mutiny that what they were doing was against the very oath they had sworn when joining to Civil Guard and could provide fatal blow for everything that Civil Guard stood for. In addition he promised that rank-and-file level rebels who had taken part of the coup attempt, that were not going to be charged, if they would return to their homes peacefully. While the mutiny had already been facing setbacks and losing support, President Svinhufvud putting his own considerable authority and reputation on the line in his radio speech proved to be key factor for peaceful ending of the coup attempt. The rebellion withered and finally the rebels gathered in Mäntsälä and other places started scattering peacefully returning their homes. Government picked Chief of Staff for GHQ of Civil Guard Lieutenant-Colonel Elja Rihtniemi as their negotiator and sent him to Mäntsälä, where the first attempt for negotiations failed due to leaders of the rebellion turning out to be much too drunk to be able to negotiate. While Finland had prohibition at the time, the Mäntsälä rebels succeeded during the coup-attempt consuming not only all cognac and medical pure ethanol from the local pharmacy, but they also broke into storage where local police had stored shipment of hard spirits confiscated from bootleggers and drunk it as well. After they sobered up enough Rihtniemi first met defiance, but the negotiations that started at night of 4^th - 5^th of March lasted until next night and ultimately proved successful. Leaders of Lapuan liike, who were leading the rebellion, agreed to surrender to the police, while rank-and-file rebels were allowed to go home and although original plan had been to disarm them, Malmberg who arrived with several bottles of whisky to pick up Wallenius and took him in his car to police station in Helsinki, decided to let rank-and-file go with their guns to not agitate them. "Protection laws of Republic" originally enacted in November of 1931 against Communists were now turned against instigators of this extreme right-wing coup-attempt and were used to arrest leaders of Lapuan liike, close down its publications and finally legally dismantle Lapuan liike at 24^th of March 1932.

PICTURE: From left to right member of Parliament Oskari Heikinheimo, President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud and Commander of Civil Guard Major General Lauri Malmberg. All three men are wearing Civil Guard uniforms. Svinhufvud (1861 - 1944) had originally reached fame by being judge and politician who refused to follow illegal orders created as part of Russification campaign and getting exiled to Siberia by the Russians in year 1914. Year 1917 he obtained acceptance of the Bolsheviks for Finnish independence and year 1918 he was one of the senators that formed first Finnish government. After Civil War he joined Civil Guard, became Sargeant Major in it and got selected into district HQ. He was also a known marksman whose nickname "Ukko-Pekka" in whose honor military rifle M/39 was named with the same nickname. Svinhufvud was Finnish-speaking man of the people whose family (his whole surname was Svinhufvud af Qvalstad) had been knighted by Swedish king in 16^th century and probably the most right-wing President that Finland has ever had. He served as President of Finland in 1931 - 1937. His presidential campaign had been supported by Lapuan liike, whose ranks even seemed to have hoped him to become a dictator for them, but with his authority he ended up ending their coup-attempt peacefully. Photographed by Aarne Pietinen at year 1931. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (127 KB).

Aftermath of Mäntsälä rebellion

The Left-wing press loved to portray the Mäntsälä rebellion as rebellion of Civil Guard, but how true was that? Only about 1% of guardsmen took part in the rebellion, but if we look at the number of Civil Guard officials taking part, the numbers are more alarming. The Finnish legal system punished rebel leaders and some Civil Guard officials were among those punished, but Civil Guard organization also handed out its own punishments for its officials who had participated in the rebellion, admitted the punishments tended to be minor, being typically temporary suspension of membership. Only person permanently suspended from Civil Guard was Major-General Kurt Wallenius, who had been military leader of Lapuan liike during mutiny. Commander of Civil Guard Malmberg kept his job, but his Chief-of-Staff Colonel Palojärvi was moved to other duties and four of District Chiefs (out of 22 total) were fired. Palojärvi s replacement was Colonel Martola, who was apparently appointed for the job due to being considered more loyal option.

Civil Guard organization handed punishments to 54 of its officials, when at that time Civil Guard had only about 1 official per 100 guardsmen, this number seems large compared to the number of guardsmen among rebels. The official stance of Civil Guard organization had proven difficult when it came to Lapuan liike. It was clear that Lapuan liike had support inside Civil Guard and taking a hard stand against it would have certainly harmed unity of Civil Guard. But at the same time persons in leadership of Civil Guard organization and loyalty of Commander of Civil Guard organization Malmberg had been set in question. The orders issued during the Mäntsälä rebellion only hindered Lapuan liike from mobilizing large number of guardsmen for its use, but the orders had never directly opposed the mutineers or threatened them with use of force.

A large number of Civil Guard s guardsmen had also belonged to Lapuan liike, which had tried to use Civil Guard as the force behind its demands. It seems that even if members of Lapuan liike had been a minority in Civil Guard, guardsmen and personnel of Civil Guards had formed a majority in Lapuan liike. Still, it is difficult to say how many of them still supported Lapuan liike during the Mäntsälä Rebellion. When the rebellion started Lapuan liike had already been losing its popularity. Enactment of the Communist Laws had been accomplishment enough for many of its members and supporters. Due to the excesses such as muilutus of the previous Finnish President Ståhlberg and his wife in October of 1930, the public opinion had also turned against Lapuan liike already before its coup-attempt. Civil Guard survived the Mäntsälä rebellion basically intact, but the incident did no good to its reputation and threatened to raise major future problems with more moderate political parties, who had earlier supported Civil Guard, but whose future support it no longer was able to rely as much.

While Mäntsälä rebellion and its aftermath destroyed Lapuan liike instead of disappearing it changed form. From its ashes rose Isänmaallinen kansanliike (Patriotic People's Movement) - also known with its abbreviation IKL. While Lapuan liike had never ultimately thrived to be a political party, which would have taken part in parliamentary system, IKL was from the start intended as political party and took 14 seats in parliamentary elections of year 1933. It continued with the same radical right-wing political agenda that Lapuan liike had represented and even used same insignia, but did not rely to use illegal actions or violence in the manner as Lapuan liike had. For many years there was a widely spread worry about IKL possibly trying to infiltrate Civil Guards, fill its top ranks with its loyal supporters and taking over Civil Guard organization. Ultimately IKL was legally abolished in 23^rd of September 1944 among first as part of the "Hitlerian-minded" organizations abolishing of which the Soviets demanded in 21^st paragraph of Finnish - Soviet armistice treaty of year 1944.

While Lapuan liike no longer legally existed and many of the lead figures of Lapuan liike moved into IKL, some of its people proved less than willing to let go. First post-Mäntsälä victim was Minna Craucher, former prostitute and blackmailer who had become organizer for Lapuan liike until her past caught up with her and her loyalty started to be questioned. During the coup-attempt she had started leaking information obtained working in Lapuan liike to newspaper Suomen sosiaalidemokraatti (Finnish Social Democrat) and at 8^th of March 1932 was murdered by zealot of Lapuan liike Olavi Runolinna. There were also plots of revenge aimed towards ministers of Finnish government, who had banned Lapuan liike and jailed its leaders. From these plots the one that advanced furthest was attempted muilutus of Minister of Defense Jalo Lahdensuo at 17^th of July 1932. Lahdensuo was a farmer, who represented in Parliament Agrarian League (Maalaisliitto), which was non-socialist party very much in middle of political spectrum. He had major role in creating local protection guard at 1917 and in turning it to local White Guard at 1918. He had also provided land needed for shooting range of local Civil Guard and had even been supporting Lapuan liike early on before getting repulsed by its illegal actions - so a far cry from typical targets of Lapuan liike. Lahdensuo had heard about planned abduction in beforehand and had gathered group of men to protect him, so when two cars full of supporters of Lapuan liike attacked his home, the intended abduction turned into short firefight in which two of the attackers suffered minor wounds and one was taken as prisoner. Two days later shots were fired from passing car towards Lahdensalo's house, after which 200 local men assembled to his house to protect him until police unit sent to his protection arrived. This can be noted as quite a clear sign of opinion among locals especially considering Lahdensuo was born and was living in Lapua - the birth-place of Lapuan liike.

PICTURE: Meeting in between President Svinhufvud, MInister of Defense Lahdensuo and high-ranking military staff at year 1931. Military staff includes Commander of Armed Forces Sihvo, Chief of General Staff Oesch and Commander of Civil Guards Malmberg. Jalo Lahdensuo (1882 - 1983, earlier: Lagerstedt) is sitting second from the left. During the assault to his home at July of 1932 about ten shots were fired and five of the attackers later received two year prison sentences. Jalosuo served also as Minister of Transport and Public Works in two other governments and as country governor for Province of Vaasa in 1938 - 1943 before retiring from politics to his farm, which was largest in the region and known for its development work in cattle raising. Photographed by Aarne Pietinen. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (136 KB).

Mäntsälä Rebellion effected also results of Parliamentary elections of year 1933 and Presidential election of year 1937. While IKL got its 14 seats in Parliament, those only left it as fifth most popular political party at the time and in the process destroyed its political co-operation with National Coalition Party (Kansallinen Kokoomus), which suffered massive lost of 24 seats. Social Democratic party was winner of the Parliamentary elections getting 74 seats - more than any other political party, while their future associate Agrarian League (Maalaisliitto) kept its seats and started heading even heavier towards political center. Kyösti Kallio, for toppling of whose government Talonpoikaismarssi (March / Demonstration of Peasants) had been originally planned, had became known as opponent of Lapua movement, which helped him to get elected as next President of Finland at year 1937.

Flag Incident

PICTURE: Civil Guard officers commanded by District Chief Lieutenant-Colonel Aaro Pajari lower flags raised for party conference of Social Democratic party without permission. Not all the flags were red-colored party flags, but apparently they lowered all of the flags. On the background railway station of Tampere. Photographed by E. M. Stal. Photo source Photo Archive of Vapriikki (Vapriikin kuva-arkisto), used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (143 KB).

Civil Guard organization and its commander Lauri Malmberg may have gotten through aftermath of Mäntsälä rebellion with very little damage, but leading Finnish politicians were also running out of patience when it came to Civil Guard getting interfered into politics in any manner. 25^th of May 1933 Social Democratic Party was having its party conference in city of Tampere. The day was also 15-year anniversary for victory of Finnish White Army in Battle of Tampere and Social Democratic Party had decided to decorate main street of the city with flags, many of which were red-colored party flags, which not surprisingly caused major controversy. Field maneuvers arranged by Civil Guard District had ended recently and 148 Civil Guard officers commanded by district chief Lieutenant-Colonel Aaro Pajari were in the city for its after-action meeting. Pajari had in beforehand heard about plans of using red flags in the event, had demanded it to be banned and had tried to persuade police to lower the flags. But once they refused and told him not to get involved ordered Civil Guard officers under his command to lower the flags and then handed the flags to police in local police station. Pajari was charged for ordering his men to action, for which he had no legal right and was found guilty with sentence of 20 days of house arrest and paying damages due to some of the flags gotten ripped in the incident. Lauri Malmberg decided to leave Pajari unpunished beyond public reprimand, which turned the incident into a larger problem. The matter got known as "Flag incident" (lippujupakka). As could be expected Social Democratic Party was protesting the matter and a minority government whose support was already on shaky ground did not need the trouble. On the other hand feedback from Civil Guards showed that if Malmberg would be replaced, getting required acceptance for his successor from the organization his was supposed to lead was not going to be easy. President Svinhufvud offered Malmberg two options - either to resign from his position as Commander of Civil Guard organization or take extended leave of absence. Malmberg ended up taking year-long leave of absence during which time his duties were handled by Civil Guard's Chief-of-Staff Colonel Armas-Eino Martola, without whose support and considerable efforts Malmberg may have likely been made to resign.

PICTURE: Major General Aaro Pajari (1897 - 1949) seen here measuring trigger pressure of of his Parabellum pistol. Pajari was one of the best field commanders of Finnish Army during World War 2 and accomplished pistol shooter, but had tendency of causing grey hair to his superior officers. He became one of only four officers awarded twice with Mannerheim Cross, the highest Finnish military decoration. Pajari had started his military career as platoon and company commander in White Guards during Civil War. He transferred from Army to Civil Guard at year 1926 as Captain and served as district chief of two separate Civil Guard districts before returning to Army as Lieutenant Colonel at 1939. He had received in total no less than three letters of reprimand from GHQ of Civil Guard already before the flag incident. Serving first as regimental commander and later as division commander. He is known for recapture of Suursaari Island in 1942 and capture of Tornio in 1944. Soldiers of 18^th Division nicknamed their unit as "Pajarin pojat" (Boys of Pajari) after him. Photographer unknown. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (171 KB).

As noted after -Mäntsälä Rebellion support of Civil Guard had somewhat fragmented and the organization had found itself having trouble no longer always obtaining support of some political parties, which had earlier been its strong supporters. These included not only Agrarian League (Maalaisliitto), but also National Progressive Party (Kansallinen Edistyspuolue) - a non-socialist liberal party, which had at year 1931 established in secrecy group called For Fatherland and Law (Isänmaan ja lain puolesta / Pro Patria et Lege) to counter-act eventuality of Lapuan liike attempting coup and had in it editors-in-chief and owners of many popular newspapers. What ultimately saved Civil Guard from suffering major problem with these political parties was international political developments of late 1930's, which made it apparent that European countries was in danger of facing another major war. Those same developments also made many in the Social Democratic Party towards late 1930's to start reconsidering their views about Civil Guard and no longer seeing it as the worse possible thing to have around.

PICTURE: Ilmari Armas-Eino Martola (1896 - 1986) was Jaeger-officer and knight of Mannerheim-cross who had remarkably successful military career. When he returned from Germany he joined Finnish White Army as Lieutenant and served as platoon commander in Civil War. He was grieviously wounded to stomach during Battle of Tampere, but was lucky to survive surgery. Martola was the first officer sent by Finnish Army to study at French military academy. He served in General Staff, worked as teacher in Military Academy and served as Military Attache in France and Belgium before returning to General Staff and finally getting transferred to Civil Guard. He served as Chief-of-Staff for Civil Guard in 1933 - 1940. During Winter War he commanded 1^st Division and during Continuation War he commanded first 2^nd Division and later on VI Army Corps. After World War 2 he tried to resign from Finnish military, but President Mannerheim refused his resignation. In late 1950's he served as military advisor to General-Secretary of United Nations Dag Hammerskjöld and in late 1960's he commanded UN peacekeepers in Cyprus. Photographed by T. Ovaskainen sometime during Continuation War. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photograph number 129181). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (123 KB).