The Finnish Civil War

[Zzzptm]

This was a chapter in a book I'm reading about the end of WW1 on the Eastern Front and the subsequent collapse of the Russian, Austrian, and German Empires. Until yesterday, I did not know about the Finnish Civil War. Now I do. The interplay of Reds v Whites and support from Germany (official) and Sweden (unofficial) for the Whites made a significant difference in the outcome.

[Charger]

Yeah there was a real chance we'd gone all commie too...thank god that didn't happen.

Although we are getting dangerously close nowadays again...


The reds also did some unspeakable things back then that resulted in some serious bad blood that lasted for decades in some areas...

[Zzzptm]

Yeah there was a real chance we'd gone all commie too...thank god that didn't happen.

Although we are getting dangerously close nowadays again...


The reds also did some unspeakable things back then that resulted in some serious bad blood that lasted for decades in some areas...

The atrocities from both sides were mentioned, as well as eventual score-settling, with people that had been on one side or another turning up dead a few years after the war ended.

[Charger]

Oh indeed. There were terrible things done on both sides...we're talking about public executions, beat downs, labour camps you name it. But I do think the reds were the one who got the ball rolling when it came to all the atrocities....honestly though I'm not all that caught up on the whole civil war thing...it was always just a passing thing in school too...as it is a part of our history that had been actively written out a long time ago.

As far as I know none of my family was ever involved though...the area where I'm from wasn't thankfully all that active during the war time.

[Zzzptm]

No question, it was the shock of public executions that drove a lot of people into the Whites' camp. In Finland, because the Whites only retaliated against the Reds and didn't plunder villages, they had the support of the people.

But because the Finns had their war prior to the collapse of the German Army, they were able to defeat the Reds and then support the Estonians in the Estonian War of Independence, where there was an interesting case of British navy assets supporting the Estonians and providing arms to remnants of German Army units in Estonia that were themselves supporting the Estonian Army.