Essen's Folly: An Alternate Great War

Driftless

Donor
Even if a corps (or more) of the Swedish Army lines up on the Finnish frontier and does nothing, the Russians still have to divert forces from elsewhere to deal with the potential threat

No, because they already had a large garrison in place in 1914, and plans to extensively fortify the whole area of modern Finland: http://www.novision.fi/viapori/linnasuomi.gif

Interesting info! Do you know the approximate size of the Russian force in the area in 1914?
 
Interesting info! Do you know the approximate size of the Russian force in the area in 1914?

I'll comment for my fellow Finn, if Karelian won't mind - going by some old notes, I would say there were circa 30 000 Russian soldiers in the Finnish Grand Duchy in the summer of 1914. This includes the Russian 22nd Corps then responsible for the defence of the Grand Duchy, as well as fortress troops and the Baltic fleet naval units in Finland.

Check out this old thread dealing with the von Essen scenario. Karelian can probably help if there is flawed information there.:)

Oh, and for the OP: I am also available for an opinion on the Russian and Finnish issues, just like Karelian. Do PM me if you want a second or third opinion on any question.
 
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I'll comment for my fellow Finn, if Karelian won't mind - going by some old notes, I would say there were circa 30 000 Russian soldiers in the Finnish Grand Duchy in the summer of 1914. This includes the Russian 22nd Corps then responsible for the defence of the Grand Duchy, as well as fortress troops and the Baltic fleet naval units in Finland.

Check out this old thread dealing with the von Essen scenario. Karelian can probably help if there is flawed information there.:)

Oh, and for the OP: I am also available for an opinion on the Russian and Finnish issues, just like Karelian. Do PM me if you want a second or third opinion on any question.

DrakonFin is correct, the initial garrison strength was ~30 000 soldiers + the Baltic Fleet in Helsinki, the Vyborg Fortress, the Kronstadt Fortress and the Fortified Disctrict of Åbo-Åland.

The IV Army had the initial task of defending St. Petersburg, and the
22nd Corps, the formation tasked to defend the territory of the Grand Duchy, was mostly in field training in Царское Село when the war begun.

The troops were hastily rushed back to their garrison areas and deployed to defensive postures according to pre-war plans. And here the butterflies will start to flap for good. In OTL it quickly became apparent that Germans had concentrated their forces against France, and in 21st of August the troops of the 22nd Corps received marching orders to the German border (they'd be destroyed there soon afterwards in the battle of Masurian Lakes) - the last trains left the Grand Duchy in 7th of September.

The garrison duties were now taken over by two 2nd-class infantry divisions, the 67th and 84th ID, and the 8th Orenburg Cossack Regiment, and ten 1000-men strong conscript formations. Two additional 2nd-class infantry divisions, the 50th and 74th, and three Cossack regiments were stationed around St.Petersburg, and were available as additional reserves.

By October the 67th and 84th Divisions were transferred to the front, and the remaining troops in the region were reorganized into six reserve brigades. By end of the year Finland has a garrison of ~35 000 soldiers, reorganized into 10th Reserve Corps.

In Summer 1915 this formation was reorganized into 42nd Corps, and this organization was retained up to 1918.
 
The Swedish border was garrisoned by the 4th Infantry Regiment - most of the regiment was stationed to Vaasa, and a single battalion was stationed to Oulu.

The Russian defensive plan was simple, and utilized the local infrastructure and the vast distances. It focused on holding Helsinki, the largest naval base in the region, while stopping the potential invader way before the city of St. Petersburg:
http://koti.kapsi.fi/timomeriluoto/KARTAT/Rautatiekartat/Suomi Valtionrautatiet 1911.jpg
http://www.novision.fi/viapori/linnasuomi.gif

Notice how each of the three major defensive lines has a vertical North-South-aligned railroad line running behind it. Basically the whole Grand Duchy was envisioned to act as an extensively fortified buffer zone for St. Petersburg.
 
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Also, I have during the spring done some research on the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden during the great war and the interwar and if you are interested I can give a summary for you.

Anyway, I'm much interested in this timeline.
 
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