The Finnish Revolution: The North is Red
The fall of the Russian Empire in 1917 was to say the least a calamitous event for those nations that the House of Romanov had welded together under their crown. From the lake shores of Finland to the harsh mountains of Georgia blood was split to carve out new nations, from the carcass of the Russian Empire. The revolutionaries that emerged varied from nationalists seizing the chance to free their homeland from the Russian yoke to communists, and everything in-between.
While the foremost among them were the sister revolts of the dominating Russian Revolution that sprung up across Eurasia. The most influential among these was of course the Finnish Revolution, the second of the three great revolutions on the 1910’s. But to explain how the Finnish Revolution triumphed and brought the red light to the north first the scene must be set.
Finland during the First World War
When war broke out in 1914 Finland was in a precarious position. A core part of Finland’s economy was trade with the German Empire. While the Russian market was vital to Finland it never exceeded 40% of trade within the then Grand Duchy, Swedish, French and British Markets remained vital and by 1914 the value of trade with Germany equalled Russia. The war’s main reaction was a temporary panic before returning to work. Despite the loss of German and British trade and the imperilment of the Baltic Trade the economic situation temporarily was weakened beginning the slow decline that would lead to the revolution four years later. Finland’s exports declined to 50% of their pre-war level in 1916 and 29% in 1917. While the uptick in Russian orders managed to deal with the economic crisis, the economy actually shrunk by about 10% in 1914-15. While at a glance the Russian war orders were able to bolster the Finnish economy to a position where it might be able to survive and even thrive. In reality the wave of Roubles that descended on Finland began to severely undermine the Finnish economy and the Finnish Mark. Since 1865 the Finnish Mark had been separated from the Russian Rouble and tied to the value of Silver, the Bank of Finland also exchanged Marks and Roubles in a set value and as Roubles poured into Finland inflation began to rapidly increase. Between 1914-1918 the Finnish Mark underwent an inflation value of 91%. While in general wages lagged behind inflation the standard of living did not decrease a drastic amount. Shortages in rural areas in 1917, were while existent far from dominating. As 1917 drew to a close and 1918 drew near everyday life began to be filled with more minor problems, which while not devasting and far from as horrendous as they would be in the dark nights of 1919’s Winter a sense of optimism remained persuasive throughout Finnish society.
Military Finland would also be impacted by the war that set Europe alight, Finnish citizens were unable to be conscripted like the rest of the Russian population, despite this seven hundred Fins would volunteer to serve in the Russian Army in the war, though two thousand would serve under the German Empire. Helsinki became the single largest base of the Russian Baltic fleet with over 20’000 soldiers stationed in Helsinki, by 1917 there were 125’000 Russian soldiers stationed in Finland. Many of these soldiers arms’ would end being vital in the victory of the Finnish Reds during the Civil War. Though Finland was never a front in the war it became a part of German war aims as the Russian Empire collapsed. The Finnish Jaegers that served in the White Forces during the Revolution were trained with the idea of creating a German satellite in mind. If Germany was able to secure Finland, they would have near complete control over the eastern edge of the Baltic Sea. An aim that would be clearly shown during the Battle of Åland and the brief Kingdom of Finland notionally under Prince Fredrick Charles of Hesse, and the subsequent government-in-exile that would last until the Swedish election of 1956.
Politically the outbreak of war did not influence Finland too much. Finland had introduced universal suffrage in 1906 and the local Social Democratic Party (Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue) had never been banned from participating in politics. The SPD as it was known was a socialist party of the German bent which differentiated it from their Russian comrades. Since 1907 the SPD had been a major force in the Finnish parliament when they won 40% of the votes, which at the time was a world record, this result would be reinforced in 1913 when they won 43.11% of the vote and from there ninety of the two hundred seats within the Finnish Parliament. The outbreak of war meant that the Finnish Parliament was suspended by the Russian government but by 1916 as the Germans chewed their way through the Russian Empire and the fragile balance that Nikolai II ruled over began to break down the Finnish Parliament was reconstituted, and the 1916 elections were a deceive victory for the SPD. 47.29% of the vote and 103 seats. Their largest opposition the Finnish Party won 17.49% of the vote and thirty-three seats. The SPD’s rhetoric around helping the power and empowering the working class. The inability of the bourgeoise parties to capitalise on this resulted in the SPD emerging as the dominant party within the Grand Duchy.
Finally, the class divisions of Finland despite what some of the more nationalist members of the Finnish Parliament claim were not linguistic. Finland at the dawn of the 20th century was an emerging nation state. The majority of the population even those who’s native language was Swedish thought of themselves as Finnish. Even general Mannerheim the hero of the Finnish Far-right, native language was Swedish. While officially Finnish, Swedish, and Russian were the official languages of the Grand Duchy in practise Finnish and Swedish were the only two languages, laws and newspapers were published in the two languages. The main linguistic divide was not class based but geographical rural populations spoke mostly Swedish while urban coastal elite spoke Swedish. The biggest divide in Finland was class rather than language, yes, the majority of workers only spoke Finnish but those who spoke Swedish also supported the socialists placing their class interests over the interests of their fellow Swedish speakers, but then as now Finland was bilingual society and the languages that the workers spoke did not divide them from each other. While some of the more nationalist elements in the political sphere namely the Fennomania a group which despite its nationalist ideals was led by ethnic Swedes some of whom only spoke Swedish attacked what they called the Swedish Upper class, in an attempt to build up a nationalist movement up across Finland.
The collapse of the Finnish State was tied deeply in with both the economic web that they were dependent on and the Russian Revolutions of 1917.
The February Revolution was a surprise to the Finish people, but it was a pleasant one. The fall of the increasingly unpopular Romanov Monarchy was met with popular enthusiasm from across the spectrum of Finnish society, and the Russian Empire at large. Despite what the later events of the year would prove, the majority of Finnish society thought that there was a large chance that they would secure victory in the war that was currently devastating Europe. Part of this was optimism; many saw the chance of victory as an opportunity for Finland to secure their previously highly privileged position within the Empire or even claw independence from the Russian Empire. In hindsight this is incredibly naïve but the many discipline problems within the Russian Army were unknown and Finland’s lack of direct participation in the war meant that the outcomes of the war were viewed in a much more academic viewpoint than in other parts of Russia or Russia’s western allies.
When Nikolai II abdicated the throne and brought an end to the Romanov Monarchy Finland’s political situation was reinforced in the new Provisional Government’s manifesto of the 20th of March in which the constitutional autonomy of Finland was to be respected as was the cultural status of Finland. The Finnish Government appointed on the 15th of March was made up of six representatives from bourgeois politicians, and six from the socialist parties, this government was known as the Tokoi Senate after its chairman socialist Oskar Tokoi. The government was backed by both the government apparatus and the populace with many holding high hopes that the new government would be able to carve out Finland’s independence from Russia, as already the new government came in with the removal of Russians from the Finnish administration and police forces. To many Fins this meant that they would finally be able to control their own destiny outside of Russia’s political control.
This however was not the result that would come about for the Finnish people. The newly appointed Governor General of Finland Mikhail Aleksandrovich Stakhovich a member of the Party of Peaceful Revolution, stated in an interview following his appointment ‘I am very happy to be charged by the Provisional Government to render to Finland her Constitution and to apply it as broadly as possible— that is to say until
complete autonomy is attained.’
[1] (Emphasis authors) When this information was transferred to the Finnish Government, they interpreted it as a commitment to the continuation of Russian over the Finnish State. As Finland was in a constitutional limbo with the fall of the Russian Monarchy and as such the Finnish Monarchy, removing the Finnish head of state and who they were to work with as the Russian Government. Previously where they had worked with the Tsar they now had to deal with the Duma and the provisional government. While the new government was made up of opposition members who had previously supported the Finnish State against the Russian Government despite this, many of them failed to recognize that many major Finnish politicians desired independence. Of course, part of this comes from Finland’s strategic position in relation to then Petrograd. The Baltic Fleet was a hotbed of revolutionary fervour among the already revolutionary Russian state. When news of the fall of the Tsar came thirty-eight officers of the Baltic Fleet were killed by their sailors in a brutal mutiny. For the provisional government the ties that, Finnish Socialists had with the mutineers finally confirmed within their mind that Finland and particularly Helsinki in the current state was not a protection to Petrograd.
It was a threat.
The conflict between Finland and Petrograd only grew as 1917 passed on. The constitution was drafted by the Finnish Parliament which placed the previous executive functions of the Grand Duke in the hands of the Finnish Parliament. While the constitution still retained Finland within Russia and placed foreign and military affairs on Petrograd there were several differing ideas on how to implement this new constitution. On the 20th of April chairman Tokoi declared that the parliament would follow the will of the people. Which was a highly nebulous concept as he did not particularly expand on the point. While the Finnish population looked on with a large amount of support and unity the Russian Government did not. The rapidly rising Kerensky the then Minister of War viewed it as Finland betraying Russia in her darkest hour.
Tensions only grew as the year dragged on when on the 18th of July the Finnish Government implemented a bill that made Finland effectively independent, and the bill did not even require the ratification of the Russian authorities to go into effect. This was the final slap in the face to the Russian Government. The Finns had leapt upon them in their weakest moment with Tokoi flat out stating that the Russian Government had fallen. But as the Bolsheviks were crushed the mind of the Provisional Government turned to Finland with wrath.
Ordering a dissolution of the Finnish Government Kerensky with support of the Bourgeois Parties in the Finnish Parliament sought to crush the socialists and maintain Russian Control over the region. Socialist Parties within the party refused this ultimatum, with Tokoi giving a militant speech declaring that the only true Finnish patriots were the Socialists. As tensions grew with the bourgeois parties having removed themselves from parliament believing that the dissolution of the parliament by the Russians represented a chance for them to assume control over Finland. The Socialists on the other hand viewed it as a chance to secure not only Finnish Independence but begin a grand transformation of Finnish Society.
However, for said transformation to happen it required both control over Finland and the removal of the threat that the Bourgeois Parties and their alliance with Russia represented. The rump Senate being as it was senate formed a committee of 25 Socialists on how to deal with the ‘Threat to the Finnish People’, on the 26th of July. This committee would evolve into the Workers’ Revolutionary Council the leading military command for the Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic.
This was ultimately the final straw for Kerensky, having already dissolved the Finnish Government legally the rump Senate in his mind was formed from traitors and the same Bolsheviks that had nearly overthrown his government in the July Days. He ordered all forces loyal to the legitimate government in Finland to dissolve the Senate and impose martial law until the newly scheduled elections in November.
Of course, however the Kornilov affair threw all of these plans into chaos. (AN: The remainder of the discussion of the fall of the Provisional Government and the beginning of the Russian Revolution will be in a later update.)
[1] This statement is from OTL, source The Russian Provisional Government 1917 Documents: Selected and edited by Robert Paul Browder and Alexander F. Kerensky. A minor POD here is the Finnish population take it a bit worse then OTL, and a more militant anti-Russian viewpoint begins to appear in the Finnish populace.
