Finland's Triumphs, Failures in Winter War

The Finnish Army was raised in the revolutionary year of 1918. On the 16th of January 1918, General-Lieutenant Carl Gustav Mannerheim was commissioned by the Finnish senate to unite all the home guard (Suojeluskunta) units and to form an army for the new republic. At that time, Finland was divided into two parts, White Finland and Red Finland. Red Finland was controlled by mostly left-wing Socialists from the former Finnish Autonomous Republic of Russia, while White Finland was striving to create a relatively democratic state, independent from Soviet Russia. White Finland was decidedly anti-Communist, and Mannerheim and his newly formed troops sided with them. Nearly 200,000 Finns took part in this war and about 18,000 were killed, including civilians. Also on the side of the Whites were the German Baltic Division lead by Rüdiger von der Goltz (12,000 men) which landed in Hanko, Finland. There were still Russian troops in Finland when the war between the Reds and Whites began, and about 3,000 - 5,000 took part on the side of the Reds. Eventually, the anti-Communist forces won after 5 months of fierce fighting, including the battle of Tampere which was the largest battle in Scandinavian history until that time.