Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/11



On the 27th January, 1918, "Finland's Working-men's Executive Committee" announced that Finland's working-men had proceeded to revolution, that the lawful government had been overthrown, and that all power in Finland had now passed over to the organised working-men and their revolutionary organs.

Hereby the civil war was declared which was to ravage Finland's soil and demand such painful sacrifices. The revolutionaries—the "Red"—and their Russian allies succeeded in taking possession of the southern parts of the country and the largest cities here. But in the north the loyal citizens—the "White"—took up arms to free the country from the rebels. They cleared the whole of North Finland and marched towards the south. A long front was formed, beginning at the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, running in a wide sweep round Tammerfors and on to the east, going on the south side of St. Michel to the river Vuoksen, and ending south of the latter's outfall in lake Ladoga by the Finno-Russian frontier. It was not, however, until the middle of March that the "White" army was ready to proceed to a serious offensive, and by the first days of April, with the assistance of volunteers from Sweden, it had broken up the main forces of the "Red" and conquered Tammerfors. At the same time a German relief expedition, called in by the Finnish Government, landed at Hangö, and after a quick advance took the capital, Helsingfors. Now defeat followed upon defeat for the "Red" army, and at the beginning of May the insurrection was definitely subdued. The leaders of the revolutionaries had fled to Russia, and more than 70,000 men