Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/125

 new era in Finland by the same measure. This was, however, a mere formality, as in accordance with Finnish law no executions had taken place since the beginning of the last century. It became a formality, too, by the fact that it was disregarded. But the measure of abolishing all existing courts of Justice and in their place establishing "revolutionary courts" was, however, no formality. Such were established in every township, and above all they took up cases concerning "counter-revolutionary activity." The judge's office was to be held by a person enjoying the confidence of the working-men, and sentence was to be passed in accordance with conscience and common sense, not according to any previously settled system. So both the choice of the judge and the passing of the sentence was quite arbitrary. The only guide found was a list of the punishments to be applied. They consisted in warnings, fines, dismissal from office, seizure of part or all of the chattels of the convicted person, imprisonment, hard labour, and the loss of certain personal and social advantages. The accused could be sentenced to several of these punishments simultaneously. In theory, this institution was thus very humane; in practice, as we shall soon see, it became quite otherwise. A revolutionary supreme court of justice was also established, but there are no signs of it having ever acted.

The revolutionary tribunals sentenced "the people's enemies." Those who had formerly been sentenced to lose their liberty by the verdicts of the "bourgeois" tribunals were, of course, on a different level. They were victims of the oppression of the capitalist system, and measures must be taken for their benefit. Already on the 6th February the Government decrees that the staffs of the prisons and houses of correction are to work out lists of all such prisoners who may be regarded as