Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/29

 bands with the expression of madmen on their faces, carrying revolvers in their hands and the swords of murdered officers at their sides. These, then, were the deliverers of Russia—and of Finland!

It was not possible to regard the riotous bands with any immediate sympathy, even if one was obliged to argue oneself into the belief that even their activity had helped Finland to comparative liberty. It was a Russian mob which was presented to one's sight; frenzied, brutal, ignorant masses that took the life of their superiors with impunity. And the aversion to these masses grew when it was understood that they by no means intended to abolish the Russian command in Finland. In place of the Russian gendarmery came a "Counter Espionage Department for the Defence of Popular Liberty," which took over all the papers of the gendarmery from the time of war. The liberated Finnish prisoners in St. Petersburg were obliged to fly quickly across the frontier to Sweden, the new Russian military authorites—all sorts of boards and committees—continued to arrest Finnish citizens and arrange house searches. Finland was still ruled by the Russian military garrisoned there, though now no longer by the officers but by the soldiers.

The Labour Party did not, however, entertain any doubts. Bound by its traditions to the Russian revolutionary movement, it now cast itself head foremost into the hubbub caused by this latter in Finland. The large demonstration processions of the first weeks were Finno-Russian, the Labour press at once adopted the whole of the wild Russian phraseology, and the lively fraternising started during the fortification-work between the Russian soldiers and Finnish working-men was now complete.

It is a matter of course that, in the undisciplined masses which constituted the Russian troops, the most extreme elements would take the leadership; the murdering