White Guard (Finland)

White Guard (Finland)

The White Guard (Finnish: Suojeluskunta, plural: Suojeluskunnat, Finland-Swedish: Skyddskår, literary translated as Protection/Defense Corps) was a voluntary militia that emerged victorious over the socialist Red Guard as part of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. The Finnish term Suojeluskunta has received many different approximations in English, including the literal translation Protection Corps, and Security Guard, Civic Guards, National Guard, White Militia, Defence Corps, Protection Guard, and Protection Militia. They were generally known as the White Guard in the West due to their opposition to the communist Red Guards. In the White Army of Finland many participants were recruits, draftees and German trained Jägers and not part of the paramilitary as is sometimes erroneously thought.

Their central organization was named Suojeluskuntajärjestö, and the organization consisted of local chapters in municipalities.

The Russian revolution of 1905 led to social and political unrest and a breakdown of security in Finland, which was then a Grand Duchy under the sovereignty of the Russian Czar. Citizen militias were formed as a response, but soon these would be transformed along political (left-right) lines. The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent independence of Finland also caused conflicts in the country. On January 27, 1918, the Finnish government ordered the disarmament of all remaining Russian garrisons with the forces of the White Guard, and on the same day the Reds proclaimed revolution, leading to a bloody civil war. White Guards, led by Gen. C.G.E. Mannerheim, constituted the bulk of the victorious White Army during the Finnish Civil War (1918).

After the war the Finnish Defence Forces and a regular police service were founded. From 1919–1934 White Guards were considered a voluntary part of the army, and separate Guard formations were in the reserve, but in 1934 all defence was consolidated into the regular army and the Guard became a voluntary defence training organization only. Politically it was neutral, although unofficially it was anti-leftist, clearly anti-Communist and conservative and largely rejected by the labor movement and the political left. However, units of it formed the main forces of the Lapua Movement's abortive coup d'état, the Mäntsälä Rebellion in 1932. White Guardsmen served in the regular army during the Second World War. The White Guard was disbanded according to the terms of the Finno-Soviet peace treaty after the Second World War.

Similar militias existed in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, lands that, like Finland, were under Russian sovereignty until the end of World War I. These militias remained in existence until World War II, evolving somewhat into home guard militias. The phenomenon should be distinguished from the Freikorps established in Germany after its defeat in World War I, although some similarities exist.