Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
| Capital | Helsinki | ||||||||
| Common languages | Finnish,Swedish | ||||||||
| Government | Socialist republic[1][2] | ||||||||
• Chairman of theFinnish People's Delegation | Kullervo Manner[3] | ||||||||
| Legislature | Finnish People's Delegation | ||||||||
| Historical era | |||||||||
• Established | 29 January 1918 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 5 May 1918 | ||||||||
| Currency | Markka | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Finland Russia | ||||||||
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TheFinnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR), more commonly referred to asRed Finland, was a self-proclaimedsocialist state inFinland during theFinnish Civil War from January to May 1918.
The FSWR was established by theFinnish People's Delegation, a government formed by members of theSocial Democratic Party to rival the existingGovernment of Finland, with support of theRed Guards. The FSWR controlled the capitalHelsinki and most of southern Finland until March.Kullervo Manner served as its sole leader as Chairman of theCentral Committee of the Finnish People's Delegation.[3] The FSWR collapsed when the Red Guards were defeated by theWhite Finns andGermany, with Manner and most of the Finnish People's Delegation fleeing toSoviet Russia.
The name "Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic" (Finnish:Suomen sosialistinen työväentasavalta) appeared only in the Treaty betweenFinnish People's Delegation and RussianCouncil of People's Commissars, signed on 1 March 1918. The People's Delegation had earlier used the name Republic of Finland (Suomen tasavalta), but Soviet leaderVladimir Lenin proposed adding "Socialist Workers' Republic" into the name during negotiations. The People's Delegation later blamed its delegates for succumbing to Lenin's demand, since the official name of the state should have been decided by the Finns themselves.
Red Finland/FSWR was an attempt to establish a socialist state, based on the legacy of Scandinavian-Finnish culture, socialist ideas originating fromCentral Europe, including plans to expand the Finnish territory. Their political visions included principles of democracy, but as Red Finland was primarily the formation of revolution and civil war, the acts of violence and warfare were emphasized in the policy. The Red Guards included a minor faction of Finnish Bolsheviks who supported association of FSWR to Soviet Russia. FSWR/Red Finland never gained a true status and form of state and republic as the Reds lost the Civil War on 5 May 1918.[4]
Thegeographical area of Red Finland as well as thefront line between White and Red Finland took shape approximately between 28 January and 3 February 1918, and it remained largely unchanged until the general offensive of the Whites in March 1918.[5]
TheFinnish People's Delegation, mainlyOtto Ville Kuusinen[citation needed], formulated and set forth, on 23 February 1918, a draft for aconstitution of Red Finland/FSWR, on the basis of the Finnish Social Democratic principles and mentality. TheMarxist concept ofdictatorship of the proletariat was absent from the program. Instead, it represented an idea ofdemocratic socialism and it was influenced by the constitutions ofSwitzerland andUnited States, andFrench Revolution. The constitution model included most of democraticcivil rights for the Finnishcitizens, including an extensive use ofreferendum in political decision making, butprivate property rights were excluded and given to state and local administration. The draft was never finally formulated and approved in Red Finland, before the defeat of FSWR in the 1918 war.[6]
The political situation after theJanuary Revolution in Finland raised a major question in terms of the constitution draft, among the Finnish (moderate)socialists. The question arose if the power gained viarevolution would allowdemocracy a true chance in Finnishsociety. The relation between democracy and revolution was contradictory for the socialists, as theFebruary Revolution empowered the lamed Finnish Parliament, until July 1917; restoration of the socialists' power in the Parliament was among the main goals of the January Revolution 1918. The Finnish Red-White conflict of 1918 has been described asClass War,Rebellion,(Red) Revolt andAbortive (Red) Revolution by the Finnish Redveterans.[7]
Although the Finnish Socialist Worker's Republic was supported by theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), led byVladimir Lenin, and the 1 March 1918 Red Treaty was signed between these two unstablesocialist states, an ideal level of co-operation and co-ordination was never achieved, due to both states being preoccupied with their own respective civil wars. The goal of the Finnish Reds' majority was a neutral and independent Finland, and some of them demanded annexation ofAunus,Viena Karelia andPetsamo areas of Russian Karelia to Finland. The Russian-Finnish Red treaty had only minor importance for the Bolsheviks as they carried out peace negotiations with theGerman Empire. In the end, the fate of the Finnish Reds and FSWR was determined through the power political decisions made betweenRussia andGermany.Edvard Gylling was the prime mover at the start of the Finnish-Russian talks for the Red Treaty; among other things he aimed to work for peace talks between the Finnish Whites and Reds, by diminishing the Russian influence in Finland. The Finnish Bolsheviks, few in number, but influential and active in the Finnish Red Guards supported Lenin's Russian federalism. The Finns got Petsamo, but the question of Aunus and Viena remained open.[8]
Lenin aimed to halt a complete collapse ofRussia after the revolutionary year 1917. While in political opposition prior to theOctober Revolution, Lenin emphasized the policy of nations' right to self-determination for the former parts of theRussian Empire. After the successful seizure of power in October 1917 and in January 1918, the Bolsheviks' power political strategy shifted gradually towardfederalism. As forFinland, Lenin plotted its annexation by Russia, but theRussian Civil War, German-RussianTreaty of Brest-Litovsk, Finland-operation of theGerman Army, the victory of the White Guards in the Finnish civil war and the markednationalism among the Finnish socialists stalled his plan. Lenin's "socialist" power policy followed that of the formerRomanov empire; thegeopolitical position of a country determined the way it was treated by the Russian leadership (e.g.Poland-Ukraine vs.Finland).[9]
After the start of the Finnish Civil War, on January 28, 1918,Kullervo Manner was appointed chairman of thePeople's Delegation, the Red Government. On April 10 of the same year, the Reds reformed their entire administration and Manner was appointed leader of the Red Finland and the Supreme Commander of the Red Guard under the authority of thedictator.[10]
The warfare between the Reds andWhites took major attention and energy of the Red leadership, and the situation was not alleviated by the loss of many strategically important sites, such asTampere, to the Whites.[10] Therefore, the formation of the local Red civil administration remained unfinished and waited for the result of the Civil War. The top and middle-rank civil servants of the pre-civil war administration refused to co-operate with the Reds, and new leadership had to be chosen and trained from the lower rank servants.[11]
The Finnish Civil War ended with the German invasion of Finland and the consequent defeat of the FinnishRed Guards and the FSWR on 5 May 1918. After the war, the initially powerful and well-organized Finnish Social Democrats, who had formed in the relatively free and nationalistic social atmosphere ofScandinavian andRussian culture and drew on the socialist ideas ofGermany and pre-World War IAustria-Hungary, were split into two. The moderate socialists continued their pre-1918 political culture, joining the social and political system of republican Finland. The far-left faction formed theCommunist Party of Finland in August 1918 inMoscow, with its main leaders living in exile inRussia and many of its supporters living in Finland.[12]
I now have the honor to forward a translation of the treaty of March 1/February 16, 1918, between the socialist republics of Russia and Finland.
Bibliography
