# The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918/Part 2/Chapter 7

7. POSTCRIPT.
Compared with the stupendous spectacle of the world war, the insurrection in Finland is only a trifling incident. In the great drama of the "Break-up of Russia" the events in Finland constitute only a small scene. But to the people of Finland the war of liberation shaped itself as the mightiest struggle in the ancient conflict carried on in this country between West and East, between culture and barbarism.
The Finnish Labour Party called themselves Social Democrats. But by their actions they have shown that they were not worthy of the name. They trusted to a young, most unformed and immature proletariat, and to the thirst for liberty which the Russian oppression had called to life in the whole people. They drew their weapons for this agitation from all the arsenals open to them. Social-Democratic phraseology, Syndicalism, ​Russian Nihilism, and Terrorism all run into one, in their agitation as well as in their acts. In such circumstances they could not, of course, find any consistent or ideally secure way through political life. They tried for a time to keep within the bounds of a parliamentary party, but failed to do so, and did not thrive within them, although the possibilities of success were greater in Finland's parliament than in any other. They took up arms and resorted to revolution. But even then, when they thought they were following the revolutionary roads marked out by the Russians, they could not act consistently. The revolution was absurd in itself without an economic revolution, but the economic revolution was not feasible. So there they were, power being the only goal they were able to perceive. And when defeat loomed threateningly, they were equally at a loss. They stirred up their own bands against a superior foe, and they themselves fled.
Was then the war of the White a war against the Social Democrats? No, for the Red did not represent the Social Democrats. Was the civil war a class war? Yes, and no. Yes, because the Red Guard was in a manner a class army. No, because the White did not fight the Labour Class as such. The Red Guard was to a certain extent the cuckoo's brood in the nest of the Labour Party. It grew strong within the organisations, attracted all the bad elements, and also swallowed up the better ones. It was the bearer of the Russo-revolutionary traditions of the years 1905–6. It had become intoxicated with the March revolution of 1917. It therefore easily slipped into Bolshevism. When later on it became the determining factor within the Party, it got the additional power over its members—then close upon 200,000 organised working-men. It sacrificed them as unscrupulously as all others. Thus the Labour ​Party, and with them virtually the whole Labour Class, were drawn into the Red movement. In this sense we may speak of "class war," but not in the sense in which the word is generally used. For this movement was not social but political. It was not a conflict between proletariat and bourgeoisie. It was a struggle for the power on the part of the Red, a struggle for Finland's independence, for law and order on the part of the White. It was a war between a fanatical international movement to which the State and the Nation meant nothing, and the defenders of the sacredness of the native country and of the life of the community.
The Red threatened everything that the Finnish people had learned to treasure as its greatest values during the long struggle against Russian oppression, whether it was practised in the name of Tsarism or Anarchy. These values may be comprehended in the words "Western culture." The Red bands had been led astray, if you will—infected is, perhaps, the better word. They were infected with the Russian plague now called Bolshevism. Lawlessness, disorder, want of reverence for all cultural values, contempt of the life, happiness and property of their fellow-men had seized them, and dragged them down into chaos.
But as yet the country has not recovered after the catastrophe which has shaken it to its foundations. As yet there is infinite work left to be done. An independent political life is to be built up with respect for the law and the subjection of the individual to the demands of the community. The problems are many, the difficulties great. Mistakes must be made, reverses must come. But the foundation has been laid. Finland has been liberated from Russian oppression.
Every people, be it as small and weak as it may be, clings to the thought that it has its special mission in ​the history of the world. Finland has seen her mission in that she has stood as the outpost of Europe in the East. She has received the blows directed against Scandinavia. Now she has warded off, perhaps, the most dangerous, at least the most treacherous, attack of the East. She does not count on gratitude for this deed, but she counts on sympathy. No person in Finland is glad at the misery the Red insurrection has called down on the Labour Class. Nobody sees a triumph of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat in the victory of the White. The victory in one respect is of mighty, of positive, significance in that the Russian influence has now been beaten down. And to build up the new, independent Finland it is needful that this influence shall be wiped out for ever; just as it is needful that every citizen learns to obey the law, and consider himself as a member of the community. That is the condition of Finland's becoming a real State—a Western culture state and law state.
LONDON: HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, W.C.2, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY.