The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-03-05
Some Lessons Of the Finnish Civil War

by the Finnish government, January 10, TO De
commanding general of the white forces. lie or
ganized a staff of trained officers, each head OF
his department The Red Staff was not at first
composed of capable military leaders and was not
centralized
6. The headquarters of the staff For this the
city of Vasa was selected, as the capital Helsing
fors in the south was considered likely to fall
into the hands of the reds This calculation was
correct and the whites had an effective center
from the very beginning Later the white staff
was removed to the railroad center, Seinajork.
T. Accuracy in details. As Mannerheim, dis
guised as a travelling salesman, was on his way
from Helsingfors to Vasa, he was almost arrested
in Tammerfors the industrial center of Finland,
where the Reds were especially strong. The Rus
sian soldiers, who inspected the passports, sus
pected him of being an officer and demanded him
to come to the station for questioning The
''white" history tells us "Mannerheim began to
dress himself lit was in a sleeper) when young
man (''white') dressed as a railway employe,
passing, explained to the soldier that the pass
port was all right and that they did not have the
right to bother the travellers" The soldiers drop
ped the case, and the whites had their leader
The Reds were not careful in details.
8. The connections. The first task of the
white staff was to organize connections with the
white guard centers all over the country. They
had eleven secret district centers. Messages to
the staff came under the address of the Vasa City
Administration. The whites also had the support
of the telegraph operators. The quartermaster
was in charge of all means of communication
The intelligence service and the communication
of the Reds were very poorly organized.
g. The supply of weapons. The white staff
had the available weapons already registered and
took energetic steps to hasten the sending of guns
and ammunition from Sweden and Germany.
They bought also weapons from the Russian Of
ficers and specializing soldiers The surprised
Russian military units were compelled to surren-
der their supplies. The Reds were very slow in
arming themselves The rank and file, alarmed
by the secret preparations of the whites, demand
ed weapons, but the leaders were not energetic
enuf in supplying them.
10. The first alarms The members of the
White Guards were alarmed with exaggerated
messages concerning some smaller fights in south
ern Finland and alleged sending of troops to
the north. The "White' staff regarded these
small occurrences as signs of threatening war,
and was correct. The Reds did not fully under
stand this.
IL. Threats and bluffs. The Whites circu-
lated rumors among the Russian soldiers about
the strength of the whites, and organized peas
ant parades to make an impression on them. In
this way they gained time and succeeded in dis
uedTleuluS d part Ol the 10 some extent OemOral-
lied Russian soldiers. They also made earnest
efforts to de-rail the trains and made other prep
arations for actual fghting-The preparations of
the Reds were not so systematic.
II. The relations between the leaders and the
rank and file. When the white guards were
alarmed and modified, they wanted to 90 into
action at once 1t was difficult for the officers to
hold them back. When they received from the
staff a command to wait for action, they revolted
Such a lack of discipline could in some instances
be useful for the whites For instance, little
groups OF whites defended a railroad station
south of the only connecting road to the east
Their position was so dangerous that they receiv-
ed command from Mannerheim to retreat, but
did net obey. So they saved the connections to
the east. But soon the whites got their staff Of
Ulcers organized and military discipline estab-
lished. This was important for them because the
peasants were not willing to go far from their
own localities They intended only to get the
Russian soldiers out and after that wanted to re.