page_title: Finnish Guards' Rifle Battalion
section_title: Early forms
hierarchical_section_title: Finnish Guards' Rifle Battalion / Early forms
caption_attribution_description: English: Main Building of the Finnish Ministry of Defence, Helsinki, Finland Suomi: Suomen puolustusministeriön päärakennus, Helsinki
context_page_description: Finnish Guards' Rifle Battalion, colloquially known as Guard of Finland was a Finnish military unit during 1829–1905 based in Helsinki. Continuing the legacy of Finnish Training Battalion, it was part of the Imperial Russian Army and the only Finnish unit of the Russian Imperial Guard. Furthermore, for large parts of its history, the battalion was the only operational Finnish military unit. Because of its status as both a national showpiece and as a part of the Imperial Guard, it had a visible role in Finland.
  The Finnish Guards' Battalion participated in four campaigns outside Finland. Two of these included actual combat: first in 1831 during the Polish November Uprising and for the second time, in the Balkans front of the Russo-Turkish War. The most famous of the battles it participated in was the battle of Gorni Dubnik in 1877. The unit was also deployed in 1849 to assist in quelling of the Hungarian Uprising and later during the Crimean War to guard the western border of Russia. However, it did not engage in action during these deployments.
context_section_description: The military of Finland during the period of autonomy within Russia was established by an imperial order on 18 September 1812 by Alexander I of Russia, which became the anniversary of the battalion. Based on the imperial order, Finland had to form three rifle units, consisting each of two battalions of 600 men, totaling 3600 men. The vice president of the Senate of Finland, Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt and many other officials in Finland had seen it as important, that in addition to the Russian troops based in Finland, there was also a domestic military force to respond to the future uncertainties. These groups were formed of willing recruits as well as of pressed vagabonds, and it was the intention to use these units only within the Finnish territory and in defense of the coastline of the Baltic Sea, not for any conflicts in more remote areas. The units were to be financed by crowd-sourcing, but the collected funds did not match the needs to the least. Finally it was decided, that the Russian state was to bear the capital cost of weapons and other military hardware, while the Senate of Finland bore the maintenance costs. Soldiers got a wage of 60 Russian rubles for the whole of 6 years in service and one'n half barrels of Rye annually.
  Of these three regiments, the first to start operations was the 3rd, Viborg regiment, in 1812. Its first assignment was to undertake guard duty in Saint Petersburg between 31 March 1813 and 31 August 1814, while the majority of Russian Army was tied to Western and Central Europe in the battles against Napoleon. By the summer 1813, two other regiments had also been formed, the first consisting of the battalions in Turku and Hameenlinna and the second of battalions in Heinola and Kuopio. The military force of some thousand men, however, had only little significance to the Finnish defense. Especially, the forces completely lacked Artillery, Cavalry and technical branches. Furthermore, only the unit in Vyborg was in service continuously, others gathered according to former Allotment system annually for 4-week training and the officers in preceding 6-week meetings. Two of the regiments were downgraded to infantry regiments, while the third held its more demanding "rifle" designation.
  During the spring 1817, the Vyborg regiment was split in two and the other was moved to Vasa. Part of it was separated into a special command of 274 men, left to Hameenlinna under the command of staff captain Nils Gylling. This became the basis for Finnish Training Battalion. It started operations in the summer 1818, was formally assigned to Helsinki and labeled as The Battalion of Helsinki. The first commander was assigned lieutenant colonel Herman Wärnhjelm. As there were no facilities in Helsinki at the time, the battalion remained for training in Hameenlinna. The Kaartin kasarmi, designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, was completed in 1822 and the Training Battalion moved in on 23 December 1824. The name of the battalion fixed to the Helsinki Training Battalion in 1819 and Finnish Training Battalion in 1824.
  With the imperial order in the March 1827, the Finnish military force was re-arranged to form six rifle battalions. The name of the Helsinki Battalion became to be Finnish Training Rifle Battalion and its size was increased with 100 men to 500 troops. After two months, the recruitment in other units were forbidden and they were disbanded in 1830. After this, the Helsinki Battalion was the only remainder of the military force formed in 1812. Until the end of the 1870s, the battalion was recruited from volunteer Finns. Its enlisted personnel consisted of Finnish lower classes: farm-workers, labourers, journeymen, freeholders' sons and crofters' sons. The discipline was harsh and physical punishments were widely used.
caption: The Guards' Barracks by the Kasarmitori square in Helsinki, designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, housed the Guard of Finland throughout its existence.
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