East Karelian uprising and Soviet–Finnish conflict of 1921–22

After Finland declared independence from Russia, a number of Finnish nationalists supported the idea of a Greater Finland attained through the annexation of Russian East Karelia. This was seen as an effort to form a unified country for Balto-Finnic tribes, who were regarded as kindred by these activists. The resulting two incursions by Finnish volunteers into Russia, called the Viena and Aunus expeditions, are not considered wars against Russia in Finnish historiography. In Russia, this conflict, as well as the Finnish expeditions into East Karelia and the Petsamo in 1918–1920, is considered a military intervention and called the First Soviet–Finnish War. This period of disagreement and uncertainty about borders was ended with the Treaty of Tartu, where Finland and the Baltic states first recognised the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic as a sovereign state, and established the border between Finland and RSFSR.

The motivation for the uprising was East Karelians' year-long experience of the Bolshevik regime – not respecting promises of autonomy, food shortages, the will of nationalistic kindred activists to amend the results of the "shameful peace" of Tartu, and the wish of exiled East Karelians. Finnish kindred activists, notably Jalmari Takkinen, the deputy of Bobi Sivén, the bailiff of Repola, had been conducting a campaign in the summer of 1921 in order to rouse the East Karelians to fight against the Bolshevik belligerents of the ongoing Russian Civil War. East Karelian paramilitary units called themselves Karjalan metsäsissit (English: Forest Guerrillas), and by autumn of 1921 a notable part of White Karelia was under their control.[6]

Following the signing of the treaty, irredentists of the Repola county devised a contingency plan with the silent approval of the Finnish ministry of foreign affairs, titled Karhunpesäsuunnitelma (Project Bear's Den). They acquired a shipment of 500 Japanese rifles and 100 000 cartridges from Elmo Kaila, one of the Jäger Movement leaders. They also had two Maxim machine guns and four Lewis Guns. Weapons shipments for Project Bear's Den were an open secret and overlooked by Finnish customs officials.

On 6 January 1921 an aide of the Finnish minister of foreign affairs Rudolf Holsti demanded an official account for the weapons. Eventually, the leader of the Repola irredentists, Bobi Sivén, received a letter from the Finnish foreign ministry stating: "Due to extraordinary circumstances you must do your utmost to prevent the people of Repola and Porajärvi from arming themselves." On 12 January Sivén committed suicide with his service pistol. In several suicide letters he left behind, he expressed his resentment at Finland "betraying" the East Karelians, and his wish to rather die for East Karelians than return to Finland. He had answered earlier requests from Finnish government to return to Finland by stating he resigns from his bailiff office, and prefers to live as a civilian in Repola. Due to succeeding events Sivén was elevated to a status of a minor Finnic national hero and martyr akin to Eugen Schauman, whose method of suicide he also imitated either on purpose or coincidentally, shooting himself in the heart instead of head in addition to the similar nationalistic pathos letters. Gradually these early uprisings and Finnish government's interest in supporting them dwindled.[14]

The pivotal moment in the uprising was the council meeting of Karelian Forest Guerrillas in mid-October 1921. It voted in favor of secession from Soviet Russia. The key leadership was formed by military leaders Jalmari Takkinen, Finnish-born, aka. Ilmarinen, and Ossippa Borissainen. Particularly Vaseli Levonen aka. Ukki Väinämöinen, who had prominent Karelian features and general resemblance to the Finnish mythical character, was deemed suitable for his role as an ideological leader. Some 550 Finnish volunteers joined the uprising, acting mostly as officers and squad leaders. Most famous of them was Paavo Talvela and Erik Heinrichs of the Jäger Movement, who later served as high ranking staff officer in the Winter War and Continuation War.

The uprising is a peculiarity among heimosodat as this time the initiative was not taken by Finnish insurgents, but by East Karelian separatists, and Finnish government remaining officially passive. After the treaty of Tartu and Finnish government retreating from covert separatist support, the uprising was started by East Karelians, with Finnish volunteers joining afterwards.[15] The uprising began with the immediate summary execution of anyone who was or was suspected to be a Bolshevik. The uprising escalated into a military engagement in October–November 1921. The 2 500 Forest Guerrillas were initially fairly successful, despite their lack of proper equipment.[16]

The East Karelian rebels got some publicity in international media, but they had expected Finland to intervene with its defence forces. However, the Finnish government denied requests of arranging official enlistment, but it did not prevent private Finnish volunteer activists from crossing the border. Finland did agree to send humanitarian aid to the East Karelian rebels, taking the risk of provoking a war with the RSFSR.[17] Soviet historians, however, stipulated that the Finnish government did support the uprising in a military manner, and was intervening in an internal conflict.[18]

In Northern White Karelia the smaller Vienan Rykmentti (Viena Regiment) was formed. Combined, the East Karelian rebels numbered 2 500.[6]

On 6 November 1921 the Finnish and Karelian forces began a new incursion into East Karelia. According to Finnish historians, on that day Karelian guerrillas and Finnish volunteer forces attacked in Rukajärvi.[16] Russian historian Alexander Shirokorad claims this force was 5 000–6 000 strong, which is twice the total strength of East Karelians and Finnish volunteers combined according to Finnish records.[6][19]

The first Finnish volunteers reached Repola at the end of November 1921. The volunteers acted as private citizens and were not considered a government intervention by Finland, but the Russian view differed. This controversy caused considerable friction in diplomatic relations between Finland and RSFSR. Most of the volunteers joined the Repolan Pataljoona (Repola Battalion). Command of the Battalion in Olonets Karelia was first taken by Gustaf Svinhufvud and thereafter by Talvela, at the middle of December 1921.[20]

By the end of December 1921, the Finnish volunteers and Karelian Forest Guerrillas had advanced to the Kiestinki Suomussalmi – Rukajärvi – Paatene – Porajärvi lines. Meanwhile, the ca. 20 000 troops of the Red Army led by Alexander Sedyakin[21] have reached Karelia and mounted a counterattack. The Red Army also had Red Finns within its ranks. These Finns had emigrated to Soviet Russia after their defeat in the Finnish Civil War. One such unit was a ski battalion of 200 Red military school cadets under the command of Toivo Antikainen.[22]

Finnish support of the uprising with volunteers and humanitarian aid caused a notable regression on Finnish-Russian diplomatic relations. Leon Trotsky, the commander of the Red Army, announced that he was ready to march towards Helsinki and Soviet Russian troops would strike the East Karelian rebels with an army of 20,000 via the Murmansk railway.[23]

At the onset of winter, the resistance of Forest Guerrillas collapsed under superior numbers of the Red Army, famine, and freezing cold. The rebels panicked, and their troops started to retreat towards the Finnish border. According to Shirokorad, the troops of the Red Army had crushed the main group of the Finnish and Karelian troops by the beginning of January 1922 and had retaken Porosozero and Reboly. On 25 January the northern group of the Soviet troops had occupied Kestenga and Kokkosalmi, and by the beginning of February occupied the settlement Ukhta.[24]

During the final stages of the uprising, the Red "Pork mutiny" occurred in Finland, sparking a hope among the rebels and Finnish volunteers that this would cause the Finnish government to intervene and provide military aid to the insurgents. This did not happen; on the contrary, the minister of interior, Heikki Ritavuori, tightened border control, closed the border preventing food and munitions shipments, and prohibited volunteers to cross over to join the uprising. The assassination of Ritavuori on February 12, 1922, by a Finnish nationalist activist did not change the situation.

The last unit of the uprising, remnants of Viena Regiment, fled Tiirovaara on 16 February 1922, at 10:45 am and reached the border at 1 pm.[25]

On 1 June 1922, in Helsinki, Finland and Soviet Russia signed an Agreement between RSFSR and Finland about the measures providing the inviolability of the Soviet–Finnish border.[26] Both parties agreed to reduce the number of border guards and to keep those who do not reside permanently in the border zone from freely crossing the border from either side to the other.[27] Towards the end of the uprising some 30 000 East Karelian refugees evacuated to Finland.[28]

The Karelian Worker's Commune was renamed into the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1923, and its autonomy was further expanded.[29] However the cultural autonomy practically ended in 1933 - 1935 when the émigré Finnish leaders Edvard Gylling and Kustaa Rovio were purged and teaching of Finnish language was prohibited. Gylling had promoted the adoption of Finnish rather than Karelian within the KASSR as he and the other émigré Finns who dominated the leadership of Karelia before 1935 did not consider Karelian to be anything more than a rustic dialect of Finnish. It may also be argued they held the same view of the essential unity of the Karelians and Finns as one Finnic people as their nationalist counterparts, and also wished that they be unified (albeit in rather different political circumstances).

• Niinistö, Jussi. Heimosotien historia. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2005, ISBN 951-746-687-0
• Shirokorad. Alexander. Finland – Russia. Three unknown wars (Финляндия - Россия. Три неизвестные войны), 2006, ISBN 5-9533-1084-6 (in Russian)

• Leon Trotsky. Order No 141 of the Revolutionary Military Counsel of the Republic to the Red Army and Red Navy in connection with the expelling of the White-Finnish occupants from the territory of Soviet Karelia, issued on 11 February 1922.