Paavo Talvela

Paavo Juho Talvela (19 January 1897, Vantaa – 30 September 1973, Helsinki) was a Finnish soldier and a Knight of the Mannerheim Cross. He volunteered in the Jäger Movement in Germany from 1916 until 1917. He was then a battalion commander in the Finnish Civil War. Afterwards Talvela was promoted to the rank of major, and was at the time the youngest major in Finland. In accordance with his nationalistic views, Talvela temporarily resigned from the Finnish Army to act as a leading figurehead for the Kinship Wars of the 1920s. He served as the Commander in Chief of the 1919 Aunus expedition.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Paavo Talvela

In 1923, Talvela graduated from the Coastal Artillery School's Battery Commander Course in Llandudno, Wales. He graduated from the Finnish Academy for General Staff in the year of 1926. In 1929, Talvela once more resigned from the military, this time as a political gesture and in order to focus on his business career, whereupon he became deputy director of Suomi-Filmi from 1929 until 1932.[2][1][4][6]

Colonel Paavo Talvela during the Winter War

During the Winter War which lasted from November of 1939 until March 1940, Talvela commanded the corps-sized Group Talvela. His daring victory at the Battle of Tolvajärvi buoyed Finnish defenders on all fronts of the conflict. For this success he was promoted to Major General in December 1939, the first promotion to general's rank during the war. In February of 1940, a few weeks before the end of the war, Talvela took the command of the Finnish III Army Corps in the Karelian Isthmus. When the war initially ended on 13 March 1940, Talvela returned to civilian life. However, once the Finnish-German relations warmed during the Interim Peace, Talvela was granted near-absolute rights in setting up large foreign shipments and trade workings through Petsamo, which at the time was Finland's only port on the Arctic Ocean. At Mannerheim's request, he often traveled abroad, especially to Germany, seeking support for Finland.[1][2][5][6]

During the early stages of the Continuation War, Talvela commanded the Finnish IV Corps in Karelia, a campaign in which the IV Corp decisively defeated the Soviet 23rd Army at the Battle of Porlampi and thus became the first formation to reach their objectives, for which he was honoured with Finland's highest military honour, becoming the Second Knight of the Mannerheim Cross. In January 1942 Talvela was promoted to Lieutenant General until February 1944, when Talvela was the Finnish representative at the German High Command. Once back in Finland, Talvela commanded first the Finnish II Corps in Northern Karelia until June 1944, when he took over the command of the Aunus Group in Eastern Karelia. In July 1944 Talvela was sent back to Germany, where he remained until Finland made peace with the Soviet Union in early September 1944. When he was about to depart for Finland, Himmler reportedly asked Talvela to become the head of a pro-German faction in Finland. Talvela refused out of hand.[2][5][4][1][7]

After the war Talvela spent some years in South America as a representative of Finnish paper industry, until returning to Finland. He also held numerous senior business positions during his post-war life. On 6 December 1966 he was promoted to General of Infantry under retirement.[7][2][1]