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Finland MILITARY HERITAGE
Although Finland did not achieve full national
independence
until 1917, its military traditions went back more than
300
years. As a part of the dual kingdom of Sweden and
Finland,
Finland supplied the Swedish armies not only with drafted
foot
soldiers, but also with highly qualified officers from the
Swedish-speaking aristocracy
(see
The Era of Swedish Rule, 1150-1809
, ch. 1).
Contributing as much as one-third of
the
manpower of the Swedish armed forces, the Finnish infantry
and
cavalry distinguished themselves at a time when Sweden was
playing a decisive role in European power politics. The
setbacks
that Sweden eventually suffered in Europe were explained
by the
Finns, with considerable justification, as mistakes that
had been
made by the Swedish kings on the political level. The
performance
of the Finns on various battlefields had justified their
reputation for bravery and their confidence in their own
martial
abilities.
With the decline of Swedish power in the eighteenth
century,
the Finns were called upon to defend the country's borders
to the
east against the traditional enemy, Russia. On three major
occasions, Russian armies occupied parts of the country
for a
number of years before eventually being driven out by
Finnish and
Swedish forces. When Finland became the Grand Duchy of
Finland in
the Russian Empire in 1809, the Finnish units of the
Swedish army
were disbanded.
The first indigenous Finnish military elements of three
light
infantry regiments were raised at the time of Napoleon's
eastward
drive in 1812, but during most of the nineteenth century,
the
only Finnish military force was a guards battalion paid
for by
the tsar. Finns were specifically exempted from Russian
conscription, but more than 3,000 of them, mostly from the
aristocracy, served in the tsarist armies between 1809 and
1917
(see The Russian Grand Duchy of Finland, 1809-1917
, ch.
1).
The Finnish Military Academy at Hamina continued to
turn out
officers who served with distinction in the Imperial
Russian
Army, a disproportionate number rising to the rank of
general.
Among these graduates was Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, who
later
became the great hero of Finnish resistance and the
struggle for
independence.
In 1878 the tsar permitted Finland to raise its own
national
militia through a conscription law providing for selection
of
recruits by lot to serve either as regulars or reservists.
By the
beginning of the twentieth century, the Finnish army
consisted of
eight provincial battalions of infantry and a regiment of
dragoons, together with thirty-two reserve companies. In
1901, as
part of the Russification movement, the Russian
authorities
introduced a military service law obligating Finns to
serve in
the tsarist army, for four years, anywhere within the
Russian
Empire. Only one regiment of dragoons and one battalion of
guards
from the Finnish army were to be retained; the rest were
to be
incorporated in the imperial army. The new law was met by
passive
resistance in Finland, and it strengthened the Finnish
nationalist movement. In a shift of policy in 1905, the
conscription law was suspended, and Finns were never again
called
upon to serve in Russian uniform. Nevertheless, the
Russians
dissolved the militia, the military academy, and the
guards
battalion.
Soon after Finland gained independence in December
1917, a
nationalistic, middle-class militia known as the White
Guards,
which had been secretly established in 1904 and 1905 and
which
had remained underground since then disguised as athletic
clubs
and other groups, was officially proclaimed the army of
the
Finnish government under General Mannerheim. This
so-called White
Army was strengthened and trained by 1,100 officers and
noncommissioned officers (NCOs) who had traveled
clandestinely to
Germany during World War I and had formed the
Twenty-seventh
Royal Prussian Jaeger Battalion. Returning to Finland,
they
brought back with them urgently needed small arms captured
from
the Russians. The White forces were swelled by new
conscripts,
officers of the former Finnish armed forces, Swedish
volunteers,
and Finnish officers who had served in the Swedish and in
the
Russian armies, in addition to the jaegers. After three
months of
bitter civil conflict, the White Army of about 70,000
troops
defeated the Red Guards from the radical wing of the
Finnish
Social Democratic Party, in May 1918. Both sides suffered
thousands of casualties. In four months, the White Guards
had
evolved from a strongly motivated, but ill-trained,
militia into
a battle-hardened, disciplined national armed force.
Although
numerically superior and reinforced by the Russian
garrisons in
Finland, the Red Guards were deficient in equipment,
training,
and leadership
(see The Finnish Civil War
, ch. 1).
During and after the Civil War, conflict emerged
between the
younger jaeger officers of the Finnish army and the former
tsarist officers in its upper ranks. When most of the
Finnish
officer corps threatened to resign in 1924 over the
dominance of
the Russian-trained leadership, most of the Russian
officers were
moved aside and the jaeger officers began to occupy the
higher
echelons, bringing the influence of German military
doctrine and
training methods with them.
The new government reinstituted conscription after the
Civil
War and established a small national army. It also
introduced a
mobilization system and compulsory refresher courses for
reservists. The Finnish Military Academy was reactivated
in 1919,
and during the 1920s a reserve officers' school was
formed,
together with NCO schools for various branches and arms of
the
service. The Civil Guard, a voluntary rightist formation
of
100,000 personnel derived from the White Guards,
constituted a
local auxiliary. Nevertheless, Finland did not succeed in
building a strong national army. The requirement of one
year of
compulsory service was greater than that imposed by any
other
Scandinavian country in the 1920s and the 1930s, but
political
opposition to defense spending left the military badly
equipped
to resist attack by the Soviet Union, the only security
threat in
Finnish eyes.
When the Soviets invaded in November 1939, they were
met by a
force of 135,000 Finnish troops organized into 9
divisions. In a
matter of a few weeks, the Finnish army destroyed large
numbers
of invading Soviet soldiers. The initial Red Army
contingents
were poorly trained, and they were unprepared for combat
under
severe winter conditions. The Finnish army was able to
inflict
sharp defeats in battles on the Karelian Isthmus and in
northeastern Finland. Momentarily, it looked as if Finland
would
turn back the aggressor and would inflict an astonishing
military
defeat on its great and powerful neighbor. When the Soviet
commanders reverted to a strategy of wearing down the
greatly
outnumbered Finns in Karelia by their overwhelming
firepower,
however, Finland's defeat was inevitable. On March 12,
1940, an
armistice yielded slightly more territory to the Soviets
than
they had initially demanded in 1939. The Soviets regarded
this
territory as being vital to their preparations for a
future
showdown with Nazi Germany
(see
fig. 1).
In the Continuation War, fought by Finland as a
cobelligerent
with Germany from 1941 to 1944, Finnish forces again
demonstrated
their superior qualities. Thanks to the Germans, the army
was now
much better equipped, and the period of conscription had
been
increased to two years, making possible the formation of
sixteen
infantry divisions. The fully mobilized Finnish army of
400,000
was numerically superior to the opposing Soviet forces,
which had
been thinned to meet the need for troops to resist the
German
onslaught on the central front. The Finnish goal was not
conquest
but regaining territories traditionally Finnish. The Finns
refused German pressure to join in the siege of Leningrad,
but
they pushed 80 to 160 kilometers into Soviet territory
farther
north above Lake Ladoga before settling for static
defensive
operations. The Finnish army continued to occupy this
former
Finnish area until the major Soviet offensive of June
1944.
Confined in the losing Axis coalition, the Finns had to
retreat
for a second time, and they escaped total Soviet invasion
and
occupation only by entering into a separate agreement that
obligated them to military action against the retreating
German
armies
(see The Continuation War
, ch. 1).
The demobilization and regrouping of the Finnish
Defense
Forces were carried out in late 1944 under the supervision
of the
Allied Control Commission. Following the Treaty of Paris
in 1947,
which imposed restrictions on the size and equipment of
the armed
forces and required disbandment of the Civil Guard,
Finland
reorganized its defense forces. The fact that the
conditions of
the peace treaty did not include prohibitions on reserves
or
mobilization made it possible to contemplate an adequate
defense
establishment within the prescribed limits. The
reorganization
resulted in the abolition of about 15 percent of officer
and NCO
positions, the adoption of the brigade--in place of the
division-
-as the basic formation, and the reduction of the term of
service
for conscripts to 240 days (330 days for NCO and for
reserve
officer candidates). The organization of the high command
was
unchanged, but the minister of defense was given slightly
more
authority in decision making. The completion of this
reorganization in 1952 established the structure within
which the
modern Defense Forces were to evolve.
Data as of December 1988
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