Finnish Civil War | 3 Minute History

[haukka]

In 1918 approximately 80% of the 2000 Jägers were Finnish-speakers. Swedish-speaking students however dominated early on, forming 2/3 of approximately 200-men in the so-called early Pfadfinder stage in 1914/15, and these more experienced Pfadfinders would later be promoted to officers in the enlarged, majority Finnish-speaking, Jäger Batallion. So the upper-brass was dominated by Swedish-speakers throughout, with officers like Erik Jernström, Runar Appelberg etc, but also Finnish-speaking Pfadfinder officers like Aarne Sihvo, perhaps the most famed Jäger as the commander of the Karelian front in 1918 and liberator of Viipuri, who by the way hated the Swedish-speakers.

[Monaatti]

Most soldiers even in the White/antisocialist side were Finnish speaking. It wasn't a Finns vs Swedes war in any sense.

[jimbo]

The way you pronounce Tampere is hilarious! XD

[ReasonAboveEverything]

Greater Finland= Areas where finnish people actually lived.

[tatska]

If anoyne is going to visit Finland you can say "haista vittu" it means "have a good day"

[DarkFantasyEpic]

I would like to point out that there were a considerable amount of Fennomans amongst the Swedish-speaking minority. Many Swedish-speaking Finns embraced, during a time of national romanticism, the idea of a Finnish cultural uprising and the creation of an independent Finnish nation-state. It was not uncommon for Swedish-speakers to renounce their Swedish roots and change their names to sound more Finnish, it is, for example, estimated that approximately 70 000 Swedish-speaking Finns changed their names between 1906-1907, a considerable amount considering that the Swedish-speaking minority numbers less that 300 000 in modern times. There definitely was a language strife but it didn't really heat up until the 1920's and 1930's, when relations between Swedish-speakers and Finnish-speakers cooled off significantly and the status of the Swedish language in Finland was brought into question. What I'm trying to say is that there was quite a bit of enthusiasm for the Finnish cause amongst the Swedish-speaking populace in the time frame that is touched upon in this video, many of the volunteers for the jäger movement were Swedish-speaking.

[Rosak]

"Many Reds were executed" is a bit of an understatement... :D

[mattchociej]

Love these videos! They provide good, condensed context for important events. Love the ambient music, also!

[MegaFinny]

I find these modern finnish wars really interesting, this was a good video

[TheLemminkainen]

not only swedish speaking volunteers there was finns too

[dieterhofner]

Good video Jabzy can you do a video about Ugrian nationalism and the Karelian uprising.

[MrHrKaidoOjamaaVKJV]

Outstanding History.
Please keep up making videos.

It would be nice to see 3 minuet History lessons on the Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish Wars of Independence.

As well as the Winter War, Continuation War, And Lappland War.

[kitrichardson]

I never knew Finland even had a Civil War, so this was enlightening. Thank you.

[christopherj.clement]

Thanks for posting this! Almost e-mailed a request for this earlier this week. Awesome!

[mscateye]

THANK U, it's hard to find videos about this

[ilmarimaattanen]

The author didn't mention at all the huge socioeconomic problems faced by the poor tenant-farmers and other poor people.

[Vol]

Thank you for a nice video. It is not easy to make objective videos about Finnish history because it is so senistive matter for finns. So it is definitely nice to have someone outside of Finland to talk about these things.

[tapanilofving]

Sweden tried to steal Åland islands from Finland during that time. They already sent troops there but fled when they feared a German invasion as well. After that they also tried to steal it by lying in the predecessor of UN, but the jury decided that geographically it belongs to Finland.

[heitoroliveira]

I actualy have a finish friend and on his town there is monument for the red guards who where massacred and sent to death camps by the anti-coms.

[videoclips]

The myth of the Swedish speakers came from the fact that Mannerheim spoke only Swedish and had to be discussed with in Swedish or Russian. Later on he learned Finnish.

One important thing of this is that the civil war began inside Russia, not independent Finland. Grand duchy of Finland was just an autonomous imperial protectorate, the war would have not began at all if Finland was independent from Russian empire.
Also small things such as the border disputes in Karelia, Viena, Kola and Swedish Lapland after the independence was declared.