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The Finnish Civil War, 27 January to 15 May 1918, concerned leadership and control of Finland during its transition from a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire to an independent state. The conflict formed a part of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by World War I (Eastern Front) in Europe. The war was fought between the "Reds", led by the Social Democratic Party and the "Whites", led by the non-socialist, conservative-led Senate. The paramilitary Red Guards, composed of industrial and agrarian workers, controlled the towns and industrial centres of southern Finland. The paramilitary White Guards, composed of peasants and middle- and upper-class factions, controlled rural central and northern Finland.〔, , , 〕 The Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian Empire, was gradually developing into the realm's Finnish state. By 1917 Finnish society had experienced rapid population growth, industrialisation and the rise of a comprehensive labour movement. The country's political system was in an unstable phase of democratisation and modernization, while the people's socioeconomic condition and national-cultural status gradually improved. WWI broke up the Russian Empire and its Grand Duchy, and led to power struggles between the left-leaning labor movement and the more conservative non-socialists, in the absence of neutral and regular police and military forces. Finland's declaration of independence on 6 December 1917 failed to unify the nation. The Reds carried out an unsuccessful general offensive in February 1918, supplied with weapons by Soviet Russia. A counteroffensive by the Whites began in March, reinforced by an Imperial German Army squad in April. The decisive military actions of the war were the battles of Tampere and Viipuri, won by the Whites, and the battles of Helsinki and Lahti, won by German troops, leading to overall victory by the Whites and the German forces. Both the Reds and Whites engaged in political terror. A large number of Reds perished due to malnutrition and disease in prison camps. Altogether around 39,000 people died in the war, including 36,000 Finns—out of a population of 3,000,000. In the aftermath, the Finns passed from Russian rule to the German Empire's sphere of power. The conservative Finnish Senate attempted to establish a Finnish monarchy, but the plan was aborted by the defeat of Germany in WWI. Finland emerged as an independent, democratic republic. The war divided the nation for many years and remains the most emotionally charged event in Finnish history. The society was reunited through social compromises based on long-term culture of moderate politics and religion, the outcome of World War I and the postwar economic recovery.〔The 1918 War has been called by a number of names: the Civil War (domestic war), the Freedom War, the Brethren War, the Revolution, the Class War, the Red Rebellion, the Citizens'/Civil War, 〕 ==Background== The main factor behind the Finnish Civil War was World War I; the Russian Empire collapsed under pressures of the war, leading to the February and October Revolutions in 1917. The breakdown caused a large power vacuum and subsequent power struggle in Eastern Europe. The autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, as a part of the Russian Empire, became sucked into the vacuum and the struggle for power. The actual combat did not spread to geopolitically less marked Finland until early 1918, but the war between the German Empire and Russia had indirect impacts on the Finns. Since the end of 19th century, the Grand Duchy had become a vital source of raw materials, industrial products, food and labor for the growing Imperial Russian capital Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), and WWI emphasized the role. Strategically the Finnish territory was the northern section of Estonian-Finnish gateway and buffer zone to and from Petrograd, via the Gulf of Finland, the Narva area and the Karelian Isthmus.〔, , , , 〕 The German Empire saw Eastern Europe—mainly Russia—as a major source of vital products and raw materials for sustaining the capacity of the nation, both during World War I and in the future. Her resources overstretched by the two-front war, Germany pursued a policy of breaking up Russia from inside by providing financial support to revolutionary groups such as the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) and separatist factions such as the Finnish activists leaning toward Germanism. From 30–40 million marks were spent on Russia. Controlling the Finnish area would allow the Imperial German Army to enter Russia at Saint Petersburg and to penetrate northeast towards the Kola Peninsula, an area rich in raw materials for the mining industry. Finland itself had large ore reserves and a well-developed forest industry.〔, , , , , , , 〕 From 1809–98, a period called ''Pax Russica,'' Finnish-Russian relations had been exceptionally peaceful and stable compared with other parts of the Russian Empire. Russia's defeat in the Crimean war in the 1850s led to attempts to speed up the modernization of the country. This caused more than 50 years of positive economic, industrial, cultural and educational development in the Grand Duchy of Finland, including improvement in the status of the Finnish language. All this encouraged Finnish nationalism and cultural unity through the birth of the Fennoman movement, which bound the Finns to the domestic governmental system and led to the idea that the Finnish Grand Duchy was an increasingly autonomous state of the Russian Empire.〔, , , , , , , 〕 In 1899 the Russian Empire initiated a policy of integration through Russification of Finland, aiming at an increase of military and administrative control over the Grand Duchy. The military and strategic situation of Russia had become more difficult due of the rise of Germany and Japan, and Russian administration and the idea of Pan-Slavism had grown in St. Petersburg. The Central Power of the "Russian Multinational Dynastic Union" planned to unite the large, heterogeneous country. The Finns, settled in broad peripheral power and autonomy, called the integration policy "the First Period of Oppression, 1899–1905", and plans for disengagement from Russia or sovereignty for Finland were drawn up for the first time. The power struggle led to the rise of different Finnish political groups regarding Russia. The most radical one, the activist movement, included anarchistic groups from the working class and the Swedish-speaking intelligentsia and engaged in terrorist attacks. During WWI and the rise of Germanism, the Svecomans began their covert collaboration with Imperial Germany, and from 1915–17 a Finnish "Jäger" ''(Jääkärit)'' battalion consisting of 1,900 volunteers were trained in Germany.〔, , , , , , , , , , , , 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Finnish Civil War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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