Name: Karl Gustav Mannerheim
Age: 83 years old
Place of Birth: Askainen, Finland
A place of death: Lausanne, Finland
Activity: Finnish military officer and statesman
Family status: was married
Carl Gustav Mannerheim biography
Before becoming a national hero, regent and president of Finland, the Swede Mannerheim managed to be a hero of Russia and its enemy.
Lately the name Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim associated with an ugly history in St. Petersburg, where a memorial plaque was unveiled in his honor. As a result of several acts of vandalism and protests from left-leaning citizens, it was removed. A man, a century and a half has passed since his birth, still worries Russian society.
Childhood, family of Karl Manerheim
Carl Gustav was born on June 4, 1867 into a family of Swedish aristocrats. After the Nicholas Cavalry School in St. Petersburg, he served in the elite Cavalry Regiment and took part in the coronation of Nicholas II. Historian Leonid Vlasov wrote: “The emperor had to go from temple to temple and pray. And since it is forbidden to enter the church with weapons, Nikolai, before each new church, unfastened his saber and gave it to his assistant. And at one of these moments, an ominous and symbolic incident happened.
While taking off his weapon, the king touched the chain of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, and it broke. But Mannerheim managed to catch the falling order, so no one noticed anything. An order flying off during the coronation is a bad omen for the future king. Mannerheim kept the secret all his life.” In general, the Russian emperor played a huge role in the life of Carl Gustav. The silver medal from the coronation was his talisman, and on his desk there was always a portrait of the sovereign with an autograph.
Carl Gustav Mannerheim biography of personal life
Mannerheim quite early married the unattractive general's daughter, Baroness Anastasia Nikolaevna Arapova. And soon he found a hobby on the side - the beautiful Countess Elizaveta Shuvalova. He was always a heartthrob - tall, slender, strong, with aristocratic manners. The wife knew about her husband’s affair, and family relations were strained.
The desperate woman went with the medical unit to the Chinese campaign of the Russian army to be close to her husband. This forced Carl Gustav to be an exemplary family man for some time. Alas, it didn’t last long - after the death of Mannerheim’s son in infancy, the marriage actually broke up. Karl Gustav also lost interest in Shuvalova, trailing first one and then another beautiful, noble and, most importantly, influential person...
He also used his wife’s dowry wisely: he began breeding thoroughbred horses. It was extremely prestigious - even members of the reigning houses were fond of horse breeding. So the ambitious officer began to acquire connections that would be useful to him in the future.
Military biography of Mannerheim
Carl Gustav gained his first combat experience during the Russo-Japanese War - his dragoons carried out daring raids behind enemy lines. Then he went on a scientific - actually reconnaissance - expedition to China.
First world war Mannerheim graduated with the rank of major general. For escaping from encirclement he was awarded the Arms of St. George. However, his service at the front was interrupted by an old injury - a knee damaged by a horse's hoof. The general returned to Petrograd, where he met the February Revolution.
The relationship between Mannerheim and the Provisional Government is a complicated issue. A negative attitude towards the new government is obvious from his letters. But we should not forget that he swore in military units to this government.
The October Revolution found Mannerheim in Odessa. There is information that the general was still there trying to organize resistance to the Bolsheviks. But, encountering the passivity of the other commanders, he left for Finland, which, with the stroke of Lenin’s pen, turned from a Grand Duchy within the empire into an independent state.
The general hastily began to form a national army. At the same time, the Red Finns staged a coup in Helsinki. Although the civil war turned out to be more than short-lived: having begun on January 28, it ended on May 15 with the unconditional victory of Mannerheim. But bloody excesses occurred in this war as well. Thus, in Vyborg, Finnish troops carried out terror against the communists, which resulted in an anti-Russian pogrom.
Regent Mannerheim
Kolchak’s proud phrase went down in history: “I don’t trade with Russia!” It was pronounced in response to Mannerheim’s proposal to attack Bolshevik Petrograd on obviously impossible conditions: the deployment of a Finnish corps in the former Russian capital, demilitarization Baltic Sea, annexation of some regions of Russia to Finland. Negotiations between the Finns and General Yudenich, who was advancing on Petrograd, also ended in nothing. The only help the Finnish commander-in-chief gave to the Whites were sympathetic notes in his papers. This is understandable: the Finns were afraid that if the Bolsheviks were defeated, their country would lose independence.
Meanwhile, German influence on Finland increased. Mannerheim, who had long established contacts with England, had to leave his high posts and leave for London. However, the “exile” did not last long: the pro-German government lost power after the end of the First World War. Mannerheim became regent - the title of the Finnish ruler according to the constitution of the 18th century. But soon the country finally became a republic. Mannerheim put forward his candidacy for the presidency, but was defeated in the elections.
He retired from government activities for a while: he headed the Helsinki Joint Stock Bank, founded the Children's Protection Society, and headed the Finnish branch of the Red Cross. The Swedish aristocrat von Rusen, knowing Mannerheim's interest in Tibet, gave Carl Gustav the first Finnish military aircraft with a swastika on the wings - an ancient sign accepted in Tibetan mysticism. This machine became the basis of the Finnish Air Force, and the swastika is still their symbol.
In 1931, Mannerheim headed the National Defense Committee, and soon became the first Finnish field marshal. He prepared the country for the Soviet invasion. The line of fortifications on the Soviet-Finnish border was modernized. It will go down in history as the Mannerheim Line - a powerful line that stopped the Red Army.
The “Winter War” of 1939, which ended with the loss of territories for Finland, pushed Mannerheim to an alliance with Nazi Germany. This fact is the main argument of opponents of perpetuating his memory in Russia. Yes, Mannerheim’s troops played a role in the siege of Leningrad, and about 4 thousand ethnic Russians died of starvation in Finnish concentration camps.
At the same time, the field marshal did not allow long-range artillery to be placed on the Karelian Isthmus and in every possible way prevented the Wehrmacht from passing through Finnish territory, and he himself did not launch an attack on Soviet positions near Leningrad and Murmansk. Thanks to this, the Karelian front was the most stable and had relatively small losses.
In 1944, Mannerheim finally became president, and Finland withdrew from the war that same year. After which it entered into a conflict with Germany, called the Lapland War. Mannerheim ruled until 1946, retired and died quietly in 1951 in Switzerland.
Mannerheim's place in Finnish history is obvious - national hero, who saved the country. But for Russia he remains an ambiguous character...
Mannerheim's two lines
Marshal Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim went from an officer in the Life Guards of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia to the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the Republic of Finland. In this capacity, he twice led the Finnish army in the war against the USSR during the Second World War, and after its end, already as head of state, he drew up the first draft of a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance between the two countries. Mannerheim held the high post of President of the Republic of Finland twice - in 1919 and in 1944. He was personally acquainted with crowned heads - Tsar Nicholas II, German Kaiser Wilhelm II, English King Edward VIII, and with political figures - British Prime Minister W. Churchill, Fuhrer of the Nazi Reich A. Hitler, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A.A. Zhdanov.
POOR BARON AT THE COURT OF NICHOLAS II
Karl Mannerheim
1905
Swedish Baron Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim was born on June 4 (June 16, new style) 1867 on the Louhisaari estate, in southwestern Finland, near Turku. The Mannerheims (originally the Marheims) were originally from Holland, but already in the 17th century. moved to Sweden and then partially to its province of Finland and in 1693 were ranked among the nobility.
The Mannerheim family gave many commanders, statesmen and scientists from Sweden and Finland. The great-grandfather of the future marshal, Karl Erik, headed the Finnish delegation that negotiated in St. Petersburg in 1807 on the terms of Finland’s transition from Sweden to Russia; His merit is that Finland received autonomy in the empire and had an estate parliament. It was he who bought the Louhisaari estate with a three-story residential building. Now it is an architectural monument, after restoration in 1961 - 1967. The Karl Huss Museum of Emil Mannerheim is located there. The father of the future marshal - Baron Karl Robert Mannerheim changed family traditions and became an entrepreneur. He married Helene von Julin, the daughter of an industrialist who bought himself a noble title. Carl Gustav Emil was the third of seven children. Native language There was Swedish in the family, but the French upbringing of the mother and the Anglophilia of the father provided the children with a diverse education, hence the perfect command of three languages - Swedish, French and English. Later he learned Russian, Finnish and German.
But the impulsive Karl Robert Mannerheim went bankrupt in 1879, left his family and went to Paris. The property had to be sold. To top off all the troubles, his mother died in January 1881. Relatives took care of the children.
Carl Gustav Emil was mostly left to his own devices and, together with his peers, amused himself by breaking windows with stones, for which he was expelled from school for a year. Relatives had to think about his special education, which would not require big money. The choice fell on the military school in Hamina, founded by Nicholas I, although there was a special inclination for military service the boy did not experience it. Nevertheless, Carl Gustav Emil studied with enthusiasm, but because of his wayward character, the school management did not like him. The young baron's unauthorized night departure to the city literally on the eve of graduation exceeded the patience of his superiors, and the unlucky cadet was expelled from the school. The vain and self-confident young man, parting with his classmates, promised that he would complete his education at the privileged Nicholas Cavalry School and become a guards officer.
And he kept his word: he entered the school in 1887, spending a year improving his Russian language with relatives who lived near Kharkov, studying at the University of Helsingfors and searching for patrons in St. Petersburg. Although Mannerheim graduated from the Nikolaev Cavalry School in 1889 among the best, he was not immediately able to get into the guards regiment, which meant serving at court and receiving a large salary, which was important for the poor baron. First, I had to pull the army burden for two years in Poland in the 15th Alexandria Dragoon Regiment.
Excellent service, connections and patrons helped Mannerheim return to St. Petersburg in 1891 and join the Life Guards regiment, whose chief was Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. The officers of this regiment served in the empress's chambers. The Finnish baron plunged headlong into social life: new acquaintances among politicians, diplomats, and military personnel. However, in order to maintain connections in high society, we needed a lot of money. Mannerheim got into debt. A brilliant guards officer, he could count on a profitable marriage. Having married Anastasia Aleksandrovna Arapova, a rich but ugly and capricious daughter of a Russian general, in 1892, Carl Gustav Emil improved his financial situation: he not only paid his debts, but also bought the Apprinen estate in Latvia. A year later, the newlyweds had a daughter, who was named Anastasia in honor of her mother (died in 1978), and in 1895 - Sofia (died in 1963).
The marriage of convenience was not a happy one, and the birth of a stillborn son further complicated the relationship between the spouses. Anastasia Alexandrovna went to Khabarovsk as a nurse in 1901, leaving the children with their father. When she returned a year later, family life Mannerheim did not go well. The couple decided to separate. Anastasia Alexandrovna, taking her daughters with her, went abroad. After much wandering, she and her youngest daughter finally settled in Paris, and the eldest moved to England. The Mannerheims' official divorce took place only in 1919, when the press became interested in the personal life of the candidate for the presidency of Finland.
Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, thanks to his tall stature and elegant manner in the saddle, participated in many palace ceremonies. In the photograph of the coronation of Nicholas II in 1896 in Moscow, he is depicted on horseback at the head of the solemn procession [Lieutenant Baron Carl Gustav Mannerheim was the junior assistant of Nicholas II].
A passion for horses - the baron successfully competed in horse racing several times - helped Mannerheim the following year become a high official in the management of the royal stables and receive a colonel's salary: he selected thoroughbred horses for purchase. Frequent business trips abroad and new acquaintances broadened the horizons of the 30-year-old cavalryman; he began to show interest in political affairs. Even the German Kaiser Wilhelm II was introduced to him because of the incident with the horse. During another trip to Berlin, when Mannerheim personally checked the horses selected for the royal stable, one of them severely injured his knee. He was forced to undergo treatment in hospital for two months. Wilhelm II, a great connoisseur and connoisseur of thoroughbred horses, became interested in the incident and received him in his palace before Mannerheim left for Russia.
In 1903, moving up the career ladder, Mannerheim became commander of an exemplary squadron at the cavalry officer school. He received this honorary position on the recommendation of General A.A. Brusilov and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich.
GENERAL'S EPAILS
When the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 - 1905 broke out, Mannerheim volunteered to go to the front. He wanted to bolster his future career with experience as a combat officer. His brothers and sisters, as well as his father, who had returned to Finland by that time, did not approve of his intentions. If young Mannerheim’s enlistment in the Russian army did not raise any particular objections among his relatives and acquaintances—many Scandinavian nobles had previously served the Tsar—then the voluntary desire to fight for Tsarist Russia should be regarded as complete solidarity with the policy of autocracy in Finland. Karl Gustav Emil understood and to some extent shared the arguments of his relatives, but did not change his decision: he was ashamed to lead a boring social life when fellow officers shed blood in the war.
So the St. Petersburg Life Guards captain became a lieutenant colonel of the 52nd Nezhin Dragoon Regiment. He received two squadrons under his command and showed himself to be a brave and competent officer. At the beginning of 1905, Mannerheim conducted reconnaissance operations in the vicinity of Mukden, which gave the high command valuable information about the plans of the Japanese, and their executor - the rank of colonel. At the end of the war, he carried out similar operations in Mongolia.
Mannerheim's intelligence abilities were noticed in St. Petersburg. In 1906, the General Staff offered him a secret task: to find out the military-political situation in Chinese territory adjacent to the borders of Russia. Mannerheim, as a subject of the Grand Duchy of Finland, was better suited for such a purpose than anyone else. To disguise himself, he had to engage in ethnographic and other scientific research. In addition, the Finnish explorer, traveling under the patronage of the tsarist government, was included in the expedition of the French sinologist, Sorbonne professor P. Pallio. In preparation for his mission, Mannerheim became acquainted with the results of other European explorers' travels to China. The scientific side of the expedition, the opportunity to visit places that Europeans had never visited before, were so captivating that neither the duration of the trip - about two years, nor the fact that he would have to celebrate his 40th birthday in unknown lands prevented him from accepting the offer.
On August 11, 1906, Mannerheim, accompanied by 40 Cossack volunteers and guides, crossed the Russian-Chinese border in the Osha region and soon separated from the French expedition. Colonel Mannerheim, according to the instructions of the General Staff, had to clarify to what extent one could count on the support of the local population in the event of an invasion of Russian troops into Inner Mongolia. He undertook a trip to the borders of India, explored the situation in the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Shanxi, neighboring Inner Mongolia, and paid a visit to the Tibetan Dalai Lama, who lived and was exiled on the southern border of the Gobi Desert, in whom the tsarist government saw its ally in a possible future clash with China. At the same time, Mannerheim conducted anthropological, ethnographic, linguistic and other research, diligently kept a diary, sent letters to his family and friends, in which he talked about all sorts of adventures in an exotic country. Two years later, having visited Japan on his way back, he returned through Beijing and Harbin to St. Petersburg. Upon his return, the colonel wrote a secret report for the General Staff and published an ethnographic article in scientific journal, spent a long time editing his diary and letters. They were published only in 1940 and translated into many languages.
Mannerheim considered these two years the most interesting in his life and loved to talk about his adventures in China. In his "Memoirs" the chapter "On horseback through Asia" is one of the longest and most vividly written. Nicholas II was also interested in his adventures. In October 1908, Mannerheim's audience with the Tsar lasted 80 minutes instead of the planned 20 and would have lasted longer if the Baron, as he writes, had not looked at his watch.
During the audience, Mannerheim asked the Tsar to give him a regiment under his command. In 1909 he received it. The 13th Vladimir Uhlan Regiment was located in the small town of Novominsk (now Minsk-Grodzinsk), 44 km east of Warsaw. Taking into account the experience of the Russian-Japanese War, Mannerheim forced the dashing lancers in training to give preference not to the saber, but to the rifle, and to act not only on horseback, but also on foot. The colonel managed to break the discontent of the cavalry officers and prove to his superiors the feasibility of the innovations. In 1912, he was appointed commander of His Majesty's Zlitary Life Guards Uhlan Regiment, stationed in Warsaw. Thanks to the new appointment, Mannerheim received another title major general and free access to the king, since this position made him a courtier. Immediately before the First World War, a new promotion followed: Major General Mannerheim was appointed commander of His Majesty's Special Life Guards Warsaw Cavalry Brigade, which, in addition to his regiment, also included the Grodno Hussar Regiment and an artillery battery.
Almost six years before the outbreak of the First World War, Mannerheim, without breaking close relations with Finland, served in Poland. He found it easily mutual language with the Polish aristocracy, which was not distinguished by Russophilia. The general was fond of horse riding and became a member of elite hunting, sports and jockey clubs.
Before the outbreak of the First World War, Mannerheim's brigade was transferred to southern Poland to the Lublin region. Already on August 15-17, 1914, she fought bloody battles in the vicinity of Opole with the main forces of the advancing Austro-Hungarian troops. Mannerheim used active defense tactics, which were later characteristic of him and brought success: he sent a third of his troops behind enemy lines and thereby forcing him to stop the offensive and go on the defensive. This was one of the few successful operations of the Russian army at the beginning of the war. Mannerheim received a military award - the Order of St. George on the hilt of the saber. His brigade was subsequently forced to retreat, but managed to maintain order and avoid heavy losses.
In March 1915, the army commander, General Brusilov, Mannerheim's former chief from St. Petersburg times, transferred the 12th Cavalry Division to his subordination. In 1915 - 1916 he, as the commander of a division - and in fact a corps, since, as a rule, other units of up to 40 thousand people were subordinate to him - participated with varying success in many operations. Troops under the command of Mannerheim in 1916 liberated Romania from the invading Austro-Hungarian troops.
For the successful operation, Mannerheim received leave at the beginning of 1917 and spent it in Finland. Returning to his division through Petrograd during the days of the February Revolution, the baron almost became a victim of the crowd. The general had to change into civilian dress, escape through the back door of the European Hotel and then hide from patrols until he managed to leave Petrograd and return to serve in Romania. There, his actual position as corps commander was formalized legally: he received the rank of lieutenant general. His corps took part in the failed summer offensive. One of the reasons for the defeat was the continued demoralization of the Russian army due to the strengthening of the power of the soldiers' councils, and the Bolsheviks played an increasingly important role. When the army commissioner, contrary to the agreement, refused to sanction severe punishment of the soldiers who arrested the officer for a pro-monarchy statement, Mannerheim realized that it was pointless to continue commanding the corps. At this time he just received a minor leg injury. Taking this opportunity, he went to Odessa for treatment. After unsuccessful attempts to encourage the officers in the city to do at least something against the disintegration of the army, the general actually withdrew from command of the troops.
On September 9, 1917, Mannerheim was officially relieved of his duties as corps commander and enlisted in the reserve.
After the Bolsheviks seized power, Mannerheim decided to return to his homeland. On December 6, 1917, Finland was proclaimed an independent state, which was recognized by the head of the Soviet government V.I. Lenin on December 31. But it was difficult to return there in mid-December 1917 even with a Finnish passport - the Bolsheviks who came to power demanded that they take permission to enter Smolny, but the general had no desire to go there. Mannerheim still managed to secretly arrive in Finland on December 8th. He still hoped to save tsarism in Russia with the help of the army. Therefore, a week later the general returned to Petrograd, but after making sure that there were few supporters of the overthrow of Soviet power with the help of the army, at the end of December 1917 he finally left Russia, in whose army he served for 30 years.
In the summer of 1917, Mannerheim turned 50 years old. The most difficult days and important tasks were ahead. In his book “Memoirs,” Mannerheim wrote that a fortune teller in Odessa in 1917 almost accurately predicted his further ups and downs.
In "Memoirs" he outlined the reasons why, in his opinion, the Russian army was defeated in the Japanese and First World Wars. Having noted many objective reasons - primarily the backwardness of industry, especially defense - Mannerheim also put forward subjective ones. In his opinion, in 1915, Nicholas II made a big mistake when he removed Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, a skilled military leader who had great authority in the army, from the post of commander-in-chief, and took this place himself. The king was a mediocre person with a mild character and did not have military leadership abilities. Mannerheim met with him several times and drew conclusions based on his own observations. In addition, Nicholas II thus alienated himself from the people, from the political leadership, and the people began to associate the failures of the army with the tsar and his regime.
Mannerheim also characterized - partly on the basis of personal observations - some prominent generals of the Tsarist army. He highly praised generals A.A. Brusilov and A.G. Kornilov, as well as Minister of War General V.A. Sukhomlinov, and regarding generals A.M. Krylov and A.I. Denikin, with whom he dealt, spoke very critically. For example, when Mannerheim in 1916, based on intelligence data, reported to his neighbor at the front, divisional commander Denikin, that the Germans were sending reserves into battle, he did not heed this warning and the consequences were disastrous. Mannerheim wrote: “Russians arrogantly underestimate those facts that for one reason or another do not fit into their plans.”.
In 1916, Mannerheim fought together with Krylov on the Romanian front. A number of Russian and Romanian units were subordinated to Mannerheim. Krylov, who occupied the left flank, retreated without permission, putting Mannerheim in a difficult position. As it later turned out, he justified his actions by a lack of trust in the Romanian army. Mannerheim was also indignant that General A.F. Ragosa, in the presence of a Romanian liaison officer, made insulting remarks about Romanians as soldiers. Mannerheim objected to him, citing the bravery of the brigade of the Romanian Colonel Sturdza. When he subsequently learned that Sturdza and his brigade had gone over to the Austrians, he was not surprised, since he himself had little expectation of the loyalty of the Romanians, but believed that you should not insult your allies even if you have a low opinion of them.
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE FINNISH ARMY
The young Finnish state was busy forming its structures, it was necessary to think about its defense - this is how the defense committee arose. Arriving in Helsinki, the baron became its member. The committee consisted mainly of Finnish officers and generals like Mannerheim, who served in the tsarist army and found themselves unemployed after its collapse; There were also those who returned from German captivity.
In Finland, a self-defense corps began to form - shutskor - an armed organization of wealthy people, including officers who received military training during the First World War military training in the 20th Jaeger Battalion in Germany. The Self-Defense Corps was loosely connected to the committee, which had very vague functions. It was more like a circle of intellectuals who were arguing randomly about what should be done and did not make any decisions.
But the internal political situation became increasingly tense. In counterbalance to the Shutskor, the Red Guard began to form, clashes began between them, and terrorist actions were undertaken. The Red Guard received weapons and support from units of the Russian army located in Finland and heavily Bolshevised. The Red Guard was supported by the industrialized southern part of Finland. They were opposed by the peasant South Northern fief (province).
On January 14, 1918, at the end of the third meeting of the Defense Committee, which was held in the style of a salon conversation, Mannerheim announced that he was depressed by the inactivity of the committee and was leaving it. In response to a reasonable question about his proposals in the current situation, Mannerheim put forward the idea of leaving Helsinki to the north that same night and creating the headquarters of the future army there. This plan received the approval of Prime Minister P.E. Svinhuvud.
The next day, Mannerheim became chairman of the committee, which meant that Mannerheim would become commander-in-chief of an army that did not yet exist.
On the night of January 19, 1918, the baron went to the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia to the city of Vaasa with a false passport in the name of the merchant Malmberg. The Red Guards checking the train found the military bearing and excellent Russian language of a man dressed in civilian clothes suspicious, and they wanted to arrest him. But the Finnish railway employee, whom Mannerheim addressed in a popped way, convinced the soldiers that the “merchant”’s documents were in order, and the baron was released.
Many officers, in particular members of the defense committee, left for Vaaza. A connection was quickly established with the local military commander, and the backbone of the army began to take shape, the possibility of creating which in a country where there was no military duty, Svinhufvud doubted. Mannerheim and his associates saw the main danger to independence and order in Finland in the Bolshevik units of the former tsarist army and set a goal to disarm them. By order of Mannerheim, the action was to take place on the night of January 23, but on advice from Helsinki, the date was moved to the night of January 28. The next most senior officer at Mannerheim's headquarters, Major General Ernst Lefström, was against this action: it was futile to fight against military units that were superior in number and armament to the Finnish army in the north. On January 27, Svinhufvud sent a telegram demanding that the performance be postponed once again. Mannerheim, without telling anyone about the telegram, began to act according to the plan. The operation was a success, although there were clashes, which delayed its implementation for several days. Over the course of four days, approximately 5 thousand military personnel of the former tsarist army were interned in Northern Finland, and a large amount of military equipment was captured, including 37 guns.
On the same night that Mannerheim began his action in the north, the Red Guards in the south of the country overthrew the government. A red government was formed - the Council of People's Representatives, which included left-wing Social Democrats led by K. Manner. As a result, 4/5 of Finland remained under the rule of the previous government (most of its members managed, some through Berlin, to get to Vaasa), and the densely populated areas with the most major cities Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Viinuri were controlled by the Red Guards. Both sides were preparing for decisive battles. There were local battles.
Mannerheim took care to create a combat-ready army from the Shutskor detachments. He regrouped his forces, reorganized the headquarters, moving it from Vaaza somewhat east to Seinaiski, and replenished the officer and non-commissioned officer corps. The troops were constantly conducting exercises, work was underway to organize communications and rear services, general mobilization was announced - a rather risky step, because the poorer layers in the north also sympathized with the Reds.
There were no problems with the volunteers who came from Sweden. The situation was more complicated with the Jaeger battalion that returned from Germany to its homeland. Mannerheim wanted to disband it, use its fighters as junior and middle command personnel in various military units and divisions. But the rangers wanted to fight together and refused to obey the Finnish, mainly, like Mannerheim, Swedish-speaking generals who had previously served in the tsarist army. Mannerheim had to use all his authority, tact and persuasion to basically carry out his course in army formation, although with some elements of compromise.
Mannerheim assigned the outstanding artist A. Gallen-Kallela, who volunteered to join the government army, to the headquarters, instructing him to develop sketches of Finnish orders. The friendly relationship between them lasted until the end of the life of the artist, who died in 1931.
In March 1918, the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty was concluded between Germany and Russia, which contained a clause on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Finland. At the beginning of March, Mannerheim was against the Finnish government asking Germany for military assistance. However, such a request came true.
The request was submitted in December 1917. Finnish historians have not yet come to a consensus on whether Mannerheim’s statement that during his first meeting with Svinhufvud he insisted that Svinhufvud not ask Germany and Sweden for help on a regular basis is true. troops, but Svinhufvud deceived him regarding Germany.
The pro-Entente commander decided to occupy the industrial center - the city of Tampere (Tammerfors) with his own forces - before the Germans arrived. Using his extensive military knowledge and experience, he carried out the offensive that began on March 15, according to all the rules of military art. combat operation. The battles were bloody. The Red Guards put up stubborn resistance, sometimes launching a counter-offensive, but they were inferior to Mannerheim’s army both strategically and tactically. Tampere fell, although three days after the German landing under the command of General R. von der Goltz in Hanko. But the White Finnish command managed to transfer the main contingent of its troops to the southeast to the Lahti-Viinuri (Vyborg) region, to the Karelian Isthmus and by the end of April, having defeated the Red Guard detachments, reach the border with Russia. A certain contribution to the success of this operation was provided by the landing of German formations in the Loviisa area, which until then had occupied the western and middle part of the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland with the cities of Turku and Helsinki without a fight.
The press advertised the joint actions of the armies of Mannerheim and von der Goltz, calling them “brothers in arms.” But it wasn't that simple. On the one hand, the Germans were not happy that, by agreement, von der Goltz’s division was subordinated to Mannerheim. On the other hand, in Finland itself, many did not like either the brilliant career of the commander-in-chief in the Russian army, or his Swedish origin and sympathy for Sweden; some suspected Mannerheim of dictatorial habits.
To strengthen his influence and the prestige of the army, Mannerheim marched the army into the capital on May 16 - just a month after the Germans arrived. Cavalry General Mannerheim rode ahead of the troops on horseback - this rank was awarded to him by the government in February. The general responded to the greeting of the chairman of parliament in Finnish, which he was not yet fluent enough. and even gave “instructions” to the indecisive government. It would seem like a complete triumph. But already on May 30, 1918, Mannerheim resigned as commander-in-chief, and a day later he left Finland. What happened, why did the commander-in-chief submit his resignation twice, on May 20 and 27? Historians are almost unanimous that the main motive for Mannerheim’s behavior is set out in his memoirs: he could not come to terms with the government’s plans, in the wake of pro-Germanism, to reorganize the Finnish armed forces along the German model and thereby doom himself to the role of a “wedding general.” But in military circles Mannerheim was appreciated. And after him to Sweden, where the retired commander-in-chief went, a message came that General K. Enckel, who in 1887 expelled him from the Hamina Military School, being the head of the school’s alumni club, awarded him the title of honorary member of the club.
HEAD OF STATE
After leaving Finland, Mannerheim lived for some time in Sweden, established friendly relations with the envoys of the Entente countries in this country, and sometimes traveled to Finland. When success in the world war began to accompany the Entente, the general agreed to go to England and France as a semi-official representative of the Finnish government. He arrived in Aberdeen (Scotland) on November 11, 1918, the day the Compiegne Armistice was signed.
In the Entente countries celebrating the victory, the attitude towards Finland, which had sided with Germany (Kaiser Wilhelm's brother-in-law, Friedrich Karl of Hesse, was even elected King of Finland) was cool, but Mannerheim managed to meet with the heads of the foreign affairs departments of England and France - with Foreign Ministers A. Balfour and S. Pichon and gain their favor. Old connections also helped: both in London and in Paris, his old acquaintances became influential people; the Special Emissary of the Finnish government was able to receive American food aid. On December 12, parliament elected him in absentia as regent instead of Svinhufvud, who resigned and had compromised himself by close cooperation with Germany. Mannerheim conducted business so successfully that at the end of his tour he already officially represented the highest authorities of Finland. On December 22, 1918, the baron returned to his homeland. At the same time, the first batch of foreign food aid, which he achieved abroad, arrived.
In March 1919, a new Finnish parliament was elected. Of those elected in 1917, a little more than half remained: the Social Democrats did not participate in the elections, many of them died in the civil war or fled Finland after the defeat of the Red Guards. By May, parliament had drafted and approved a new constitution. Finland became a republic. However, to please the monarchists, who were in the minority in parliament, but according to procedural rules were able to influence the adoption of the constitution, the president was given broad powers, especially in the field of foreign policy.
The democrats found these significant changes unpleasant to the regent. The elections gave an advantage to centrists and moderate leftists. The Social Democrats regained their positions: they received 80 seats out of 200 in parliament. Although the radical wing of the party separated and from its representatives in exile in August - September 1918, the Communist Party of Finland was formed, which was immediately banned and was in opposition to the social -democrats, moderate social democrats also did not get along with the white general. In leftist circles, the winners were called butchers (lahtari) for the terror that followed: mass executions, high mortality in prisoner camps due to malnutrition, torture, and epidemics. Although Mannerheim, who left the post of commander-in-chief shortly after the end of the war, was to blame for this, he was also hated.
Mannerheim's attitude to the White Terror in Finland was subsequently thoroughly studied, although this did not lead to complete clarity. The documents mainly show that Mannerheim demanded compliance with international standards for the treatment of prisoners of war and an individual approach, severe punishment only for those who participated in criminal crimes.
The conservative Mannerheim was a supporter of the monarchy and strong government. However, after some doubt, he not only approved the new constitution, but also agreed to become a presidential candidate. According to the constitution, the President of Finland is elected by electors. But the first president was elected by parliament. Mannerheim collected only 50 votes. With 143 votes of centrists and leftists, a centrist, a prominent lawyer, one of the drafters of the republican constitution K.Yu. was elected the first president of Finland. Stolberg. Mannerheim managed to take revenge only in 1944, at a difficult time for Finland, and this would be more of a burden than a victory.
NO GOVERNMENT POSTS
Mannerheim's small consolation was that at the end of May 1919 he received the title of honorary Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Helsinki. In this, of course, there was a large share of sycophancy, although formally there was a reason - the publication of ethnographic studies of the general from the times of his Tibetan-Chinese journey, compiled together with Finnish scientists. A great consolation for the general was the money collected for his fund - 7.5 million marks after he was relieved of his post as regent. This was enough for many years of a prosperous life in a fashionable area of Helsinki.
In the summer of 1919 he was offered to become ambassador to Paris. Mannerheim considered this post too insignificant for himself: he had no intention of leaving the political arena of Finland. During August 1919, negotiations were held on his appointment as commander of the Finnish army, which, however, did not give a positive result, since Mannerheim, in the opinion of the president, demanded too much. Appointments in the armed forces, the introduction of martial law, the declaration of a state of war between Finland and Soviet Russia - all this was to be the responsibility of the commander.
Aggressive plans for a number of territories Soviet Russia(capture of Petrograd, Karelia) Mannerheim had been nurturing since the time of the Civil War. In 1918, former Prime Minister of Russia in 1916 A.F. Trepov and Wilhelm II spoke out in favor of overthrowing the Bolshevik regime in Petrograd with the help of troops under the command of a Finnish general. During Mannerheim's regency, intensive negotiations took place with the participation of representatives of the Entente on a joint campaign by the army of General N.N. Yudenich and the Finnish armed forces against Petrograd.
This possibility was seriously taken into account by the military command of Soviet Russia. Having launched an offensive south of the Gulf of Finland after the collapse of Germany, it left a large contingent of troops on the border with Finland, primarily on the Karelian Isthmus. However, the aggressive plans of the White Guards did not come true for various reasons. Among them, in the first place was the reluctance of the White Russian generals to recognize the independence of Finland. When it became clear that the Whites were unable to cope with the Bolsheviks, Mannerheim returned to the plan of a campaign against Petrograd of one Finnish army under his command.
Although the centrist Finnish leadership did not support Mannerheim, he found like-minded people in France in the persons of J. Clemenceau and F. Foch. At that time, Yudenich's last offensive against Petrograd was in full swing, and Denikin's troops were moving towards Moscow. Representatives of Admiral A.V. Kolchak and the northwestern government of S.A. formed in August 1918 in Tallinn. Lianozov, in order to eliminate the contradictions between the Estonian government and the Whites led by Yudenich, under pressure from the British, asked Finland for help. According to Mannerheim's information, France supported this appeal. At the end of October 1919, Mannerheim sent an open letter from France to Finnish President Stolberg calling on him to participate in the capture of Petrograd. According to him, this would have global significance, contributing to the fall of Bolshevism. But Helsinki did not respond to this appeal: the White Guards still did not recognize the independence of Finland, and the troops of Yudenich and Denikin had already begun to suffer defeat.
From France Mannerheim went to Poland. The Finnish general was given a magnificent reception; he met with Prime Minister J. Pilsudski. Representatives of both former grand duchies Russian Empire were unanimous that Bolshevism in Russia needed to be overthrown. Mannerheim and Pilsudski came to the conclusion that they should cooperate with Russian liberal circles, which were ready not only to recognize the independence of Finland and Poland, but to build Russia on a new democratic and federal basis.
Pilsudski was about to launch an anti-Bolshevik campaign in 1920 and tried to drag others into it. Mannerheim liked this idea, and he promoted it on his way back to his homeland in England and France. But the offensive of Polish troops in 1920 against Soviet Russia did not find a response in Finland. And Mannerheim himself did not show the necessary activity.
Let us note that the white general, who occupied the highest positions in the political and military hierarchy of the country in the early years of independent Finland, did not have a government post until 1931. It is curious that when in 1921 the leadership of the Shutskor elected its honorary chief Mannerheim as acting chairman, President Stolberg did not approve this decision. All this did not please the influential right-wing forces of the country. During the days of particularly tense relations between Stolberg and Mannerheim, fans of the latter even suggested that he stage a military coup, but Mannerheim refused. He considered it possible to defend his views only by constitutional methods.
Freed from public service, the general did not lead an idle life. He was invited to various army ceremonies and made presentations. Mannerheim was elected chairman of the board of the bank - first the United Bank, after the merger - the Helsinki Joint Stock Bank. But he was of little interest in financial affairs, and in 1936 he finally resigned from the post of head of one of the most influential banks in the country.
Mannerheim paid special attention to activities that, as a rule, were not typical of the military - charity and medicine. In 1920, he founded the Union for the Protection of Children with the goal of promoting the physical and spiritual development of the younger generation. In pursuit of national reconciliation, this union took special care of the children of the poor population of Finland, in particular the children of former Red Guards. Not believing in the general's sincerity, the Social Democratic Party refused to cooperate with the Union for the Protection of Children.
Through the efforts of the general’s elder sister Sophia (died in 1928), who had a medical education and had by that time become a prominent figure in the field of medical charity, Mannerheim was elected chairman of the Red Cross in 1922. Under his leadership, the Finnish Red Cross paid much attention to the training of medical personnel in case of war. On the affairs of this organization, the general visited a number of countries in Western Europe.
These posts were not burdensome for Mannerheim. He traveled a lot, met his daughters (one of them was a nun for some time), made peace with ex-wife. Once a year he hunted in the Tyrolean Alps, and at the end of 1927 he went to India to hunt tigers; its result is the skins of three tigers. This trip also had political implications. The 10th anniversary of the victory of the White Army in Finland was approaching.
The baron's relations with the ruling circles were strained, and Mannerheim, not wanting his participation in events marking this date to become the object of political controversy, went to India to collect hunting trophies. But he was persistently invited to return to his homeland, and in May 1928 he nevertheless attended these events.
The global economic crisis of 1929 - 1933, which made itself felt in Finland already in 1928, brought more right-wing forces to power in the country: as a result, the first head of the Finnish state in 1917 - 1918. Svinhufvud became prime minister in June 1930 and was elected president of Finland in February 1931. The day after taking up this post - March 2, 1931 - he offered Mannerheim the post of commander of the armed forces and confidentially commander-in-chief in the event of war. According to the Finnish constitution, the commander-in-chief was the president. Mannerheim refused the post of commander - there was too much routine work - but agreed to become chairman of the defense committee. So the 64-year-old general again found himself in public service. In 1933, in connection with the 15th anniversary of the end of the civil war, he was awarded the rank of marshal.
A CAUTIOUS POLITICIAN STRENGTHENS THE ARMY
IN complex system The military leadership of Finland - the commander-in-chief, the commander of the armed forces, the chief of the general staff, the minister of defense - the defense committee was an honorable but uninfluential body: it could only give recommendations. With his authority, Mannerheim achieved an increase in the importance of the committee, in particular in 1933. legal law give orders to the command regarding the country's military training.
Mannerheim began active work in this direction. On his initiative, the Finnish ground forces were reorganized on a territorial basis. In this way, high mobilization readiness and good interaction with the military personnel were ensured. The construction of fortifications on the border and rearmament required money, and politicians did not particularly believe in the likelihood of war. However, after the end of the economic crisis, budget expenditures for military needs were increased. On the initiative of Mannerheim, the construction of fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus was intensified, which in Finland and abroad began to be called the “Mannerheim Line”. An old cavalryman, he became interested in the latest types of weapons - tanks and airplanes.
Eagerness to discover new products military equipment prompted Mannerheim to undertake frequent trips abroad to France, England, and Sweden. In Germany, being a guest of the Prime Minister of Prussia and the “Chief Forester of the Reich” G. Goering, he hunted with him. Mannerheim's aristocratic manners were perfectly suited for official representative missions, especially since in the West he, a former tsarist general, was considered an almost legendary personality. During his trips, Mannerheim warned Western politicians about the danger of communism and called for the creation of a joint front against the USSR. But in the context of worsening relations between Nazi Germany and Western democracies, his calls were not successful. At Mannerheim's suggestion, Finnish military orders were placed mainly in England and Sweden.
The Marshal's political activity intensified. The course towards national reconciliation, manifested in the actions of the Union for the Protection of Children, found clear political expression in a speech on May 16, 1933 at the celebrations marking the 15th anniversary of the entry of the White Army into Helsinki. Relations with the leader of the Social Democrats, V. Tanner, gradually improved. This was all the more important because since 1936 the Social Democratic Party became the ruling party, forming a “red-green” cabinet together with the agrarians.
Mannerheim was also very active in foreign policy. The rapprochement of the USSR with France and its entry into the League of Nations puzzled Finnish leaders. In their opinion, the League of Nations could no longer be a guarantor against the Soviet Union. They were also alarmed by the statement in 1935 of the Soviet plenipotentiary E.A. Asmus that if Germany starts a war, the Red Army will enter Finnish territory. Soviet leaders repeated these warnings in 1936-1937. As a result, on the initiative of the marshal and his associates, Finland stopped focusing on the League of Nations and became an adherent of pro-Scandinavian neutrality, which was announced in parliament on December 5, 1935.
In the second half of the 1930s, Finland sought to take a neutral position between Nazi Germany and Western democracies and provide communications for assistance. from both rival groups of Western powers if Finland ends up at war with the USSR. First of all, Finland hoped to receive military assistance from Sweden, with which confidential negotiations on this issue had been going on since 1923.
Mannerheim always advocated close relations between Finland and Sweden. True, in 1918-1919, when Sweden laid claim to the Åland Islands and sent its troops there, and Mannerheim categorically opposed this, his relations with some Swedish ministers worsened, but King Gustav V of Sweden always warmly received Mannerheim. As soon as the Åland conflict was settled, Mannerheim became an active supporter of Finnish-Swedish rapprochement in general and military cooperation in particular. But this was fraught with internal complications - relations between Finns and Swedes in Finland itself worsened. The stumbling block was the question of what language to teach in universities? Mannerheim, together with two like-minded generals - R. Walden and H. Ignatius, published a statement in which he insisted on resolving the conflict, emphasizing that its continuation could negatively affect the defense capability of the state. The marshal himself, while continuing to improve his Finnish language, adhered to the rule that official language in the Finnish Armed Forces - Finnish, and always spoke Finnish on official occasions. Even with those officers who, like him, were Swedes by nationality.
Mannerheim welcomed the Nazis' coming to power in Germany in 1933, believing that they would fight against communism more energetically than the sluggish Western democrats. But by 1939, his views had changed: Hitler’s aggressive lumpen behavior in domestic and foreign policy disgusted the aristocrat Mannerheim. But he believed that Finland should not have quarreled with Berlin. The marshal considered the threat of war with the USSR to be real and was preparing for it. And at the same time, he advised to pursue a cautious policy towards the USSR, especially after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939.
Mannerheim was in a hurry to rearm the army, build fortifications, and persistently demanded money for this. Not receiving enough of them, he submitted his resignation twice in 1939 - on June 16 and November 27. At the same time, he insisted that Finnish leaders show greater flexibility in negotiations with Moscow. He advised the government to meet Moscow's proposals to transfer the demilitarized Finnish islands in the Gulf of Finland to the Soviet Union, which, according to him, were not of particular importance for Finland, but were important for the security of Leningrad and Kronstadt. Even on the issue of the main confrontation in the negotiations - the Soviet demand to lease the Hanko Peninsula for the construction of a military base there - Mannerheim sought a compromise. He recommended giving the USSR the island of Yussare off the Hanko Peninsula.
Most Finnish politicians underestimated the military-strategic and political intentions of the then Soviet leadership. The realist Mannerheim realized the seriousness of the situation, as the former tsarist general knew the strategic interests of Russia, was politically flexible, and decisive in military matters. In addition, at the beginning of November, Mannerheim received a letter from Goering stating that Germany would not be able to support Finland at this time. The majority of Finnish leaders, in particular Foreign Minister E. Erkko, continued to count on Germany.
The Marshal was not taken by surprise by the outbreak of war with the USSR on November 30, 1939. Having met with President Kallio on the same day, Mannerheim said that in the new circumstances he considered it his duty to take back the resignation letter he had just submitted and was ready to take the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Armed Forces.
Already on October 17, 1939, Mannerheim became commander of the Finnish armed forces, and General H. Estermann, who previously held this post, was appointed commander of the Karelian Army. On November 30, President Kallio delegated to Mannerheim the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief, which according to the constitution belongs to the president.
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN THE "WINTER WAR"
With the active participation of Mannerheim, a new government was formed on December 1, 1939 with the aim of removing from power those responsible for the ongoing foreign policy, eliminate obstacles to a political solution to the conflict with the Soviet Union. Foreign Minister Erkko - he was appointed to Stockholm as chargé d'affaires - and Prime Minister Kajander lost their portfolios, but the political base of the government remained the same. Many ministers retained their posts.
It soon became clear that the possibility of political negotiations was blocked by the Finnish communists from the “people's government of the Finnish Democratic Republic” headed by O.V. who were in the Soviet Union. Kuusinen, moreover, the Soviet leaders concluded an agreement of friendship and cooperation with them. Helsinki's attempts to contact Moscow through Stockholm were rejected under the pretext that the Soviet Union recognized the Kuusinen government as the Finnish leadership, and not the Helsinki government. Finland's desire to attract, at least indirectly, Sweden as an ally in the war against the CCCP - it was offered to occupy the Åland Islands - failed, as in the negotiations before the war.
At the beginning of December, Mannerheim left for a previously prepared headquarters in the city of Mikkeli (eastern Finland) and remained there throughout the “winter war”. Commanding the troops did not prevent him from monitoring political events. Through his representative in the government, General R. Walden, as well as during daily telephone conversations, Mannerheim managed to influence the political leadership of the country. In difficult moments, politicians came to him for advice. The marshal communicated a lot with influential foreigners and used his extensive personal connections. Sometimes the leaders of Western countries addressed him directly, bypassing the political leadership of Finland.
The marshal was depressing that the Finnish army, mobilized in advance, easily gave up its positions in front of the line of fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus and that Soviet troops were developing an offensive north of Lake Ladoga in the direction of the Finnish-Swedish border. This was not foreseen in the Finnish military plans, given the lack of roads. But Soviet builders managed to build new roads. Mannerheim quickly got his bearings and sent there additional units that were inferior to the Soviet troops in numbers and armament, but superior in mobility (on skis), using his tactics of encircling and splitting up enemy troops. Finnish troops stopped the Soviet divisions. The first successes of Mannerheim's army were achieved in mid-December northwest of Ladoga in the vicinity of Tolvajärvi and in the north in the Suomussalmi area, then in some other directions. The Soviet offensive was stopped in the north, as well as at the first line of fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. This situation remained until mid-February 1940.
The successes achieved at the first stage of the “winter war” encouraged Finnish politicians. Plans were discussed to create an anti-Stalin government headed by A.F. in opposition to the Kuusinen government. Kerensky and L.D. Trotsky, which would lead the overthrow of Stalinism in Russia. It was also proposed that Western countries organize an offensive from the north through Soviet Karelia to Leningrad. The actions of the USSR were condemned in the West, especially in France. Germany stood apart, which, having given Finland as a sphere of influence to the Soviet Union under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, did not join the chorus of condemnation, “but secretly also sympathized with Finland. When it became clear that Stalin’s lightning war in Finland had failed, interest in Finland in the West increased.
After the exclusion of the Soviet Union from the League of Nations on December 14, 1939, the Supreme Allied Council adopted a rather vague decision on December 21 to help Finland. At the end of December, France and England sent a note to Sweden and Norway demanding that their troops and weapons pass through the territory of the latter to help Finland. But in Sweden and Norway they unraveled the Allies' plan, about which the British Prime Minister N. Chamberlain said: to kill two birds with one stone - namely, to help Finland, but on the way there also to occupy Northern Sweden, from where iron ore was exported through the Norwegian port of Narvik to Germany. The latter, of course, would intervene, and the whole of Scandinavia would become an arena of hostilities. A negative response was given to the notes from England and France.
Taking this into account, Finland has restructured its plans. Mannerheim was especially active. In a response letter to French Prime Minister E. Daladier at the beginning of 1940, he insisted on Anglo-French operations in the White Sea and specified that the landing of troops should take place in the Arkhangelsk area so that Germany would have no reason to intervene. He also proposed an attack on the USSR in the Baku region. Mannerheim also insisted that the fighters regular armies various Western countries - approximately 30 thousand people - arrived in Finland as volunteers, much like German and Italian troops were sent to participate in the Spanish Civil War. He raised this question several times official representatives both the Western Allies and Sweden.
On December 26, Mannerheim ordered the creation of a special group of officers to receive “volunteers.” But the “volunteers” came mainly from Sweden. Most of them had no military training. They still needed to be trained. The unit formed from “volunteers” reached the front only at the end of the war. Armaments from the West also arrived little and late.
During the "Winter War" 11,370 volunteers arrived in Finland, of which 8,482 were Swedish. A small number of them went to the front.
At the end of January 1940, Moscow informed the Finnish leadership through Tallinn and Stockholm that it was ready to negotiate with the Helsinki government on the terms put forward by the Soviet side in the fall of 1939. Without consulting Mannerheim, the Finnish government prepared a negative response, but, on the advice of Sweden, it was handed over to the USSR in a discreet manner. Relations with Moscow became even tougher when Helsinki learned about the decision of the Supreme Allied Council, i.e. political and military leadership of England and France, on February 5, 1940, to send an expeditionary force to Finland. But they failed to convince the Swedish government to let him through.
On February 10, Prime Minister R. Ryti and Foreign Minister V. Tanner arrived for a meeting at the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief. Mannerheim, after consulting with the generals, preferred the conclusion of peace, but was not particularly categorical. At least he did not influence the position of Foreign Minister Tanner - he published an official statement in the press the next day that Finland was conducting successful operations, help was arriving from the West and there were no peace negotiations with the USSR.
After a regrouping of forces, the Red Army resumed its offensive, on February 13, 1940, wedged itself into the first strip of the “Mannerheim Line” near the village of Lyakhte and in the following days expanded the bridgehead there. To avoid encirclement, the Finnish military leadership decided to retreat. The battle for the city of Viipuri (Vyborg) began. Mannerheim's reserves were dwindling.
As the Red Army succeeded, Soviet demands became stricter: to restore the borders of the times of Peter I, i.e. occupy the entire Karelian Isthmus with the city of Viipuri, as well as the lands north and northwest of Ladoga with the cities of Sortavala and Kyakisalmi, thereby depriving Finland of access to Ladoga. About one tenth of Finland's population lived in this territory, and it provided the same portion of the country's national income. By the end of February 1940, the Finnish leadership was inclined to give in to the demands of the USSR. This alarmed the Allies, especially France, which promised to speed up the sending of a large expeditionary force to Finland. The Allies demanded that Finland turn to them with an official request to send troops. Finnish leaders, including Mannerheim, pondered for several days - did not respond to Moscow and did not make an official request to the West to send troops.
Nevertheless, on March 6, 1940, the Finnish delegation led by Ryti went to Moscow for negotiations. It turned out that the Soviet leadership again increased its territorial claims to Finland at the expense of the northern lands. Head of the Soviet government and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov spoke very harshly. The political leadership of Finland requested the opinion of the commander in chief. On March 9, Mannerheim, after consulting with the generals, responded to sign peace, since the tired army could hold the front against superior enemy forces for no more than a week. On March 13, 1940, a peace treaty was signed in Moscow on terms dictated by the Soviet side.
DISAPPOINTMENT WITH LONDON AND PARIS
Both sides were not satisfied with the temporary and compromise Moscow peace treaty. The leaders of the Soviet Union wanted to subjugate Finland, the ruling circles of Finland wanted to destroy Bolshevism and create Greater Finland. After the "winter war" of 1939 - 1940. Mannerheim's popularity in the country increased greatly. The hatred of the poor, which arose during the Civil War and persisted for many years, receded into the background. This was facilitated by Mannerheim's proposal to cancel the "white holiday" on May 16 - on this day in 1918, Mannerheim's victorious White Army entered Helsinki - and rename it the day of remembrance of all Finns who died in the wars.
Mannerheim's political influence in the country also increased. In the reformed government of R. Ryti after the war, Mannerheim's trusted man, General Walden, became Minister of War. He and Mannerheim himself entered the so-called “inner ring,” which also included the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Inner Ring solved the country's most important problems with little consultation with other ministers or parliament.
Martial law was not lifted and Mannerheim remained commander in chief. Parliament now gave him as much money as he demanded for the armed forces. Immediately after the war, the construction of fortifications began on the new state border, and the period of service in the armed forces in peacetime was extended. Their numbers have increased.
But difficulties arose with rearmament. After the occupation of Norway by Germany in April 1940, the weapons delivered there for Finland from Western countries fell into the hands of the latter, and Hitler’s ban on the supply of German weapons to Finland remained in force.
In the summer of 1940, the country's political situation became more complicated: the Wehrmacht defeated France, and the Soviet Union was annexed Baltic countries. Helsinki received conflicting information about the concentration of Soviet troops on the border with Finland. At the same time, the USSR presented Finland with a number of additional demands, which in Helsinki were interpreted as threatening independence; transit traffic by rail between CCCP and the Soviet base in Hanko, the creation of a joint Soviet-Finnish company to exploit Finnish nickel mines.
In the summer of 1940, the Nazi Reich began active preparatory measures for the implementation of the plan to attack the USSR. Hitler believed that Finland was interested in participating in his eastern campaign. On August 18, 1940, Goering’s emissary I. Veltjens arrived in Helsinki with a top-secret letter from his boss to his “old hunting companion” Mannerheim. It reported that Hitler decided to supply the Finnish army with weapons and asked Finland to allow the transit of German troops to Northern Norway through its territory. Mannerheim said that he would accept the weapons, and on the second issue he recommended that Veltjens contact the country’s political leadership, which subsequently granted Hitler’s request. In September 1940, the transit operation began. After Molotov’s visit to Berlin in November 1940, Goering, through the Swedish intermediary Baron K. Rosen, as well as Veltjens, informed Mannerheim that the “Führer” had rejected the USSR’s desire to include Finland in its sphere of interests and had taken it “under his umbrella.”
In 1946, during the trial of the Finnish perpetrators of the war, Prime Minister of 1940 Ryti denied that he had met with Feltjens, but documents later discovered in German archives show the correctness of Mannerheim’s version.
This was the beginning of the German-Finnish military cooperation in preparation for an attack on the USSR. Later, specific agreements were reached during mutual visits of high-ranking officers: in January 1941, the Chief of the General Staff of Finland E. Heinrik to Germany, in February the Chief of Staff air force Germany H.-G. Seidel and the chief of staff of the Army "Norway" E. Buschenhagen to Finland, in March the head of Finnish military intelligence L. Melander to Germany and the head of the department " Foreign armies East" E. Kinzel to Finland, as well as through military attaches - H. Resing in Finland, V. Horn in Germany. Both sides were cautious, talked about coordinating actions in the event of a new threat from the east, the issue of an attack was discussed in confidential conversations on the USSR.At the end of May - beginning of June 1941, as a result of a new round of mutual visits, an agreement was reached on the deployment of German ground forces in northern Finland and the transfer of the Finnish troops stationed there under German command, on the basing of German aviation and navy in the south of the country.
Mannerheim instructed his subordinates to act, but warned that reports on these actions should only be given orally. He himself kept a background, but the letter to Goering, which his emissary General P. Talvela handed over to the addressee in December 194O, spoke of joint operations in the northwestern part of the USSR. In May 1941, Mannerheim, impressed by German victories in the Balkans, told his schoolmates that he was disappointed with his old Anglo-French orientation and preferred Germany.
But still the marshal remained cautious. He, like the country's political leadership, avoided signing any written agreements with Germany. Helsinki did not rule out the possibility that the Anglo-French coalition would be victorious in the world war, and tried, for both foreign and domestic political reasons, to create the impression that Finland would be drawn into the war on the side of Germany against its will. On June 14, 1941, the day the Soviet telegraph agency TACC published a statement that Germany supposedly had no aggressive intentions towards the USSR, Mannerheim received a telegram from Berlin signed by Keitel stating that the German-Soviet war would begin on June 22. On June 17, a day later than planned, Mannerheim announced a general mobilization.
TOGETHER WITH GERMANY AGAINST THE USSR
After Soviet aircraft raided facilities in Finland where German armed forces were located on June 25, 1941, Finland declared that it was at war with the USSR. Mannerheim and his headquarters again moved to Mikkeli, but remained a member of the “inner ring”. Before making any important political decision, the country's leadership consulted with him. Sometimes Mannerheim took independent political actions. The tendency towards the formation of two centers of power, which had already emerged in the “winter war”, intensified.
The Finnish armed forces, including auxiliary units, numbered 648 - 60 thousand people, which accounted for 16% of the total population and 33% of men. This was a higher percentage than any other country. The firepower of the army was 2.5 - 3 times greater than in the "winter war". Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim, judging by his warlike orders at the beginning of the war, was going to “participate in a world-historical crusade against Bolshevism,” to forever eliminate the “Russian threat to the North of Europe,” to create “Great Finland and include Soviet Karelia there.” The government considered it necessary to dissociate itself from some provisions of these orders, especially on the creation of Greater Finland.
The marshal was very enthusiastic, but, as always, he was able to soberly assess the changing situation faster than the political leadership when he saw that events were not developing as he expected. Already in August 1941, in conversations with the Germans, he said that he was disappointed with the way military operations were developing on the Soviet-German front. Having exactly fulfilled all the wishes of the German command in the first days of the war, Mannerheim at the end of July 1941 told the German liaison officer W. Erfurt, assigned to his headquarters, when disagreements arose between them that the Finnish troops were not commanded by Erfurt, but by him, Mannerheim.
The first military-political crisis occurred at the end of August - beginning of September 1941, when Finnish troops reached old border not only north of Ladoga, but also on the Karelian Isthmus, having captured Vyborg. Keitel then turned to Mannerheim with a letter in which he proposed, in addition to the initial plan for the joint encirclement of Leningrad and a meeting on the Svir River, to continue the offensive on the Karelian Isthmus towards Leningrad. At the same time, the USSR, through the mediation of the United States, offered Finland peace within the borders of 1939. There was something to think about.
Mannerheim had long dreamed of taking the city on the Neva. But the situation was not suitable. First successes at the beginning new war fell to the Finnish army with a lot of blood and one could expect particularly persistent resistance near Leningrad, and the capture of the territory of the Karelo-Finnish SSR and its further inclusion in Greater Finland could be delayed. Mannerheim decided to limit himself to simulating an attack on Leningrad, but to reach the Svir River with a further turn to the north, to Soviet Karelia. In September 1941, when this task was completed, the Nazis demanded a further offensive to the south, although they themselves were unable to break through to the planned junction with the Finns on the Svir River. Mannerheim proposed Keitel his plan: to jointly attack Belomorsk in the north and cut off Murmansk and Arkhangelsk from the center of Russia.
Finnish troops moved in this direction, capturing Petrozavodsk in early October 1941. But this led to another political crisis at the end of October - beginning of November 1941. England and the USA sent notes of protest to Helsinki, since their northern route of communications with the USSR was in danger. England, which threatened Finland with a declaration of war, did so in December 1941. At the same time, the internal political and economic situation in Finland became more complicated - the country was threatened with famine, and without partial demobilization it was difficult to ensure the functioning of the economy. The soldiers were reluctant to fight a grueling war on foreign soil.
Mannerheim hesitated. On the one hand, it was undesirable to aggravate relations with England and the USA, on the other hand, it was desirable to contribute to the defeat of the USSR by cutting off its communications with the outside world. He responded evasively to Churchill's letter asking for an immediate suspension of the military offensive. Mannerheim had previously been hinted from Berlin that he could take command of the entire Finnish-Soviet front, including German troops in the north. This time he was so angry with the clumsy actions of the commander of the Army of Norway, German General N. von Falkenhorst, that he himself expressed to Erfurt his desire to take command of the entire front.
Mannerheim's hesitation was put to an end by the Soviet counter-offensive on the Tikhvin-Volkhov front in November - December 1941. When Finnish troops reached the Maselga Isthmus between Onega and Segozero in the north of the Karelo-Finnish SSR in December, Mannerheim ordered them to stop and go on the defensive. Discussions with the German command about the march to Belomorsk continued. If at first Mannerheim was very interested in this operation, then in February 1942 he changed his mind: "I won't attack anymore", he said. The Soviet-Finnish front froze until the early spring of 1944. Sometimes the German command put forward proposals to intensify hostilities, but usually Mannerheim rejected them under the pretext that the Finns did not have enough strength, since the Germans were unable to capture Leningrad and thus Finland had no reserves, so how she should also keep her troops near Leningrad.
There is debate about Mannerheim's attitude towards the city on the Neva, the city of his youth. There is a lot of evidence that Mannerheim in 1941, as in 1919, wanted to participate in the capture of this city, considering this important matter in the liberation of Russia from Bolshevism. But in view of the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops, he preferred that the Nazis take the brunt of the operation to capture Leningrad. Finnish troops took part in the siege of Leningrad, but did not fire on the city. According to the diary entry of Hitler's adjutant, Major Engel, it was Mannerheim who suggested that Hitler wipe Leningrad off the face of the earth. But the reliability of this evidence is questionable. Further research showed that most likely only once did Mannerheim express himself this way. But much more often he expressed the opposite opinion. Already on August 30, 1941, he told Erfurt that if the Germans destroy Leningrad, the Russians will rebuild it. If we compare the position of various Finnish leaders of that time on the fate of the city on the Neva, then Mannerheim looks like the most moderate against their background.
STORM AFTER THE CALM
1942 passed relatively calmly for Mannerheim. There were almost no battles at the front and the commander-in-chief was not busy with long-term planning of military operations. But this was not in his character. He, as always, worked hard, asked strictly of his subordinates, tried to keep his word given to them and did not like those who did not do so. He led an almost domestic lifestyle: his favorite horse riding, swimming, and at dinner he shared funny stories from his life for the generals.
On June 4, 1942, Mannerheim turned 75 years old. His anniversaries in Finland were celebrated with magnificent celebrations. But in war time The location of the celebration was kept secret. There were few people invited. Ryti, who became president in 1940, awarded the commander-in-chief the military rank of “Marshal of Finland” instead of a “simple” marshal. The arrival of Hitler and his retinue was a sensation. In a one-on-one conversation, both commanders-in-chief stated that the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops was a surprise for them; in a further monologue, Hitler apologized that he could not help Finland in the “winter war.”
Hitler's visit attracted the attention of the world community. It was assumed that the “Führer” would force Mannerheim to launch a new offensive on the Finnish-Soviet front, and therefore the United States diplomatically suggested that Helsinki not submit to Berlin’s pressure. However, Hitler did not demand that Finland intensify military operations, since the German command in 1942 launched an attack on Stalingrad and the Caucasus.
A month later, Mannerheim made a return courtesy visit to Germany. Hitler and his generals talked about their war plans all over the world. This had a depressing effect on Mannerheim. Discussing the results of the visit, Mannerheim and his associates came to the conclusion that such a global strategy was doomed to failure. The German army was stopped at Stalingrad, and when the Nazis once again raised the issue of storming Leningrad in the fall of 1942, Mannerheim reacted very restrainedly to this, although some preparatory measures were carried out on the Finnish side. At the same time, Mannerheim helped ensure that the Finnish authorities stopped extraditing Jewish refugees to Germany.
In 1942, the entire Finnish military leadership, led by Mannerheim, intensified its policy of removing individual Finnish units from the subordination of the German command in northern Finland. In the occupied territories on the Karelian Isthmus, primarily north of Ladoga, including the Maselka Isthmus, construction of fortifications began. The hope was cherished that Finland would gain a foothold in these positions while the armed forces of the great powers, primarily Germany and the USSR, exhausted each other in bloody battles.
1943 and the first months of 1944 were also calm at Mannerheim’s headquarters. The political leadership of Finland, in consultation with Mannerheim, sought, mainly through the United States, ways for Finland to exit the war on conditions favorable to it. At the end of 1943, confidential contacts were established with the USSR. Wise from experience, Mannerheim was more pessimistic in this regard than most politicians in his country. He said that "You cannot demand from the winner of a war Better conditions than those that existed at the beginning of the war".
This applied primarily to the 1940 borders, which caused particular hostility in Finland. For purely military reasons, it was Mannerheim who thwarted the conclusion of peace already in the first months of 1944. The first point of the Soviet peace terms was the internment of the German armed forces stationed in Finland by Finnish troops. Mannerheim believed that this was unlikely to be accomplished without armed clashes, and in the meantime the Red Army would try to occupy Finland. The Finnish army was not able to fight against the German and Soviet armed forces at the same time. It was difficult to imagine that such argumentation could convince Western countries allies of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet proposals were finally rejected in April 1944, the Finnish authorities put forward another argument, also recommended by Mannerheim: the war reparations demanded by the Soviet Union were beyond Finland's means.
Hitler decided to punish Finland for entering into negotiations with Moscow: he stopped arms supplies; Mannerheim, however, managed to achieve their resumption, although not to the full extent.
On June 10, 1944, the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive Red Army. In the first days of the offensive of the Leningrad Front troops under the command of L.A. Govorov and the Petrozavodsk Front under the command of K.A. Meretskov developed successfully, the front line of Finnish fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus was broken, and then Vyborg was taken. But Mannerheim managed to organize stubborn resistance, transferring part of his troops from Soviet Karelia to the Karelian Isthmus. There, too, the retreat took place in an organized manner and the Finnish troops managed to avoid encirclement. By mid-July, the front had stabilized somewhat east of the 1940 Soviet-Finnish border.
The transfer of German army units from Estonia to help the Finns played a certain role in this outcome. Mannerheim very energetically sought this support. On the night of June 22, 1944, he sent a letter to Hitler, in which he reported, referring to his conversation with the political leadership of the country, that Finland was ready "to join the Reich more firmly". The German leadership, which since the spring of 1943, after the first signs of Finland’s desire to conclude a separate peace, had unsuccessfully sought a political agreement with it, decided to quickly use the opportunity.
Germany and Finland did not have such a political agreement as with its other allies. Finland was also not a member of the Triple Alliance of Germany with Japan and Italy concluded in the fall of 1940, to which the Balkan allies also joined. In November 1941, Finland only became a member of the Anti-Comintern Pact.
On June 22, 1944, Ribbentrop arrived in Helsinki and many days of difficult negotiations with Ryti began, ending in a compromise. Referring to the fact that parliament would not approve the treaty, Ryti succeeded in replacing it with his personal public letter stating that Finland was negotiating with the Soviet Union and would make peace with it only in mutual understanding with Germany.
Some Finnish politicians, including Mannerheim, advised Ryti to formalize the agreement with Germany in this way and for other reasons: if Ryti left the presidency, his successor would not be legally bound by his promise.
MARSHALL-PRESIDENT EXITS THE WAR
Further defeats of Germany on the Soviet-German front and the opening by the Western allies of the USSR of a second front in Europe led to the withdrawal of German troops transferred to Finland and aggravated the issue of Finland concluding a separate peace with the USSR. To do this, it was necessary to concentrate political and military power in the country in one hand. It was believed that this person could only be Mannerheim. His candidacy was supported by the so-called peaceful opposition: representatives of different parties who, since 1943, had advocated Finland’s early exit from the war. There were reports from Stockholm that the USSR was demanding a replacement of the president and government, but had nothing against the Marshal of Finland: they believed that Mannerheim was able to take Finland out of the war. The Swedish government was of the same opinion. On July 28, Ryti, Walden and Tanner went to Mikkeli.
The question of electing Mannerheim as head of state was raised before almost all presidential elections; convinced that victory in the elections was not guaranteed, Mannerheim refused to stand as a candidate each time. In the summer of 1944, the 77-year-old commander-in-chief, after some hesitation and citing old age and poor health, agreed. On August 4, 1944, parliament approved Marshal of Finland Mannerheim as president of the country by a special law without a vote. This was his revenge for his defeat in the presidential elections in 1919.
First of all, Mannerheim formed a new government. Prime Minister Z. Linkomies and Foreign Minister H. Ramsay left their posts, whose place was taken by Karl Enckel, who spoke Russian well, the son of the general who expelled Mannerheim from the Hamina Military School in his youth. In general, the two Mannerheim governments that quickly replaced each other, in the formation of which the former leaders of Finland who had left their posts actively participated, consisted of the conductors of the former political course and personal friends of the president.
Mannerheim then began to prepare Finland's exit from the war. He did this slowly. On August 17, the President-Marshal told Keitel, who had arrived in Finland, that he, as the new president, was not bound by Ryti’s letter to Hitler about Finland concluding peace only with the consent of Germany.
There is a debate among Finnish historians about whether such a step, already envisaged during Ryti’s negotiations with Ribbentrop, was suggested by Mannerheim himself. Of course, this was one of the possible, but not the only, options for policy planning.
On August 25, 1944, Mannerheim addressed the Soviet government through Sweden with a written request whether Moscow agreed to accept the Finnish delegation to conclude peace or an armistice. On August 29, a positive response was received under two conditions: Finland would openly announce the severance of relations with Germany and demand the withdrawal of German armed forces no later than September 15. If the Germans do not leave, they must be disarmed and handed over as prisoners of war to the Allies.
Mannerheim tried to maneuver between the USSR and Germany, to achieve Finland's exit from the war without complicating relations with Berlin. He reported to Moscow on September 2 that the Finnish troops themselves could ensure the voluntary evacuation of German troops or intern them along the line of the Ouluiski River - Lake Oulujärvi - Sotkamo, i.e. to the line north of which German troops were mainly stationed. On the same day, he sent a letter to Hitler, saying that Finland was forced to withdraw from the war, and promising that the weapons received from Germany would never be used against the Germans.
On September 3, 1944, hostilities on the Soviet-Finnish front ended. On September 19, 1944, an armistice agreement was signed in Moscow, dictated, as at the end of the “winter war,” by the Soviet side, but this time agreed with England. The Soviet side tightened its initial conditions: it demanded - and achieved - the creation of a naval base instead of Hanko in Porkkala, only 17 km from Helsinki. During the negotiations, the Soviet side sharply raised the issue of expelling German troops from the territory of Finland, the preliminary deadline for which had already passed.
Mannerheim failed to keep his word to Hitler. A representative of the Finnish General Staff agreed with the headquarters of the German group of troops in northern Finland (approximately 200 thousand people) about its slow retreat and imaginary persecution by the Finns.
On September 21, 1944, the first representatives of the Allied (Soviet) Control Commission arrived in Helsinki, who became interested in the Finnish plan for the internment of German troops, but it did not exist. At the same time, Hitler’s troops behaved defiantly: on September 15 they tried to capture the Finnish island of Sur-Sari and began blowing up bridges. The President-Commander-in-Chief decided to act energetically. On September 22, he gave the order to Lieutenant General H. Siilosvuo, who from the second half of 1941 was subordinate to the German command in northern Finland, to move north and prepare for the internment of German troops. On October 1, Siilosvuo’s troops landed in the Finnish city of Tornio on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, in the rear of the retreating German troops; a battle broke out with the German garrison. Foreign newspaper correspondents reported the details of the battle to the world, which contributed to improving the world community's attitude towards Finland.
Thus began Finland's third war during the Second World War, the so-called Lapland War in Finnish Lapland, this time against Germany. It lasted until the spring of 1945 - the complete expulsion of German troops from Finnish territory. The first battles were the bloodiest. In late autumn and winter, it was difficult for the Finnish troops to advance - the retreating German units thoroughly destroyed roads, bridges, and crossings. Through the joint efforts of the Finnish and Swedish authorities, the population was evacuated to Sweden in advance.
THE PRESIDENT RESIGNS
In November 1944, parliamentary circles forced Mannerheim to abandon the right-wing government, which did not get along with the Union (Soviet) Control Commission, and appoint as prime minister the spiritual leader of the “peaceful opposition” Yu.K. Paasikivi. With great reluctance, Mannerheim agreed with Paasikivi's intentions to include leftist forces, in particular the communists, in the government. The latter, after the armistice agreement with the CCCP came into force, were popular among the population. According to the armistice agreement, fascist organizations were to be banned in Finland. The Allied (Soviet) Control Commission determined their list, which also included the Shutskor - the old stronghold of Mannerheim. Mannerheim approved the idea of transferring the property of the Shutskor to the Red Cross close to him.
There were discussions about the interpretation of the demilitarization clause in the armistice agreement. The Soviet side demanded that the coastal defense batteries be destroyed. Mannerheim did not want to agree to this. He picked up the idea suggested to him about concluding a mutual assistance agreement between Finland and the USSR in the event of an attack on them in the Baltic region and drew up its draft at the beginning of 1945. The document was discussed with Paasikivi and the new commander of the Finnish armed forces, Heinrichs, and approved by the chairman of the Allied (Soviet) Control Commission A.A. Zhdanov. It was decided to postpone the project until a peace treaty was concluded. But coastal batteries thus Mannerheim saved.
In March 1945, parliamentary elections were held in Finland, in which leftist forces strengthened their positions. This was also reflected in the composition of the new Paasikivi government. Power was concentrated in the hands of the prime minister. Mannerheim faded into the background: the health of the elderly president deteriorated. As Mannerheim himself noted, he had no opportunity to influence the government, since as a result of the parliamentary elections it was dominated by parties alien to him.
After the armistice, many Finnish officers feared that the Soviet Union would try to occupy the country. To conduct a guerrilla war in this case, weapons were hidden throughout the country. In the spring of 1945, these warehouses were discovered. Their creation was a dangerous idea for the development of Soviet-Finnish relations and thereby for the country. In a letter to Mannerheim, the head of the operational department of the General Staff of the Ground Forces, Lieutenant Colonel U. Haahti, took all the blame upon himself. The President said he believed him, but the leadership of the armed forces was replaced against the President's wishes.
A sharp political struggle unfolded in Finland in 1945 over the implementation of Article 13 of the armistice agreement - the punishment of those responsible for the war. This article was not consistent with existing legislation, and a special law on its implementation was adopted in September. The country's former political leaders became defendants. The attitude towards them in the country was ambivalent: on the one hand, they were justified, since Finland’s participation in Hitler’s war against the CCCP was considered a consequence of the “winter war” of 1939 - 1940. On the other hand, allied relations with Hitler did not bring honor to Finland. An investigation into the mechanism of the German-Finnish rapprochement since the summer of 1940 showed that Mannerheim also played a significant role in it. He was also asked questions during the investigation. Some members of the government raised the issue of the president's long trip for treatment abroad or his resignation so that he would not end up in the dock. Mannerheim, who was in hospital with a stomach ulcer, went to Portugal for treatment at the end of October, when the trial of those responsible for the war had already begun. Zhdanov tried to prevent Mannerheim from leaving, but, having received new instructions from Moscow, disavowed his veto on this trip.
Returning to Helsinki at the beginning of 1946, Mannerheim found himself back in the hospital. A representative of the Union (Soviet) Control Commission paid him a visit and informed him that the Soviet government had no claims against him, despite the facts revealed during the trial of the perpetrators of the war. Members of the government led by the Prime Minister, who also visited the patient, suggested that he resign, citing mainly poor health. Mannerheim promised to leave, but after the end of the trial.
He kept his word. The trial ended on February 21. On March 3, Mannerheim left the hospital, wrote his last angry letter as president to the acting commander of the armed forces, General J. Lundqvist, in which he condemned the latter’s intentions to dismiss several generals from the army, and the next day submitted his resignation. He justified his decision, in addition to his poor health, by the fact that with the end of the trial of the perpetrators of the war, all the tasks of getting Finland out of the war and implementing the armistice agreement, for the sake of which he, Mannerheim, held such a responsible post at everyone’s request, had been completed.
Mannerheim was right - he fulfilled his duty. But although all Finnish politicians thanked Mannerheim, and in particular words of praise were spoken in his honor by his successor as president, Paasikivi, the fact remains that during Mannerheim’s one and a half year presidency the political situation in Finland changed so much that the honored marshal found himself the odd man out in politics Olympus.
HAVE TIME TO FINISH YOUR MEMOIRS
Freed from government duties, Mannerheim was able to pay more attention to his health. In September 1947, he underwent surgery in Stockholm. When the illness weakened, Mannerheim remained cheerful. He often met with people close to him, impressing his interlocutors with his knowledge in various fields. He traveled a lot, lived, on the advice of doctors, mainly in sunny regions - in Switzerland, France, Italy, and took care of his unmarried and childless daughters. Mannerheim enjoyed communicating with young women, he even fell in love. He became seriously interested in Princess Gertrude Arko, the sister of the Swedish bankers the Wallenbergs.
Over time, Mannerheim became more and more modest - he celebrated his 8th birthday in the village among friends, without unnecessary celebrations. The marshal's political pessimism deepened. Representatives of the USSR tried to behave correctly and put forward demands that did not contradict the armistice agreement. But some of these demands were harshly formulated and the Finns interpreted them as interference in their internal affairs. Since the summer of 1946, the activity of the Finnish communists has sharply increased. Mannerheim often repeated: they will crush us. Once, when he was tired of Paasikivi with his pessimistic forecasts, he could not resist and said: "If that's the case, then we'll both have to go into the forest and shoot ourselves in the forehead.".
In the fall of 1947, after the ratification of the peace treaty, the Soviet side again raised the question of concluding a mutual assistance treaty, the first draft of which was prepared by Mannerheim at the beginning of 1945. In the conditions of the Cold War, President Paasikivi, together with Mannerheim, with whom he deliberated, hesitated. But in February 1948, the agreement was nevertheless concluded.
Having retired from active political activity, Mannerheim began his last great work - writing memoirs. Preparing for it
began after the president was relieved of his duties. But he sat down at his desk only in the fall of 1948 in Val-Monte in Switzerland. Unfortunately, Mannerheim burned most of his archive in the fall of 1945 and February 1948. And he had to resort to the help of his closest employees. But he did the main work, sometimes interrupted by travel and bouts of illness, himself. By early 1951, the monumental two-volume work was largely ready for publication.
In Finland in 1948, i.e. Almost simultaneously with the beginning of writing Mannerheim’s memoirs, the communists were removed from the government and were defeated in the parliamentary elections. A right-wing counter-offensive began, albeit timidly. The actions of Mannerheim's army against the threat of Bolshevisation of the North began to be held in high esteem again. This became the leitmotif of his memories. At the same time, he simply kept silent about some dubious matters, for example, his pro-Hitler and by no means defensive orders in the first weeks of the war against the USSR in 1941. Mannerheim went even further - in the introduction to his memoirs, he accused the USSR of starting the Second World War in connection with the agreement with Hitler in August 1939, with plans to conquer the whole world, and expressed his anti-communist beliefs in very strong words. His colleagues, including Paasikivi, did not object to his point of view in principle, but recommended that these lines not be published. They feared that this could cause a deterioration in Finnish-Soviet relations. Mannerheim partially, but reluctantly, met them halfway. In the version printed after his death, the introduction was shortened much more than the author himself was prepared for.
On January 19, 1951, the 83-year-old marshal, honing his memories, became seriously ill. The stomach ulcer worsened. Ero was rushed to hospital in Lausanne. Smiling faintly, he said to the doctor; "I've fought many wars... but now I think I'll lose this last battle.".
After another operation, Mannerheim felt better for several days, but then a sharp deterioration followed and on January 27, 1951 he died.
Ero's body was taken to Finland. Even after Mannerheim's death, the political battles associated with him continued. The government was afraid that the funeral could turn into a major nationalist demonstration, which would lead to foreign policy complications. They argued for a long time. The majority unanimously decided that government members would not participate in the funeral. But a number of them, including Prime Minister W.K. Kekkonen, whose relationship with Mannerheim during his lifetime was very difficult, nevertheless went ahead.
The funeral took place on February 4 with a large crowd of people. The last horse of the once dashing cavalryman was brought. Speaker of Parliament K.-A. Fagerholm, in his farewell speech, showed the outstanding importance of Mannerheim as a political and military figure in Finland. Mannerheim was buried in the Hietaniemi cemetery next to his former comrades, soldiers who died in the wars.
June 16, 2016 on the facade of the Military Academy building
logistics support at Zakharyevskaya
a memorial plaque was unveiled on the street where Mannerheim served
Finnish field marshal.
IN Soviet time Marshal Mannerheim was spoken of as a “reactionary statesman of Finland.” It was customary to mention him mainly only in connection with the defense line that bore his name during the Soviet-Finnish war. Meanwhile, Mannerheim’s connection with Russia is limited not only to the Winter War. In Finland itself, attitudes towards his personality are ambiguous. The bearer of the contemptuous nickname “rossi” (i.e. Russian) and the national hero, whose monument was erected by his descendants in the center of Helsinki, are one and the same person.
Baron Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim was born on June 4, 1867 near the city of Turku in Finland, which was then part of the Russian Empire (Grand Duchy of Finland). His native language was Swedish, Carl Gustav came from an old family with roots in Holland and partly Germany. In the 17th century his ancestors moved to Sweden, their surname Marhein began to sound like Mannerheim, and then moved to Finland. The Swedish family of Mannerheim gave Scandinavia many statesmen, scientists, and generals
The Mannerheim family occupied a fairly prominent position in society. Gustav's father Karl Robert graduated from the University of Helsingfors, collected works of art, had musical training, sang in the national opera, wrote poetry, and was engaged in translations, as he spoke several languages. The mother of the future marshal Helen von Julin was the daughter of a major Finnish magnate. However, the baron, who loved to live large, managed to squander both his inheritance and his wife’s dowry. After 18 years of marriage, he fled to Paris with his mistress, leaving his wife and seven children without a livelihood. Unable to bear this, Helen died of a heart attack a year later, and the children were taken in by relatives.
It was decided to send Gustav to study in a cheap cadet corps near Vyborg, but he was soon expelled from it for disobeying discipline. His relatives wanted to find him something else to do, but suddenly Gustav changed his mind and, against all odds, decided to pursue a military career, choosing for this the Nicholas Cavalry School in St. Petersburg. In 1887 he enlisted in the cavalry as an officer, and in 1889 he graduated from college with the rank of lieutenant. In his memoirs, Mannerheim respectfully remembers his teachers at the cavalry school, especially General Alekseev (deputy supreme commander in chief during the First World War). In St. Petersburg, he became friends with Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Nicholas II, which had a beneficial effect on his future career. Mannerheim served for two years in the “black dragoons” (15th Alexandria Dragoon Regiment, stationed in Western Poland), and then was enrolled in a cavalry regiment, the honorary commander of which was the Empress herself. Mannerheim treated Empress Maria Feodorovna, a Danish by birth, with special respect. Subsequently, after the revolution, during his trip to Europe, the baron visited the empress to express his respect (Maria Feodorovna spent her last years of her life in Denmark). During the coronation of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna, Mannerheim stood on the guard of honor.
In 1802, Gustav married the daughter of a Russian general, Anastasia Arapova, but this marriage was not happy; they separated in 1901, and officially divorced only in 1919. The wife and two daughters settled in Paris. The eldest, Anastasia, converted to Catholicism and became a nun before the First World War. She spent almost 20 years in a Carmelite monastery in England, but eventually abandoned monastic life. The youngest, Sophie, will move to him in 18, intending to stay forever, but she did not like life in Helsinki. She will return to France, but will regularly correspond with her father and sometimes visit him.
During the Russo-Japanese War, where Mannerheim volunteered, he distinguished himself in battles on the territory of Manchuria. He finished the war with the rank of major. At the beginning of March 1906, Mannerheim, who had risen to the rank of colonel, received an order from the Russian General Staff to go on a scientific and reconnaissance expedition to Central Asia. The main goal of the expedition was to find out the results of the reform policy carried out in China after the defeat of the Boxer Rebellion and its impact on the regions bordering Russia. In addition, it was necessary to draw maps of the roads along which the detachment would advance and study their possible military significance. Military reconnaissance and espionage activities were camouflaged as scientific work. It was intended to completely keep Mannerheim's affiliation with the Russian army a secret, presenting him as a Swedish citizen who was taking part in a major French research expedition. Having traveled on horseback over a distance of 3 thousand km, all the way to Beijing, the pseudo-scientist, under the most difficult conditions, not only completed the task, but also became interested in scientific activity. In Beijing, Mannerheim had the opportunity to meet with General Kornilov, who at that time was working in China as a military attaché. By coincidence, it was Kornilov who sent Mannerheim on an expedition two years earlier in Tashkent. Mannerheim would have a chance to meet with him later, in 1917, at which time the baron would also be among the generals who did not accept the revolution. It must be said that Mannerheim was familiar not only with Kornilov, but with almost all the leaders of the White movement.
In his diary about his trip to Asia, Mannerheim recorded what he saw and felt, observed and experienced directly, without relying on prejudices and stereotypes. His observations, notes, maps, photographs (and there were more than one and a half thousand of them), measurements, copied rock paintings, collected ancient manuscripts, books would have done honor to any researcher, because they contained information on geography, history, ethnography, anthropology, culture and other sciences. For example, a fragment of text in one of the ancient northern Iranian dialects went around all universities European countries, and the Buddhist text, written in square Mongolian script from the 13th to mid-16th centuries, remained unique.
Mannerheim tried to learn Chinese. In addition to the translator, he hired another Chinese to be able to train in the language (in addition to his native Swedish, Mannerheim spoke English, French, Russian, Finnish and German). Mannerheim left Beijing only once to meet with the Dalai Lama, who lived in China as a prisoner under constant supervision. “The Dalai Lama seemed to me a lively and intelligent person, strong spiritually and physically,” the baron wrote. His Holiness immediately inquired whether Mannerheim had brought him any message; he was probably waiting for news from the Tsar or the Russian government. But the baron had nothing with him, not even a gift for the Dalai Lama, and he gave up his pistol (in his memoirs, Mannerheim, commenting on this episode, wrote: “The times are such that even a holy man more often needs a pistol than prayer”). In his memoirs, the baron, who had sympathy for the Dalai Lama, subsequently noted with satisfaction that he managed to return to Tibet and, taking advantage of the weakening of the great powers, to create an independent state.
Mannerheim personally presented a report on this expedition to the king, who was very interested in the baron’s adventures. The audience, given in the Tsarskoye Selo Palace, lasted instead of the planned 20 minutes 1 hour 20. As a reward, Mannerheim received the rank of major general and a regiment near Warsaw. He was very proud of his scientific work, and the report on it was finalized in 1940.
During the First World War, Mannerheim became commander of the elite 12th Cavalry Division, and three years later he commanded an army corps and was promoted to lieutenant general. He was awarded almost all Russian orders. In his behavior, Mannerheim was a true aristocrat. His aristocracy was manifested in his demeanor (“posture expresses the state of the soul,” he used to say), and his attentive attitude towards his subordinates: he remembered the names of many privates, where they came from, whether they had a family, etc. It is interesting that at the front Mannerheim and General Denikin, the future leader of the Volunteer Army, commanded neighboring divisions. At the beginning of 1917, Mannerheim was on vacation. Arriving in St. Petersburg, he found himself in the very maelstrom of revolutionary events. Mannerheim's attitude towards the revolution was hostile, and the fall of the monarchy was a terrible blow. He refused to swear allegiance to the Provisional Government, because he had already sworn allegiance to the Tsar and the Fatherland (and kept it to the end: despite any changes, he always kept a portrait of Nicholas II on his desk). The October Revolution became a personal tragedy for Mannerheim; he decided to leave Russia.
Things were also turbulent in Finland. By that time, two military groups had already formed in the country, opposing each other: on the one hand, well-trained voluntary self-defense units “Schutzkor”, formed by activists of bourgeois parties in the event of an armed struggle against the Russian occupation forces. Shutskor later formed the backbone of the White Army. On the other, scattered groups of workers created after the February Revolution and often undergoing military training with the help of Russian Bolsheviks: they gradually united into the Red Guard. Third, and very significant, military force there were Russian soldiers and sailors of the Baltic Fleet who were still in Finland.
Mannerheim took command of the units opposing the Red Army and the Finnish Red Guard. On the basis of the Shutskor, armed forces were formed, which also included volunteers from Russia and Sweden, weapons came from Germany. Mannerheim also received help from the German General Count von der Goltz, who from February 1918 commanded the 12th German Division (East Naval Division). General von der Goltz's division was initially stationed in the Baltic states, fighting there against the Red Army. Together, the White Finns and the German expeditionary force of General von der Goltz forced the Red Guard units to retreat first to the city of Vyborg (where they lost the battle on April 24), and then to the territory of Soviet Russia. in mid-May, Mannerheim hosted a victory parade: the civil war was over and disarmed Russian troops left the country. In December 1918, Karl Mannerheim was proclaimed regent of Finland.
White losses turned out to be relatively small - about 5 thousand people. More than 20 thousand Red Finns died; of these, only a few thousand are in battle; the rest were executed or died of starvation and disease in concentration camps. Moreover, both women and children were executed and thrown into prisoner-of-war camps, which caused outrage in Europe. It is still not clear to what extent Mannerheim was involved in this “bloodbath,” as the Finns still call that time. It is known that he tried to stop the senseless bloodshed, but the situation, as almost always happens in a war situation, got out of control in many areas. In addition, at the end of May 1918, he resigned and for some time could not influence the course of events.
The attitude towards Mannerheim after 1918 was ambivalent: many considered him to be the culprit of the White Terror and the deaths of tens of thousands of prisoners. On the other hand, in 1919, grateful fellow citizens collected hundreds of thousands of signatures and 7.5 million marks as a gift to Mannerheim, the liberator of the fatherland. It is known that Mannerheim offered military cooperation to the leadership of the White movement in Russia and even an attack on red Petrograd. But neither the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral Kolchak, nor the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of southern Russia, General Denikin, agreed to such cooperation with Finland. The reason was that they both stood for a united and indivisible Russia.
On June 17, 1919, the Republic of Finland was proclaimed. That same month, General Mannerheim voluntarily resigned as regent of Finland. But he continued to be one of the country's most prominent political figures, maintaining enormous personal influence over its armed forces. In 1931, when Marshal Mannerheim was already over 60 years old, the government of the country again returned him to active government activities. He was appointed chairman of the State Defense Council, which had to resolve military issues in the context of worsening relations between Finland and its neighbor, the Soviet Union. For eight years (the construction of the first fortifications began in 1927), Karl Mannerheim supervised the construction of a powerful fortification line on the Karelian Isthmus, which went down in military history as the “Mannerheim Line”. German, English, French and Belgian fortification engineers took part in its construction. The total length of the line was 135 kilometers, and its depth was 95 kilometers. In total there were 220 kilometers of solid wire fences, 200 of forest rubble and 80 of tank embankments.
In 1939, the former general of the Russian imperial army with the rank of Marshal of Finland became commander-in-chief of the army of the Finnish Republic. Already in the summer of 1938, Moscow demanded a lease of the four largest islands in the Gulf of Finland; Mannerheim believed that the islands should be given up, since their defense was still impossible. The government did not even consider this issue then. A year later, Molotov and Ribbentrop entered into a non-aggression pact. It contained a secret protocol that placed the Baltic states and Finland at the mercy of the USSR. After the division of Poland, demands increased - now the Russians wanted, in addition to the islands, part of the Karelian Isthmus and a naval base in Hanko in exchange for territories in Eastern Karelia. On November 26, the so-called “Mainila incident” occurs: shelling of a border village located on Soviet territory. The Soviet Union blamed Finland for this, although it later became clear that the shots were fired from the Soviet side. On November 28, the USSR denounces the 1932 non-aggression treaty with Finland, followed by a severance of diplomatic relations on the 29th. a communist puppet government of Finland is created headed by Otto Ville Kuuinen; On December 3, the Soviet side concludes an agreement of friendship and mutual assistance with this “people's government.” And when the USSR is expelled from the League of Nations, this gives reason to declare that the USSR is providing assistance to the “legitimate government elected by the working people”
The Soviet-Finnish War began with the bombing of the Finnish capital Helsinki and the city of Viipuri (modern Vyborg). On the USSR side, approximately one million military personnel participated in the war. In addition to the ground forces fighting led the Baltic Fleet. Mannerheim had an army of 300 thousand people, of which only 50 thousand were regular, personnel troops. The Finnish army that fought against the Red Army included many volunteers from Scandinavian and other European countries. Mannerheim's defensive tactics on the Karelian Isthmus turned out to be effective. The fortifications, almost 150 km long, consisted of an almost continuous chain of trenches and dugouts, protected by anti-tank ditches, boulders and barbed wire. The second row of fortifications was built in feverish haste before the war. In general, their power was exaggerated by Soviet propaganda as the offensive faltered. The marshal himself liked to say: “The Mannerheim Line is Finnish soldiers.” Another terrible enemy of the Russians was the cold. The ratio of human losses in this war turned out to be amazing: it was approximately 1:5, i.e. There were 5 Red Army soldiers per Finn (the Finns lost 23 thousand killed in battle and missing in action).
By February, the Finns' human and technical resources were exhausted. On February 21, throwing 27 army divisions with tanks and artillery into battle, Soviet troops broke through the Finnish defenses in a 12-kilometer area. On March 12, 1940, little Finland capitulated to prevent the advance of Soviet troops deep into its territory. Under the terms of the peace treaty between the USSR and the Republic of Finland, the state border on the Karelian Isthmus moved away from Leningrad beyond the line of the cities of Vyborg and Sortavala, 10% of the country went to the Soviet Union and from there 400,000 refugees poured into the interior of the country, who needed to be given shelter and work. But still, the moral victory was on the side of the Finns - the whole world started talking about the courage and courage of the small people who could not be conquered.
“Field Marshal Mannerheim was tall, slender and muscular, with a noble bearing, confident demeanor and clear facial features. He belonged to that type of great historical figures, as if specially created to fulfill their mission, in which the 18th and 19th centuries were so rich, but which has now become almost completely extinct. He was endowed with personal traits characteristic of all the great historical characters who lived before him. In addition, he was an excellent horseman and shooter, a gallant gentleman, an interesting conversationalist and an outstanding connoisseur of the culinary arts, and was impressive in salons, as well as at races, clubs and parades in to the same degree great experience."
Gustav Mannerheim's great-grandfather, Carl Eric Mannerheim, was the leader of the delegation received by Emperor Alexander I, and contributed to the success of the negotiations that resulted in the approval of the constitution and the autonomous status of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Since then, all Mannerheims have become distinguished by a clear pro-Russian orientation.
“I was 15 years old when in 1882 I entered the Finnish cadet corps. I was the first of three generations of Mannerheims to devote themselves to a military career. My service in the Russian Tsarist Army began with an incident that had a decisive influence on my life. I mean expulsion from the cadet corps in Finland and admission to the Nikolaev Cavalry School in St. Petersburg.”
K.G. Mannerheim among brothers and sisters: Sofia in the center, Karl, August and Johan on the left,on the right are Annika and Gustav, Eva is sitting
He graduated from the Nikolaev Cavalry School with honors. Born into the family of Baron Karl Robert Mannerheim and Countess Hedwig Charlotte Helena von Julin, having been educated in one of the elite units of the Imperial Guard, thanks to his personal qualities, he soon approached the Court and became close to the circle of the Imperial family.
In 1891, he entered service in the Cavalry Regiment of Her Imperial Majesty, whose chief was the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Being from the Nordic countries, she had a particularly warm attitude towards G. Mannerheim, who greeted her in Danish when they first met. He also developed friendly relations with Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna.
Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna with cavalry guards
Thanks to his elegant appearance and good manners, G. Mannerheim was given a responsible and honorable role at the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra in 1896. After the coronation, he led the solemn procession. He recalls the very day of the coronation:
“It was the most tiring ceremony I have ever attended. I was one of four cavalry officers who, together with the highest officials of the state, formed a trellis along the wide staircase that led from the altar to the throne on the coronation dais. The air from the incense was suffocating. With a heavy broadsword in one hand and a “dove” in the other, we stood motionless from nine in the morning until half past two in the afternoon.”
Coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. There are two cavalry guards ahead; to the left of the Emperor, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim
The next day, the order for the cavalry regiment read: “His Imperial Majesty deigned to twice express his gratitude for the brilliant performance of the regiment and its impeccable uniform...”.
On May 16, the Emperor, dressed in the red uniform of the cavalry guards, arranged a reception for the officers of the regiment in the Kremlin Palace, at which K. G. Mannerheim had a long conversation with Emperor Nicholas II. After this meeting, the image of Nicholas II appeared to Baron G. Mannerheim as “My Emperor” - correct, attentive and polite, spiritually close to him.
During the First World War, when officers asked him why he was invulnerable to bullets and shells, the baron replied that he had a silver talisman and touched his left breast pocket: there lay a silver medal of 1896, a medal of a participant in the coronation of His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II . When K.G. Mannerheim returned from an Asian expedition to St. Petersburg in September 1908. Emperor Nicholas II listened with interest to his report on the trip.
During his service, K.G Mannerheim established himself as a successful commander-mentor. They admired him and talked about him. Conversations reached Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, who in 1910 appointed G. Mannerheim commander of His Majesty's Life Guards Ulan Regiment with the rank of Major General of His Imperial Majesty's retinue.
In 1911, on February 17, Baron G. Mannerheim received the regiment. The regiment's barracks were located in Warsaw.
In the autumn, as usual, the lancers guarded the area of the royal hunting grounds near Spala, one of the summer residences of the Imperial Family. At this time K.G. Mannerheim was especially close to the Royal Family and was invited to the table every day.
On the right is Major General of His Imperial Majesty's retinue G. Mannerheim
On May 18, 1915, the baron received the following telegram: “To the General of the EIV retinue, Baron Gustav Mannerheim. I want to see my Akhtyrtsev. I will be there on May 18 at 16.00 by train. Olga". The guard of honor, led by Mannerheim, was at the Snyatyn station waiting for military hospital train No. 164/14 with Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna for several hours, but the train never arrived. It was decided to begin the celebrations - festive tables were set in one of the barns.
Some time later, a woman in a nurse’s dress quietly entered the barn and sat down at the table next to Mannerheim; fortunately, one of the officers recognized her in time and offered her a chair. The princess leaned towards Gustav: “Baron, you know that I don’t like ceremonies. Continue dinner and don’t forget to pour me some wine, I know that you are a gallant gentleman, unlike our mutual friends... And I apologize for being late - my train was not allowed through for fear of German raids. I got on the horse - you know me as a rider - and here you are with my unnecessary escort... And order to invite my guardians to the table.”
The gala dinner continued and went very well. The first couple in the first polonaise were Gustav and Olga. The next day, a solemn parade of Akhtyrtsev took place.
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was one of those women whom no one forgot. A photograph given to Gustav with a memorable inscription from the princess has been preserved: “... I am sending you a card taken during the war, when we met more and when, as the beloved commander of the 12th cavalry division, you were with us. This reminds me of the past...”
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna
There were no more division commanders of the First World War who were rated by members of the Imperial Family as Baron Gustav Mannerheim.
During the war, the plan to overthrow the monarchy in Russia gained the greatest strength - the Tsar's throne was shaken.
“In mid-February, having learned that the Emperor was in Tsarskoe Selo, I went there. Since I was a member of His Majesty’s Retinue, and had previously commanded the Guards Lancers, I could count on the Emperor to accept me. That day there was an appointment for only two people, and I was granted an audience very quickly. It was the Emperor's custom to listen carefully to everything that was reported to him, and I believed that he would be interested in a message about the situation on the Romanian front. But, as it seemed to me, at that moment his thoughts were occupied by completely different problems. The general mood in Petrograd was depressed. People openly condemned not only the government, but also the Tsar himself. Increasing war fatigue, economic devastation and transport chaos were taking their toll on daily life. <…>The stern elders of the State Council, the highest advisory body of the Russian Empire, took the side of the opposition, which demanded the introduction of parliamentary government.”
G. Mannerheim did not take the oath to the new Government. Immediately after the February Revolution, he proposed to a number of generals to put an end to the Provisional Government and restore the monarchy.
“Going south to my division, I visited the commander of the Southern (Romanian) Front, General Sakharov. I told him about my impressions of the events in Petrograd and Moscow and tried to persuade the general to lead the resistance. However, Sakharov believed that the time for such actions had not yet come. I was finally convinced that a commander who is unable to protect his officers from violence must part with the Russian army. The situation in the troops worsened every day, and this only strengthened my decision to leave the Russian army. But you had to come up with some reason! Chance helped.
<…>Lenin and Trotsky, having stood at the head of the Bolshevik government, seized power. This news was received completely calmly in Odessa. My officer friends and I argued about the need to organize resistance to this minority dictatorship, but I had to realize that neither they nor society as a whole felt it necessary to take any action.
<…>It was quite obvious that they were all in a terribly depressed state. People were dominated by fear, and they did not show any desire to fight against the new regime.<…>I said that resistance was necessary and it would be good if one of the great princes became the head of the movement. It is better to die with a sword in your hand than to be shot in the back or shot. My neighbors had a different opinion and considered the fight against the Bolsheviks a hopeless cause. I was deeply disappointed that in the capital and Odessa public opinion turned out to be one."
Being sincerely devoted to the Sovereign, G. Mannerheim, before leaving for Finland, risking his life, decided to go to Tsarskoe Selo to say goodbye to the Commander-in-Chief of the army. The respectful attitude of the guards towards him affected him, and he entered the Palace. The Emperor has not returned yet.
“Baron, you know me well and have known me for a long time,” the Empress said to Mannerheim. You know that I can control myself. But when General Kornilov came here with the order granted to him by Niki, and with a red bow on his sleeve, and said: “Citizen Romanova, stand up to listen to the decree of the Provisional Government,” my eyes darkened. And in the eyes of the Empress,” writes Mannerheim, “tears appeared.”
My Emperor
The news of the abdication of “His Emperor” found G. Mannerheim in Moscow.
In September 1917 he was transferred to the reserve as a military commander, and in January 1918 he submitted his resignation.
“On December 6, Finland declared independence, and I no longer had any intention of remaining in Russian army. By the way, I, being a citizen of Finland, served in this army for almost thirty years.” “On that December day in 1917 when I arrived in Helsinki, the weather was gloomy and rainy...
K.G. Mannerheim in the uniform of a White Army general
<…>I was interested in what those forces that were supposed to save could do Russian state. Therefore, after spending a week in Helsinki, I returned to Petrograd. There was no hint of resistance. On the contrary, I noticed that Soviet power was becoming increasingly stronger and becoming a threat to the young Finnish state. I quickly realized: the question is not whether Finland will find itself in a revolutionary cycle or not, the only question is when it will happen.”
It was with great sorrow that G. Mannerheim received the news of the execution of the Royal Family in Yekaterinburg. At his request, the funeral Divine Liturgy was served in the Assumption Cathedral in Helsinki. When Kerensky, who fled Russia in 1918, ended up in Finland, G. Mannerheim did not accept him. As always, acting at the behest of his conscience, a loyal subject of the Russian Emperor, who made every effort to liberate the Royal Family and Russia from the “red plague,” he treated with contempt the man who carried out the instructions of the Freemasons to crush the monarchical power in Russia. To the man who arrested the Emperor and his family and exiled them to Tobolsk at the direction of the Masonic lodge.
Marshal G. Mannerheim at the victory parade in the civil war. May 1918
In Finland, G. Mannerheim was able, at times, to protect the country from the “red infection” with harsh measures. In this struggle, he united both communists and monarchists - all layers of society, and in a short time managed to form a fully combat-ready army of 70,000, which he led with the rank of cavalry general.
“On June 23, 1919, Admiral A.V. Kolchak sent an official appeal to G. Mannerheim: “In these decisive days of our struggle against the destructive and anarchic beginning of Bolshevism, I would not have fulfilled my duty to Russia if I had not addressed Your Excellency with a completely frank, filled with deep trust appeal, to which I am encouraged concern for saving the countless human lives languishing under the Bolshevik regime.
I proceed from the conviction that everything possible should be done to achieve the most rapid destruction of Bolshevism. Therefore, I would like to hope that you will encourage the Finnish government to take part in the common cause and take decisive measures to liberate the northern capital of Russia, starting active military operations in the direction of Petrograd.
I ask you, General, to accept this appeal of mine as a sign of the unchanging memory of the Russian Army about your glorious past in its ranks and of Russia’s sincere respect for the national freedom of the Finnish people. Admiral Kolchak. June 23, 1919."
G. Mannerheim’s answer read: “I ask Your Excellency to accept my gratitude for the telegram dated June 23, which I received on the 4th of this month.<…>Although I am confident that in the future I will be able to destroy any attempt to raise the red banner of revolution in Finland, nevertheless [we] know that the Soviet power existing in them poses a constant threat to us and are far from indifferent to the suffering experienced by the Russian people under the yoke of the Bolsheviks.<…>Therefore, the Finnish people and their government are far from alien to the idea of the participation of regular Finnish troops and the liberation of Petrograd. I will not hide from you, Mr. Admiral, that, in the opinion of my government, the Finnish Diet will not approve of an enterprise that, although it brings us benefits, requires heavy sacrifices, unless we receive a guarantee that new Russia, in whose favor we would act, agreed to certain conditions, the fulfillment of which we not only consider necessary for our participation, but also a necessary guarantee for our national and state existence.
What kind of conditions these were, V.N. wrote down in his diary. Pepelyaev: “The Finns, in order to participate in the capture of Petrograd, demand recognition of unconditional independence and self-determination of the population of Karelia and Olonets province.” And he commented on his reaction: “We reject the proposal and respond in the spirit of our note.”
The project was unanimously rejected by Yudenich, A.V. Kolchak, S.D. Sazonov and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, General A.I. Denikin as contrary to the national interests of Russia, in the absence of a guarantee of assistance from Finland “due to internal political difficulties” on the eve of the elections.
K.G. Mannerheim in the last years of his life
G. Mannerheim wanted to win the elections and start a war with the Soviets as president. On July 25, 1919, elections took place, which, as an exception, it was decided to hold not by popular vote, but by parliamentary vote. And here G. Mannerheim had no chance. The liberal-minded professor at the University of Helsingfors, Stolberg, won. G. Mannerheim leaves the country for a long time.
L.V. Vlasov writes: “In 1938, Stalin decided to contact G. Mannerheim personally, since he was unable to come to an agreement with either the president or the prime minister. General Ignatiev was living in Moscow at this time; from the former, once a cavalry guard, he knew G. Mannerheim. They asked him to write a letter to an old friend. G. Mannerheim read it and replied: “I have no business with traitors.” Shcherbatov, Alexey Pavlovich (1910-2003), Prince, President of the Union of Russian Nobles of the Northern and South America writes in his memoirs: “I returned to the topic of the Tsar many times, and on one of my visits Kerensky told me that when Nicholas II was under arrest, still in Tsarskoye Selo, he proposed organizing a secret mission to transport him abroad through Finland to Sweden General Karl Gustavovich Mannerheim, future commander-in-chief of the Finnish army. While in Russian service, he was selflessly devoted to the Emperor and did not miss an opportunity to emphasize: “I am a subject of the Grand Duke of Finland.”<…>In 1936 I met Mannerheim, an elegant, handsome, successful former officer of the Cavalry Regiment, who by the time of the meeting had become famous as a hero of the First World War. He already bore the title of Finnish marshal, but still had a very positive attitude towards Russia and spoke Russian well. Our meeting took place, one might say, in a homely atmosphere: Karl Gustavovich was very friendly with my rich aunt, Countess Elizaveta Vladimirovna Shuvalova, née Baryatinskaya. Mannerheim told me then that it was not difficult to take out the Royal Family on a secret train, and he was ready to support General Yudenich with the army in 1917, but Kerensky did not agree to this: the flight of the Emperor immediately after the revolution would have led to the collapse of the Provisional Government. And England did not show active support for this project.”
G. Mannerheim remained loyal to Emperor Nicholas II, Imperial Russia. Until the end of his life, on his desk there was always, even during the Russophobia that reigned in Finland, a portrait with a photograph and personal signature of His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II. Nearby stood a photograph of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, to whom he owed much of his support. He paid her courtesy calls in Denmark in the 1920s. Almost a quarter of a century after her death in Denmark, he spoke very warmly about her in his memoirs.
A Lutheran, G. Mannerheim was essentially a Christian, deeply revered the Orthodox faith, wore an Orthodox cross on his chest and was buried with it. He prayed on Valaam and asked Russian monks to pray for him.
Baron G. Mannerheim was introduced to Anna Alexandrovna in Tsarskoe Selo in 1908, when he had just returned from the Asian campaign. After this, when he came to Tsarskoe Selo, Lieutenant General of the Russian Imperial Army G. Mannerheim visited her small house, located next to the Tsar’s Palace, several times. Anna Alexandrovna, with her characteristic kindness towards people, was glad to have guests and always welcomed them.
A. A. Taneyeva at the beginning of her service with the Empress
In January 1909, the Royal Couple, as well as G. Mannerheim, were guests in Anna’s house. This was shortly before his departure to Poland.
The last meeting and conversation between Anna Alexandrovna and Gustav Mannerheim in Russia took place in February 1917 in Tsarskoye Selo, in the Alexander Palace.
On March 21, 1917 (old style), Kerensky arrested Anna, who was sick with measles, and on March 22 she was put in solitary confinement. Peter and Paul Fortress, where she spent 3 months in inhumane conditions before being transferred to the Arrest House.
A month later, still not having recovered from the horrors of imprisonment, she was again, on the orders of Kerensky, as an unreliable person, sent outside St. Petersburg, to the then Grand Duchy of Finland, and as a prisoner of the Provisional Government, she was kept first on the yacht of Their Majesties “Polar Star”, and then in Sveaborg fortress.
Through the prayers of the innocently suffering Anna, her parents, their efforts, which cost a lot of money, and by the grace of God, Anna Alexandrovna managed to escape from prison every time and avoid execution. “...Wearing a black scarf, with a bag in my hands, I walked from acquaintance to acquaintance. Having knocked, she asked, as every time: “I left prison, will you accept me?” ... Like a hunted animal, I hid in one dark corner, then in another. ... I haven’t had shoes for a long time, and I’m last month(December), I walked barefoot, which is not difficult if you get used to it, and even, perhaps, it’s easier with my sore feet... I went to bed every night, thinking that this night was my last on earth. There were so many critical moments: searches, meetings... So I lived one day at a time... On Gorokhovaya they said that they would kill me immediately if they found me; others said that I ran away to the whites.”
She lived in daily fear of death for more than a year. For her love and devotion to the Royal Family, the Lord protected her.
Her Majesty Alexandra Feodorovna, Anna Alexandrovna in Anna's house
Being wanted, in every minute danger of being found and killed, extremely tired and changed, after much persuasion she nevertheless agreed to leave Russia and made a vow that if she and her mother managed to settle in Finland, she would become a monk there and devote the rest of her life to God .
Nun Maria (A.A. Taneyeva). Russian Valaam Monastery, 1923
G. Mannerheim followed the events taking place in Russia, and from the stories of those close to him knew about tragic fate The royal family, as well as the fact that Anna Alexandrovna was a prisoner of the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress and was kept in custody in the Sveaborg fortress.
On January 10, 1921 (new style), two Finns on a large sleigh across the ice transported Anna Alexandrovna and her mother Nadezhda Illarionovna to the Finnish coast. Anna Alexandrovna, keeping her vow to God, took secret monastic vows with the name Maria in the Russian Valaam Monastery.
Before the outbreak of the Winter War, she and her mother lived in Vyborg.
“From Vyborg, Anna Alexandrovna sends Gustav Mannerheim a beautiful Russian Christmas card with her best wishes. The friendly text was completed by the signature: “Anna Taneeff, Vaasankatu, 13, Viipuri.”
This was a big surprise for G. Mannerheim, and the general from the cavalry of the Finnish Army immediately responded to Anna in a regular letter, without using his official letterhead. Gustav wrote in French:
“Dear madam, I was very glad that you escaped from the revolutionary Petrograd hell and are living in the family of noble people, the Akutins, whom I know well.”
In July 1930, General Gustav Mannerheim was passing through Vyborg on his way to Terijoki, to the Villa Bianca. Anna Alexandrovna intended to meet with him, but immediately upon arrival in Vyborg the general fell ill and returned to Helsinki.
Last years Anna Alexandrovna's life in Vyborg, among other things, was darkened by a long illness and then by the death of her mother, who understood and supported Anna in both joy and sorrow, sharing with her daughter the way of the cross in her life. Nadezhda Illarionovna died on March 13, 1937. The funeral service was held in the Vyborg Transfiguration Cathedral. She was buried in the Ristimäki cemetery.
Anna Alexandrovna writes in her memoirs about what her parents meant to her: “Despite the travels and education received, most of all we children were raised by our parents. The greatest happiness for us was to be in their circle, and they, for their part, devoted every free minute to us. Under the influence of our parents, we grew up to be people who love art and everything beautiful. Faith in God, attendance at divine services, an impeccable life, prayer were the basis for us life path. Our father emphasized the importance of a sense of duty for a person and encouraged us to follow the voice of our conscience in all cases of life. He himself was selflessly devoted to the throne and his Sovereign; We adopted the same devotion from him, just as he adopted it from his ancestors.”
The Taneyev couple with their son Sergei
G. Mannerheim, already a field marshal of Finland, having learned that Anna Alexandrovna was in great grief, sent her a heartfelt, sympathetic telegram, in which he recalled meetings with her mother in St. Petersburg.
After the death of her mother, Anna and Vera Zapevalova move from the Eden house to another, more modest house in Vyborg.
As a result of the Winter War, Vyborg passed to the Soviet Union, and for Anna Alexandrovna and Vera there was no return to it. For the same reason, there was no road to Valaam, where monastic life was suspended for many years. On February 5, 1940, the brethren led by Abbot Khariton, who by that time had Finnish citizenship, left him. During the Winter War, when there was a struggle for the Karelian Isthmus and the waterways of Ladoga, the monastery was subjected to heavy bombardment.
The monks managed to take with them all the most valuable things - the shrine of St. Sergius and Herman, icons, Gospels, church utensils, vestments, books, bells, gifts of the Russian Emperors. In winter, due to severe frosts, the ice on Ladoga was quite strong. The monastery's valuables were exported to trucks Finnish army, which were allocated by the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army, Field Marshal G. Mannerheim. At the same time, the main, theological part of the famous library of the Valaam Monastery was taken away.
In the spring of 1940, Anna Alexandrovna and Vera returned from Sweden to Finland. The question of place of residence arose.
A.A. Taneyeva at the dacha. Finland
After the war, attitudes towards Russians became ambiguous. And then Anna Alexandrovna asked for a meeting with her old friend K.G. Mannerheim, hoping to receive help and protection.
L.V. talks about this meeting. Vlasov in his book “Women in the Fate of Mannerheim”: “On the day of their meeting, Field Marshal G. Mannerheim sent a car for Anna Alexandrovna. Heavy, with a strong limp, with great difficulty and with the help of Mannerheim’s adjutant, Anna Alexandrovna, dressed in a dark dress, entered the house in Kaivopuisto. The field marshal met Anna with his usual charm and hospitality. The conversation over a cup of coffee was in French, switching to Russian. We recalled the events in Tsarskoe Selo. Gustav recalled his meetings with the abbots of the Valaam and Konevetsky monasteries, as well as with Hieroschemamonk Ephraim, with whom they talked a lot about Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. Anna talked about her life. She did not ask for financial assistance, but wanted to receive a letter of recommendation. Knowing how hostility towards Russia and Russians grew with greater force during the formative years of independent Finland and in the post-war period, Gustav quickly wrote the following: “Having known Mrs. Taneyeva, her respected parents and many members of her family for more than thirty years, I ask everyone who has to deal with Ms. Taneyeva, who is suffering due to disability as a result of an accident on the railway, to treat her with sympathy and understanding. Field Marshal Mannerheim. Helsinki, June 11, 1940."
G. Mannerheim's support gave defenseless Anna Alexandrovna a sense of security. She used this letter more than once in difficult life circumstances. After a while, thanks to a letter from K.G. Mannerheim Anna Alexandrovna and Vera receive an apartment in Helsinki, in a house on Topelius Street, in which Anna Alexandrovna lives for the rest of her life.
Secret nun Maria (A.A. Taneeva). Helsinki
Anna Alexandrovna’s relationship with G. Mannerheim continued in correspondence, but mostly these were congratulations for the holidays. On the day of Field Marshal’s 75th birthday, Anna Alexandrovna sent him a large congratulatory letter from Helsinki to Mikkeli, full of warm St. Petersburg memories, and received a kind response to it.
The post-war period was difficult for all residents of Finland. In 1943-1947, pensions from Sweden began to arrive irregularly. The Finnish Red Cross refused to help Anna Alexandrovna. Anna and Vera found themselves in an extremely difficult financial situation. Sometimes they did not even have money to buy bread; for non-payment they were threatened with eviction.
Anna Alexandrovna again turns to G. Mannerheim and asks “to help at least with something.” Thanks to his petition and a call to the Women's Committee of the Finnish Red Cross, Anna Alexandrovna and Vera received a small amount of money.
In 1946, Finnish President Gustav Mannerheim retired, but still remained a simple and accessible person for Anna.
At the beginning of April 1947, when Anna Alexandrovna again turned to G. Mannerheim, begging him, in memory of their 37-year acquaintance, to provide her and Vera with “the most modest financial assistance.” G. Mannerheim, regretting this, could no longer find means to help them.
“Dear madam, I apologize for making you wait so long for an answer, but I did not want to write to you without making inquiries to see if I could find means to help you. This took longer than I thought due to some urgent matters that awaited me upon my return. Unfortunately, my attempts were unsuccessful and I cannot help you. I told you about this several years ago. Since then, you yourself, living in the country, given the unrest, could reduce your demands to the minimum. Please accept, dear madam, my sincere regrets, my best wishes and assurances of my feelings and sympathy for you. Mannerheim."
Soon, compensation began to arrive from Sweden. During these difficult years, Anna Alexandrovna leads an even more detached life from people. No longer trusting anyone and fearing new acquaintances, she communicates mainly with people from the church circle.
A.A. Taneyeva with Vera Zapevalova. Helsinki, 1958
In 1958, six years before Anna Alexandrovna’s death, Finnish journalist Tuomas Vento visited her. The conversation was about Their Majesties, about herself, G. Rasputin. Noting the wretchedness of the apartment’s furnishings, he writes: “In the corner under the holy Images a lamp was burning. On the wall is a large portrait of Their Imperial Majesties Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alexandra Feodorovna. Below them is a photograph of Field Marshal of Finland Mannerheim with a dedicatory inscription.” “He was great and noble - this is what Anna Alexandrovna, the secret nun Maria, said about G. Mannerheim.
The grave of nun Maria (A.A. Taneyeva)
Grave of K.G. Mannerheim, January 27, the day of his repose. Candle and rose from nun Maria (A.A. Taneyeva) and the Royal Family in good memory of past years
Editor's responseOn the facade of the building of the Military Academy of Logistics on Zakharyevskaya Street in St. Petersburg, a memorial plaque was installed in honor of the Russian military leader Karl Mannerheim.
“As they say, you can’t erase words from a song. No one is going to whitewash Mannerheim’s actions after 1918, but before 1918 he served Russia, and to be completely frank, he lived and served in Russia longer than he served and lived in Finland,” said Head of the Kremlin Administration Sergei Ivanov at the opening ceremony.
In turn, as stated at the ceremony Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky, monuments to the heroes of the First World War, who then found themselves on opposite sides of the barricades, are an attempt to overcome the tragic split in society.
AiF.ru talks about what Karl Mannerheim became famous for.
Karl Mannerheim. Photo: Public Domain
Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim was born on June 4, 1867 in the family estate of Louhisaari, near Turku (Finland) into a family Count Karl Robert Mannerheim and Countess Helene Mannerheim, née von Julin.
In 1882-1886, Karl studied at the Finnish Cadet Corps, but was expelled for violations of discipline. After graduating from a private lyceum in Helsinki, in 1887 he entered the Nikolaev Cavalry School in St. Petersburg.
In 1889-1890 he served in the 15th Alexandria Dragoon Regiment, stationed in Poland, and from 1891 - in the Cavalry Regiment. In 1893 he received the rank of lieutenant, in 1901 - captain. In 1897-1903 he served at the imperial court in St. Petersburg.
Mannerheim took part in the Russian-Japanese War of 1903-1905, fighting as part of the 52nd Nezhin Dragoon Regiment. During the year of hostilities in Manchuria, he was awarded military awards three times and promoted to colonel (1905). In 1906-1908, he led a reconnaissance expedition on the Russian-Chinese border. During the expedition, Mannerheim also conducted scientific work.
In 1908, Mannerheim was appointed commander of the 13th Ulan Vladimir Regiment, and in 1910 he was promoted to major general and appointed commander of His Majesty's Life Guards Ulan Regiment stationed in Warsaw.
During the First World War, Mannerheim commanded various units of the active Russian army, and from 1915 - the 12th Cavalry Division. For battles at the end of 1914 he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. Since 1917 - Lieutenant General. In May 1917, he was appointed commander of the VI Cavalry Corps, operating as part of the 6th Army.
After the Bolsheviks came to power, Mannerheim left for Finland, which declared independence from Russia in December 1917. Mannerheim became one of the leaders of the movement for Finland to gain state independence and armed struggle with the leftist forces in this country.
On January 16, 1918, the Senate appointed Mannerheim Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army. From January to May 1918 he commanded troops during the Finnish Civil War. After the failure to elect the German king as king of Finland Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse Mannerheim served as regent (temporary ruler) from December 1918 to July 1919. On July 17, 1919, Finland was proclaimed a republic; on July 25, 1919, Mannerheim transferred state power to the elected President of the Finnish Republic, Kaarlo Stolberg, remaining commander-in-chief of the army. In 1920, as a sign of protest against the reform of the army according to the German model, Mannerheim resigned.
In 1931, Mannerheim became chairman of the Finnish Defense Council. He reorganized and rearmed the army (in 1937, on his initiative, a 7-year rearmament plan was adopted), and actually created the Finnish Air Force. Convinced of the inevitability of war with the USSR, Mannerheim secured funding for the construction of the “Mannerheim Line” - a deeply echeloned system of defensive fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. Based on this fortification system, during the so-called Winter War (Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940), as commander-in-chief of the Finnish armed forces, he developed a successful defensive strategy.
In 1941-1944, Karl Mannerheim led the Finnish armed forces in the war against the USSR. From 1942 he was Marshal of Finland.
On August 4, 1944, the Finnish parliament elected Mannerheim as president of the country. On his initiative, Finland concluded a truce with the USSR and began military operations against Germany in Northern Finland.
In 1946, Mannerheim resigned. In recent years he lived in Lausanne, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Karl Mannerheim died on January 27, 1951, and is buried at the Hietaniemi War Cemetery in Helsinki. A monument to Mannerheim was erected in the center of Helsinki in 1960. His birthday - June 4 - is celebrated as a holiday in armed forces Finland.
Memory
Finland
In Finland, there is the Marshal Mannerheim Heritage Foundation (Suomen Marsalkka Mannerheimin perinnesäätiö), whose main purpose is to preserve the memory of Mannerheim, as well as financially support research in the field of Finnish military history.
Monuments
· equestrian monument in Helsinki (sculptor Aimo Tukiainen), opened in 1960,
· monument in Turku,
· monument in Tampere,
· equestrian monument in Lahti,
· Marshal Mannerheim headquarters museum and monument in Mikkeli,
· museum in the ancestral castle of Louhisaari.
Russia
On June 14, 2007, on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the birth of K. G. Mannerheim, the bust “Cavalier Guard Mannerheim” was erected in St. Petersburg ( sculptor Aydin Aliyev) and an exhibition dedicated to his life and work was opened (Shpalernaya Street, 41, Marshal Hotel).
In 2015, it was assumed that on the facade of house 31 on Galernaya Street, where before the revolution it was located military intelligence Russian Empire, a memorial plaque to K. G. Mannerheim will be unveiled. The plans caused a public outcry, and the board disappeared on the eve of the planned opening ceremony.
On June 16, 2016, a memorial plaque was installed on the facade of house No. 22 on Zakharyevskaya Street. In this building, which now houses the building of the Military Engineering and Technical University, before the revolution there was the Church of Saints and Righteous Zechariah and Elizabeth, the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. Mannerheim served in this regiment.
