Sword Scabbard Declaration: Difference between revisions

During the [[Civil War in Finland]], in February 1918, General Mannerheim, the commander of the anti-communist [[White Guard (Finland)|White Guards]], wrote his famous [[Mannerheim's Order of the Day|Order of the Day]], in which he declared that he would not set his sword to the scabbard ''"until the last Lenin's last soldier and hooligan is deported from Finland and [[East Karelia|ViennaWhite Karelia]]"'' ("... ennen kuin viimeinen Leninin soturi ja huligaani on karkoitettu niin hyvin Suomesta kuin Vienan Karjalastakin.").

The events at the end of [[World War I]] made this goal hard to accomplish, but nevertheless, two attempts were made to this end: the [[Viena expedition]] in 1918 and the [[Aunus expedition]] in 1919, during the [[Russian Civil War]], had allowed Finland to occupy and annex two regions of East Karelia - [[Repola]] and [[Porajärvi]] respectively.

Hostilities between Finland and [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] have comecame to an end with the signing of the [[Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Finnish)|Treaty of Tartu]] in 1920. In accordance with the treaty, Soviet Russia ceded [[Pechengsky District|Petsamo]] to Finland and guaranteed special freedoms to the [[Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Karelian SSR]]. In return, Finland had to give up the two previously annexed Karelian counties. This was seen by many Finns as a very bad deal. The peace treaty thus got a nickname, "a Shame Peace" (''Häpeärauha'' in Finnish).{{FactCitation needed|date=May 2008}}

WithFollowing the [[OperationContinuation BarbarossaWar|Axis invasion of the Soviet Unionattack]] inon theFinland summerof of25 June 1941, Finland was again at war with its eastern neighbour. On [[10 July 10]] 1941, Mannerheim repeatedreferred to his 1918 declaration in his "Order of the Day" speech to his troops: "... in[I]n 1918 during the [[Finnish Civil War|War of Liberation]] I stated to the Finnish and ViennaViena Karelians, that I would not set my sword to the scabbard before Finland and East Karelia would be free." ({{lang-fi|Vapaussodassa vuonna 1918 lausuin Suomen ja Vienan karjalaisille, etten tulisi panemaan miekkaani tuppeen ennen kuin Suomi ja Itä-Karjala olisivat vapaat.}}) This ''Order of the Day'' signified the startbeginning of an offensive, which would result in a three-year -long occupation of RussianEastern Karelia.

==Diplomatic disasterconsequences==

Immediately after the Axis invasion, Finland officially declared itself neutral in relation to that the conflict. However, German minelayers, which had been hiding in the Finnish archipelago, laid two large minefields across the [[Gulf of Finland]]. Later the same night, German bombers flew along the Gulf of Finland to [[Leningrad]] and mined its harbor and the river [[Neva]]. On the return trip, these bombers landed on the [[Utti]] airfield for refueling. After three days, early on the morning of [[25 June, 25]] apreemptive Soviet preemptive air-attack wasraids unleashedwere launched on Finnish towns, airfields and industrial centers in Finland. The country was at war with its larger neighbor once again. This war, called the [[Continuation War]] bywas initially defensive for Finland, beganbut atwith firsthis asnearly aimmediate defensiverestatement war,of but with thehis Sword Scabbard Declaration, Mannerheim had lost the possibility to brand it as a [[defensive war]], or even as a war of [[revanchism]] to regain the territory lost in the [[Winter War]], where 1/8one-eighth of the Finnish populace lived. Gradually, the Continuation War became, in the eyes of some, a [[war of conquest]], to capture land that had not historically belonged to Finland.

For large segments of the public opinion, both in Finland and in other democratic countries, there was a huge difference between a [[defensive war]] and a [[war of aggression]]. In the Winter War Finland had the sympathy of virtually the whole world (with the exception of [[Nazi Germany]] and the aggressor, the [[Soviet Union]]). The chief reason was that Finland, in the eyes of the international opinion, was unjustly attacked by a much larger power. The In the Continuation War, on the other hand, made Finland thewas partly an aggressor in the eyes of some, attacking the Soviet Union alongside the Axis invasion. This badly damaged Finland's image in the eyes of the Churchill government and eventually caused the formerly sympathetic [[United Kingdom|Britain]] to declare war on Finland in December 1941.

* [http://heninen.net/miekka/p-1918_e.htm English translation of the Order of the Day (1918)] at heninen.net