Feb 05 2013

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim * Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim

• Published in,

05.02.2013

Matti Klinge
Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim

President of the Republic, Regent, Marshal of Finland

Gustav Mannerheim, often simply Mannerheim, was a general in the Russian Imperial Army, an explorer, and then, during the period of independence, commander-in-chief during three wars and twice as head of state. Along with, during his lifetime he became the most famous Finn both in his homeland and abroad. Already at the beginning of his career, he became the subject of somewhat mythologized admiration and respect, which was embodied in street names, monuments and a popular house museum.

Monument to Mannerheim in Helsinki.

Admiration and respect have changed over time. The victorious side initially treated the commander-in-chief in the 1918 war with admiration, so legendary was this figure. The losing side felt hatred. Between 1939 and 1944 the enemy tried to rekindle these already subsided negative sentiments, achieving, however, rather the opposite result. In the 1970s, during the period of activation of leftist forces, criticism of Mannerheim was again heard. Admiration was accordingly most emphasized in connection with the death and funeral of the Marshal of Finland, in connection with the construction of an equestrian monument in the late 1950s, and in the 1980s and 1990s. Mannerheim's personality has become the subject of active scientific study since the 1950s.

Gustav Mannerheim was born on June 4, 1867 at Louhisaari Castle in the town of Askainen north of Turku. He was the third child and inherited the title of baron. The family was a count, and the title of count passed to the eldest son. His father, Count Karl Robert Mannerheim, as well as close relatives of his mother Hedwig Charlotte Helena (Helene) von Julin, were industrialists and entrepreneurs, and his grandfather, the president of the court, Count Karl Gustav Mannerheim, and his great-grandfather, Senator Count Karl Eric Mannerheim, were high-ranking officials. Among close relatives, role models could include Admiral Johann Eberhard von Schantz, who made a brilliant career in the Far East and St. Petersburg, traveler-researcher, professor Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, who achieved worldwide fame and moved to Sweden, as well as cousins ​​of his sister’s grandfather Shernval (among them was Aurora Karamzina), who gained success in the high society of St. Petersburg. The initial stage of Mannerheim's military career in St. Petersburg was based both on family ties and recommendations on his father's side, and on financial assistance from relatives on his mother's side.

The bankruptcy of his father, his flight-like departure from Finland, the breakdown of the family and the early death of his mother left a mark on the childhood of Gustav Mannerheim and influenced his sending at the age of fifteen in 1882 to the Finnish Cadet Corps in Hamina (Friedrichsham). The previously typical military career for the nobility now increasingly served other life goals, as exemplified by Mannerheim’s father. The rapidly deteriorating economic situation of the family and Gustav's ambitious and persistent character were ideally suited for a military career; Mannerheim, however, was expelled from the Cadet School for violation of discipline in 1886. He entered the private Böck Gymnasium in Helsinki and passed the matriculation examination in 1887 Immediately after this, he went to St. Petersburg, where in September 1887 he was able to enter the Nikolaev Cavalry School. At this demanding military institution, he successfully studied and was promoted to cornet in 1889. Mannerheim's goal was to get into one of the elite units of the imperial guard, but he was initially seconded to a provincial garrison in Poland. From there, a year later, he joined the cavalry regiment of Her Imperial Majesty's Guard, which was part of His Imperial Majesty's Life Guard, using the recommendations of court ladies, relatives of the Empress and with the financial support of his uncle. Mannerheim was promoted to guard lieutenant in 1893, to guard junior captain in 1899, to guard captain in 1902. Mannerheim remained loyal to the Empress (since 1894, Dowager Empress) Maria Feodorovna, who was considered the commander of this regiment, paid her courtesy calls in Denmark in the 1920s. and kept her photograph on the table in his salon in Helsinki next to the photograph of Nicholas II.

Mannerheim did not get into the Academy of the General Staff, obviously, mainly due to insufficient knowledge of the Russian language. Instead, he became a specialist in horses, both purchasing breeding and working horses for the army and attempting to run a stud farm on his own estate, partly following the example of his brother Johan Mannerheim, who had moved to Sweden. From 1903, he commanded an exemplary squadron and supervised riding training in the Guards cavalry regiments, and also achieved fame in horse riding competitions. Mannerheim, however, was looking for ways to further advance his career. When the war with Japan began in February 1904, he volunteered for the front and was sent with the rank of lieutenant colonel to the 52nd Nezhinsky Hussar Regiment, which was located on the Manchurian front.

At the same time, his elder brother, bank director Count Karl Mannerheim, was exiled to Sweden as one of the leaders of the anti-government political opposition, and those circles to which he belonged sought contacts with Japan in order to incite an uprising in Finland. Some other relatives also moved to Sweden, and their correspondence contains arguments on both sides. Mannerheim emphasized the importance of participation in the war for his career. With this, he could compensate for his failure to enter the General Staff Academy and, at the same time, alleviate the psychological and social problems associated with divorce. At the front, Mannerheim acted proactively and sought to distinguish himself, but at the same time he had to deal with the inept conduct of the war and discord among the high command. The leadership valued him, and although he failed to receive the most coveted award, the St. George Cross, he was promoted to colonel for his courage in the battle of Mukden. The order was dated the day of the battle.

Even then, Mannerheim planned to organize a long reconnaissance expedition to little-known areas of Asia. His example was Nordenskiöld, Swedish and Russian explorers and travelers (Sven Hedin, Nikolai Przhevalsky), as well as some other officers. At the same time, he believed that a successful expedition would allow him to distinguish himself, which he needed to advance in his career. Obviously, his goal was to command a guards regiment.

After returning from the Russo-Japanese War, Mannerheim in 1905-1906. spent some time in Finland and Sweden. As a representative of the baronial branch of his family, he participated for the first time in the Diet of Estates, the last in the history of Finland. At the Sejm, Mannerheim did not take part in public political discussions, but he made personal connections and became known as a person who, in the event of a possible change in the political situation, could, according to the previous tradition, be thought of as a candidate for senator or even minister of state -secretaries. While carefully preparing for the expedition to Asia, to which he had already been assigned, Mannerheim simultaneously established relations with scientific and Fennomanian circles. Perhaps the Chief of the General Staff, General Palitsyn, and his reformist entourage specifically wanted to keep Mannerheim away from the politically turbulent world in order to preserve him for future assignments as a non-partisan person. However, during Mannerheim's Asian expedition, Palitsyn was forced to resign. However, later they started talking about the idea of ​​appointing Mannerheim as Assistant Minister of State Secretary or Minister of State Secretary, but the political situation did not allow a decision to be made in which the candidacy of the Minister of State Secretary would suit both the Emperor and the Finnish elite.

Mannerheim began his long expedition from Kashgar (Turkmenistan) in October 1906, his goal was Beijing. Accompanied by only a few people, he rode through territory that almost entirely belonged to China. His task was to explore these largely uninhabited mountainous and desert areas of interest to Russia, China and Great Britain. The scientific goals of the expedition were related to the military - to obtain as complete a description of the territory as possible. Mannerheim demonstrated considerable scientific talent and ambition, researching the customs, languages ​​and ethnic traits of the tribes he encountered, archeology, collecting objects and taking photographs.

The collection arrived in Helsinki to the Finno-Ugric Society, which later published Mannerheim's detailed travel diary and helped him write a travel essay intended for the general public. Photographic materials were published in the 1990s, at which time the collections were presented in the new Ethnographic Museum of Helsinki.

Mannerheim returned to St. Petersburg in September 1908. The Emperor listened with interest to his report on the trip. Now Mannerheim had earned the regiment, however, the resolution of the issue dragged on until January 1909, when he finally received the coveted position of commander of the guards regiment, however, first in the provincial Novominsk garrison in Poland. Guards units were usually stationed in St. Petersburg, but there were several in Poland, and one was based in Helsinki until 1905. The Polish front was vital in preparation for a possible war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Mannerheim established himself as a successful commander-mentor both in Novominsk and in Warsaw, where he was transferred in 1911 as commander of His Imperial Majesty's Uhlan Guards Regiment. In 1911 he was promoted to major general, and in 1912 he entered the retinue of His Imperial Majesty, which corresponded to the rank of lieutenant general. With the liquidation of his retinue in 1917, he was promoted to lieutenant general.

In Warsaw, Mannerheim spent one of the happiest periods of his life: he achieved success in his career, perceived his work as important and enjoyable, established close and fruitful relationships with the highest circles of the Polish aristocracy, and was able to maintain contact with his brothers and sisters in Finland and Sweden . He became very attached to Princess Maria Lubomirska. Most of Mannerheim's letters addressed to her have been preserved and have been published. They give future generations the opportunity to know Mannerheim as a refined, sympathetic and sensual person.

Letters to Mrs. Lyubomirskaya were mainly sent from the front of the World War that began in August 1914. Throughout the war, Mannerheim was in the active army, mainly on the fronts against Austria-Hungary and in Romania. He had to spend these years in physically and psychologically difficult conditions and had the opportunity to experience both successes and failures. After the first setbacks, Russia managed to maintain its position, and the war dragged on. On December 18, 1914, for his valor, he was awarded the long-coveted St. George Cross.

The February Revolution of 1917 immediately affected the situation in the army and the course of the war. Mannerheim did not enjoy favor with the new government and was relieved of his duties in September. He was in reserve and tried to regain his health in Odessa. As the situation in Russia became increasingly confused, and after Kornilov's large-scale offensive operation (the so-called Kornilov mutiny) failed, Mannerheim began to think about retiring and returning to Finland. But in Finland, too, in the fall of 1917, the situation became increasingly chaotic, the threat of civil war grew, when, with the collapse of the state machine, both the Red and White Guards began to be created. In January 1918, the bourgeois Senate, chaired by P.E. Svinhuvuda and his military specialists settled on Mannerheim's candidacy for the post of commander of the pro-government civil guard units (Schützkor). Mannerheim was considered the most suitable of the generals, Finns by origin, who served or are serving in the Russian army. Without a doubt, this assessment was based on his origin and social contacts, as well as political connections, including with relatives who were in the opposition. The choice was not influenced by Mannerheim’s anti-German and Anti-Anthophile convictions, which later led to a conflict, since Svinhufvud and the leading bourgeois circles of Finland in general had placed their bets on Germany earlier in the fall, counting on military support for Finland’s secession from Russia.

Mannerheim was formally appointed to the post of Commander-in-Chief on January 16, 1918 and went to Seinäjoki, where he set up his headquarters in an area that was a white stronghold and advantageously close to the main transport routes. The Senate, the government of Finland, was located in Vaasa. He formed a staff of Finns who had served in the Russian army and reinforced it with a significant number of Swedish volunteer officers who played an important military and political role. Mannerheim did not want Germans at the headquarters, and Germany, before the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty on March 3, 1918, was not ready to send its soldiers to Finland. When Germany later decided to take part in resolving the situation in Finland and send for this purpose the Baltic Division under the command of General Count Rüdiger von der Goltz, Mannerheim was forced for political reasons to change his strategy.

The war began in Pohjanmaa as a “war of liberation” with the disarmament of several Russian garrisons. This was significant both from the point of view of acquiring weapons and forming a northern bridgehead, and from the point of view of legitimizing the war as a whole. Mannerheim's goal was now the formation of troops (conscription was introduced) and their training, as well as obtaining weapons from Sweden and other places. With the approach of German intervention, he decided to speed up the capture of Tampere, a Red stronghold, which was done after fierce fighting and heavy losses on both sides. At the same time, the White army advanced in Savo and south, and the headquarters was moved to Mikkeli. Mannerheim, no doubt, all this time proceeded from the possibility that the White Russians, with the help of the Western Entente countries, would sooner or later try to overthrow the Bolshevik government, and that Finland would participate in this operation. To emphasize the Finnish (“non-German”) character of the liberation war, on May 16, 1918, in Helsinki, Mannerheim organized a grand victory parade for his “peasant army.” Von der Goltz and his troops had defeated the Red government and its military forces in Helsinki a month earlier, and pro-German sentiment was strong in the city. Now Mannerheim stood in opposition to the pro-German military-political orientation of the Senate, which, in the name of ensuring security from Russia and from its own Reds, placed Finland completely within the German sphere of influence. When the Senate did not agree with Mannerheim's demands, he left the country on June 1, 1918, convinced that in any case the Entente would win.

Thus, Mannerheim was not in the country during the final, fateful stage of the war of liberation, marked by mass deaths from disease and starvation in huge concentration camps and lengthy trials. Even during the war, he tried to stop the “White Terror” and objected to the mass arrests of the Reds, as well as to the practice of individual trials on charges of treason.

In the autumn of 1918, Mannerheim negotiated in London and Paris, and when in Finland, after the defeat of the Kaiser's Germany, the form of government had to be changed, in accordance with the forms of government of 1772 and 1789. Mannerheim was invited to the post of regent with the authority to temporarily exercise the highest state power until the final resolution of the issue of the form of government, which became topical already in 1917. To strengthen Mannerheim’s position and his orientation towards the Entente, the interested powers sent large quantities of food to Finland, which saved the country from hunger. In the spring of 1919, he succeeded in obtaining recognition of Finnish independence by Great Britain and the United States, as well as renewed recognition by France, which had previously agreed to recognition but then withdrew it. Mannerheim used these recognitions and his official visits to Stockholm and Copenhagen, as well as other symbolically important acts, to significantly strengthen Finland's new sovereign status, trying to consolidate its orientation towards the victorious countries France and England, as well as towards Sweden. The question of the future of Russia, however, remained open. Mannerheim hoped that the communist power there, as in Finland and Hungary, could be overthrown.

The biggest issue during Mannerheim's regency was the handling of the attempt by White Russian troops to capture Petrograd, which would likely have led to the overthrow of the Bolshevik government. Mannerheim believed that Finland should have participated in the operation, but negotiations with the White Russians proved difficult. The Russian Whites could not make decisions that were the prerogative of the national assembly, just as they could not guarantee the sovereignty of Finland. Finland, having bowed to the side of Germany, defeating the Reds who advocated stronger ties with Russia, and then strengthening its sovereignty with the help of Western states, has already very definitely opposed itself to Russia, regardless of what it may become at the proposed national meeting.

As border skirmishes continued on the Karelian Isthmus, especially in June 1919, activists tried to persuade Mannerheim to use his monarchical power and launch an offensive. But Mannerheim refused these proposals because he did not find sufficient political support for this idea in Finland. On July 17, 1919, he approved a new form of government, developed as a result of a compromise decision in parliament in June. Mannerheim did not personally intervene in the discussion on the form of government, but in a speech he delivered on May 16, 1918, for reasons of domestic and foreign policy nature, he spoke in favor of strong government power, and it was not unreasonable to assume that he would not approve a purely parliamentary form board. Since the idea of ​​a monarchical form of government, proposed in the fall, was closely associated with the defeat of Germany, and since the choice of a king could not secure the support of any great power as the guarantor of Finland's security, the only option remained a compromise between monarchical and parliamentary forms of government - a presidential republic, which was sometimes defined as an "elective monarchy". This form of government assigned to the president such broad powers to issue decrees and some other rights that they were never fully applied in practice. The 1919 form of government emerged during the period of the Russian Civil War and the state of war between Finland and Russia, and it proved its effectiveness, especially in difficult times from the point of view of foreign policy.

The period of Mannerheim's tenure as regent, in addition to the constitution and recognition of independence by foreign states, is reminiscent of the Order of the White Rose of Finland, established by him, awarded for military and civil merits; the year before, as Commander-in-Chief, he had established the Order of the Cross of Liberty, which was revived as a reward for military merit in 1939. The insignia of these orders of chivalry were made by the famous artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Gallen-Kallela, who was slightly older than Mannerheim, was one of his aides-de-camp in 1919, and later that year he received the title of honorary professor. He also developed other state symbols of Finland, but most of them were rejected after Mannerheim's resignation.

Elections for the President of the Republic in accordance with the new constitution were held on July 25, 1919, but not by electors, but, as an exception, by parliament. Mannerheim received 50 votes from the conservative National Coalition Party and the Swedish People's Party, but the victory went to Kaarlo Juho Stållberg, the chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court, with 143 votes, whose candidacy was supported by the Agrarian Union, the Progressive Party and the Social Democrats. A trusting relationship was not established between Mannerheim and Stolberg, and plans to appoint Mannerheim as commander-in-chief of the army, or commander-in-chief of the army detachments with very independent powers, did not come true. After this, Mannerheim retreated into his personal life, and a fairly large fund (“civil gift”) was collected for him, on the funds of which he could exist. He rented a villa in Kaivopuisto Park that belonged to the Fazer family and reconstructed it so that it would meet the needs of a man leading the everyday, modest life of a soldier, but, on the other hand, would correspond to the status of a familyless aristocrat, a former head of state. In the 1920s He devoted a lot of time to the Finnish Red Cross and the General Mannerheim Children's Welfare Union created in 1920. As part of the latter, he fought for the unity of the nation and for smoothing out the contradictions generated by the civil war. In this he was helped by his sister, and later by the famous pediatrician, honored doctor Arvo Ylppö, as well as many other people. Mannerheim also traveled abroad on hunting trips and to sanatoriums and maintained contacts with political and diplomatic circles. Obviously, to some extent he missed an active life, not being completely satisfied with just humanitarian work, minor involvement in business (chairmanship of the board of the Liittopankki bank, a summer cafe next to his villa in Hanko), reading, attending concerts and social life .

The economic and political crisis that began in 1929 again updated Mannerheim's status, and some right-wing groups wanted Mannerheim to become a military dictator. He was, however, wary of the Lapua movement and its various groups of supporters and made no commitments; he closely monitored the situation, probably preparing for the possibility of the Lapuans seizing power. In March 1931, Per Evind Svinhufvud, who became president during this turbulent time, shortly after his election, appointed Mannerheim chairman of the Defense Council and commander-in-chief in case of war, thereby formally reintegrating him into the state system. In 1933, Mannerheim received the rank of marshal.

Changes in the world since 1933 have shifted the emphasis in Finnish defense policy. The lingering enthusiasm for Eastern Karelia and Ingermanland, as well as the ideology of Greater Finland, waned as Germany and the Soviet Union rapidly gained strength. At the same time, the relative importance of the League of Nations, which was considered an important guarantor for Finland and other small states, was weakening. Mannerheim participated in the recognition of the "Scandinavian orientation", a policy officially recognized in 1935, which, however, did not provide Finland with security guarantees. The Scandinavian orientation, however, had great political and psychological significance, and when war broke out between Finland and the USSR in 1939, it led to a volunteer movement and large-scale humanitarian and military aid from Sweden, and also generated sympathy for Finland in Western countries.

In 1933-1939. Mannerheim, in addition to Sweden, actively developed relations with Great Britain. He represented Finland at the funeral of King George V and had contacts with the Royal Air Force and the UK aviation industry. He maintained relations with Germany during hunting trips with Marshal Hermann Goering. However, during his seventieth birthday in 1937, and during the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the civil war in 1938 - both of which became national events - he emphasized the importance of national unity and closer ties with the Social Democrats, who first entered government in coalition with the Agrarian Union rather than ties with Germany.

Despite constant pressure from Mannerheim, the main parts of the army by the autumn of 1939 were still poorly equipped. During Finnish-Soviet negotiations on border and security issues, Mannerheim believed that Finland did not have the capacity to adhere to such a hard line as the government was pursuing, and recommended agreeing to territorial concessions and exchanges of territory, threatening several times to resign. When negotiations failed and war broke out on November 30, 1939, Mannerheim took over as commander-in-chief and re-established headquarters at Mikkeli. He remained Commander-in-Chief until December 31, 1944, and was largely stationed in Mikkeli throughout this time. Despite his age and health problems, he worked continuously throughout the war, with the exception of a couple of short vacations, thereby setting the headquarters, the entire army and the people an example of dedication in a critical situation.

During the Winter War, the period that followed it, called the “truce,” and also during the “Continuation War,” which began on June 25, 1941, Mannerheim was part of a group of 4-5 people that actually led the country. In addition to Mannerheim, this circle included Risto Ryti, who became president in 1940, prime ministers I.V. Rangel and Edwin Linkomies, Foreign Ministers Väinö Tanner, Rolf Witting and K.H.V. Ramsay, as well as Lieutenant General Rudolf Walden, who always served as Minister of Defense.

Thus, already in 1939-1940. Mannerheim significantly influenced the course of the Winter War and attempts to conclude peace. He emphasized that the army, despite the heroism shown in defense, was weak and at the limit of its capabilities, and that therefore it was necessary to accept the difficult conditions of peace, which was done. After the Winter War, Finland experienced constant pressure from the Soviet Union, which was associated with the situation in the world as a whole. The only counterbalance to this pressure could be Germany, but it was also in an alliance with the USSR. However, from September 1940, Germany began to take Finland under its wing in its relations with the USSR, and from the beginning of 1941, military contacts between headquarters gradually became closer. Until the very last moment, it was unclear whether (and when) Germany would go to war against the Soviet Union. During this period, Finland, however, was able to significantly improve the level of equipment of its army. Finland's entry into the war in the summer of 1941 aroused great research interest immediately after the war and in later periods; Attempts were made to find out when Finland "finally" joined Germany's military preparations against the Soviet Union, and who in Finland was in charge of these preparations or knew about them.

Military leadership of Marshal Mannerheim during the war of 1941-1944. had an important psychological significance: with his authority he kept generals at headquarters and front-line commanders, as well as members of the government, subordinate and restrained internal conflicts and rivalries common to a protracted war. The political significance of his authority was also manifested in relations with Germany: Mannerheim, of all the leadership of Finland, most clearly demanded - and could demand - formal and real respect for the political and military independence of Finland. An interesting example of this was the 75th anniversary of Mannerheim on June 4, 1942, when Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer of Germany, personally came to congratulate Mannerheim, who had just been promoted to Marshal of Finland. Mannerheim's behavior in this situation is considered an exemplary combination of emphasized politeness and firmness in maintaining his own authority. This made it possible to reject Germany's claims to dictatorship in relation to Finland, or the requirement to conclude a formal union treaty, thereby making it possible to get out of the situation with the help of the guarantees given by President Ryti in the summer of 1944, which remained in force for only a few weeks.

The psychological, nation-unifying role of Mannerheim was emphasized during the war in various ways: for example, in the form of postage stamps, and also by the fact that by the day of his birth, streets bearing his name appeared in almost all cities of Finland. The Order of the Cross of Liberty was supplemented by the Mannerheim Cross with a cash prize awarded for special heroism. The elderly marshal came to the front several times and attended various patriotic events, comforting war orphans and relatives of the dead.

The Soviet offensive in June-July 1944 forced the Finnish army to withdraw from Eastern Karelia and retreat west of Vyborg on the Karelian Isthmus. The result was a willingness to accept even the most difficult conditions of the world. To do this, it was necessary to change the government and break relations with Germany. Mannerheim agreed, and on August 4, 1944, parliament elected him president of the republic. From that moment on, the peace process began, for which Mannerheim apparently managed to find the optimal time. Germany was believed to be weakened enough that, despite its military position and control of the airspace in the Baltics, it would spend its forces on occupying Finland (as happened in Romania), and weak German attempts were rejected from the outset. The Soviet Union, in turn, was no longer interested in the complete surrender or military occupation of Finland, as it concentrated its forces on the Baltic, Polish and German directions. The Western powers and Sweden were willing to politically and economically support a separate peace for Finland. At the same time, the Finnish people, after the loss of Eastern Karelia, the Karelian Isthmus and Vyborg, were ready to accept difficult peace conditions, the acceptance of which in the spring, when the army had not yet been defeated on Svir and the Southern Isthmus, could lead the country and the army to a crisis of loyalty.

Thus, in August-September 1944, Mannerheim, with the support of the Finnish Ambassador to Stockholm G.A. Gripenberg led the peace negotiations, simultaneously acting as president, commander-in-chief, and in practice, prime minister and foreign minister (especially after Prime Minister Antti Hakzel was paralyzed during the negotiations). Mannerheim concentrated all power in his hands for a short time; his authority was extremely important from the point of view of shaping public sentiment and leading the army. The army had to quickly reorient itself as relations with Germany and German forces in Northern Finland were broken, and, accordingly, it was necessary to establish cooperation with the military, and soon with the civilian representatives of the former enemy, the Soviet Union. Mannerheim’s authority retained its importance when, after the armistice in Helsinki, the Allied Control Commission began to operate and when the new one, formed by Yu.K. The Paasikivi political government in November 1944 replaced the short-term presidential (“technical”) cabinets of Hakzel and Urho Castren. At this point, the period of concentration of power in the hands of Mannerheim for the duration of the peace process ended, and, despite great doubts, he was forced to agree to the appointment of a communist representative, Minister of Internal Affairs Yrjö Leino, to the Paasikivi government. But even after this, Mannerheim remained a supporter of the Paasikivi government, especially in connection with the suspicions of the right, although he did not actively support the government and its new political orientation, probably because he was not confident in the government's policies, and also because he wanted to preserve the possibility of a change office. The degree of Mannerheim's participation in the leadership of the state also decreased due to deteriorating health. He went to Stockholm for surgery and then on holiday to Portugal. And although Mannerheim was elected president for an emergency period, he, however, did not want to resign, for example, immediately after the parliamentary elections in the spring of 1945. This was partly due to the fact that the situation in the world remained uncertain, since the war in Europe continued until May 1945, and partly because Mannerheim feared being convicted at the trial of those responsible for the war, which was provided for by the terms of the Armistice Agreement, and the speedy holding of which the Allied Control Commission insisted. However, it was in both the interests of the Finns and the interests of the Soviet Union to protect Mannerheim from this, and when this circumstance became clear, in March 1946 he resigned. The students expressed their respect to him with a torchlight procession, which in those conditions was a significant event. The communists were also ready to acknowledge Mannerheim's role in achieving peace.

Subsequently, Mannerheim, whose health was deteriorating, was in Stockholm, but mainly in the Valmont sanatorium in Montreux (Switzerland). There, he and his assistants, including Infantry General Erik Heinrichs and Colonel Aladar Paasonen, wrote his memoirs. He told his assistants about his life's journey, who wrote them down in the form of chapters of a future book. After this, Mannerheim checked the manuscript, sometimes making significant corrections. By the time of Mannerheim's death on January 27, 1951 (January 28 Finnish time), the work was almost completed, allowing the first volume to be published that same year.

Mannerheim's body was brought to Finland, the coffin was installed with honors (lit de parade) in the Main Church of Helsinki (the current Cathedral), and tens of thousands of people passed by in silence. On February 4, 1951, Mannerheim was buried with full military honors in the Heroes' Cemetery in Hietaniemi. On this frosty day, an honor guard of reservists, students and scouts stretched across the entire city. For reasons of political prudence, the government decided not to take part in the funeral ceremony. Despite this, Prime Minister Urho Kekkonen and Foreign Minister Åke Harz participated in the funeral procession. The speech in the Main Church was made by the Chairman of the Parliament K.-A. Fagerholm. The fact that he was a social democrat symbolically indicated something that had originated in the 1930s. and the understanding, strengthened during the war, of the idea of ​​recognizing the historical national consensus in Finland. This was recognized by all public groups and the press, with the exception of the communists.

Mannerheim's funeral, the attention and respect for his figure that later manifested itself abroad and especially at home, which intensified significantly after the publication of his memoirs and the opening of the Mannerheim Museum in his home in Kaivopuisto, signified an ideological turning point, a transition from the “post-war” stage with its denial of previous history to a new identity, implying the unity and continuity of the various stages of Finnish history - from tsarist times and the interwar period, including the war and the post-war years.

Back in 1937, with the consent of Mannerheim, a fund was created for the construction of an equestrian monument in his honor - the first in Finland. Some accused Mannerheim of vanity, but what was more significant, of course, was that he recognized the need for symbols to unite the nation. Mannerheim became a symbolic figure as early as 1918, a role that was further strengthened in the 1930s. and during the war. In this “role” he could contribute to the development of national identity in the direction in which he considered necessary. The main values ​​for him were European orientation, i.e. proximity to Sweden and Western European culture, maintaining combat readiness and, as a necessary condition for this, strong national harmony, which required overcoming the split that arose as a result of the conflict between Reds and Whites, as well as concern for the health and future of children and youth. He opposed socialism as a doctrine and the Soviet Union as its embodiment, as well as against nationalism, which manifested itself in Germany in the form of National Socialism, and in Finland in the form of “ultra-Finnish” movements. On the language issue in Finland, he advocated an atmosphere of harmony. He himself, who knew languages ​​well and had extensive international experience, considered it important to maintain international contacts at different levels. He emphasized the greater importance of foreign policy and understanding the balance of power in the world, compared to internal political disagreements, petty politicking and legal literalism. During the First World War, Mannerheim realized the need to preserve and care for personnel, and during the wars of 1939-1944 (1945). he was especially concerned about minimizing casualties, caring for the wounded, and honoring the fallen.

The project to create an equestrian monument was resumed largely thanks to the initiative of the Students' Union of the University of Helsinki, and this led to three results: the increase in Mannerheim's fame thanks to fundraising and a special badge issued for this, and the construction of the monument itself, which, after several competitions, was created by the sculptor Aimo Tukiainen and inaugurated on June 4, 1960, and to the fact that with the remaining funds, among other things, a historical monument was purchased into state ownership - Mannerheim's home, the Louhisaari estate. Later, monuments to Mannerheim were erected in several cities in Finland: Mikkeli, Lahti, near Tampere and Turku.

Back in the 1930s. Two biographies of Mannerheim were published (authors Kai Donner and Anni Voipio-Juvas). After his death, a film consisting of documentary footage appeared in 1957-1959. The first large-scale and detailed biography of Mannerheim was published, written by his close ally, infantry general Erik Heinrichs. In the 1960s The Mannerheim Foundation, created in accordance with his will, the main task of which was to send Finnish officers to foreign higher military schools, opened an archive of letters, which the foundation received under the will, for Mannerheim's relative, Swedish professor Stig Jägersjöld. The highly significant archival research in different countries, the discovery of letters and interviews conducted by Jägersjöld resulted in a large-scale eight-volume work. At the time when the Englishman D.E.O. Skrin began studying the Russian period of Mannerheim’s life, and began to pay attention to the various stages of the cult of Mannerheim. His image was addressed in novels and plays (in particular, Paavo Rintala, Ilmari Turja). In the 1970s The left movement criticized Mannerheim, rather directed against his cult. Of the newest studies on Mannerheim, the most significant is Veijo Meri's book, a psychologically accurate biography of Mannerheim (1988).

Application:

Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, b. 4.6.1867, Askainen, died 27.1.1951, Lausanne. Parents: Count Karl Robert Mannerheim and Charlotte Helena von Julin. Wife: 1892-1919 Anastasia Arapova, b. 1872. Died 19366 wife's parents: Major General Nikolai Arapov and Vera Kazakova. Children: Anastasia, b. 1893. died 1978; Sofia, b. 1895, died 1963.

Live Journal User Notes August_1914

The text of the article contains many errors typical of non-specialists in the history of the Russian army. Although perhaps I should say “thank you” to the translator here.
I'll go through them dotted line:

- first the author mentions the cadet corps, and then invents the “Cadet School” (?);
- “He entered the private Böck Gymnasium in Helsinki,” although in reality he graduated from the University of Helsingfors. Wow, high school...
- “he ended up in the cavalry regiment of Her Imperial Majesty’s Guard, which was part of the Life Guards of His Imperial Majesty” - an extremely clumsy scale, whereas it was enough to simply write “Cavalry Guard Regiment”;
— “Mannerheim was promoted to guard lieutenant in 1893, to guard junior captain in 1899, to guard captain in 1902.” - you have to kill for this) Not only were there no such ranks in the Russian imperial cavalry, but there was also an error in the extreme dating.
In reality: “Lieutenant (Article 08/10/1893). Headquarters Captain (Article 07/22/1899). Captain (Article 10.08.1901).”
- The “George Cross” is generally the scourge of modern literature. Only a lazy author did not award a staff officer or even a general with the soldier’s Insignia of the Military Order - that is, the “Cross of St. George”, although it should have been the Order of St. George.
And the date of the award does not correspond to the original one - Mannerheim was awarded it by the Imperial Order of January 30, 1915. Klinge is silent about the awarding of the Arms of St. George to him.

This is just a rough idea. Perhaps I'm being picky, but how else?..

From the book “100 Wonderful Finns. Kaleidoscope of biographies."

Gustav Mannerheim came from an old Swedish family. After the victory over the Swedes, one of his ancestors was the leader of the delegation received by Alexander I and contributed to the success of the negotiations, which ended with the approval of the constitution and autonomous status of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Since then, all Mannerheims began to be distinguished by a clear pro-Russian orientation, fortunately Alexander I repeatedly reminded: “Finland is not a province. Finland is a state." Mannerheim's grandfather was the President of the Supreme Court in Vyborg and a famous entomologist, and his father was an industrialist leading large businesses throughout Russia and a great connoisseur of literature.

Born into the family of a Swedish aristocrat, Baron Karl Rubert Mannerheim. Place of birth - Louhisaari estate, near Turku, southwest Finland. When Carl Gustav was 13 years old, his father went broke and, leaving his family, went to Paris. In January of the following year, his mother, Countess Hedwig Charlotte Helena Mannerheim, died. In 1882-1886 he studied at the Finnish Cadet Corps, but was expelled for hooligan behavior and violations of discipline. After graduating from a private lyceum in Helsinki, he passed the entrance exams to the University of Helsingfors (1887). This allowed him to enter the Nicholas Cavalry School in St. Petersburg, where he studied in 1887-1889.

Russian army

He served in the Russian army in 1887-1917, starting with the rank of cornet and ending with lieutenant general.

1889-1890 - served in the 15th Alexandria Dragoon Regiment, in Kalisz (Poland).

Cavalry Regiment

1891 - in January, on the 20th, he enters service in the Cavalry Regiment, where strict discipline is maintained. Mannerheim lives on a salary, which is very meager.

1892 - On May 2, he married Anastasia Nikolaevna Arapova, the daughter of the cavalry guard General Nikolai Arapov, with a rich dowry. Now Gustav gets thoroughbred horses, which begin to win prizes at races and shows, often with Mannerheim himself acting as a rider. Usually the first prize was about 1,000 rubles (while renting an apartment for a family in a prestigious building cost 50-70 rubles per month).

Best of the day

1895 - March 24, Gustav meets 40-year-old Countess Elizaveta Shuvalova (Baryatinskaya), with whom he will maintain a romantic relationship for a long time. On July 1, Lieutenant Mannerheim was awarded the first foreign order in his life - the Cavalry Cross of the Austrian Order of Franz Joseph. On July 7, Monday, daughter Sophia was born (she died in 1963 in Paris in terrible poverty - there was no money even for a separate grave cross).

1896 - May 14 participates in the coronation of Nicholas II as a junior assistant. After the coronation, Nicholas II expressed gratitude to the officers of the Cavalry Regiment; the regiment commander became the general of His Imperial Majesty's retinue. On May 16, a reception was given for the officers of the regiment in the Kremlin Palace, where Mannerheim had a long conversation with the emperor. After this, Mannerheim forever had “his emperor.”

Court stable part

1897 - On August 7, brigade commander Arthur Greenwald announced that, at the request of the emperor, he would soon head the Court Stable Unit and that he would like to see Mannerheim among his assistants. On September 14, by the Highest Decree, Gustav was transferred to the Court Stables, leaving the Cavalry Regiment on the lists, with a salary of 300 rubles and two government apartments: in the capital and in Tsarskoe Selo. On Greenwald’s instructions, staff officer Mannerheim draws up a report on the state of affairs in the Konyushennaya unit, as a result of which the general began to restore order “in the unit entrusted to him.” At the end of November, Mannerheim selects horses for Valentin Serov, from which the artist makes sketches - the royal horses were the best in Russia.

1898 - from March 27 to April 10, Mannerheim was a member of the panel of judges of the Mikhailovsky Arena, after which he went on a long business trip to stud farms - equipping the stable with horses was his main task. At the beginning of June, Mannerheim met Brusilov. In November, on a business trip in Berlin, during an inspection of horses, a three-year-old mare crushed Gustav’s kneecap (in total, Mannerheim had 14 fractures of varying severity in his life). The operation was performed by Professor Ernst Bergman (1836-1907), a famous surgeon, during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877 he was a consultant surgeon in the Russian Danube Army.

1899 - in mid-January, Mannerheim finally began to get out of bed and move around with the help of crutches. In addition to severe pain in his knee, he was haunted by the thought that he would not be able to participate in the anniversary (100 years) celebrations of the Cavalry Regiment, scheduled for January 11. However, Gustav was not forgotten. He received several telegrams from St. Petersburg, including from the chief of the regiment - the Dowager Empress, congratulations from the officers of the regiment and the Stables, from the Kaiser of Germany. On February 12, the lieutenant and his wife were invited to dinner at the Imperial Palace on Berlin's Opera Square. Wilhelm II made no impression on Mannerheim: “sergeant major.” Gustav's upbringing in the high society of the court aristocracy had an effect.

On June 22, Mannerheim went (together with Countess Shuvalova) to recuperate his knee at the mud resort of Gapsal (Haapsalu), where he was in excellent spirits when he was given the order to confer the rank of staff captain.

On August 12, the captain was already in the capital on business of the widest range: from equipping the Stables with horses to selling manure for the estate of the maid of honor EIV Vasilchikova.

1900 - in January, the officer spent a lot of time at the training ground, where tests of new (armored) carriages for the royal family were carried out. The carriages turned out to be too heavy; the wheels broke under the weight of the armor. The center of gravity turned out to be too high - even a small explosion caused the carriages to overturn. Mannerheim's proposal to put the carriages on pneumatic tires was not used.

On April 12, Gustav received the first Russian order - the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree. The injury continues to make itself felt, and on May 24, Mannerheim headed (temporarily) the office of the Stable unit, in which, for the most part, the wives of officers of the same Stable unit worked. The cavalry guard correctly and clearly organized the work of the office, which Greenwald later noted in his order and appointed him to the post of head of the harness department. This department was the leading one in the unit and was under special control of the Minister of the Court, Count Fredericks. Here Gustav also reorganized the unit and brought order, including personally shoeing the horse, giving a lesson to the careless blacksmiths.

The whole year passed in family scandals, as Gustav continued his affairs with both Countess Shuvalova and the artist Vera Mikhailovna Shuvalova, while his wife staged terrible scenes of jealousy. As a result, this had a detrimental effect on the children: daughter Anastasia went to a monastery at the age of 22.

1901 - early February Mannerheim abroad. Horse show in London, from there to the Oppenheimer brothers' stud farms in Germany. Upon his return, he works a lot, putting things in order in the pension stables and in the horse hospital. He often goes to the hippodrome, not forgetting to visit other hot spots.

In the summer, the Mannerheim couple acquires an estate in Courland (Anastasia registered the deed of sale for herself), and in early August the whole family travels to Aprikken. There, located in an old house (built in 1765), Gustav develops vigorous activity. But all his endeavors go to waste (fish farming, farm), the family returns to the capital, and the baron returns to his old ways. The wife, realizing that a family idyll was no longer worth waiting for, enrolled in nursing courses for the community of St. George and in early September, Baroness Mannerheim, as part of an ambulance train, left for the Far East (Khabarovsk, Harbin, Qiqihar) - the famous “Boxer Rebellion” was going on in China. .

In October, Mannerheim was elected as the 80th full member of the Imperial Trotting Society at the Semyonovsky Parade Ground and a member of the judging committee.

1902 - the Baroness returns to St. Petersburg in February. Her impressions of her experiences in the Far East (she was awarded the medal “For the campaign in China 1900 - 1901”) make a strong impression on Mannerheim. For some time he becomes the “ideal husband.”

In mid-March, Mannerheim, who began to be burdened by his “paper” work in the Konyushennaya unit, negotiated with Brusilov about transferring to his cavalry officer school. In May, when the racing season began, Count Muravyov introduced Gustav to the rising ballet star Tamara Karsavina, with whom Mannerheim later maintained friendly ties for a long time. Mannerheim spent his next vacation separately from his family, in Finland. On December 20, he was awarded the rank of captain.

1903 - the life of the empire was slowly changing, and so was the family life. Now the couple did not speak to each other, the apartment on Konyushennaya Square was divided into two parts. However, in the morning they politely greeted each other. The baroness sells her estates, transfers money to Parisian banks, says goodbye to her inner circle (without informing her husband), and, taking her daughters and documents to Aprikken, leaves for France, the Cote d'Azur. In April next year she settles in Paris.

The baron is left alone with an officer's salary and a very large number of debts (including gambling debts). Gustav's older brother is involved in the struggle to change imperial laws in Finland, and therefore he is exiled to Sweden. In the spring, a decree was signed on the secondment of Mannerheim to Brusilov’s cavalry school.

Officer Cavalry School

The captain is intensively preparing for the “parfors” hunt (an invention of Brusilov for “raising real cavalrymen”). At the beginning of August, in the village of Postavy, Vilna province, Gustav shows excellent driving performance on a par with Brusilov.

Starting in September, workdays begin: every day at 8 a.m. an officer attends the officer cavalry school on Shpalernaya Street. General Brusilov, knowing that Mannerheim was a supporter of the horse dressage system of James Phillis, appointed him as an assistant to the famous English rider.

1904 - January 15, Gustav celebrates the New Year in the Winter Palace, at the emperor's ball. This was the last New Year's ball in the history of the Romanovs. Already on January 27, Mannerheim was present at the ceremony of Nicholas II’s official declaration of war with Japan. Since the guards units were not sent to the front, Mannerheim continued to serve in the capital.

At the end of February, he hands over the affairs of the harness department to Colonel Kamenev. In April he was awarded two foreign orders, in the summer he received his fourth foreign order - the officer's cross of the Greek Order of the Savior. On August 31, by order of the emperor, the baron was enrolled in the staff of the officer cavalry school and remained on the lists of the Cavalry Regiment. On September 15, after detailed consultation with Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, General Brusilov appointed Mannerheim as commander of the training squadron and a member of the school’s educational committee. At school, this squadron was the standard of everything new and best in cavalry science. The permanent officers of the school did not really like this appointment; among themselves they called the baron a “guards upstart.” However, Mannerheim’s skill was at its best, and with the skillful and tactful help of Brusilov, Gustav was quickly able to begin “managing processes” at school in the direction he needed. The Baron was also warmly received in the Brusilovs' house.

As for personal affairs, they were in complete disorder. A lot of debts (and they were growing), problems with his wife (they were not officially divorced), plus Countess Shuvalova, whose husband had suddenly died by this time, insisted on a “civil marriage” with the baron. However, Gustav clearly understood all the consequences of such a step - the capital's high society did not forgive such actions.

In the current situation, there was only one thing left - the front. Shuvalova, realizing this, gives up everything (without even going to Ukraine, where a monument to her husband was unveiled) and leaves for Vladivostok at the head of the field hospital. Brusilov tried to dissuade Gustav, but, in the end, realizing the futility of his efforts, he agreed with Mannerheim and promised to petition for the inclusion of a captain in the 52nd Nizhyn Regiment.

Having transferred the affairs of the training squadron to Lieutenant Colonel Lishin, Mannerheim began preparing to be sent to Manchuria. A huge amount of things had accumulated, some of which had to be transferred to other persons upon arrival at the front. To cover the enormous costs associated with preparation, the captain received a large loan from the bank (under two insurance policies). Having selected three horses, Mannerheim sent them separately to Harbin, although no one could say even approximately when they would arrive there.

On Saturday evening, October 9, 1904, Lieutenant Colonel of the 52nd Nizhyn Dragoon Regiment, Baron Mannerheim, went to Manchuria by courier train, stopping along the way in Moscow and visiting his wife’s relatives.

Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905

On the way, Gustav began to keep diary entries.

On October 24, the train arrived in Harbin, the station commandant informed him that the horses would arrive no earlier than two weeks later. Gustav gave a telegram to Countess Shuvalova in Vladivostok and left there himself. Returning to Harbin on November 3, he goes to Mukden. On November 9, having arrived in Mukden, Mannerheim looked for his horses and departed with them to his place of new service. Already on the spot, the baron learns that the brigade consisting of the 51st and 52nd dragoon regiments is not participating in hostilities, since the command is afraid to assign independent tasks to the brigade commander, General Stepanov. The lieutenant colonel had to sit in reserve. He notes this period in his diary as extremely dull and monotonous.

1905 - On January 8, an order was signed appointing Lieutenant Colonel Mannerheim as assistant regiment commander for combat units.

After the fall of Port Arthur, the 3rd Army was freed from Japan, and therefore the commander-in-chief, General A. N. Kuropatkin, wanting to delay the arrival of these Japanese forces at the main theater of military operations, decided on a cavalry raid on Yingkou. Mannerheim wrote: “In the period from December 25, 1904 to January 8, 1905, I, as the commander of two separate squadrons, took part in a cavalry operation carried out by General Mishchenko with 77 squadrons. The goal of the operation was to break through to the coast, capture the Japanese port of Yingkou with ships and, by blowing up the bridge, cut off the railway connection between Port Arthur and Mukden...” Mannerheim's division was part of a consolidated dragoon division under the command of Major General A.V. Samsonov. During this raid, Mannerheim, at a rest stop near the village of Takaukheni, met a colleague from the Cavalry School, Semyon Budyonny from the 26th Don Cossack Regiment, also a future marshal (the title of Marshal of Finland of the Year was awarded to Mannerheim on June 4, 1942). The attack on Yingkou itself for a variety of reasons (from incorrect target setting to tactical miscalculations such as the wrong timing of the attack) led to the shameful defeat of the Russian army. Mannerheim's division did not take part in the attack on Yingkou.

On February 19, during one of the skirmishes with a detachment of Japanese cavalry, Mannerheim's orderly Count Kankrin was killed. Mannerheim was carried out from under fire by his prize stallion Talisman, who was already wounded and died after that.

On February 23, Mannerheim received an order from the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Martson, to conduct an operation in the area of ​​eastern Impeni to rescue the 3rd Infantry Division, which was trapped in the “sack.” The dragoons, under the cover of fog, went behind the Japanese and, having carried out a swift attack, put them to flight. For skillful leadership and personal bravery, the baron was awarded the rank of colonel, which, among other things, meant an increase of 200 rubles to his salary. At the end of the operation, Mannerheim’s division was taken to rest (4 days), after which it arrived at the location of its regiment, at the Chantufu station.

The headquarters of the 3rd Manchurian Army instructed the baron to conduct deep reconnaissance of Mongolian territory in order to identify Japanese troops there. In order to avoid diplomatic scandals with Mongolia, reconnaissance is carried out by the so-called “local police” in the amount of three hundred Chinese. “My squad are just Honghuzes, that is, local highway robbers... These bandits... don’t know anything except a Russian repeating rifle and cartridges... My squad was hastily assembled from garbage. There is no order or unity in it... although they cannot be blamed for lack of courage. They managed to escape from the encirclement where the Japanese cavalry drove us... The army headquarters was very satisfied with our work - we managed to map about 400 miles and provide information about Japanese positions throughout the entire territory of our activity,” wrote Mannerheim. This was his last operation in the Russo-Japanese War. On September 5, in Portsmouth, S. Yu. Witte signed a peace treaty with Japan.

In November the colonel left for St. Petersburg. Arriving in the capital at the end of December, he learned that his position, as a headquarters one, was excluded from the staff of the 52nd Nizhyn Dragoon Regiment. A front-line soldier, he now saw differently the “high society of the capital”, which, it turns out, did not care about the distant war, about its victims, and, in fact, about Gustav himself either. Family affairs, as they had not been settled before leaving, still looked like a complete disaster. We can say that all this taken together turned the court cavalry guard into a tough military officer.

1906 - at the beginning of January, the colonel departs for his homeland on a two-month leave to treat rheumatism. There he participated in the class representative meeting of the noble branch of the Mannerheims. This was the last such meeting.

Last years

In 1945, Mannerheim's health deteriorated significantly. On March 3, 1946, he resigned.

It was now possible for the former president to pay proper attention to health. Guided by the advice of doctors, Mannerheim travels throughout Southern Europe, living for a long time in Switzerland, Italy, and France. While in Finland, he lives in the countryside, and in 1948 he begins working on his memoirs. At the beginning of 1951, the two-volume memoirs were completely completed.

On January 19, 1951, due to a stomach ulcer, the marshal was forced to undergo surgery for the umpteenth time. The operation was successful, and Mannerheim felt better for some time. But a few days later his health condition rapidly deteriorated, and on January 27, 1951, Carl Gustav Mannerheim died.

In the fall of 1918, the Kingdom of Finland was created for some time. Finland was governed by two regents and an elected monarch. On May 18, 1918, the Finnish Parliament gave its consent to the appointment of the Speaker of the Senate, Per Evind Svinhuvud, as regent. On December 12 of the same year, parliament accepted his resignation and approved Karl Mannerheim as the new regent. On October 9, 1918, the parliament elected the German prince Friedrich Karl von Hesse (Fredrik Kaarle in Finnish transcription) to the throne of Finland under the name Väinö I, who abdicated the throne on December 14 of the same year, after the defeat of Germany in the First World War.

The people who wrote this article about the man responsible for the death of more than 1 million residents of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) set out to make money on any rubbish, as long as they are paid the agreed fee. G. Mannerheim's participation in the Finnish war against the USSR (successor of the Russian Empire) in 1939, his destruction of Russian (Soviet) citizens in the Great Patriotic War is completely omitted in the presentation, betrayal of another overlord - A. Schicklgruber in 1944 - is elevated to the rank of merits.

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.

Mannerheim ended the First World War 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, the demilitarization of the Baltic Sea, the 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 Hitler to place long-range artillery 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 - a 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 produced many commanders, statesmen and scientists in 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. The family's native language was Swedish, but the mother's French upbringing and the father's Anglophilia provided the children with a well-rounded 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 a lot of money. The choice fell on the military school in Hamina, founded by Nicholas I, although the boy did not have any particular inclination towards military service. 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, to maintain connections in high society, a lot of money was needed. 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, the Mannerheim family life 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, and 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 a scientific journal, and 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 rank of major general and free access to the tsar, 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 easily found a common 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 - the Shutskor - an armed organization of wealthy people, including officers who received military training during the First World War 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. Contact 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 the territory 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 largest cities of 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 and use its fighters as junior and middle command personnel in various military units and subunits. 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 military operation that began on March 15, according to all the rules of military art. 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 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.

Mannerheim had been nurturing aggressive plans regarding a number of territories of Soviet Russia (the capture of Petrograd, Karelia) 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 great principalities of the 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), and made peace with his 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 Finland's complex system of military leadership - commander-in-chief, commander of the armed forces, chief of the general staff, minister of defense - the defense committee was an honorable but uninfluential body: it could only make recommendations. With his authority, Mannerheim achieved an increase in the importance of the committee, in particular, in 1933, the legal right to give orders to the command in matters of military training of the country.

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.

The desire to get acquainted with the latest 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, adhered to the rule that the official language in the Finnish armed forces was 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 goal of removing from power those responsible for the current foreign policy and eliminating 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 soldiers from the regular armies of various Western countries - approximately 30 thousand people - come to Finland as volunteers, much like German and Italian troops were sent to participate in the Spanish Civil War. He raised this issue several times with officials from 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 Baltic countries were annexed to the Soviet Union. 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 began 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. Heinrich to Germany, in February the Oberquartermaster of the German Air Force Headquarters 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 "Foreign Armies of the East" department E. Kinzel to Finland, as well as through military attaches - H. Resing in Finland , W. Horn in Germany. Both sides were cautious, talked about coordinating actions in the event of a new threat from the east, and in confidential conversations the issue of an attack on the USSR was discussed. 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, both for external and internal 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 the old border not only north of Ladoga, but also on the Karelian Isthmus, capturing 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. The first successes at the beginning of the new war cost the Finnish army 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 much evidence that Mannerheim in 1941, as in 1919, wanted to participate in the capture of this city, considering this an 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 during wartime, 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 "The winner of a war cannot be demanded to have 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 operation of the Red Army began. 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 succeeded each other, in the formation of which the former leaders of Finland who had left their posts actively participated, consisted of proponents of the previous 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 Mannerheim saved the coastal batteries in this way.

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.

For our fathers and grandfathers, this was an enemy who fought against the USSR. For his great-grandfathers, he was a dangerous troublemaker who led the white movement in Finland and expelled the Bolsheviks from the country. For an even older generation, he is a military leader who has earned high awards from the Russian Empire. For the North of Europe it is a symbol of national resilience. For Finland itself - regent, commander-in-chief, president, fighter for independence.

Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim lived a long life. He was born on June 4, 1867, and died on January 27, 1951. Of the 83 years he lived, almost seventy were military. As Mannerheim himself writes: “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.”

When Finland was in danger, Mannerheim passionately came to its defense. When the danger moved away, he left high posts - always voluntarily, or, as happened at the end of his life, for health reasons. He was a proud man.

Mannerheim participated in the largest wars of the first half of the century: in the Russian-Japanese and First World War (naturally, on the side of Russia), in the Finnish War of Independence of 1918 (against the Reds), in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940. (against the aggression of the Soviet Union), in World War II (on the side of Germany - against the USSR).

When Mannerheim was not at war, he built the country's defense. In 1931-1938, under his leadership, the famous “Mannerheim Line” was built. The military leader himself speaks very modestly about it: “... there was a defensive line, of course, but it was formed only by rare long-term machine gun nests and two dozen new pillboxes built at my suggestion, between which trenches were laid. The people called this position the “Mannerheim Line”. Its strength was the result of the steadfastness and courage of our soldiers, and not the result of the strength of the structures.”

In fact, the “Mannerheim Line” was a serious fortification intended to defend the country from attack from the southeast, but the characteristics given to it by Mannerheim are very revealing: as befits a real commander, he is proud not of his technology, but of his sons - ordinary soldiers .

Mannerheim's memoirs are an interesting document of the era. The assessment and interpretation of historical facts in them often differ from generally accepted ones, but it should be recognized that the author - a direct participant in the events - had the right to do so. In his “Memoirs” one should not look for the beauty of literary style: the language of the narrative is dry and laconic, sometimes it resembles military reports and, nevertheless, this is a living history, a kind of diary of a soldier who records events more than colors them. At the same time, in the texts of the commander-in-chief’s orders, appeals to the army and the people, of which there are many in the book, high pathos suddenly breaks through, and it becomes clear that these lines were written by a deeply feeling person who suffered for the fate of his homeland and was proud of the role of liberator that fell to him. his share.

“Memoirs” of Marshal Mannerheim were published after his death, in 1952, and were translated into many languages. Now this book is becoming the property of Russian readers. The publishing house made significant cuts to the Memoirs - there are a lot of details and insignificant facts in them that would make it difficult for a wide readership to perceive the book. However, the main thing has been preserved - the author’s close attention to military history and politics, his personal attitude to the events in which he was a participant.

The first decades of an officer's 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.

In the modest armed forces that the Grand Duchy of Finland could support after joining the Russian Empire, the cadet corps in Hamina occupied a special place. Only in 1878 was a law on universal conscription issued, on the basis of which, in addition to the previously existing guards rifle battalion, eight more rifle battalions were created in 1881 and later a dragoon regiment. In their homeland, these formations were very popular, and in the empire, Finnish riflemen enjoyed an excellent reputation for many years. Officers for these formations were trained in a reputable educational institution, which was founded under the Swedes, and since 1821 was called the Finnish Cadet Corps. Many students of the corps have earned deep respect for serving their homeland. Some, after passing the final exams, transferred to the civil service, but the majority continued their studies at three-year special courses in order to continue military service in Finland or, if they wanted, in the Tsarist army, in which many former cadets showed their best side .

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. However, in the eighteenth century, almost all men of my kind chose this career.

The cadet corps was characterized by hard work and iron discipline. The slightest deviations from the rules were suppressed by draconian measures, primarily by depriving the cadets of their freedom. Discipline in the junior classes also depended on the comrades' court, which was created from students of the two senior classes with the right to impose punishments. Each junior cadet also had a so-called guardian, responsible for monitoring his studies and behavior. But the atmosphere in the building was excellent, and the camaraderie that arose in it remained strong despite any vicissitudes of fate.

The specificity and special position of the Finnish armed forces, including the cadet corps, had an undeniable influence on training. The teaching staff changed very rarely, and many of the mentors were distinguished by their originality. The head of the corps for many years was General Neovius, who came from a very gifted family - a good educator and administrator, who, however, was distinguished, at times, by a very militant temperament. In the class representation of the city of Hamina, he expressed the interests of the bourgeoisie, and the Cadets nicknamed him the “bourgeois general.”

When General Neovius was replaced in 1885 by General Karl Enkell, a tough and strict soldier who had served on the staff of General Skobelev in the Turkish War, the winds of change blew through the corps. The cadets had to become familiar with new teaching styles. As a result, for two months I could not take a step outside the building - the reason for this was small sins and violations of the routine, which, according to modern teachers, can be considered simply trifles. This arrest was intolerable for me, and one Easter evening in 1886 I decided to ignore the ban. Having built a very plausible, in my opinion, doll from my military uniform, I laid her on the bed and went AWOL. I went to spend the night with a clerk who lived nearby - his bald head, thick beard and powerful bass voice, as if from hell, are still preserved in my memory. Early the next morning, I was sleeping at his house on a wide bed, with a glass of milk standing next to him on the night table, and then the corps sergeant-major woke me up to take me back to the barracks. The doll on my bed was discovered, and it caused a lot of noise.