Field Marshal Mannerheim of Finland/Final

"Gustaf Mannerheim"
Gustaf Mannerheim was born into a noble family in southwestern Finland. He was of German-Swedish descent. He attended military (cavalry) school in St. Petersburg, Russia,* and then served in an Imperial Guard unit. Later he served with honor in the war between Russia and Japan (1904-05),** a war which ended with the mediation of American President Theodor Roosevelt.*** He served in the Russian cavalry during World War One and was decorated for his services. Mannerheim, a supporter of the Tsar, was later relegated to the reserves in the aftermath of the Tsar's abdication in March 1917, and he returned to Finland at the end of that year, by which time the Bolsheviks had overthrown the so called "Provisional Government."****

Revolutionary turmoil in Russia gave Finland the opportunity to declare its independence and Mannerheim was made commander-in-chief of the Finnish Army. The major effort of the army was to defend the government during a civil war with socialist and communist opponents. In 1919, Mannerheim was defeated in his attempt to become the first president of Finland.***** In the 1930s, Mannerheim was chairman of the National Defense Committee, which attempted to build up Finland's armed forces. When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in the late fall of 1939, Mannerheim was named Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish armed forces. After inflicting severe losses on the Soviet invaders, the Finns were forced to sign an armistice and cede territory to the Soviet Union in 1940. This brought Finland closer to Germany, as the Finns needed a strong ally against any further Soviet aggression. When Hitler's armies invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Finnish forces participated in the invasion, but with the limited objective of regaining lost Finnish territory. In a secret visit to Finland in 1942, Hitler tried to get Mannerheim, then in his early 70s, and the Finnish government to provide more military forces against the Soviets, a commitment they, at Mannerheim's urging, would not give. The old marshal always tried to keep himself at a comfortable distance from Hitler and the Nazis.

When the tide of war turned in favor of the Soviet Union, Mannerheim became President of Finland in the aftermath of the resignation of Risto Ryti. His appointment was made by special order of the Finnish parliament, as the critical wartime situation could not allow an election. Mannerheim proceeded to negotiate Finland's exit from the war, although the Soviets forced the Finns to wage war on German forces withdrawing from Finland. With the war over and Mannerheim's health in decline, he resigned the presidency in 1946. He died at age 83 in January 1951, highly respected even by former adversaries.

* Finland was part of the Russian Empire, but with a strong degree of regional independence.

** Essentially Russia and Japan both wanted Korea and Manchuria and they fought a war over it. Russia was heavily favored, but the distance from Russian supply, manpower, and naval bases, which were in European Russia, helped give the better led and motivated Japanese forces an advantage. After stunning defeats with heavy casualties, many Russians turned against the war, as they saw little worth fighting for in the Far East. A large part of the Russian population was illiterate or semi-literate, and they knew little if anything about Korea or Manchuria. Revolution broke out, but it was eventually contained.

*** Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. The treaty ending the war was signed in Maine.

**** There were TWO revolutions in Russia in 1917. The first revolution in the late winter of 1917 caused the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, and brought an end to Romanov rule in Russia. The new government was left-leaning, but still supported the war effort against Germany and Austria-Hungary, which proved to be a fatal mistake. The terrible casualties and the economic distress caused by the war helped the Bolsheviks to launch another revolution in the fall of 1917, bringing them to power, although it took them several years of civil war to really consolidate their rule over the entire country.

***** Mannerheim's service in the Russian army made him suspect to some Finns, as did his conservatism.

 Photo is a public domain photo of Gustaf Mannerheim, 1940 (from Wikimedia)

WORD HISTORY:
Whelp-I'll bet many of you have heard or seen this word, but you didn't know what it meant. This word means "pup" or "young animal, cub, usually from the canine family," and is now more of a rarity today, as "pup, puppy and cub" have all overtaken it. Its ultimate origins are uncertain, but Old Germanic had "hwelpaz," which then gave Old English "hwelp," which then became "whelp" by the Middle English period and it has remained such ever since. German has "Welf(e), but it is archaic, replaced more commonly by "Welpe"^ (puppy, pup), Dutch has "welp" (lion cub), Danish has "hvalp" (pup, cub), Norwegian has "valp" (pup, puppy), Swedish has "valp" (puppy), Icelandic has "Hvolpur" (puppy). I did not find a form in modern Frisian, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.

^ Standard German is heavily based upon "high" dialects, and "Welf(e)" is from the high dialects (thus the "f" in place of "p"), but in this case, "Welpe," from the low dialects, overtook it, and is now considered standard.