accounting      06/04/2020

Gustav Mannerheim biography. Carl Gustav Mannerheim. Biographical note. Wow! What do the installers say?

Gustav Mannerheim: Biography of Hitler's ally, facts of genocide, atrocities against Russian Finns under his leadership. PHOTO, VIDEO

To whom was a memorial plaque built on the wall of a military school in St. Petersburg, the head of the presidential administration, Sergei Ivanov, and the Minister of Culture, Vladimir Medinsky ...?

From the news bulletins:

"Sharp rejection by part of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg of the opening on Zakharyevskaya Street memorial plaque Marshal Karl Mannerheim resulted in an act of vandalism. On Sunday night, unknown persons filled the board with red paint. Now the police are trying to find the perpetrators using CCTV footage.


Recall that the plaque on the facade of the building of the Military Academy of Logistics on Zakharyevskaya Street was opened on June 16. The head of the Kremlin administration Sergey Ivanov took part in the opening. Before the revolution, there was the Church of the Saints and Righteous Zechariah and Elizabeth, the Life Guards of the Cavalier Guard Regiment. Mannerheim served in this regiment.

The issue of perpetuating the memory of Mannerheim caused a mixed reaction in society. On the one hand, this Finnish commander served in the Russian army from 1890 to 1917, participated in the Russian-Japanese and World War I. However, after the revolution, he moved to Finland, built a system of defensive fortifications "Mannerheim Line" there, was the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army in 1939-1944 and fought with the USSR, later becoming the president of Finland.

Russian Minister of Culture and Chairman of the Military Historical Society of the Russian Federation (RVIO) Medinsky also said in response to criticism of the installation of the board that "one should not try to be a greater patriot and communist than Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who personally defended Mannerheim."

Apparently, the minister had in mind the story in which Stalin, with the words "Do not touch", crossed out the name of Mannerheim from the list of Finnish war criminals compiled by Herte Kuusinen.

Finnish cartoon about the bloody bugger Mannerheim

A new animated film has appeared in Finland. What's amazing about this? And the fact that its author - the famous Finnish director-animator Katarijna Lillqvist - fell under an avalanche of letters and phone calls with death threats. It came to the intervention of the police. And all this is not happening in some "hot" southern country, and in the northern restrained Suomi.

Lillqvist dared to encroach on the sacred, almost on the icon - the national hero of Finland, Marshal Karl Mannerheim, who, thanks to the many years of efforts of local myth-makers, turned into a Finnish Prometheus.

The director focuses on those aspects of the life of the legendary marshal that are not usually spoken about aloud, namely: his homosexuality and unjustified cruelty during the civil war in Finland in 1918.

The puppet cartoon - half realistic, half fantastic - is called "Ural Butterfly". "Butterfly" is a young man who was brought to Mannerheim from beyond the Urals, and who became both his servant and lover. When it broke out in Finland Civil War, Mannerheim, at the head of the "white" troops, went with his "butterfly" to pacify the "reds", that is, to save the state.

The cartoon is based on real events that took place in 1918 in the vicinity of Tampere. There were fierce battles between the "white" and "red" Finns. Suppressing the speeches of the "Reds", many of whom rotted in concentration camps, Mannerheim gave orders for the mass destruction of prisoners of war and civilians.

At the same time, his detachments also killed many white officers, ordinary citizens, women and children who had nothing to do with the "Reds" - they were killed only because they were Russians. Especially for those who, out of ignorance (or on assignment), defend the "Russian officer" Mannerheim, who allegedly "fought with honor for the Whites against the Reds":

Jaegers formed the core of the army of the "Russian General" Mannerheim. These were Finns who had been trained in Germany and fought in the First World War against the Russians. Furious Russophobes were led by "military pensioner" K.G. Mannerheim. (They are very fond of aspirating to say that "he knew Russian better than Finnish").

What did his favorites mark in the Civil?

Having entered the city of Vyborg on April 28-29, 1918, after the withdrawal of the Finnish Red Guard, the chasseur battalions staged a “purge” in the city. Reds and whites, military and civilians, adults and children were killed. But first of all, the Russians were killed.

Swede Lars Westerlund published a book-study of this phenomenon "We were waiting for you as liberators, and you brought us death ...". It should be given to the cadets of the school to read before taking up the post at the memorial plaque that the authorities erected yesterday at 22 Zakharyevskaya Street in order to split society and spit on History.

Here are some excerpts from this work.

From an entry dated May 2 and 3 in the diary of Baron Paul Ernst Georg Nicolai, owner of the Mon Repos estate:

“... Madame Naumova came to ask for a certificate for her husband. Her son, a 16-year-old boy, was captured and shot on the first day, for no reason. I think they heard him speak Russian! All Russian street names must be removed within 48 hours. It seems idiotic in a city with such a large Russian population.”

Both mass executions and murders in courtyards were carried out.

The Petersburg newspaper Delo Naroda wrote about executions in the Vyborg Castle. According to the article, 150 Russians hid in the fortifications opposite the castle. They were all taken to the castle, where the men were separated from the women. After that, the men were divided into groups of 20 and shot in the courtyard of the castle. Among the executed was an unknown colonel. Wives and mothers looked at the execution from the windows and, horrified by what they saw, some of them went crazy.

The Vyborg architect Vietti Nyukanen told how on April 29, 1918, at 3.30 or 4.00 am, the attacking troops of the rangers captured the Vyborg castle: they were shot." Obviously, we are talking about Russian representatives of the nobility, officials and officers who were killed even before the start of mass executions in the first half of the day.

Tailor Ivan Udalov was shot in the courtyard of the castle. His wife Alexandra Kapitonovna Udalova was arrested on the evening of April 29, 1918, in a Russian club near St. Anna Square. All the rest of those present were also arrested and taken to the Vyborg Castle.

About the mass execution between the ramparts at the Friedrichsham Gate in the afternoon of 04/29/1918.

“A table was brought from the railway station building, at which officers dressed in a reminiscent of an Austrian uniform conferred for 10 minutes. They announced to the detainees that they were sentenced to death penalty, after which they sent them to the ramparts at the Friedrichsham Gate.

On the afternoon of April 29, 1918, Russian prisoners gathered at the Vyborg railway station were forced to march towards the western Vyborg fortifications. At about 3 pm, as soon as the group was placed between the ramparts in four rows at the Friedrichsham Gate, they carried out, probably, a pre-planned and prepared mass execution.

An eyewitness, soldier Oskari Petenius, related this: “One of the prisoners tried to escape and was shot dead in the middle of the road. When all the prisoners passed through the first gate of the fortifications, they were ordered to stand on the left side of the moat so that a right angle was formed. When the prisoners approached there, the guards surrounded them. The narrator heard how they were given the order to shoot, but did not know who ordered. There was no way for the prisoners to escape. Every one of them was shot with rifles, hand weapons or grenades. Petenius also took part in the execution, firing five shots from his rifle.

The commander of the Vyborg guard, captain Mikko Turunen, who saw everything, said: “(...) they were shot between the ditches, where there were already some of the executed, and some of the Russians who were being shot just at that moment, about several hundred. The execution was carried out by about a hundred Finnish soldiers, among whom were officers. According to the narrator's observations, it turned out that at first they shot with crossfire from rifles, then the executioners went down into the ditch and finished off one by one the surviving prisoners.

An attorney from the city of Vaasa, Josta Breklund, who personally participated in the execution, told about what happened: “The prisoners were placed in the ditch so that they formed a right angle. The guards were ordered to line up in front of the prisoners and shoot. The soldiers who were at the beginning of the procession started shooting first, then all the rest, including the narrator (...). Almost immediately, as soon as the shooting began, most of the prisoners fell to the ground. Despite this, the shooting continued for about another five minutes. On the ramparts there were soldiers, huntsmen (...). After some time, a man in a German Jaeger uniform ordered the rifles to be raised and the fire stopped, after which the men approached the dead. Then, first, two, one of whom was in a German Jaeger uniform, began to shoot with a revolver at the heads of the wounded, but still alive people. Gradually others joined them.

“... The spectacle was indescribably terrible. The bodies of the executed lay at random, in what position. The walls of the ramparts were stained with gore on one side. It was impossible to move between the ramparts, the earth turned into a bloody mess. Search was out of the question. No one would be able to examine such piles of bodies.”

Military officials who sympathized with the White Finns were shot just as easily: “The captain of the liquidation department, Konstantin Nazarov, according to the stories of his wife Anna Mikhailovna Nazarova, “left the house on the designated day (04/29/1918) at half past eight in the morning to greet the Whites, and at about half past ten he went to the station to obtain any permission to stay. But at the station there was a long line of people waiting, and he went home, and then to his office at 21 Ekaterininskaya Street, where he, along with other members of the department, was arrested at 11 o'clock in the morning. He did not help the Red Guards in any way and was not a Bolshevik. Nazarov was shot between the ramparts on the same day.

According to the information told by the former caretaker of the church, Yukho Kochetov, on the day the city was taken, one Russian officer who lived in Vyborg “went with a bouquet in his hands and in uniform to greet the White Guards, but was instead shot.”

Philistines were killed: “Dealer Ivan Prokofiev was killed on April 29, 1918 between ramparts. The merchant A.F. Vaitoya and the landlord Julius Hyauryunen confirm: “Juhana (Ivan) Prokofiev was not a member of the Red Guard and, moreover, did not take part in the rebellion.”

Children were killed: “The youngest of those killed were 12-year-old Sergei Bogdanov and 13-year-old Alexander Chubikov, who were shot between the ramparts. The 14-year-old son of a worker, Nikolai Gavrilov, has gone missing. Perhaps this was the same boy that Impi Lempinen spoke about: “I again ended up in a group where they spoke Russian in a whisper, there were many Russians. There was also a friend of mine, a 14-year-old boy who spoke Russian, who was born in Vyborg. One monster rushed to the group with a spruce branch on his hat and shouted: “Don't you know, they kill all Russians?”. Then this young boy bared his chest and shouted: "There is one Russian here, shoot." The monster took out a weapon and fired, the dead boy was a brave Russian.”

The memoirs of a worker activist speak of the execution of three young Russians on the Red Well Square on the morning of April 29, 1918. According to them, the whites noticed in the group of prisoners gathered on the square “a couple of Russian schoolchildren of 18-19 years old. Also on the head of one middle-aged man was a Russian military cap. “Russians, get in line!” one huntsman shouted. These three Russians were quickly taken to the nearest courtyard, from where shots immediately rang out. The executioners returned laughing...


The Jaeger movement began to actively expand its circle of adherents in Finland in 1914, especially in the university environment, and led to the initiative of military training of Finnish volunteers in the Royal Prussian 27 Jaeger Battalion of the German Army in 1915-1918.

But not all huntsmen were as loyal to the government as is commonly believed. During the training, the team of rangers rallied into a single group, and it was important for them to act together in Finland as well. Wilhelm Theslef expressed the idea - to form a strong strike group on the basis of the 27th battalion. Jaegers would be the backbone of the brigade, the number would be supplemented from security detachments. The brigade was to be reinforced by two infantry regiments, cavalry, a field artillery battery, and a reconnaissance company. The commander-in-chief of the Finnish army, which was just being created, Mannerheim opposed this initiative. He feared that fighting with one unit, the huntsmen were at risk of complete defeat. "... I am strongly convinced that this will lead to the destruction of the white army," he said, reporting on the situation to Senator Renvalle ...

It is still not customary to remember these victims of the civil war in Finland. No less cruelly did the Finns kill Russian soldiers and officers during the Great Patriotic War. In Finland, they are silent about what they did with the captured Russians.

"PUTIN'S IMMORTAL REGIMENT"

Quotes from Finnish newspapers:+

Our artillery strikes again. Five batteries simultaneously begin to send shells to the Leningraders. (newspaper Uusi Suomi).

The bombardment of Leningrad is a majestic spectacle. There is no doubt that thousands and thousands more, especially from civilian population will die in this game. (newspaper Ilkka).

Leningrad will fall into our hands in the form of ruins. The inhabitants will die of hunger. (newspaper Suomen Sanomat).

Now this city of Leningrad must perish. (newspaper Ani Suunta).

On June 9, 1944, the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk operation began. Soviet troops with active support Baltic Fleet hacked the Finnish defenses on the Karelian Isthmus and on June 20 stormed Vyborg. The correspondent of the Pravda newspaper reported on June 25: “With every kilometer of advance along the land liberated from the enemy, a picture of the bloody atrocities of the Finns is increasingly unfolding before our soldiers. At the very beginning of the offensive on the Karelian Isthmus, the soldiers of one of our units, who broke into the village of Tudokas, saw the mutilated corpse of a Red Army soldier near the burning house. His back was pierced with bayonets, his hands were cut off ... The Red Army soldier Lazarenko, who fell into the clutches of the Mannerheims, was subjected to monstrous torture. Finnish executioners drove cartridges into his nostrils, and burned a five-pointed star on his chest with a red-hot ramrod. But even this seemed not enough to vile sadists. They broke the skull of their victim and stuffed breadcrumbs inside.”+


From the report on the atrocities of the White Finns in the temporarily occupied territory of the USSR, sent to the head of the GlavPURKKA A.S. Shcherbakov, his deputy I.V. Shikin (Moscow, July 28, 1944): “Numerous material has been collected regarding the brutal massacre of Finnish white bandits over prisoners, especially the wounded, Soviet soldiers and officers. It testifies to the wild, barbarous torture and torture that Finnish sadists subjected their victims to before killing them. Many found corpses of the tortured Soviet officers and fighters have stab wounds, many have their ears and noses cut off, their eyes gouged out, their limbs turned out of their joints, skin strips and five-pointed stars were cut out on their bodies. Finnish fiends practiced burning people alive at the stake. 25.VI—1944 on the shore of Lake Ladoga, the corpse of an unknown Red Army soldier was found, boiled alive at the stake in a large iron barrel. From the testimonies of prisoners of war it is clear that among the White Finnish soldiers, a wild, cannibalistic custom of boiling down the heads of slaughtered Soviet prisoners of war in order to separate the soft covers from the skull has spread. No less terrible is the fate of Soviet prisoners of war, whose lives were saved in the first minute. In the concentration camps, a regime was established, designed for the extinction of prisoners of war by a slow, painful death. When reports appeared in the foreign press, including the Swiss one, about the barbarian regime and high mortality in Finnish prisoner-of-war camps, Mannerheim was forced to issue the following statement in December 1942: 20,000 prisoners from starvation. Until August of this year, 12,000 prisoners actually died...””.+

According to the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army, Field Marshal Mannerheim, dated July 8, 1941, all "foreigners", that is, Russians, were sent to concentration camps as part of a program of ethnic cleansing. According to Dr. historical sciences S.G. Verigina (Petrozavodsk State University), "in 1941-1944. Finnish troops occupied two-thirds of the territory of Soviet (Eastern) Karelia, where about 86 thousand local residents remained, including those displaced from the Leningrad region. Ethnically related to Finns, Karelians, Vepsians, representatives of other Finno-Ugric peoples were to remain on their territory and become future citizens of Greater Finland. Ethnically unrelated to the Finns, local residents, mostly Russians, were considered as immigrants, not nationals or foreign nationals (these terms were used in the documents of the Finnish authorities).”+

N.I. Baryshnikov in the book "Five myths in the military history of Finland 1940-1944" notes: “The presence of such an order by Mannerheim was carefully hidden all the time in the official Finnish historiography, although the specified document exists and is stored in the Military Archives of Finland. This is secret order No. 132, signed by the commander-in-chief on July 8, 1941, the day before the Finnish troops, the Karelian army, went on the offensive in the direction north of Lake Ladoga. Paragraph four of the order stated: Russian population detain and send to concentration camps.”

In the collection “The Monstrous Atrocities of the Finnish-Fascist Invaders on the Territory of the Karelian-Finnish SSR (Collection of Documents and Materials, State Publishing House of the Karelian-Finnish SSR, 1945) in the message of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of Atrocities Nazi German invaders and their accomplices, it is said that the government and the supreme military command of Finland sought to turn the Karelian-Finnish SSR into a colony. The instruction of the Finnish headquarters, captured by the Red Army in June 1944, says: “If Finland now lacks building timber, then the rich forests of Eastern Karelia are waiting to be turned into capital.”+


By the end of 1941, there were about 20,000 people in the concentration camps, the vast majority Russians. Their largest number occurred at the beginning of April 1942 - about 24 thousand people, or about 27% of the total population in the occupation zone. For the Russian population of the Olonets district, as well as residents of the Vologda and Leningrad regions, resettled in the occupied territory of Soviet Karelia in the initial period of the war, concentration camps were created in the villages of Vidlitsa, Ilyinskoye, Kavgozero, Pogrankondushi, Paalu and Uslanka, as well as six concentration camps in Petrozavodsk. In total, during the Finnish occupation of Karelia, 14 concentration camps for the civilian population were created. According to the Karelian historian K.A. Morozov, as a result of hard forced labor, poor nutrition, famine, epidemics, executions in the camps, more than 14 thousand Soviet people died, or 1/5 of those remaining in the occupied territory. Their only fault was that they were not Finns, and also did not belong to the Heimokansalainen group (tribesmen, i.e. Karelians, Vepsians and Izhors). Tortures and executions were used against the "guilty". These statistics do not include data on prisoner-of-war camps, the first of which began to be created as early as June 1941 and the regime in which was not much different from that of concentration camps.


And what the White Finns did with the prisoners on the battlefield defies any reasonable explanation at all. On June 28, 1944, near the village of Tosku-Selga, the Finns attacked a group of wounded Red Army soldiers. They stabbed them in the face with a knife, smashed their heads with butts and axes, and thus killed 71 wounded Red Army soldiers. So, the skull of Lieutenant Sych’s guard was split in two and his eyes gouged out, the guard of Private Knyazev had five bayonet wounds on his face, the guard of Sergeant Artemov’s face was cut with a razor, his arms were turned back, one wounded man was doused with gasoline and burned (the corpse cannot be identified).

On July 4, 1944, in the defense sector recaptured by our soldiers, next to the trench lay the corpse of a senior sergeant. The instrument of their atrocity - a large Finnish knife - the Finns left stuck in the chest of a Soviet soldier. The senior sergeant's hands were stained with blood, and the position of the corpse proved that the bandits had thrust the senior sergeant's hands into his cut throat. According to the found Red Army book, it was established that it was Senior Sergeant Boyko. Not far from Boyko were the corpses of other fighters. The Finns cut off the ear of one fighter, a huge hole was dug in the forehead of another, and the eyes of the third were gouged out.


(left: skin taken by the Finns from a captured Russian soldier)

On June 20, 1944, during the occupation of the 7th company of the 3rd division of the battalion 1046, the Finns' defense regiment was discovered in the Finns' trench, in front of the entrance to the dugout command post, the head of an unknown Soviet soldier, put on a stake driven in in front of the door of a mined dugout.+

The newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" dated August 11, 1944 published a letter from Senior Lieutenant V. Andreev: +

“Dear comrade editor! Take a look at this photo. It shows Lieutenant of the Finnish army Olkinuorya. In his hands is the skull of a Red Army soldier tortured and killed by him. As the prisoners testified, this beast in uniform decided to keep the skull of his victim “as a keepsake” and ordered the soldiers to boil it in a cauldron and clean it. And in the suitcase of the captured Finn Saari, we found photographs like this. Saari tortured the prisoners, cut off their arms and legs, and ripped open their stomachs. He even established a system: first he cut off the feet, hands, then the shins, forearms, and only then cut off the head.

The captured corporal of the 4th company of the 25th battalion of the 15th Finnish infantry division Kauko Johannes Haikisuo testified on July 6, 1944: “I heard such a case from a soldier Markus Koivunen. One deep reconnaissance platoon of the Lagus armored division caught in the spring of 1943 a Red Army soldier somewhere in Karelia. Finnish scouts scalped the Red Army soldier, hung the scalp on a bough, and then killed the prisoner. From this you can conclude how we treat Russian prisoners of war.”+

August Lappetelainen, Medical Sergeant of the 7th Company of the 30th Infantry Division of the 7th Infantry Division of the Finnish Army made the following statement to the command of the Red Army:

“On April 25, 1943, I and the commander of the 2nd platoon, sergeant major Esko Savolainen, went to the command post of the 7th company. Company commander Seppo Rusanen turned to me: “Listen, junior sergeant. I have a task for you: I need to get a human skull, and you, how health worker, you will need to boil the head to get the skull. On April 26, the company commander called me. We drove about 2 km. The Kalle stronghold was located there, where Russian scouts attacked in winter. Three Red Army soldiers were killed here, their corpses lay uncleaned. When the platoon commander and I examined these corpses, he found a suitable head, I cut off the head with an ax that was with me. Then the lieutenant said to me: "Take this head on a shovel, and I will photograph it." Then the lieutenant told me that I would have to boil it as quickly as possible so that it would not spoil. Before I put my head in the cauldron, the lieutenant came and took another picture of her. After that, I saw this skull on his desktop. And then in early August, Rusanen went on vacation and took this skull with him. According to the stories of the soldiers of the Liyavala and Räsänen department, Rusanen took the skull as a gift to his bride” (translated from Finnish).

During interrogation, a soldier of the 101st Finnish infantry regiment, Aare Ensio Moilanen, testified: “The reconnaissance and sabotage detachment, of which I am a member, set fire to the village of Koikari ... the women ran towards us and asked us not to shoot them. We raped some of these women and shot them all. Nobody was left. I have a beautiful girl in my memory, whom my comrades and I raped, and then shot.”+

The Finns tortured not only adults, but also children. A captured Finnish soldier of the 13th company of the 20th infantry brigade Toivo Arvid Laine testified: “In the first days of June 1944, I was in Petrozavodsk. The camp accommodated children from 5 to 15 years old. The kids were creepy to watch. They were small living skeletons, dressed in unimaginable rags. The children were so exhausted that they forgot how to cry and looked at everything with indifferent eyes.”+


Camps were set up for "offenders", predominantly women and children. special purpose in Kutizhma, Vilga, Kindasov, which were not inferior to medieval casemates. “Here the prisoners of the camps ate mice, frogs, dead dogs. Thousands of prisoners died from bloody diarrhea, typhoid fever, pneumonia. Instead of treatment, the animal doctor Kolehmainen beat the sick with sticks and drove them out into the cold. This letter was signed by 146 Soviet citizens, former prisoners of the Petrozavodsk camps.+

Commission with the participation of the chief forensic expert of the Karelian Front, Major Petropavlovsky, the chief pathologist of the Karelian Front, Dr. medical sciences, lieutenant colonel Ariel, having examined the Petrozavodsk cemetery "Sands", found 39 group graves, in which at least 7 thousand corpses were buried. The cause of death for most of the buried was exhaustion. Some of the corpses had through injuries of the skull with firearms.+

Captured by the Red Army, the deputy head of the Olonets camp No. 17 for prisoners of war, Pelkonen, testified during interrogation: “I completely shared the fascist propaganda carried out by the Finns. In the person of the Russian nationality, I saw the primordial enemies of my country. With this opinion, I went to fight against the Russians. My boss, lieutenant Soininen, said that the Russians, even in captivity, continue to be enemies for the Finns.

emergency State Commission established that the Finnish government and army command are primarily responsible for all the atrocities committed by the Finnish fascist invaders. Thus, Field Marshal Mannerheim is clearly a war criminal.+

Regarding the myth that

"MANNERHEIM DID NOT WANT TO HARM PETERSBURG"

The Finnish artillery, counting on one gun, fired shells in the direction of Leningrad no less than the German one, but they did not reach Leningrad not because of the baron's love for the city, but because of the laws of physics. The closest point to Leningrad for the Finns was 35 km, and for the Germans 10. Therefore, the Germans shot Leningrad even with divisional artillery. Not to mention the most powerful grouping of heavy and super-heavy guns.

The Finns had few such guns, but they were, and in Leningrad, though not as many as the Germans, they fired - there are several cases of hits on important objects from the "wrong" side, including a heavy shell hitting a bomb shelter, which caused large victims. These were the results of artillery fire from Finnish territory. And the rest of the Finnish artillery mercilessly beat on Soviet soil, reliably closing the blockade ring, and conscientiously fulfilling Hitler's order: +

"Not a single resident of Leningrad should go beyond the encirclement, the city should be completely destroyed by artillery and aircraft."

Director of the Military Museum of the Karelian Isthmus, Russian military writer Bair Irincheev:

INSTALLING A MEMORIAL PLAQUE TO MANNERHEIM IS A BIG MISTAKE

In this case, the following arguments were given: they say, Mannerheim was a Russian general, a servant of the emperor, white. This is part of a trend to romanticize the imperial period of Russia and an attempt to forget everything that happened in the Soviet period. Supporters of the board say: let's forget that Mannerheim was an ally of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944, and remember how he carried banners at the coronation of Nicholas II. But it is simply impossible to tear apart the biography of one person. It's anti-scientific.

As a result, "an attempt to overcome what happened after October revolution tragic split in society" led to clearly opposite consequences. This can be seen from the current discussion. After 1917, Mannerheim returned to Finland, served there. He did not interfere with the mass executions of the population in Vyborg when he entered white army. After the victory of the white army in the Finnish Civil War in the spring of 1918, there was his order "The Oath of the Sword". He then said: "I will not sheathe my sword until the peoples of Karelia are free from the yoke of Bolshevism." He was with both hands for the expansion of Finland and the accession of the Republic of Karelia to it. In 1919 - 1922, he in no way resisted military expeditions - the invasion of Karelia by Finnish volunteer detachments. In 1941, the Finnish army did not stop at the borders of 1920, took Olonetsk, Medvezhyegorsk, crossed the Svir, and occupied Podporozhye. Beginning in 1918, Mannerheim supported the separation of Karelia from Russia, and in 1941 he carried it out. And only in 1944, when he realized that the Soviet Union would not be defeated, he refused this. What is the overcoming of the split?

In August 1944, when the defeat of Germany became apparent, Finland officially "withdrew from the war." Then Mannerheim was replaced as President of Finland by Risto Ryti. This was done at lightning speed, in order to save Finland from Ryti's promise to be with the Nazi Republic to the end (he signed such a letter to Hitler on June 23, 1944). August 24 Mannerheim became president and gave Soviet Union a signal that it is ready to fulfill the terms of the truce. conditions. Stalin, as a very pragmatic politician, understood: Mannerheim in Finland is a respected and compromise figure, and if you take him and hang him, then the right-wing parties will have their own martyr. All crimes were hanged on Risto Ryti. He was imprisoned by his own people for 7 years as a war criminal, he was released quickly enough on parole. Mannerheim, on the other hand, was excluded from the list of war criminals, but this is not tantamount to hanging a memorial plaque to him.


I communicate a little with the Finns, but the right is not enthusiastic, as they are Russophobic. The leftists say that in Tampere the monument to Mannerheim was doused five times with paint in memory of the bloody massacre in the spring of 1918. Finland has many of its own internal problems, and the figure is slightly forgotten. Next year, this will become relevant again: Finland will celebrate the 100th anniversary of independence and in 2018 - the 100th anniversary of the civil war.

By the way, Mannerheim's board itself contains errors: it shows the end date of the service - 1918, and then he already commanded the White Army in Finland and turned away when Russian officers were shot at. In general, setting up the board is an attempt to side with White and take revenge for their defeat, and not at all an attempt to overcome the split.

In this sense, the actions of the authorities look amazing, which, on the one hand, "condemn fascism", go to the action " Immortal Regiment", write books about Finland's guilt in the death of a million blockade survivors, and then erect a monument to the direct organizer of the genocide ... (below is a copy of the pages from the book of the current Minister of Culture V. Medinsky +

We have our own explanation for what happened. And it's not just about "attempts at reconciliation", "secret homosexual admirers" and "demonstration of friendly signs" during the Sabbath of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. We propose to look at the "theory and practice of oligarchic collectivism" of Putin's ruling regime through the prism of the anti-utopia of the practicing ideologist of the BBC J. Orwell

DOUBLETHINK, CARL!

Doublethink is the ability to hold two opposing beliefs at the same time.

Meaning of doublethink:

“Doublethink means the ability to simultaneously hold two contradictory beliefs. The Party intellectual knows in which direction to change his memories; therefore, he realizes that he is cheating with reality; however, with the help of doublethink, he assures himself that reality has remained untouched. This process must be conscious, otherwise it cannot be carried out accurately, but it must also be unconscious, otherwise there will be a feeling of lies, and hence guilt.

Doublethink is the soul of the Ingsoc, for the Party uses deliberate deceit to keep a firm course towards its goal, and this requires complete honesty. To speak a deliberate lie and at the same time to believe in it, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient and to retrieve it from oblivion as soon as it is needed again, to deny the existence of objective reality and to take into account the reality that one denies - all this is absolutely necessary. Even when using the word "doublethink", it is necessary to resort to doublethink. For by using this word you admit that you are cheating with reality; one more act of doublethink and you erased it from your memory; and so on ad infinitum, and the lie is always one step ahead of the truth.

The soldier who does not dream of becoming a general is bad. Karl Mannerheim went from being a Russian cornet tsarist army to Field Marshal and President of Finland. He was an ally of Hitler, but Joseph Stalin personally struck him off the list of war criminals.

Mannerheim and the national question

The President of Finland was a Swede by birth, he devoted 30 years to the Russian army, and it was in the Russian Empire that he grew up and developed. Mannerheim's adjutant, even during World War II, was the Russian hussar Ignat Karpachev. It is significant that Mannerheim addressed him strictly by his first name and patronymic.

Mannerheim respected the Russians and did not hide his reverence even when communicating with Hitler.

When Mannerheim was already president of Finland, he insisted that all the inhabitants of his country be called precisely "Finns", and not the more neutral "Finlanders". national interests Finland for the Swede, who served half his life in the Russian army, stood in the first place. Since 1942, Mannerheim's birthday has been celebrated in Finland as the day of the Finnish army.

Mannerheim and languages

Mannerheim was fluent in Russian, English, French and German. He knew eight languages ​​in total. Paradoxically, his native Swedish and Finnish were far from ideal. Of course, this could not but attract attention. The marshal's language awkwardness was a favorite topic for jokes of his fellow citizens.

Mannerheim and the cavalry

Horses were Mannerheim's main passion. His life and military career was closely connected with the cavalry. Mannerheim's military career developed rapidly. This was due to the defiant initiative of the young cavalryman. Carl Gustav avoided staff work, although he was forced to devote time and effort to it from time to time. For the successful organization of the work of the office of the stable part, the young cavalry guard was noted in the order and promoted to the position of head of the harness department, which was under special control of the Minister of the Court, Count Frederiks. And at this place, Mannerheim managed to distinguish himself: he reorganized the unit and personally taught blacksmiths how to shoe horses.

He went from joining a cavalry guard regiment to being seconded to the prestigious cavalry school of General Brusilov.

Behind special successes and excellent driving qualities, Brusilov appoints Karl as the commander of the training squadron and a member of the school's training committee. At school, this squadron was the standard of everything new and best in cavalry science. At first, Mannerheim was considered a "guards upstart", but the skill of the baron allowed him to gain respect even with this promotion.

Mannerheim and the Russo-Japanese War

Mannerheim hosted Active participation in the Russo-Japanese War. He was the initiator of several successful military operations. For skillful leadership and personal courage, the baron was awarded the rank of colonel.

At the same time, Mannerheim takes part in "deep reconnaissance" on the territory of Mongolia. The purpose of intelligence was to search for Japanese forces in Manchuria, to eliminate diplomatic scandals, intelligence was carried out by the "local police".

The colonel wrote: “My detachment is just hunzuns, that is, local robbers from the main road ... These bandits ... know nothing but a Russian magazine rifle and cartridges ... My detachment hastily assembled from garbage. There is neither order nor unity in it ... although they cannot be blamed for lack of courage. They managed to break out of 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 give information about the Japanese positions throughout the territory of our activity. This was the last operation in the Russian-Japanese war.

Mannerheim and orders

Mannerheim became the only person in history to receive awards from both opposing sides during the First and Second World Wars. He also became the only person awarded the highest rank of Finland - Marshal of Finland.

In total, Mannerheim had 123 orders and other state awards, including the St. George Cross and all the military awards of Russia until 1918.

The same Leonid Brezhnev, who was very fond of awards, had 115 of them. Mannerheim's name is even engraved in the St. George's Hall of the Kremlin.

Mannerheim and the Dalai Lama

In 1906-1908, Mannerheim undertook a secret reconnaissance expedition to China. The baron thoroughly prepared for his mission, studied the archival documents of the expedition of Przhevalsky and Pevtsov, met with the explorer of Central Asia Kozlov.

During the expedition, Mannerheim met with the Dalai Lama XIII, collected a lot of information, brought a lot of photographs, intelligence, artifacts and phonetic studies.

Mannerheim rode about 14,000 kilometers on horseback and was even accepted as an honorary member of the Russian Geographical Society.

Mannerheim and the Mannerheim Line

In January 1918, Mannerheim submitted his resignation and left for Finland. Since that time, Mannerheim's ambitions have been connected with the idea of ​​preserving the independence of Finland. At first, he holds the post of commander-in-chief of the Finnish army, then becomes the temporary head of the Finnish state and seeks international recognition of independent Finland.

Mannerheim is popularly known as the creator of the so-called "Mannerheim line". Before the Soviet-Finnish war, Mannerheim initiated the reconstruction of defensive structures between the Gulf of Finland and Ladoga.

Your name defensive line It is rather conditional, since fortification work on this site has been carried out since the beginning of the 1920s.

For almost 135 kilometers, a defensive belt was stretched, the basis for which was the very relief of the Karelian Isthmus. The defense capability of the "Mannerheim Line" was exaggerated by propaganda. At one time it was considered almost impassable. There were rumors that machine-gun pillboxes on the line could be used to shell Leningrad. After the war fortifications were dismantled. Sappers blew up the remaining firing points of the pillbox. In the spring of 1941, an armored cap, internal equipment, ventilation devices and doors dismantled from the pillbox of the fortified Summa unit were delivered to Moscow. An eight-ton viewing armored cap was installed in the park of the Central House of the Red Army

Mannerheim, Stalin and Hitler

During secret negotiations between the USSR and Finland on the withdrawal of the latter from the war, Stalin, through diplomats, conveyed to the Finnish government the condition: "We will accept only such an agreement, behind which Marshal Mannerheim will stand." When Herta Kuusinen was tasked with compiling a list of top Finnish war criminals, she did. Mannerheim was also on this list. Stalin crossed out Mannerheim with a red pencil and wrote: "Do not touch."

Where did Stalin have such a disposition towards a man whose country was an ally of Nazi Germany? It must be HOW Mannerheim helped Hitler. He did it with his characteristic originality.

He refuses to subordinate the Finnish army to the German command, but he does not agree to take German units under his command. At the beginning of 1942, in response to regular questions from the Wehrmacht generals about the fate of the Finnish front, Mannerheim chopped off: "I will not advance anymore." Hitler understands that it is useless to rely on Mannerheim and finds himself an obedient ally - General Talvel. At that time, the main German task was the capture of Sukho Island. It was necessary to land troops on Sukho and firmly gain a foothold. Then the Germans would be able to fully control the transportation along Ladoga, both on ice and on water. Leningrad would have been left without supplies and died. Mannegraim cannot forbid General Talvela to carry out the operation, but he finds his own methods. Suddenly, the Finns fall ill with an incomprehensible serious illness - the equipment that previously worked like clockwork ceases to function, Finnish diligence disappears somewhere. German sailors are surprised: nothing is done on time.

Hitler urgently comes to Mannerheim's anniversary and showers him with expensive gifts: a chic Mercedes-770, 3 military all-terrain vehicles, the Order of the German Eagle with a large golden cross. The most important gift was his own portrait of the Reich Chancellor, painted by the artist Truppe.

Mannerheim sells an expensive Mercedes to Sweden, gives away all-terrain vehicles to the army, and throws the cross and portrait away, out of sight. For him, meeting with Hitler is a diplomatic ritual, nothing more. The Germans never took Sukho Island: Mannerheim managed to warn Soviet command, and the methods he chose, which slowed down the German offensive, bore fruit.

Mannerheim and ballerina

Mannerheim was distinguished by enviable adventurism and even recklessness in matters of the heart. In January 1924, when he was already considered an enemy of the Bolshevik state, the 57-year-old Mannerheim arrived in Moscow and wooed the ballerina Ekaterina Geltser.

The wedding of the "young" is carried out by the disgraced Patriarch Tikhon. In addition, Mannerheim, together with Geltser, visit the mausoleum, standing in line for many hours in Epiphany frosts.

The ballerina then fell ill with bilateral pneumonia, Mannerheim could not wait for her recovery and left for Finland. They didn't see each other again.

Mannerheim and vodka

accustomed to Russian army to the daily use of good vodka, Mannerheim was extremely dissatisfied with the quality of Finnish spirits. D

In order to beat off the taste that bothered the marshal, 20 grams of French vermouth and 10 grams of gin were added to one liter of Finnish vodka.

The drink was called "Marshal's stack". In honor of his anniversary, Mannerheim, from whom Hitler expected decisive action, decided to please his soldiers and sent trucks with vodka to the front line. Two bottles of vodka per dugout. On the marshal's birthday, the Finnish army became incapable of combat, which had already become a sign to the USSR and allies: the Finns had finished their war.

The ancestor of the Mannerheim family was the merchant Henrik Marheim, who moved from Holland to Sweden in the 16th century. He was engaged in mining, became a member of the city council of the city of Gavle, and even served in the burgher guard as a company commander. Then he moved to Stockholm, where he got a position as an accountant in the first bank in Sweden. His youngest son Augustin got a job as a manager in Estonia, on the estate of Count Uksensherna, and during the sequestration of lands in order to return them to the crown, he became a member of the executive committee, composed of people of non-noble origin. This allowed him to lease the lands of his former employers, the counts of Uksenshern, and in 1693 to receive a noble title. He began to be called differently, changing the name Marheim to a longer and more sonorous one - Mannerheim. All four of his sons began serving as artillery officers. The eldest of them, Karl Eric, served in Finland in the city of Turku in the provincial infantry regiment. At 23, he was already in the rank of major, perhaps having bought the rank, which was accepted at that time. His brother, who received legal education, joined the royal opposition and in 1809 was appointed Commissioner of Justice.

Carl Eric himself was prominent in the Anjala Union and was accused of treason and sentenced to death. He applied for a pardon and received it. Despite the fact that his views were shared by many officers who opposed the war started by the king with Russia, to continue military service in Finland, Carl Eric Mannerheim could no longer. At first he decided to join some foreign army, but then, having married the daughter of the governor of Turku, he decided to part with military career. Having bought the estate with his wife's money, he began to lead a quiet, peaceful life. But he did not succeed in finally parting with politics. During the Russian-Finnish war of 1808-1809, he was appointed chairman of the deputation to the Russian emperor to resolve the issue of the status of Finland. The negotiations were successful, and at the request of the deputation, a diet was convened, in which Mannerheim occupied a prominent place. He was elected governor, and in the early 1920s he became deputy chairman of the Senate Department of Economics. In the year of the death of Emperor Alexander I, Mannerheim was granted the title of count. He was a calm, reserved and businesslike man, demanding and stern. He did not enjoy the love of the Finns, and later he was blamed for connivance and compliance with the Russians, which forced Mannerheim to resign and return to private life. Mannerheim was succeeded by Lars Gabriel von Haartmann, who was married to Karl Erik's daughter and after her death married her sister.

Karl Eric's son August did not aspire to political career, understanding the hostile attitude towards the family of the Finnish society. August Mannerheim became a specialist in women's fashion, interior design and ceremonial. He drew well, but could not become a professional artist, as in his time it was considered an occupation not worthy of a nobleman.

Completely different was his brother, Carl Gustav, who was the first in the Mannerheim family to be born in Finland. He was a cold, prim and inflexible person, very slowly but steadily moving up the career ladder. By the age of 36, he became the governor of Vasa, and then was transferred to the Vyborg province. In 1839 he became president of the Supreme Court of Vyborg. Carl Gustav actively supported everything Finnish, offered to conduct legal proceedings in Finnish, establish the position of professor Finnish at the University of Helsingfors. His great passion was collecting insects, and he had an impressive collection of over 100,000 species. He wrote a number of books on beetles (there were more than 20 thousand species in their collection) and was a member of many foreign natural science societies.

Married to the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel von Schanz, Carl Gustav had three daughters and a son. According to the will, son Charles Robert inherited the estate of Vilnes. When he was only 10 years old, his father passed away. In character, the son was completely different from his father - he became a radical and an atheist. Carl Robert had many artistic talents. He sang beautifully and even performed the main role at the premiere of the first Finnish opera King Karl's Hunt, replacing the ill soloist. He studied at the University of Helsingfors, and after graduation he spent a lot of time in Paris, where he was imbued with radical ideas. He wrote poetry and translated into Swedish the works of Burns, de Musset and Heine. He was an excellent cook and wine connoisseur. He married for money, taking as his wife the daughter of a major financial magnate Johan Jacob von Yulin - Helen. Karl Robert lived with his wife for 18 years, and then left her and seven children, having previously squandered both his fortune and the fortune of his wife. Helen Mannerheim raised her children in the English spirit - strictly and harshly. She paid more attention to their hardening than spiritual development, emphasizing self-discipline, restraint, efficiency and duty. warm human feelings was not given much importance. The only child in the family who did not obey any discipline and for whom the principles of the mother did not matter was the future Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim.

He was born on June 16, 1867 on the Louhisaari estate in southwestern Finland. At the age of 14, Karl Mannerheim entered cadet school in Friedrichsgam, near Vyborg, and then moved to the Nikolaev Cavalry School in St. Petersburg, which at that time was a great success. Karl Mannerheim soon made a brilliant career in the Russian army. In 1887 he was commissioned into the cavalry. During the years of study in the capital, he made many useful acquaintances and became close friends with Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich, who later became the last Russian emperor. These connections were very useful to Mannerheim after graduation. Nicholas School. The first place of Mannerheim's service was the court regiment of "black dragoons", but he dreamed of getting into the famous regiment of cavalry guards, where he was transferred in 1891. In the guard, he made many friends, and he had the opportunity to join the social life of the capital.

When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, Mannerheim went to the front in Manchuria, where he took part in the fighting. Having received several orders, honestly deserved in battles, Carl Gustav Emil von Mannerheim returned to the capital.

After the defeat in the war, the Russian General base I was looking for a person who could take up the collection of military topographic information in Central and Central Asia. And Lieutenant Colonel von Mannerheim volunteered. Within two years, he, accompanied by several Cossacks on horseback, crossed Turkestan, the Gobi Desert and reached Beijing through Tibet. He diligently photographed, took measurements, got acquainted with the life of the local population. This journey, 10 thousand kilometers long, allowed Mannerheim to become an honorary member of the Russian Geographical Society.

Returning to St. Petersburg and having received another honestly deserved rank, Colonel von Mannerheim was enlisted in the Guards Cavalier Guard Regiment. In 1911, von Mannerheim received the rank of major general, became commander of the Cavalier Guard Regiment and was included in the retinue of Nicholas II.

By the beginning of the First World War, he was in the position of commander of the 12th Cavalry Brigade, which was sent to Galicia and participated in battles with the Austro-Hungarian army. The general also had a chance to fight in Romania, leading the cavalry corps. During the three years of the war, Mannerheim was awarded almost all Russian orders and was promoted to lieutenant general.

In March 1917 during February Revolution he was in Petrograd on vacation, and after the Kornilov rebellion he decided to return to the front. In September 1917, the Supreme Commander Dukhonin transferred him to the reserve. Having learned about the October Revolution and the fall of the Provisional Government, von Mannerheim decided to return to his homeland, to Finland.

In early January 1918, General Mannerheim was invited to the military committee, which set itself the task of forming the Finnish armed forces. On January 14, von Mannerheim became the head of this committee, and on January 16, the head of state, Per Evind Svinhufvud, appointed him commander-in-chief. The country was in a civil war. Under the leadership of General Mannerheim, in addition to the Shutskor detachments - paramilitary formations to protect law and order - there were parts of the German Expeditionary Force and parts of the White Army, which were opposed by parts of the Red Guard. In the spring of 1918, the Red Guard was defeated throughout the country, and in early May, Mannerheim solemnly entered the capital. However, the son-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse, was elevated to the Finnish throne, and in early October 1918, Mannerheim, who had no love for the Germans, was forced to emigrate.

The revolution that broke out in Germany destroyed the Kaiser's throne. And already in December 1918, Gustav von Mannerheim returned to Helsinki, where he ruled the country as regent from December 1918 to July 1919. He strengthened the political system of Finland as a republic, strengthened the role of the armed forces in the country and tried to establish ties with the countries of Northern Europe. In July 1919, while still regent, he ratified the constitution of the Republic of Finland. After the election, Stolberg became the country's president, and Mannerheim retained the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Finland. In 1920, the government decided to reform the Finnish army along the German lines. Von Mannerheim resigned.

In the early 1930s he returned to politics and public service. In March 1931 he was appointed chairman of the Defense Council. In 1937, Mannerheim achieved the adoption of a seven-year plan for the rearmament of the army, and under his leadership, defensive fortifications began to be erected on the Karelian Isthmus, called the "Mannerheim Line". He did a lot to arm and strengthen the Finnish army, and it was not his fault that by the time the Soviet Union attacked Finland in the fall of 1939, it was not sufficiently armed and trained, and the technical equipment of the Finnish army also left much to be desired. Carl Gustav von Mannerheim knew all this better than anyone else, so when Ryti told him about Moscow's proposals at the end of 1938, the general advised the prime minister to agree not only to Soviet bases, but also to minor territorial concessions.

As early as the beginning of 1938, the USSR, through closed channels, turned to Finland with a proposal to start negotiations on border issues in order to ensure the security of Leningrad in case of war. For this, the USSR wanted to get some Finnish territories. But the Finnish government refused. Mannerheim himself took a more flexible position and spoke in favor of concessions.

On October 5, 1939, Molotov invited a Finnish government delegation to Moscow for talks. The next day, Mannerheim secretly began a general mobilization. At the same time, local residents were evacuated from the Karelian Isthmus and from Helsinki. Mannerheim understood that the USSR would not simply back down from its demands to resolve the issue of new borders, so he advised Paasikivi: “You must definitely reach an agreement. The army is incapable of fighting."

Finland, supported by the international community, refused to make concessions. The Soviet Union began to intensively prepare for war with its northern neighbor. In Finland itself, neither the government nor the population believed in the possibility of war. Carl Gustav von Mannerheim, who still believed that it was necessary to agree to the demands of the Soviet Union, submitted his resignation, which, however, was not accepted. At that time, Mannerheim was already 70 years old, and he believed that he was not obliged to lead the country's armed forces, since his advice was not taken into account.

On November 27, 1939, Molotov declared that the USSR no longer considered itself bound by the non-aggression pact. The next day, the Soviet Union announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Finland, and on November 30, 1939, attacked the country.

On the very first day of the war, General von Mannerheim took his resignation. Meanwhile, the Finnish army courageously defended the foreground, repulsing all attempts by the Soviet troops to break through to the first line of fortifications. December 2 in the first captured by the price big sacrifices the Finnish city of Terioki (now Zelenogorsk) announced the creation of a "government" of the Finnish Democratic Republic, headed by O.V. Kuusinen.

The Red Army, suffering huge losses, unsuccessfully stormed the first line of the Finnish defense on the Karelian Isthmus. In December 1939, all attempts by the Soviet troops to capture the fortified areas were unsuccessful. However, after the failure of the Christmas counter-offensive, the position of the Finns on the isthmus became more complicated. The front commander Timoshenko managed to establish interaction between the branches of the armed forces, and now the Finnish corps entrenched in the fortifications were exhausted by continuous fire. Timoshenko knew that Mannerheim had no reserves. The situation was saved by volunteers arriving in Finland - Swedes and Norwegians. In January, the first 3 thousand people entered the battle. Soon their number increased to 11,500 people. Sweden provided Mannerheim with 80,000 rifles, 500 assault rifles, 200 guns and 25 aircraft. Italy also supplied Finland with 30 aircraft and a large number of anti-aircraft guns. The Finnish American Legion arrived at the front only by March 13, when the fighting had already ended. Assistance to the Finns was provided by France, Hungary, and even Poland. London, on the other hand, decided to try to settle the matter amicably and said that if the USSR did not stop the war, British strategic bombers based in Iraq would destroy the oil fields in Baku and Grozny. Moscow was forced to negotiate with Helsinki, and on March 12 an armistice was signed. Although the terms of the peace were very harsh, Finland escaped occupation.

Immediately after the Soviet-Finnish war, Finland began to look for allies in Northern Europe in case of occurrence new war. The idea of ​​a defensive alliance did not find support from Sweden, and then the Finnish government refocused on Germany, which was already preparing an attack on the Soviet Union. From the second half of 1940, the Wehrmacht began to help General Mannerheim reform the Finnish army. In addition, the Finnish government has agreed to transit German troops to Norway through its territory. Despite all the persuasion of Hitler and Keitel, in May 1941, President Ryti officially announced that Finland would not take part in the aggression against the USSR. But in early June, the Finnish border began to accumulate Soviet troops, and on the 17th of the same month, Mannerheim conducted a general mobilization.

On the morning of June 22, Germany attacked the USSR. Mannerheim tried to avoid military obligations, while the Fuhrer wanted to present the Finns with a fait accompli and drag them into the war. The Soviet units periodically shelled the territory of Finland and attacked the Finnish border guards. The raid on Helsinki exhausted their patience, and Finland declared war on the USSR. fighting The Finnish armed forces were mainly reduced to the return of territories taken away in 1940. On August 31, 1941, units of the Finnish army reached the old border.

At the end of November 1941, Churchill turned to his old friend von Mannerheim with a proposal to act as an intermediary in settling relations with the Soviet Union. But the campaign in Eastern Karelia developed so successfully that the commander-in-chief hesitated to respond, and meanwhile England, under pressure from Moscow, declared war on Finland. General von Mannerheim was persuaded to provide his troops for the capture of Murmansk and railway, through which the help of the allies came to the interior of the USSR. But he refused. By mid-1942, Hitler had failed to persuade Mannerheim to help the Wehrmacht cut the railroad from Murmansk. In addition, Mannerheim also refused to hand over Jews hiding in Finland from Gestapo persecution.

On June 4, 1942, Baron Mannerheim turned 75. On this day, he was awarded the rank of Marshal.

Beginning in the winter of 1943, Marshal Mannerheim stubbornly began to advise parliament to get out of the war as soon as possible. In the summer, the Soviet Union also made peace proposals that led to the start of negotiations. But they were not successful. Moscow demanded the internment of German troops in Lapland, the restoration of the 1940 borders and the payment of indemnities. Finland did not agree to these proposals, although Mannerheim personally believed that concessions could be made on some issues.

On June 9, 1944, the Red Army launched an offensive on the Karelian Isthmus. Mannerheim threw into battle all the reserves he had, but after 10 days the Soviet units took Vyborg and began large-scale military operations in Eastern Karelia. In Helsinki, they again asked for help from Germany. The Germans were only able to provide von Mannerheim with an artillery brigade, a few squadrons and ammunition. By July 20, the offensive of the Red Army was stopped west of Vyborg, and the Soviet command, abandoning the intention to capture Southern Finland, began to transfer troops to the Baltic states.

On August 4, 1944, Carl Gustav von Mannerheim was elected by the Parliament as the new President of Finland. Immediately after taking office, the marshal, through the mediation of Sweden, entered into negotiations with Moscow. On September 2, Finland broke off diplomatic relations with the Third Reich and demanded the immediate withdrawal of German troops from Lapland. Three days later, fire was ceased on the Soviet-Finnish front.

As a result of the Second World War, Finland lost 12 percent of its territory and more than 89 thousand people were killed.

strong tension recent years affected the health of Marshal Mannerheim. Already during the war, he had to be treated in Switzerland. By the spring of 1945, his health deteriorated sharply, and he had to leave the country for a long time for treatment abroad. In early 1946, he wanted to give up the presidency of the country, but decided to resign after the trial of war criminals was over. Still, already in March 1946, Mannerheim announced the impossibility of further fulfillment of his presidential duties, and Paasikivi was elected his successor.

Mannerheim spent the last years of his life in Switzerland. There he not only received treatment, but also worked on his memoirs, in which he summed up his life. Mannerheim died in Lausanne on January 28, 1951. Tens of thousands of Finns saw him off on his last journey.


Karl Mannerheim, Colonel of the Russian Imperial Army. Poland, 1909

For Finns, this man is a national hero. It must be admitted that the Finnish statehood, in fact, took place precisely thanks to him ... the help of Germany in 1918, and also the goodwill of the Soviet Union. And who is he - Karl Mannerheim, for a Russian person? No, he was not a patriot of Russia, neither when he served in her army, nor when he fought against her ...

"Mannerheim's order in connection with the landing of German troops in Finland

At the request of the Finnish government, detachments of the victorious and mighty German army landed on Finnish soil to help us drive out the villainous Bolsheviks. I am convinced that the brotherhood in arms, which is imprinted in the current struggle with blood, should further strengthen the friendship and trust that Finland has always had in the great Kaiser and the mighty German people. I hope that the young Finnish army, fighting side by side with the glorious German troops, will be imbued with that iron discipline, sense of order and sense of duty that created the greatness of the German army and led it from victory to victory. Welcoming the arrival of the brave German troops, I hope that every Finnish person will understand the great sacrifice made by the noble German people to our country at a time when Germany needs every person to fight on the Western Front.

(The defeat of the White Finnish interventionists in Karelia in 1918-22. Collection of documents / Compiled by A.M. Fedotov; edited by P.G. Sofinov. [Tegozero]: State Publishing House of the Karelian-Finnish SSR, 1944. P.16-17 )

Nevertheless, according to the beliefs of fans of Russia-which-we-have-lost, the Bolsheviks are German agents, and Mannerheim is "a real Russian hero and patriot."


He earned his Iron Cross honestly...


Mannerheim and President Ryti inspect Finnish troops in the city of Enso


Finnish President Kyösti Kallio with Mannerheim. Helsinki railway station. December 19, 1940


Mannerheim at headquarters in the summer of 1941




Mannerheim, Supreme Commander of the Finnish Army. Helsinki. 1941


Mannerheim with the generals of the headquarters are looking through binoculars towards Leningrad and Kronstadt. 1941


Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim and General Rudolf Walden


Mannerheim, Major General Erkki Raapan and Lieutenant General Harald Ekvist

“During the liberation war of 1918, I (note - Mannerheim) told the Karelians of Finland and the East that I would not sheathe my sword until Finland and East Karelia were free,” the first and last Finnish marshal inspired his fighters. - Twenty-three years North Karelia and Olonia have been waiting for the fulfillment of this promise, a year and a half after the heroic winter war Finnish Karelia, devastated, was waiting for the dawn of dawn ... At this historical moment for the world German and Finnish soldiers - as in liberation war 1918 - breastfeed against Bolshevism and the Soviet Union. Struggle German brothers in arms next to our soldiers-liberators in the North will further strengthen the long-standing and strong military brotherhood, help to destroy the threat of Bolshevism and guarantee a bright future… The freedom of Karelia and Great Finland shimmer before us in a huge whirlpool of world-historical events.

In total, almost 600 thousandth international army was concentrated in Finland, including 16 Finnish and 2 German infantry divisions, as well as 2 divisions of Austrian mountain riflemen. The SS troops were represented by the 6th SS Mountain Infantry Division "Nord", reinforced by a battalion of French tanks, manned by both natives of the Reich and ethnic Germans from other countries. In addition, Finland concentrated 2 jaeger and ski brigades here, and from other territories of the then united Europe, an Estonian regiment, a Swedish volunteer battalion and a Norwegian, also volunteer, SS ski battalion subsequently arrived. By June 22, this whole armada, accompanied by more than 200 tanks and almost 900 aircraft with black German and blue Finnish swastikas, was ready to attack. The operation, which received the code name "Silberfuks" - "Polar Fox", provided for the rapid capture of Murmansk and Leningrad, as well as all the main stations of the railway connecting them. At the same time, Mannerheim's troops were to occupy Karelia and, having reached the White Sea, complete the creation of Great Finland

Mannerheim made his contribution to the blockade and the resulting mass death of Leningraders from starvation, and the successors of his cause do not intend to repent of this. For example, Tino Vihavainen, professor at the University of Helsinki, who is considered to be Finland's foremost war historian, still claims that starvation hundreds of thousands of Leningraders are solely the fault of themselves and the fighters who defended the city. They would have surrendered to the mercy of the winner and ate their gruel calmly. Indeed, in the occupied territory, where almost all non-Finnish-speaking residents were sent to concentration camps, only one in five of them died behind barbed wire. And taking into account those who were shot and died of starvation due to massive requisitions of food in favor of uninvited "liberators", we can safely say that the occupation cost their lives a third of the Russian population of the captured part of Karelia.

And someone would not have passed a good gallows for this, if Mannerheim and his friends had not sold their beloved Fuhrer with all the giblets. After the defeat of the Finnish army near Vyborg and Petrozavodsk, they managed to agree with Moscow on separate world. In exchange for withdrawing from the war, transferring the nickel mines near Pechenga to the Soviet Union and stab in the back of the German "brothers in arms", Finland relatively successfully jumped off the Nazi train rushing into the abyss.

Source: Yuri Nersesov "The Dream of an Imperial Finn"


Fuhrer and Mannerheim at the airport. June 4, 1942


The Fuhrer and Mannerheim at the airport, June 4, 1942


Hitler, Marshal Mannerheim and President Ryti in Imatra. 06/04/1942


To the photo above


They walk one path...


Adolf Hitler greets German and Finnish officers 06/04/1942


Adolf Hitler and Karl Mannerheim at the railway station in Imatra. 06/04/1942 (Hitler arrived at Mannerheim's 75th birthday celebration)


Handshake. 06/04/1942


Mannerheim's visit to Germany on July 27, 1942.


Mannerheim's visit to Germany. July 27, 1942


Apparently bent over the map


Mannerheim receives Heinrich Himmler


To the photo above


Cup for victory...


Company


To the photo above



Mannerheim and the German representative at the General Staff of the Finnish Army, General of the Infantry V. Erfurt


Karl Mannerheim, President Risto Ryti and General Waldemar Erfurt


Mannerheim in negotiations with Wehrmacht General E. Dietl

Name: Carl Gustav Mannerheim

Age: 83 years old

Place of Birth: Askainen, Finland

A place of death: Lausanne, Finland

Activity: Finnish military 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 her own enemy.

IN Lately Name Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim is associated with an ugly history in St. Petersburg, where a memorial plaque was opened in his honor. As a result of several acts of vandalism and protests from citizens of leftist views, it was removed. The man, from whose birth a century and a half has passed, still excites Russian society.

Childhood, the family of Karl Manerheim

Carl Gustav was born on June 4, 1867 into a family of Swedish aristocrats. After the Nikolaev Cavalry School in St. Petersburg, he served in the elite Cavalier Guard 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 impossible to enter the church with weapons, Nikolai unfastened his saber before each new church and gave it to his assistant. And at one of these moments, an ominous and symbolic incident happened.


Taking off his weapon, the tsar touched the chain of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, and it broke off. But Mannerheim managed to catch the falling order, so that no one noticed anything. The order that flew off during the coronation is a bad omen for the future king. Mannerheim kept the secret all his life. At all, Russian emperor played a huge role in the life of Carl Gustav. The silver medal from the coronation was his talisman, and on the desktop there was always a portrait of the sovereign with an autograph.

Carl Gustav Mannerheim biography of personal life

Mannerheim married rather early on an 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 the affair of the faithful, and relations in the family were strained.


The desperate woman went along with the sanitary unit to the Chinese campaign of the Russian army in order to be next to her husband. This forced Carl Gustav to be an exemplary family man for some time. Alas, it did not last long - after the death of Mannerheim's son in infancy, the marriage actually broke up. Karl Gustav lost interest in Shuvalova too, dragging himself after one or another beautiful, noble and, most importantly, influential person ...

He also disposed of his wife's dowry wisely: he started breeding thoroughbred horses. It was extremely prestigious - even members of the royal houses were fond of horse breeding. So the ambitious officer began to acquire connections that were useful to him in the future.

Combat biography of Mannerheim

Karl Gustav received his first combat experience during the Russo-Japanese War - his dragoons made daring raids behind enemy lines. Then he went on a scientific - actually reconnaissance - expedition to China.

the first world war Mannerheim graduated with the rank of Major General. For getting out of the encirclement, he was awarded the St. George weapon. 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. The negative attitude towards the new government is evident from his letters. But do not forget that he swore military units to this government.

The October coup found Mannerheim in Odessa. There is evidence that the general was still there trying to organize resistance to the Bolsheviks. But, having come across the passivity of the other commanders, he left for Finland, which, with a stroke of Lenin's pen, turned from a Grand Duchy within the empire into an independent state.

The general hastily began to form national army. At the same time, the Red Finns staged a coup d'état 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 Mannerheim's unconditional victory. But bloody excesses occurred in this war as well. So, in Vyborg, Finnish troops staged a terror against the communists, which resulted in an anti-Russian pogrom.

Regent Mannerheim

Kolchak's proud phrase went down in history: "I do not trade in Russia!" It was uttered 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, and the annexation of certain regions of Russia to Finland. The negotiations between the Finns and General Yudenich, who was advancing on Petrograd, also ended in nothing. The only help of the Finnish commander-in-chief was the sympathetic notes in his papers. This is understandable: the Finns were afraid that if the Bolsheviks were defeated, their country would lose its independence.

Meanwhile, German influence increased in Finland. Mannerheim, who had long established contacts with England, had to leave 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 under the 18th century constitution. But soon the country finally became a republic. Mannerheim put forward his candidacy for the presidency, but was defeated in the elections.

For a time he moved away from state activities: led the Helsinki Joint Stock Bank, founded the Society for the Protection of Children, headed the Finnish branch of the Red Cross. The Swedish aristocrat von Rosen, knowing Mannerheim's interest in Tibet, handed over to Carl Gustav the first Finnish military aircraft with the image of a swastika on the wings - an ancient sign adopted 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 was preparing the country for a 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 frontier that stopped the Red Army.


The “Winter War” of 1939, which ended with the loss of territories for Finland, pushed Mannerheim towards an alliance with Nazi Germany. This fact is the main argument of the opponents of perpetuating his memory in Russia. Yes, Mannerheim's troops played a role in the blockade of Leningrad, and about 4,000 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 passage of the Wehrmacht 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 was distinguished by relatively small losses.

In 1944, Mannerheim finally became president, and in the same year Finland withdrew from the war. After that, she entered into a conflict with Germany, called the Lapland War. Mannerheim ruled until 1946, retired and died peacefully in 1951 in Switzerland.

Mannerheim's place in the history of Finland is obvious - a national hero who saved the country. But for Russia, he remains an ambiguous character ...

Two Mannerheim lines