Carl Gustav Emil von Mannerheim led Finland’s independence movement from Russia during World War I and ensured his country’s survival as an independent nation during and after World War II. His brilliance in combining the advantages of terrain and weather allowed him to achieve victory over much larger forces. Mannerheim, often called the George Washington of Finland, remains his country’s most revered military leader.
When Mannerheim was born on June 4, 1867, to an aristo-cratic family in Villnas, near Turku, his native Finland was a part of Russia. Commissioned a lieutenant in the Russian cavalry in 1889, Mannerheim participated in the honor guard at the coronation of Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra on May 26, 1895. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, Mannerheim saw action as a major. At the outbreak of World War I, Mannerheim held the rank of lieutenant general and commanded a corps against the Germans.
Following the collapse of the Russian army during the November 1917 Revolution, Mannerheim returned home to join the movement that declared Finnish independence on December 6, 1917. On January 16, 1918, Mannerheim took command of anti-Communist White forces in western Finland and moved southward to expel pro-Communist Red Guards. At Vasa, Mannerheim captured a Russian garrison along with much-needed arms and ammunition. Aided by the captured equipment, Mannerheim continued his operations against the Red Guards until encountering a superior force outside Tampere on March 16.
Mannerheim’s offensive stalled, but then the German army joined the fight and seized Helsinki on April 18, dividing the Bolshevik forces into two parts. Mannerheim took advantage of the German victory by turning east and cutting off the Karelian Isthmus from Russia. With die Russians defeated and the Germans soon forced to withdraw under the armistice that ended World War I, Finland’s independence was secured. Mannerheim, declared a regent of Finland on December 12, 1918, continued to lead the army in defeating the last pockets of the Red Guards. With the end of hostilities and the declaration of the Republic of Finland on June 17, 1919, Mannerheim retired.
In 1931 when he was in his sixties, the Finnish government recalled Mannerheim to active duty, as chairman of the Defense Council, to prepare defenses against a renewed Soviet Union threat. For the next eight years, Mannerheim supervised the construction of a fortified line consisting of interconnecting strong-points in the rugged terrain of the Karelian Isthmus.
The Mannerheim Line, as it became known, was near completion when the Soviets launched an attack on November 30, 1939, with nearly 1 million soldiers. Mannerheim, now appointed commander in chief, faced the Soviet forces with an army of no more than three hundred thousand, only fifty thousand of whom were regulars. Although the Finnish force was much smaller, Man-nerheim had prepared his soldiers as well as he had his defensive fortifications. Each Finnish soldier had ample winter clothing, including white outer garments to blend in with the snow-covered landscape, and a pair of skis for mobility.
In contrast, the Soviets were poorly trained and equipped. The invaders, many from the Ukraine, were unprepared to survive, much less fight, in the minus-forty-degree temperatures. In the Batde of Suomussalmi, during December 1939-January 1940, Mannerheim allowed the weather and terrain to slow the Soviets as he cut their supply lines with ambushes and then destroyed the isolated units with snipers and artillery. During the invasion, the Soviets lost 27,500 soldiers either killed or frozen to death compared to only 900 Finnish casualties. The Russians also relinquished the weapons and equipment from two full divisions.
Despite the great Finnish victory, far more Soviets were available than either Mannerheim’s soldiers or the harsh winter could neutralize. On February 1 the Soviet Union committed fifty-four divisions, composed of three-quarters of a million men, to penetrate the Mannerheim Line. The Finns fought valiandy, but the massive numbers finally overwhelmed their defenses at Summa. On March 12, 1940, Finland surrendered, but the Soviets allowed the country to maintain a degree of autonomy on the condition that its citizens would not conduct guerrilla warfare against their occupiers. Finnish deaths totaled twenty-five thousand, with estimates of Soviet losses ten times that number, along with four hundred thousand wounded.
The peace between the Soviet Union and Finland did not last long. When Germany invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, Finland allied with the Germans and, with Mannerheim back in command of its army, renewed their efforts to push the Russians out of their country. Mannerheim’s initial offensive successfully forced a Russian withdrawal. Despite a request from Germany for him to pursue the Russians toward Leningrad, Mannerheim refused to take his forces into the Soviet Union. During the brief peace that followed, the government of Finland promoted Mannerheim to field marshal.
In 1944, once they had finally gained the upper hand against Germany, the Soviets renewed their attack against Finland. Mannerheim’s army performed well but once more fell to vasdy superior numbers, forcing Finland once more to sign a peace agreement with the Soviets on September 4, 1944. As a part of the agreement, Mannerheim conducted one last campaign to remove his former German allies from occupied Lapland.
Under the new agreement Mannerheim also assumed the position of president of the Finnish Republic. In masterful political moves that rivaled his outstanding military maneuvers, Mannerheim balanced the East and the West as he maintained Finnish independence in the postwar era. He remained at the head of his government until old age and ill health forced his retirement in 1946. He died at age eighty-three at Lausanne, Switzerland, on January 27, 1951.
Without Mannerheim, there might be no Finland. Without a doubt, his military and political leadership saved a country that would not otherwise have survived the two world wars and postwar politics. His expertise in building massive defensive works, combined with his expert employment of mobile warfare against larger forces in difficult terrain and severe weather, earned him the distinction as the most honored Finnish soldier.
His performance also places him on a par with the Soviets as one of their most respected and feared opponents. To the rest of the world for the next four decades, Mannerheim was proof that one could stop—and even defeat—the vaunted Soviet army. Mannerheim’s relatively low ranking on this list is not a reflection of his personal leadership and influence as much as it is a result of the lack of impact Finland has exerted on the rest of the world.