Aunus expedition
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Aunus expedition | |||||||
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Part of Heimosodat | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Finnish volunteers |
Russian SFSR | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Leon Trotsky | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Finland about 2,500–2,700 Aunus about 1,000 | Soviet Russia about 20,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
330–400 dead 600–800 wounded |
1,000 dead 1,800 wounded |
The Aunus expedition (
Background
In February 1918
Earlier attempts in 1918 to Petsamo and White Karelia (Viena expedition) had failed, partly due to a passive attitude of the Karelians. Later the British occupied White Karelia.
During the summer of 1918, the government of Finland received various appeals from East Karelia for joining the area to Finland. Especially active were the inhabitants of the parish of
In February 1919 Mannerheim made clear to the Western powers and the White Army that Finland would attack the Bolsheviks in Saint Petersburg if it would receive material and moral support. During the same time the plans for the Aunus expedition were prepared and Jaeger-Major Gunnar von Hertzen was chosen as the commander of the troops. He thought that the expedition would succeed with a thousand Finnish volunteers, but only if the Karelians would join the fighting. Mannerheim approved the plan, but demanded that Britain would also have to approve of it before it could proceed.
The Expedition
The expedition crossed the border on the night of April 21, 1919. The goals were to capture
Major Paavo Talvela's regiment started an attack aimed at Petrozavodsk on June 20, but was beaten by Red Army and Finnish Red Guard forces just outside the town. The British troops that operated along the Murmansk railroad were quite close by, but did not participate.
The Finns had hoped that the Karelian population would have joined the troops as volunteers but only a few did and their morale was never very high.
The initiative now passed to the Bolsheviks. On June 26 over 600 Finns of the Red Officer School in Saint Petersburg made a landing at Vitele across Lake Ladoga behind the Finnish lines. The southern group was forced to retreat to Finland after suffering heavy losses. Talvela's group was also forced to retreat back to Finland.
Aftermath
The only result from the expedition was that the parish of
References
This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2014) ) |
- Jouko Vahtola, Nuorukaisten sota : Suomen sotaretki Aunukseen 1919, Otava, Helsinki (1997) ISBN 951-1-14850-8.