The White Guard, officially known as the Civil Guard, was a voluntary militia, part of the Finnish Whites movement, that emerged victorious over the socialist Red Guards in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. They were generally known as the "White Guard" in the West due to their opposition to the "communist" Red Guards. In the White Army of Finland many participants were recruits, draftees and German-trained Jägers – rather than part of the paramilitary. The central organization was named the White Guard Organization, and the organization consisted of local chapters in municipalities.
White Guard of Nummi in the 1930s
The collapse of discipline in the Czarist Russian armed forces in 1917 created a power vacuum. Here, anarchist Russian sailors are photographed in Helsinki during the summer of 1917.
Whites in trench at battle of Ruovesi, March 1918.
The Civil Guard House in Iisalmi
The Whites, or White Finland, is the name used to refer to the refugee government and those forces who fought for and under Pehr Evind Svinhufvud's first senate, who were opposed the "Reds", or the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic, during the Finnish Civil War or the 'Finnish War of Independence', as it is often called by the Whites, in 1918.
Protection Corpsmen in Oulu, 1918.