Finnish Civil War prison camps
Finnish Civil War prison camps were operated by the White Finns to hold prisoners of war during and after the Finnish Civil War in 1918.
Hennala prison camp in Lahti.
Two Red Guard members in front of a firing squad in Varkaus
A piece of bread from the Hennala prison camp.
The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic during the country's transition from a grand duchy ruled by the Russian Empire to a fully independent state. The clashes took place in the context of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The war was fought between the Red Guards, led by a section of the Social Democratic Party, and the White Guards, conducted by the senate and those who opposed socialism with assistance late in the war by the German Imperial Army at the request of the Finnish civil government. The paramilitary Red Guards, which were composed of industrial and agrarian workers, controlled the cities and industrial centres of southern Finland. The paramilitary White Guards, which consisted of land owners and those in the middle and upper classes, controlled rural central and northern Finland, and were led by General C. G. E. Mannerheim.
Tampere's civilian buildings destroyed during the Battle of Tampere
A demonstration at Helsinki Senate Square.
Russian soldiers in Helsinki. Prior to 1917, they sustained Finland's stability, after the February Revolution, the Russian troops became a source of social unrest.
Soldiers of the paramilitary White Guard in Leinola, a suburb of Tampere
