One
of the Greatest Finn, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was born on 4 June 1867. To
celebrate his 150th birthday, I will post information about him from
Wikipedia and other links.
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Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867-1951) was a
legendary Finnish military leader and statesman.
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In
office
4 August 1944 – 11 March 1946 |
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Prime Minister
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Preceded by
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Succeeded by
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In
office
17 October 1939 – 12 January 1945 |
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Preceded by
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Hugo Österman (as Commander of the Hosts)
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Succeeded by
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Axel Heinrichs (as Chief of Defence)
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In
office
25 January 1918 – 30 May 1918 |
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Preceded by
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post created
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Succeeded by
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State
Regent of Finland
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In
office
12 December 1918 – 26 July 1919 |
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Preceded by
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Succeeded by
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K. J. Ståhlberg as President of the
Republic
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Personal
details
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Born
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4 June 1867
Askainen, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire |
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Died
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27 January 1951 (aged 83)
Lausanne, Switzerland |
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Resting
place
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Hietaniemi cemetery, Helsinki
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Nationality
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Spouse(s)
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Anastasie Mannerheim, born Arapova (divorced 1919)
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Children
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Anastasie (1893–1977)
Sophie (1895–1963) |
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Profession
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Religion
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Signature
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Military
service
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Allegiance
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Russian
Empire
Finland |
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Service/branch
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Years
of service
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1887–1917 (Russia)
1918–1946 (Finland) |
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Rank
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Lieutenant General (Russia)
Field Marshal (Finland) |
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Battles/wars
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Russo-Japanese War First World War Finnish Civil War Second World War |
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Baron Carl Gustaf
Emil Mannerheim (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈkɑːɭ ˈɡɵˈstav ˈeːmɪl ˈmanːɛrˈheɪm]; 4
June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was a Finnish
military leader and statesman. Mannerheim served as the military leader of the Whites
in the Finnish Civil War, Regent of Finland (1918–1919), commander-in-chief of Finland's defence forces during World
War II, Marshal of Finland, and the sixth president of Finland (1944–1946).
Mannerheim
made a career in the Imperial Russian Army, rising to the rank of
lieutenant general. He also had a prominent place in the ceremonies for Tsar
Nicholas II's coronation and later had
several private meetings with the Russian Tsar. After the Bolshevik revolution,
Finland declared its independence but was soon embroiled in civil
war between the pro-Bolshevik "Reds" and the
"Whites", who were the troops of the Senate
of Finland. Mannerheim was appointed the military chief of the Whites.
Twenty years later, when Finland was twice at war with the Soviet
Union from late 1939 until September 1944, Mannerheim successfully led the
defence of Finland as commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces. In
1944, when the prospect of Germany's defeat in World
War II became clear, Mannerheim was elected President of Finland and
oversaw peace negotiations with the Soviet Union and the United
Kingdom. (Finland was never at war with the United
States.) He resigned the presidency in 1946 and died in 1951.
In
a Finnish survey 53 years after his death, Mannerheim was voted the greatest
Finn of all time. Given the broad recognition in Finland and elsewhere of his
unparalleled role in establishing and later preserving Finland's independence
from Russia, Mannerheim has long been referred to as the father of modern
Finland, and the Finnish capital Helsinki's Mannerheim
Museum memorializing the leader's life and times has been called "the
closest thing there is to a [Finnish] national shrine".
Early
life and military career
Ancestry
The
Mannerheim family descends from a German
businessman, Heinrich Marhein (1618–1667), who emigrated to the Swedish
Empire. His son Augustin Marhein changed his surname to Mannerheim and was
raised to the nobility by King Charles XI in 1693. Augustin Mannerheim's
son, Johan Augustin Mannerheim, was raised to the status of Baron
in 1768. The Mannerheim family came to Finland, then an integral part of
Sweden, in the latter part of the 18th century.
Mannerheim's
great-grandfather, Count Carl Erik Mannerheim (1759–1837) served as the first
Prime Minister of Finland. In 1825, he was promoted to the rank of Count. Mannerheim's
grandfather, Count Carl Gustaf Mannerheim
(1797–1854), was an entomologist and served as President of the Viipuri Court of
Appeals. Mannerheim's father, Carl Robert, Count Mannerheim (1835–1914),
was a playwright who held liberal and radical political ideas, but he was also
an industrialist whose success varied. Mannerheim's mother, Hedvig Charlotta
Helena von Julin (1842–1881), was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist.
As
the third child of the family, Mannerheim inherited the title of Baron (only
the eldest son would inherit the title of Count). His father
went bankrupt in 1880; he was forced to sell the family home and his other
landed estates to his sister, as well as his large art collection. Mannerheim's
father left his wife, Countess Hélène, and moved to Paris with his mistress. He
returned to Helsinki and founded the Systema company in 1887, and was its
manager until his death. Countess Hélène, shaken by the bankruptcy and her
husband's desertion, took their seven children to live with her aunt Louise at
the aunt's estate in Sällvik. Hélène died the following year from a heart
attack. Her death left the children to be brought up by relatives, making
Mannerheim's maternal uncle, Albert von Julin, his legal guardian.
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Education
Because
of the worsened family finances and Mannerheim's serious discipline problems in
school, Julin decided to send him to the school of the Hamina Cadet School in 1882. The Cadet Corps
was a state-run military school educating boys of aristocratic families for
careers in the Military of the Grand Duchy of
Finland and in the Russian Armed Forces. Besides his mother tongue,
Swedish, Mannerheim learned to speak Finnish, Russian, French, German, and
English.
The
disciplinary problems continued. Mannerheim heartily disliked the school and
the narrow social circles in Hamina. He rebelled by going on leave without
permission in 1886, for which he was expelled from the Finnish Cadet Corps.
Mannerheim next attended the Helsinki Private Lyceum, and passed his university
entrance examinations in June 1887. Now he had a better school report to show
than the one from the Finnish Cadet Corps. He wrote to his godmother, Baroness
Alfhild Scalon de Coligny, who had connections at the Russian court, to help
him enter the Nicholas Cavalry School. His real wish was to join the Chevalier
Guard; but his relatives balked at the costs, so he dropped it.
Mannerheim's godmother invited him to her husband's country house, Lukianovka,
in summer 1887. There Gustaf worked to improve his Russian. While in Russia, he
spent some time at a military camp at Chuguyev,
which strengthened his decision to choose a career in the military.
From
1887 to 1889, Mannerheim attended the Nicholas Cavalry School in St.
Petersburg, In January 1891, Mannerheim was transferred to the Chevalier Guard Regiment in St Petersburg.
In 1892, Mannerheim's godmother, Countess Alfhild Scalon de Coligny, arranged
for him to be married to a wealthy and beautiful noble lady of Russian-Serbian
heritage, Anastasia Arapova (1872–1936). Mannerheim and
she had two daughters, Anastasie (1893–1978) and Sophie (1895–1963). Mannerheim
separated from his wife in 1902, and the couple divorced in 1919. Mannerheim
served in the Imperial Chevalier Guard until 1904. Mannerheim specialised as an
expert on horses, buying stud
stallions and horses for the army. In 1903, he was
put in charge of a display squadron and became a member of the equestrian
training board of the cavalry regiments.
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Map of Gustaf Mannerheim's expedition across
Asia first published in "The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds: A Tale of
Espionage, the Silk Road and the Rise of Modern China," by Eric Enno Tamm,
2010, see Horsethatleaps.com
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Service
in Russian Army
Mannerheim
volunteered for duty in the Russo-Japanese war in 1904. In October 1904, he
was transferred to the 52nd Nezhin Dragoon Regiment in Manchuria,
with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was promoted to Colonel for his
bravery in the Battle of Mukden in 1905 and briefly commanded an
irregular unit of Hong Huzi, a local militia, on an exploratory mission
into Inner Mongolia.
When
Mannerheim returned to St. Petersburg, he was asked if he would like to make a
journey through Turkestan to Beijing as a secret intelligence-officer. General Palitsyn,
Chief of the Russian General Staff, wanted accurate, on-the-ground intelligence
about the reform and modernization of the Qing
Dynasty. The Russians wanted to know the military feasibility of invading
Western China, including the provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu, in their
struggles with Britain for control of Inner Asia known as "The
Great Game". After much deliberation, Mannerheim, disguised as an
ethnographic collector, joined the French archeologist Paul
Pelliot's expedition in Samarkand in Russian Turkestan (now Uzbekistan).
From the terminus of the Trans-Caspian Railway in Andijan, the expedition
started in July 1906, but Mannerheim spent the greater part of the expedition
alone, after quarrelling with Pelliot over several logistic issues on their way
to Kashgar in China's Xinjiang province.
With
a small caravan, including a Cossack guide, Chinese interpreter, and Uyghur
cook, Mannerheim first trekked to Khotan in search of British and Japanese spies. Upon returning
to Kashgar,
he headed north into the Tian Shan range, surveying passes and gauging the
attitudes of Kalmyk, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz tribes towards the Han Chinese.
Mannerheim arrived in the provincial capital of Urumqi, and then
headed east to Turpan,
Hami,
and Dunhuang
in Gansu province. He followed the Great Wall of China through the Hexi
Corridor, and investigated a mysterious tribe known as Yugurs.
From Lanzhou, the provincial capital, Mannerheim headed south into Tibetan
territory and to the lamasery of Labrang, where he was stoned by xenophobic
monks. Mannerheim eventually arrived in Beijing in July
1908, where he worked on his military intelligence report. He returned to St.
Petersburg via Japan and the Trans-Siberian Express. His military report was a
detailed account of modernization in the late Qing Dynasty, covering education,
military reforms, Han colonization of ethnic borderlands, mining and industry,
railway construction, the influence of Japan, and opium smoking. Mannerheim's
report outlined the likely tactical uses of a Russian invasion of Xinjiang, and
Xinjiang's possible role as a bargaining chip in a putative future war with
China.
After
Mannerheim's return to Russia in 1909, he was appointed to command the 13th
Vladimir Uhlan
Regiment at Mińsk Mazowiecki in Poland. The following year,
Mannerheim was promoted to major general and was posted as the commander of the
Life Guard Uhlan Regiment of His Majesty in Warsaw.
Eventually, Mannerheim became part of the Imperial entourage and was appointed
cavalry brigade commander.
At
the beginning of World War I, Mannerheim served as commander of the
Guards Cavalry Brigade, and fought on the Austro-Hungarian
and Romanian
fronts. In December 1914, after distinguishing himself in combat against the
Austro-Hungarian forces, Mannerheim was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th class. He said after
receiving this award, "Now I can die in peace." In March 1915,
Mannerheim was appointed to command the 12th Cavalry Division.
Mannerheim
received leave to visit Finland and St. Petersburg in early 1917, and witnessed
the outbreak of the February Revolution. After returning to the
front, he was promoted to lieutenant general in April 1917 (the promotion
was backdated to February 1915), and took command of the 6th Cavalry Corps in
the summer of 1917. However, Mannerheim fell out of favour with the new
government, who regarded him as not supporting the revolution, and was relieved
of his duties. He decided to retire and returned to Finland.
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Mannerheim as Regent (seated), with his
adjutants (left) Lt. Col. Lilius, Capt. Kekoni, Lt. Gallen-Kallela, Ensign Rosenbröijer. (1919)
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Political
career
Regent
of Finland
See
also: Finnish Civil War
In
January 1918, the senate of the newly independent Finland, under Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, appointed Mannerheim Commander-in-Chief of Finland's almost nonexistent
army, which was then not much more than some locally organised White Guards. Mannerheim's mission was to
defend the government and its forces during the Finnish
Civil War (or War of Liberty, as it was known among the "Whites")
that broke out in Finland, inspired by the October Revolution in Russia. He established his
headquarters in Vaasa
and began to disarm the Russian garrisons and their 42,500 men. After the
Whites' victory, Mannerheim resigned as commander-in-chief. He left Finland in
June 1918 to visit relatives in Sweden.
In
Sweden, Mannerheim conferred with Allied diplomats in Stockholm,
stating his opposition to the Finnish government's pro-German policy, and his
support for the Allies. In October 1918, he was sent to Britain and France on
behalf of the Finnish government, to attempt to gain Britain's and the United
States's recognition of Finland's independence. In December, he was summoned
back to Finland after he had been elected temporary Regent of Finland.
As Regent, Mannerheim often signed official documents using Kustaa, the
Finnish form of his Christian name, in an attempt to emphasise his Finnishness
to some sections of the Finnish population who were suspicious of his
background in the Russian armed forces. Mannerheim disliked his last Christian
name, Emil, and wrote his signature as C.G. Mannerheim, or simply Mannerheim.
Among his relatives and close friends Mannerheim was called Gustaf.
After
King Frederick Charles of Hesse renounced the
throne, Mannerheim secured recognition of Finnish independence from Britain and
the United States. In July 1919, after he had confirmed a new republican
constitution, Mannerheim stood as a candidate in the first presidential election,
supported by the National Coalition Party and the Swedish People's Party. He lost
the election to the President of Finland to Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg and left public life.
Interwar
period
In
the interwar years, Mannerheim held no public office. This was largely due to
his being seen by many politicians of the centre and left as a controversial
figure for his outspoken opposition to the Bolsheviks,
his supposed desire for Finnish intervention on the side of the Whites
during the Russian Civil War, and Finnish socialists'
antipathy toward him. They saw him as the bourgeois
"White General". Mannerheim also doubted that the modern party-based
politics would produce principled and high-quality leaders in Finland or
elsewhere. In his gloomy opinion, the fatherland's interests were too often
sacrificed by the democratic politicians for partisan benefit. During the
interwar years, Mannerheim's pursuits were mainly humanitarian. He headed the
Finnish Red
Cross (Chairman 1919–1951), was member of the board of the International
Red Cross, and founded the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare. He was also the
chairman of the supervisory board of a commercial bank, the
Liittopankki-Unionsbanken, and after its merger with the Bank of Helsinki, the
chairman of the supervisory board of that bank until 1934. He was also a member
of the board of Nokia Corporation.
In
the 1920s and 1930s, Mannerheim returned to Asia, where he
travelled and hunted extensively. On his first trip in 1927, to avoid going
through the Soviet Union, he went by ship from London to Calcutta. From
there he travelled overland to Burma, where he spent a month at Rangoon; then he
went on to Gangtok,
in Sikkim. He
returned home by car
and aeroplane,
through Basra, Baghdad, Cairo, and Venice.
His
second voyage, in 1936, was to India, by ship via Aden to Bombay. During his stay in India, Mannerheim met old friends
and acquaintances from Europe. During his travels and hunting expeditions, he
visited Madras,
Delhi and Nepal. While in
Nepal, Mannerheim was invited to join a tiger hunt by the King of Nepal.
In
1929, Mannerheim refused the right-wing radicals'
plea to become a de facto military dictator,
although he did express some support for the right-wing Lapua
Movement (Screen, 2000). After President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud was elected in 1931, he
appointed Mannerheim as chairman of Finland's Defence Council. At the same
time, Mannerheim received a written promise that in the event of war, he would
become the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army. (Svinhufvud's successor Kyösti
Kallio renewed this promise in 1937). In 1933, Mannerheim received the rank
of Field Marshal (sotamarsalkka, fältmarskalk).
By this time, Mannerheim had come to be seen by the public, including some
former socialists, as less of a "White General", and more of a
national figure. This feeling was enhanced by his public statements urging
reconciliation between the opposing sides in the Civil War and the need to
focus on national unity and defence.
Mannerheim
supported Finland's military industry and sought in vain to establish a
military defence union with Sweden. However, rearming the Finnish army did not occur as
swiftly or as well as he hoped, and he was not enthusiastic about a war. He had
many disagreements with various Cabinets, and signed many letters of
resignation.
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Mannerheim in 1940
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Commander-in-Chief
See
also: Winter
War, Continuation War, and Lapland
War
When
negotiations with the Soviet Union failed in 1939, Mannerheim withdrew his
resignation on 17 October. At age 72, he became commander-in-chief of the
Finnish armed forces after the Soviet attack on 30 November. In a letter to his
daughter Sophie, he stated, "I had not wanted to undertake the
responsibility of commander-in-chief, as my age and my health entitled me, but
I had to yield to appeals from the President of the Republic and the
government, and now for the fourth time I am at war."
He
addressed the first of his often controversial orders of the day to the Defence
Forces on the same day the war began:
The President of the Republic has appointed me on 30 November 1939 as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the country. Brave soldiers of Finland! I enter on this task at a time when our hereditary enemy is once again attacking our country. Confidence in one's commander is the first condition for success. You know me and I know you and know that everyone in the ranks is ready to do his duty even to death. This war is nothing other than the continuation and final act of our War of Independence. We are fighting for our homes, our faith, and our country.
Mannerheim
quickly organised his headquarters in Mikkeli. His
chief of staff was Lieutenant General Aksel Airo,
while his close friend, General Rudolf Walden, was sent as a representative of the
headquarters to the cabinet from 3 December 1939 until 27 March 1940, after
which he became defence minister.
Mannerheim
spent most of the Winter War and Continuation
War in his Mikkeli headquarters but made many visits to the front. Between
the wars, he remained commander-in-chief, which strictly should have returned
to the presidents (Kyösti Kallio and Risto Ryti)
after the Moscow Peace, on 12 March 1940.
Before
the Continuation War, the Germans offered Mannerheim command over 80,000 German
troops in Finland. Mannerheim declined so as to not tie himself and Finland to Nazi war aims.
Mannerheim kept relations with Adolf
Hitler's government as formal as possible and successfully opposed
proposals for an alliance. If Mannerheim had not also firmly refused to allow
his troops participate in the Siege of Leningrad, they would have ended up
becoming an integral part of the siege.
Mannerheim's
75th birthday, 4 June 1942, was a major occasion. The government granted him
the unique title of Marshal of Finland (Suomen Marsalkka in Finnish,
Marskalk av Finland in Swedish).
So far he is the only person to receive the title. A surprise visit by Hitler
in honour of Mannerheim's birthday was less pleasing to him and caused some
embarrassment. Hitler did not travel much, but the "brave Finns" (die
tapferen Finnen) and their leader Mannerheim he wanted to visit.
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Hitler in Finland for Mannerheim's 75 birthday
(4th June 1942)
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Adolf Hitler and Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim in
Finland on 4th June 1942
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Visit
by Adolf Hitler
Adolf
Hitler decided to visit Finland on 4 June 1942, ostensibly to congratulate
Mannerheim on his 75th birthday. But Mannerheim did not want to meet him in his
headquarters in Mikkeli or in Helsinki, as it would have seemed like an
official state visit. The meeting took place near Imatra, in
south-eastern Finland, and was arranged in secrecy.
From
Immola
Airfield, Hitler, accompanied by President Ryti, was driven to the place
where Mannerheim was waiting at a railway siding. After a speech from Hitler,
and following a birthday meal and negotiations between him and Mannerheim,
Hitler returned to Germany. President Ryti and other high-ranking Finns and
Germans were also present. Hitler spent about five hours in Finland. Hitler
reportedly intended to ask the Finns to step up military operations against the
Soviets, but he apparently made no specific demands.
During
the visit, an engineer of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE, Thor Damen,
succeeded in recording the first eleven minutes of Hitler's and Mannerheim's private
conversation. This had to be done secretly, as Hitler never allowed others
to record him off-guard. Damen was given the assignment to record the official
birthday speeches and Mannerheim's responses and, following those orders, added
microphones to certain railway cars.
However,
Mannerheim and his guests chose to go to a car that did not have a microphone
in it. Damen acted quickly, pushing a microphone through one of the car windows
to a net shelf just above where Hitler and Mannerheim were sitting. After
eleven minutes of Hitler's and Mannerheim's private conversation, Hitler's SS bodyguards spotted the cords coming out of the
window and realized that the Finnish engineer was recording the conversation.
They gestured to him to stop recording immediately, and he complied. The SS
bodyguards demanded that the tape be immediately destroyed; but YLE was allowed
to keep the reel, after promising to keep it in a sealed container. It was
given to Kustaa Vilkuna, head of the state censors' office, and in 1957
returned to YLE. It was made available to the public a few years later. It is
the only known recording of Hitler speaking in an unofficial tone.
There
is an unsubstantiated story that during his meeting with Hitler, Mannerheim lit
a cigar. Mannerheim supposed that Hitler would ask Finland for help against the
Soviet Union, which Mannerheim was unwilling to give. When Mannerheim lit up,
all in attendance gasped, for Hitler's aversion to smoking
was well known. Yet Hitler continued the conversation calmly, with no comment.
In this way, Mannerheim could judge if Hitler was speaking from a position of
strength or weakness. He was able to refuse Hitler, knowing that Hitler was in
a weak position, and could not dictate to him.
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Adolf Hitler (Führer and Chancellor of
Germany), Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (Commander-in-Chief on Finland) and Risto
Ryti (President of the Republic of Finland) in Finland 4th June 1942. Hitler
make surprise visit of honor in Mannerheim's 75-year birthday.
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End
of war and presidency
In
June 1944, Gustaf Mannerheim, to ensure German support while a major Soviet
offensive was threatening Finland, thought it necessary to agree to the pact
the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded. But even
then Mannerheim managed to distance himself from the pact, and it fell to
President Risto
Ryti to sign it, so it came to be known as the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement. This allowed
Mannerheim to revoke the agreement upon the resignation of President Ryti at
the start of August 1944. Mannerheim succeeded Ryti as president.
When
Germany was deemed sufficiently weakened, and the USSR's
summer offensive was fought to a standstill (see Battle of Tali-Ihantala) thanks to the June
agreement with the Germans, Finland's leaders saw a chance to reach a peace
with the Soviet Union. At first, attempts were made to persuade Mannerheim to
become prime minister, but he rejected them because of his age and lack of
experience running a civil government. The next suggestion was to elect him Head
of State. Risto Ryti would resign as President, and parliament would
appoint Mannerheim as Regent. The use of the title "Regent" would
have reflected the exceptional circumstances of Mannerheim's election.
Mannerheim and Ryti both agreed, and Ryti submitted a notice of resignation on
1 August. The Parliament of Finland passed a special act
conferring the presidency on Mannerheim on 4 August 1944. He took the oath of
office the same day.
A
month after Mannerheim took office, the Continuation
War was concluded on harsh terms, but ultimately far less harsh than those
imposed on the other states bordering the Soviet
Union. Finland retained its sovereignty,
its parliamentary democracy, and its market
economy. Territorial losses were considerable; all Karelia and Petsamo were
lost. Numerous Karelian
refugees needed to be relocated. The war
reparations were very heavy. Finland also had to fight the Lapland
War against withdrawing German troops in the north, and at the same time
demobilize its own army, making it harder to expel the Germans. It is widely
agreed that only Mannerheim could have guided Finland through these difficult
times, when the Finnish people had to come to terms with the severe conditions
of the armistice, their implementation by a Soviet-dominated Allied Control
Commission, and the task of post-war reconstruction.
Before
deciding to accept the Soviet demands, Mannerheim wrote a missive directly to
Hitler:
Our German brothers-in-arms will forever remain in our hearts. The Germans in Finland were certainly not the representatives of foreign despotism but helpers and brothers-in-arms. But even in such cases foreigners are in difficult positions requiring such tact. I can assure you that during the past years nothing whatsoever happened that could have induced us to consider the German troops intruders or oppressors. I believe that the attitude of the German Army in northern Finland towards the local population and authorities will enter our history as a unique example of a correct and cordial relationship ... I deem it my duty to lead my people out of the war. I cannot and I will not turn the arms which you have so liberally supplied us against Germans. I harbour the hope that you, even if you disapprove of my attitude, will wish and endeavour like myself and all other Finns to terminate our former relations without increasing the gravity of the situation.
Mannerheim's
term as president was difficult for him. Although he was elected for a full
six-year term, he was 77 years old in 1944 and had accepted the office
reluctantly after being urged to do so. The situation was exacerbated by
frequent periods of ill-health, the demands of the Allied Control Commission, and the war responsibility trials. He
was afraid throughout most of his presidency that the commission would request
that he be prosecuted for crimes against peace. This never happened. One
of the reasons for this was Stalin's respect for and admiration of the Marshal.
Stalin told a Finnish delegation in Moscow in 1947 that the Finns owe much to
their old Marshal. Due to Mannerheim, Finland was not occupied. Despite
Mannerheim's criticisms of some of the demands of the Control Commission, he
worked hard to carry out Finland's armistice obligations. He also emphasised
the necessity of further work on reconstruction in Finland after the war.
Mannerheim
was troubled by recurring health problems during 1945, and was absent on
medical leave from his duties as president from November until February 1946.
He spent six weeks in Portugal to restore his health. After the announcement of
the verdicts in the war crimes trials were announced in February, Mannerheim
decided to resign. He believed that he had accomplished the duties he had been
elected to carry out: The war was ended, the armistice obligations carried out,
and the war crimes trial finished.
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Mannerheim leaves the Presidential Palace, Helsinki on 4
March 1946 after his short presidency
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Mannerheim
resigned as president on 11 March 1946, giving as his reason his declining health
and his view that the tasks he had been selected to carry out had been
accomplished. Even the Finnish communists, his enemies in 1918, appreciated his efforts
and his role in maintaining the unity of the country during a difficult period.
He was succeeded by his conservative Prime Minister Juho Kusti Paasikivi.
Final
days and death
After
his resignation, Mannerheim bought Kirkniemi Manor in Lohja, intending to
spend his retirement there. In June 1946, he underwent an operation for a
perforated peptic ulcer, and in October of that year he was
diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer. In early 1947, it was recommended
that he should travel to the Valmont Sanatorium in Montreux, Switzerland,
to recuperate and write his memoirs. Valmont was to be Mannerheim's main
residence for the remainder of his life, although he regularly returned to
Finland, and also visited Sweden, France and Italy.
Because
Mannerheim was old and sickly, he personally wrote only certain passages of his
memoirs. Some other parts he dictated and described. The remaining parts were
written by Mannerheim's various assistants, such as Colonel Aladár Paasonen;
General Erik Heinrichs; Generals Grandell, Olenius and Martola; and Colonel
Viljanen, a war historian. As long as Mannerheim was able to read, he proofread
the typewritten drafts of his memoirs. He was almost totally silent about his
private life, and focused instead on Finland's events, especially on those
between 1917 and 1944. When Mannerheim suffered a fatal stomach attack in
January 1951, his memoirs were not yet in their finished form. They were
published after his death.
Mannerheim
died on 27 January 1951, 28 January Finland time, in the Cantonal Hospital in Lausanne,
Switzerland. He was buried on 4 February 1951 in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki in a state
funeral with full military honours.
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Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim's funeral parade in
Helsinki, Finland, on 4 February 1951. Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral on the
background.
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Legacy
Today,
Mannerheim retains respect as Finland's greatest statesman.
This may be partly due to his refusal to enter partisan politics (although his
sympathies were more right-wing than left-wing), his claim always to serve the
fatherland without selfish motives, his personal courage in visiting the
frontlines, his ability to work diligently into his late seventies, and his
foreign political farsightedness in preparing for the Soviet invasion of
Finland years before it occurred. (See, for example, Jägerskiöld,
"Mannerheim 1867–1951"; "The Republic's Presidents
1940–1956" / Tasavallan presidentit 1940–1956, published in Finland in
1993–1994).
Mannerheim's
birthday, 4 June, is celebrated as Flag Day by
the Finnish Defence Forces. This decision was made by the Finnish government on
the occasion of his 75th birthday in 1942, when he was also granted the title
of Marshal of Finland. Flag Day is celebrated with a national parade, and
rewards and promotions for members of the defence forces. The life and times of
Mannerheim are memorialized in the Mannerheim
Museum. The most prominent boulevard in the Finnish capital was renamed Mannerheimintie
(Mannerheim Road) in the Marshal's honor during his lifetime.
Various
landmarks across Finland honor Mannerheim, including most famously the Equestrian statue located
on Helsinki's Mannerheimintie in front of the later-built Kiasma museum of
modern art. Turku's Mannerheim Park includes a statue of him. Tampere's
Mannerheim statue depicting the victorious Civil War general of the Whites was
eventually placed in the forest some kilometres outside the city (in part due
to lingering controversy over Mannerheim's Civil War role). Other statues, for
examples, were erected in Mikkeli and Lahti. On 5 December 2004, Mannerheim was
voted the greatest Finnish person of all time in the Suuret suomalaiset (Great Finns) contest.
From
1937 to 1967, at least five different Finnish postage stamps or stamp series
were issued in honor of Mannerheim; and in 1960 the United States honored
Mannerheim as the "Liberator of Finland" with regular first-class
envelope domestic and international stamps (at the time four cents and eight
cents respectively) as part of its Champions of Liberty series that included
other notable figures such as Mahatma
Gandhi and Simon Bolivar.
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Mannerheim Square in Helsinki, Finland
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The Mannerheim Museum, Kalliolinnantie 14,
Helsinki, Finland. Home of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. Designed
by architect August Boman and built in 1874. Little remains of the original
appearance of the villa.
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Military
ranks
Ranks
In the Russian Army
- 1888: Non-commissioned officer
- 1889: Cornet
- 1891: Cornet of the Guard
- 1893: Lieutenant of the Guard
- 1902: Captain of the Guard
- 1904: Lieutenant Colonel
- 1905: Colonel
- 1911: Major General
- 1917: Lieutenant General
In the Finnish Army
- 1918: General of Cavalry
- 1933: Field Marshal
- 1942: Marshal of Finland
Supreme Command
- 1918: Commander-in-Chief of the White Guard: from January to May 1918
- 1918: Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces: from December 1918 to July 1919
- 1931: Chairman of the Defence Council: from 1931 to 1939
- 1939: Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces [bis]: from 1939 to 1946
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| Postage stamp portraying the marshal and President of Finland C.G.E. Mannerheim (1941) |
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Awards
In
the course of his lifetime, Mannerheim received 82 military and civilian
decorations.
Finnish
- Commander Grand Cross with Swords and Diamonds of the Order of the Cross of Liberty (Finland) (1940; Commander Grand Cross with Swords: 1918)
- Knight of the Mannerheim Cross, 1st and 2nd class, the Order of the Cross of Liberty (Finland) (1941)
- Commander Grand Cross, with Collar, Swords and Diamonds, of the Order of the White Rose (Finland) (1944)
- Commander Grand Cross, with Swords and Diamonds, of the Order of the Lion of Finland (Finland) (1944)
Russian
Empire
- Order of St. Anna, 2nd degree (Russian Empire) (1906)
- Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd class (Russian Empire/Poland) (1906)
- Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree (Russian Empire) (1906)
- Knight 4th class, the Order of St. George (Russian Empire) (1914)
Others
- Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (France) (1939; Officer: 1910; Knight: 1902)
- Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim (Sweden) (1919)
- Knight Grand Cross 1st Class of the Order of the Sword (Sweden) (1942; Commander Grand Cross: 1918)
- Knight of the Order of the Elephant (Denmark) (1919)
- Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers, Grand Cordon (Japan).
- Golden Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (1944; Knight's Cross: 1942; Iron Cross 1st Class with 1939 bar: 1942; Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class: 1918) (Germany)
- Military Order of the Cross of the Eagle, 1st Class with Swords (6.6.1930) (Estonia)
- Grand Cross of Order of the Estonian Red Cross (1933) (Estonia)
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) United Kingdom (1938)
- Order of Merit of the Kingdom of Hungary, Grand Cross with the Holy Crown of St. Stephen (Kingdom of Hungary) (1941)
- Order of Michael the Brave, 1st class (Romania) (1941)
Genealogical
tree
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Ancestors
of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
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Works
- C. G. MANNERHEIM, ACROSS ASIA FROM WEST TO EAST IN 1906–1908. (1969) ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. Oosterhout N.B. – The Netherlands
- Across Asia : vol.1
See
also
- Hitler and Mannerheim recording
- List of Finnish Wars
- Mannerheim Cross
- Mannerheim Line
- Mannerheim Museum
- Mannerheimintie
- The Marshal of Finland (film)
- Marskin ryyppy
- Vorschmack
OTHER
LINKS:
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