HS Home 30.1.2001 - Finns pay tribute to Mannerheim on 50th anniversary of <I>Marski's</I> death

By Jukka Perttu

Translator's Note: Sunday saw the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867-1951), Marshal of Finland and the country's sixth President of the Republic (from 1944-46), indisputably one of the most important figures in the nation's history.

During the Civil War of 1918 Mannerheim commanded the eventually triumphant White forces and later in that year he was briefly appointed head of state ("Regent of Finland"). During the Winter War of 1939-40 and the so-called Continuation War of 1941-44 he once again was C-in-C of the Finnish armed forces. His military acumen and leadership played a major part in Finland's holding out against a much larger and better equipped Soviet adversary to preserve the country's independence, though at the cost of loss of territory and with harsh reparations to pay.

After a short spell as President, in which he was hampered by attempts to include his name in the list of war criminals to be tried, he spent the last years of his life in retirement mostly in Switzerland, where he died at the age of 83. Mannerheim was given a state funeral and was buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki, his grave surrounded by those of many of the soldiers who served under him.

Mannerheim's birthday in June is still celebrated as the flag day of the Finnish Defence Forces. WLM.

"Finland's four-time saviour". "A man of great moral standing". "A fine and noble personality". Finns spared no adjectives in their praise and gratitude for C.G.E. Mannerheim, who died in Lausanne on the night of 27.1.1951, and who was thus the subject of memorial ceremonies at the weekend. There were events held in Helsinki, Turku,and Seinäjoki.

On Sunday evening the Main Hall of the University of Helsinki was filled to the aisles with people dressed in dark suits. General Jaakko Valtanen, himself a former commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, gave the keynote address at the occasion and took the opportunity to list Mannerheim's merits, and even his failings. The General expressed his wonder at quite how bottomless seems to be the interest in the Marshal of Finland, known affectionately as "Marski", even half a century on from his death.

Valtanen cited a relatively recent example:

a few years ago, when a multilingual web site dedicated to the man and his career was opened on the Net, in the space of only a few months it received more than 300,000 hits, a great many of them from overseas and from small countries where knowledge of Finland's history might have been thought to be minimal.

Valtanen also observed that it may be that Mannerheim still speaks out to current generations in part because he was also a very ordinary man in many ways, despite his high position and decorations - "often an unreachably withdrawn and solitary figure".

The ceremonies surrounding the 50th anniversary

began at 12 noon in Hietaniemi Cemetery as a tight ring of citizens, most of them elderly, gathered around the monument to those who died defending the country and the grave of Mannerheim himself. The sky was a leaden grey and there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. The temperature was just a shade above freezing.

A soldier stood as honour guard at each corner of the granite block that covers his grave, and at the ends of the block frail-looking candles burned defiantly.

Representatives of civil organisations

laid wreaths both for the fallen and for Mannerheim. A number of already aged war veterans could be spotted standing at attention among the wreathlayers; these are the people who faithfully show up to pay their respects to their commander from the 1940s, under whose leadership they somehow managed to unite and to defy all military odds.

Taisto and Kaarina Tikkanen,a couple from Vantaa, stood biting their lips as they watched the small ceremony. The welling of emotion was understandable, as both had paid a stiff price in the struggles to preserve Finnish sovereignty.

Taisto Tikkanen's father was among those who died in the Winter War, a casualty at Taipaleenjoki on Christmas Day 1939. Taisto himself never saw his father, as he was born only the following January. His uncle, too, was among the fallen, killed in action in the Continuation War.

Kaarina Tikkanen also lost a father to the war. He died of a disease caught at the front. The family's home was among those left behind when Finland was obliged to cede parts of Karelia to the Soviet Union, first in 1940 and then again in 1944.

"We are here to pay our respects to Mannerheim and to the memory of the veterans. Mannerheim saved this country four times", says Taisto Tikkanen.

A memorial service

is held in the Cathedral Crypt for invited guests at 13.00. The cathedral dean Mikko Heikka notes that it was valuable for Finland that she had as her leader in such difficult times a man of high moral courage. Heikka also points out that Mannerheim was a deeply religious person who knew his Bible well.

In the splendid auditorium of the World Trade Centre off Aleksanderinkatu, hundreds of people turn up to see what sort of portrait Akseli Gallen-Kallela painted of his friend Mannerheim in 1929. The painting on show for the afternoon was in fact a replica of the original, which is the collections of Merita Bank. During the inter-war years in the 1920s and early 1930s Mannerheim was for a time the Chairman of the Board of the Union Bank and the later Bank of Helsinki. In addition to the seated figure of Mannerheim in civilian dress, the painting contains his motto - "Candida pro causa ense candido"- "A pure weapon for a pure cause".

Pekka Reinikainen and Merete Virkkunen-Reinikainen said they had come to look at the great man. "Society still needs men of honour, whom people can look up to", says Merete Virkkunen-Reinikainen.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.1.2001

Note: the links below provide an illustrated background to the life and exploits of Marshal C.G.E. Mannerheim. Regrettably IntEd was unable to locate a picture of the portrait referred to in the article.