Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867 - 1951) was a Finnish commander in chief and president.

Mannerheim was born on the June 4 1867 in Louhisaari Castle in Askainen, to a Finland-Swedish noble family. He was related to Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld. Due to worsening economic situation of the family, he was sent to a Finnish officer school in Hamina 1882 at the age of 15. He was expelled from the school for disorderly conduct in 1886. Next he applied and was accepted into a Nikolai Cavalry School in Saint Petersburg, Russia (Finland being under Russian rule at the time). He graduated 1889 and was initially stationed into a cavalry garrison in Poland but was eventually accepted into the chevalier guard cavalry regiment that was part of the Russian Empress' bodyguard. His family arranged him to be married to Anastasie Arapova, daughter of a Russian general, for economic reasons. They had two daughters, Sophie and Anastasie. They separated 1906.

Mannerheim volunteered for the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and was stationed to 52th Njzhin hussar regiment in Manchuria with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to colonel for the bravery in the battle of Mukden.

He also led an expedition to China. He travelled from Tashkent to Kashgar from July to October 1906 with the French scientist Paul Pelliot. Shortly after the crossing of the Chinese border, he led a separate expedition into China until the autumn of 1908. The expedition had strategic interests in addition to anthropological ones because the areas he traveled in northern China were a potential crisis point between Russia, China and even Great Britain (see The Great Game). After the trip in 1909 he was given a position as a regimental commander in Novominski, Poland. 1912 he became a part of Imperial entourage as a lieutenant general.

In the World War One, Mannerheim served as a cavalry commander in Austro-Hungarian and Romanian fronts. After the February Revolution in Russia, he fell out of favor and eventually returned to Finland 1917.

In January 1918 the newly founded Finnish Senate and its chairman Pehr Evind Svinhufvud named him as commander-in-chief. He accepted the position despite of his misgivings about the German influences in the government. He founded his headquarters in Seinäjoki and begun to disarm remaining Russian garrisons. The Finnish Civil War begun.

Dismayed of increasing German influence Mannerheim left the country temporarily in May 1918. In September he was summoned back from Paris to become a regent. There were even monarchists who wanted to make him a king. He requested and received food aid from overseas to avoid famine and secured recognition from Great Britain and USA. Although he was anti-Bolshevik, he eventually refused an alliance with Russian White generals because they would not have recognized Finnish independence. He lost a presidential election in the House of Representatives to Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg and retreated from public life.

In the interwar years, his pursuits mere mainly humanitarian. He supported Finnish Red Cross and founded the Mannerheim's Children's Foundation. In 1929 he refused right-wing radicals plea to become a de facto military dictator although he did show some support to the right-wing Lapua Movement. After president Pehr Evind Svinhufvud was elected 1931, he named Mannerheim as a chairman of Finnish Defense Council. 1933 he received a rank of field marshal. He supported Finnish military industry and sought (in vain) military cooperation with Sweden. However, rearming the Finnish army did not work as swiftly as he hoped and he was not enthusiastic about a war.

When negotiations with Soviet Union failed, Mannerheim accepted again the position of the Commander in Chief of Finnish army October 17, 1939 and reorganized his HQ in Mikkeli. He became an official commander-in-Chief after Soviet attack on November 30.

Mannerheim spent most of the Winter War and Continuation War in his Mikkeli headquarters but made many visits to the front. He held on to the authority of commander-in-chief, which would have normally gone to the president Risto Ryti. His strategic aide was Aksel Airo. Mannerheim kept relations to the German government as formal as possible and refused Nazi demands for a written treaty of alliance or that Finnish troops should attack besieged Leningrad.

When Finland made a truce and peace treaty with Soviet Union, Mannerheim was selected as a president in August 4, 1944 mainly because he was the only one both sides could accept. Finland still had to fight the Lapland war against the withdrawing German troops in the north and demobilize at the same time. After the government of Juho Kusti Paasikivi was ratified, he resigned for reasons of declining health in 1946. Even Finnish communists recognized his peacemaking efforts.

Mannerheim retired to the Valmont sanatorium in Montreux, Switzerland to write his memoirs. He died January 28, 1951 in Lausanne, Switzerland. His body was transported to Finland and was buried in the Hietaniemi cemetery in a state funeral and with full military honors.

External links

• Mannerheim
• Mikkeli Headquarters Museum
• Mannerheim League for Child Welfare
• Mannerheim Cross medal.