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Carl Gustav Mannerheim: explorer and national hero of the Finland.
1867-1951
30th November 1939: the Red Army begins the attack against
the Finland: from the Carelia to south towards Helsinki, from north-east
and Petsamo towards the Lapland.
The Finnish nation recalls Carl Gustav Manneeheim, 72 years old,
and entrusts him the supreme order of the Finnish troops.
Who was Mannerheim?
For our purposes, Mannerheim has to be remembered as explorer of
the asiatic Siberia and of the China, beyond that as national hero
and President of the Finland.
Mannerheim was born in 1869 in an aristocratic Finnish family.
During this period the Finland was a Russia’s duchy, from
that it will detach of in 1917 proclaiming the autonomous and independent
Republic of Finland.
In 1902 Mannerheim become captain of the Russian Imperial Army
and inspiring himself to the example of Nerdenskiold, in the October
of 1906 undertakes an exploring journey towards the Siberia and
the China, in which travels quite 14.000 kilometers on horseback
from the Russian Turkmenistan until Beijing! The journey last two
years and offers the occasion to Mannerheim of studing the habits,
the tongues and the ethnic features of the populations and of the
tribes that he meets, beyond to fly off a lot of photography of
the places and of the people. At Utaishan he meets the Dalai Lama.
When he come back home, he gives to the museum Finno-Hungarian
the objects collected during the shipping and he writes two books
of journey titled "A visit to the Saro and Shera Yogurt" in 1911,
and "Across Asia from West to East in 1906-1908" in 1940.
In 1917 the Finland declares its independence from the Russia and
entrusts to Carl Gustav Mannerheim the order of the new armed forces
of the country.
Armed forces pledged to defend the independence of the Finland
from the bolshevik troops that were constituted after the October
revolution, until May 1918. After having participate in the Constitution
of the Finnish Republic in 1919, he withdrawn to private life.
November 1939, the Soviet Union invades the Finland and Mannerheim
is recalled to take the command of the Armed Forces that in the
period 1939-1940 fight a war or better a "not war of resistance"
against the Soviet: the Finnish soldiers block themselves because
they do not have more ammunition, the Soviet soldiers are blocked
in the area of the Big Lakes and, subsequently there is a situation
of "not war" because the Soviet move to the southern front,
invaded by the German with the operation "Barbarossa".
From 1941 to 1944, the Finland allys to the Germany, alliance that
drags the country in the destiny of the Third Reich and creates
the conditions for strong war compensations to the Soviet Union,
simply being an attacked country. The Finland loses the outlet to
the Barents Sea with the Petsamo’s town that goes under the
Soviet, besides a part of the Eastern Carelia to the Viipuri to
the boundary with the area of S. Pietroburgo-Leningrado.
From 1944 to 1946, Mannerheim becomes President of the Republic
and manages the revenue and the agreement of peace and of compensation
with the Soviet Union.
Therefore he leaves to exile in Switzerland and he dies in Losanna
in 1951.
The corpse was brought to Helsinki and his house became a museum
where are collected material, documents and photographies of Carl
Gustav Mannerheim.
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