Krepost Sveaborg - Finnish Civil War

Finnish Civil War

Krepost Sveaborg never did see action against Germany in Russian hands. After the Russian revolution the treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended Russia's participation in the First World War. The treaty affirmed the independence of Finland and required Russian troops to leave from the country. Of the approximately 35 000 Russian soldiers and sailors who were around Helsinki in January 1918 most were demobilized and sent home or simply left by 15 March. Around one thousand joined the Finnish Red Guards in the Finnish Civil War. The Soviet leadership ordered Krepost Sveaborg headquarters to begin preparations to abandon the fortress and destroy what could not be evacuated in case it would fall into German hands. Some field guns were transported to Russia, but all the coastal guns were left. On 3 April 1918 German Baltic Sea Division landed in Hanko, after being requested by the White Senate of Vaasa to participate in the Finnish Civil War against the Reds. Russian Baltic fleet officers had made an agreement with the Germans allowing a safe departure for the warships and disarming the fortress. Most of the Russian ships left by mid-April, but the last ships left only in May-June 1918. The disarmament - removing locks from the guns, cutting the cables controlling the mines and destroying the mine control stations - had to be done in secret as an agreement between Soviet government and Finnish Red Guards had promised the latter all the fortifications. When the Germans arrived in Helsinki the Red Guard could only use some of the land front fortifications in Leppävaara and Ruskeasuo, and the Germans with a well equipped and trained numerically superior force quickly captured Helsinki between 11th and 13 April. The Russian guards ceded the coastal forts to Germans according the their agreement. The disarmament of Krepost Sveaborg, denying the Reds from using it, was used in White propaganda by how Allan Staffans had duped the Russians and removed the locks without authorization; but actually the disarmament occurred with the order of the fortress commander and with the knowledge of naval headquarters. On 12 May Krepost Sveaborg was renamed Suomenlinna to celebrate the new independency.