White Finland is an often-used term referring to one of the two parties in the Finnish Civil War (January to May 1918), the other one being 'the Reds', or the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. The Whites were supported by the White Guards, Jäger troops and the political right. They also received military support from Germany.
The Whites had no clear political aims in common, other than stopping the revolutionary Reds from taking power and returning to constitutional rule by the Senate (the government of the Grand Duchy) which was formed by the non-socialist parties of the Eduskunta (parliament) and returning to the Rule of Law. The provisional head of state of White Finland was Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, chairman of the senate at the time, and its military was commanded by Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim.
Famous quotes containing the word white:
“My philosophy is such that I am not going to vote against the oppressed. I have been oppressed, and so I am always going to have a vote for the oppressed, regardless of whether that oppressed is black or white or yellow or the people of the Middle East, or what. I have that feeling.”
—Septima Clark (1898–1987)