On this day in 1918, the Finnish People’s Delegation declared a socialist workers’ republic (known “Red Finland”), at the start of the Finnish Civil War. The burgeoning working class movement was crushed by imperialist German forces.
Prior to 1917, Finland had been ruled as a Grand Duchy, an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. With the collapse of the Tsarist state in the wake of February Revolution and a long-term increase in nationalist sentiment, Finland declared independence on December 4th, 1917, formally recognized by the Russian Bolsheviks on December 31st.
Due to industrialized Finland having a strong revolutionary labor movement, conservative and proletarian forces were immediately thrown into conflict.
Red Guard paramilitary units representing the labor movement found themselves in a cycle of escalation with loyalist “White” Guards, culminating in a mass uprising of Reds in Helsinki on January 27th, 1918, marking the start of revolution. The following day, the Finnish People’s Delegation was formed by members of the Social Democratic Party. Bourgeois forces fled to Vaasa, where they set up their own “White Senate”.
The war saw the Whites, under the leadership of General Mannerheim, receive support from the German Empire, which was more well-established than the Reds’ primary ally, the newly-created Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Following an imperialist intervention by Germany on the side of the Whites in March 1918, the war ended in defeat for the Reds in May. Over 12,000 people perished from starvation and hunger while imprisoned in White-operated POW camps, and reparations were not paid to former victims of the White Terror until 1973.
Lessons of the Finnish Revolution of 1917–1918
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Theory:
Blues is one of those genres I love to play but don’t really like to listen to. I do enjoy putting some on and pretending they have a lead electric bass to go with the stand up or lack of bass, thr guitar usually leaves enough space to play around in.
I don’t want to listen to blues. I want to linger in an alley near someone playing blues during or immediately after the most emotionally devastating breakup of my life.
This is a difficult relation to have with a genre.
This is also true. I wanna be in the band playing inside during that time and the place had better be absolutely hazy with cigarette smoke and smell like Tom Waits.
Or on the lighter end be the blues Brothers.
But yeah, it’s one of those genres that I need a cinematic kinda setting to like.
For me blues and jazz are genres that I much prefer to hear live than recorded. I’ll put them on if I’m in a particular mood, but they’re not in my regular rotation.
If I want to see live music the first thing I’ll do is scope a few venues to see if I happen to recognize any artists. Second thing I’ll do is look for any blues or jazz shows.