All of us have more or less gotten used to the fact that Russia today is in "bright isolation" in politics and economy. Distant states cherish a full range of feeling towards Russia – from hatred and fear to ravenous economic assertions and demands on Russia for territorial concessions. But there was no other country that was a reliable ally but now is ignored by the present Russian elite. So is Byelorussia now ignored by our political elite. But let us not forget that in recent past when the Soviet Union was alive and well, many countries all over the world were choosing to follow the Soviet model of development, brave experiments in social and in ideological fields were causing much support and admiration of millions of people all over the world. Leading foreign public and scientific figures did not hesitate to lend effective help to the USSR. In many countries large groups of people which in many countries formed the majority of the population, were willing to sacrifice unselfishly and with their whole hearts and gave their knowledge and even their lives sometimes for Soviet Union’s interests. Our numerous supporters who were called "Lenin’s Guard of the Planet" were neither outcasts in their own society or were not paid employees of the Soviet secret service, as ours and foreign media depicted this part of our history. We cannot call personalities that helped the Soviet Union like Rollan, Zweig, Mann, Neru, Joliet-Curie as agents and spies for their unselfish help to Socialism and the USSR!

By contrast, the number of our enemies is increasing. That is why in this article for Northstar Compass I want to give just a word of encouragement about the truthful friends of Soviet Union, of Soviet Russia. They were and are the Finnish Communists and Socialists who extended a friendly hand of friendship to the Russian people in the hardest of times and under hardest of conditions.

In October of 1917, Finland was a country where Socialists in Finland which had risen to power as a result of an electoral win (but it was not a revolutionary action as it was in Petersburg and Moscow). A United Socialist Bloc appeared which included contradictory forces – openly nationalistic, anti-Russian Kulak-Bourgeois groups of P.R. Svinhufvud, ready for revenge for a century of submission to the Russian Tsar and Empire. Leaders were inclined to favour a Finland to be democratic and friendly to Soviet Russia, not submitted to it politically or economically.

The right-wing then (as is the case now of the former Socialist East European countries and the Baltic States) started the separation movements, vicious racist slogans, outright nationalistic slogans as well as sophisticated social rhetoric (like "plunder the plunderers" and "exploit the exploiters" – this found a vivid response among the farmers-kulaks who constituted the framework of the Finnish peasantry and petty bourgeoisie elements and lumpen proletariat.

There were over 200,000 Finns who were workers, teachers, employees ad even members of the Finnish Parliament who started to organize to defend the Russian Socialist Revolution. But, don’t forget about the "Third Force"- the military, who were in the German Kaiser Army, secret services and all of these were trained in military camps in Germany during WWI. German commanders wanted them to attack the Russian garrisons on Finland’s territory and to destabilize the situation and join with the Finnish nationalists to attack Russia and also help the Germans and the West to defeat the October Revolution. The present Russian defenders of the "Tsar’s Empire" tell the Russian TV audience that the German spies came in sealed railroad carriages. No, the German allies didn’t arrive in railroad carriages at all to attack Russia, but thousands of well-trained and well armed soldiers landed openly on the Finnish seashore and unleashed the "White" terror against the supporters of the October Socialist Revolution and their political adversaries.

The role of the Finnish Baron K.E. Mannerheim was interesting at that time. He was a General in the Russia’s Tsar’s Army, who later became the President and Marshall of Finland, but, who is now portrayed by the present Russian bourgeoisie and the mass media as a wise ruler and a generous cavalier, who adored Petersburg and loved Russia. But as history showed, this General Mannerheim in a few weeks, took the lead and headed the pro-German troops and then organized them to massacre all of the Russian military and Russian speaking population in Finland.

As a reply to the terror of the Finnish Suojeluskunta (White Finnish Troops) - it is interesting to note that in Swedish language, these White Finns were called Skyddskar (SS in abbreviated form).

On January 28, 1918 the Finnish Red Guard and its supporters almost occupied the government institutions in Helsinki, practically without firing a shot and in the industrialized Southern Finland cities – Turku, Tampere, Pori, Kotke, Lahti and Vyborg. The Finnish Red Guard set up in these cities - the Councils of People’s Assignees and the regulatory committee – the Main Workers’ Council. On January 29, 1918 this Council published a program of democratic reforms, elimination of peasant slavery, improvement of labour legislation, state control over private banks and large industrial enterprises. Then on February 23, 1918 a Soviet-Finnish Treaty for strengthening friendship and brotherhood was written and then signed on March 1, 1918 when the official ceremony took place. But the Finnish counter-revolutionary underground was not wiped out.

The counterrevolutionary forces did not accept this program that was supported by the vast majority of the Finnish people, and, with the help of Western powers and German-trained SS troops, they attacked the Red Guard. In April of that year 15,000 Germans landed in Finland and captured Helsinki. The volunteer Swedish brigade occupied Karelian territory neighbouring Soviet border. The Red Guard stood on heroic defensive, but they were poorly armed, they could not withstand the onslaught by a superior well trained army and they could not receive help from the struggling Soviet forces, who were fighting a life and death battle in defending themselves against the Western backed foreign invasion.

Beginning in May of 1918 the outright vicious massacre of the Red Finns and their relatives began – up to 90,000 persons were locked up in camps while over 8,000 were murdered on the spot. Besides the Finns, the Russian population was subjected to genocide. Tsar’s officers were also shot, even though they supported the White Finns, but were killed just because they were Russian. The most vicious and massive genocide was organized by the White Finns in Vyborg – all office workers, students, factory workers – anyone that could not speak Finnish was killed outright. Out of the 19 churches 11 Russian Orthodox Churches were vandalized and completely destroyed.

There was forced evictions, forced deportations, constant hysteria was unleashed against Russians and of course, against anyone that supported the October Socialist Revolution. This was a well-orchestrated plan by Western imperialism in order, as Winston Churchill said – "Drown the baby in its cradle."

Nearly 100,000 Finnish Red Guards fought their way to the border of Soviet Russia and there were also thousands of political refugees from this White Terror. Many Red Finns joined the Red Army and defended Petrograd in 1919 and helped the Red Army expel the White Finns from Soviet Karelia. The Red Finns helped to safeguard the October Revolution on the northern front. Many Red Finns remained in the Soviet Red Army and some of them became Generals – A. Antilla, E. Toykka, E.A. Rakhya, etc.

In 1939 the political situation between USSR and Finland was strained, pushed to the breaking point by Western powers. The West pushed Marshal Mannerheim in his quest for a "Greater Finland" at the expense of Soviet territory. The President of Finland Svinhufvud at that time declared that: "Each enemy of Soviet Russia should be a friend of Finland."

Some of today’s capitalist Russia’s "historians" try to belittle Mannerheim’s strong Finnish army when it attacked the USSR in 1939 and, that the Red Army was unprepared etc. The Finnish Army numbered over 600,000 well-armed soldiers, supported by volunteers from the West (that is more soldiers than Napoleon had when he invaded Russia). Western powers gave Finland 350 top-line aeroplanes, 500 cannons, over 6,000 machineguns and other countless assistance like training, spies, provocateurs, etc. This was the Western built and supported army that the Soviet Red Amy defeated inside of 3 months.

At the beginning of March of that year, the Finnish government begged the Soviet Union to start the negotiations for peace. The warfare stopped on March 12, 1940.

The Red Army could have completely wiped out the White Finns, but it was the heavy political pressure by Britain and the USA, because, at that time the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations under pressure from Britain and US, while plans were known to the Soviet Government, headed by J. Stalin, of a large-scale invasion of the USSR by the Anglo-American forces was in the works, in case the Red Army goes any further in defeating the White Finns and their German and Western backers.

Britain and the US imperialists did not want to fight their former ally, Germany whom they supported overtly and covertly, as they planned to invade the USSR, while the Germans would then become their ally in order to defeat Communism The Soviet Government knew of these plans and thus took steps to secure allies in their life and death struggle against Nazi Germany.

Red Finns did not achieve their dream of a Socialist Finland, but their dedication and bravery will go down in the history books about their internationalism and the help that they gave to the young Soviet State in its struggle to survive.

But now we have again entered a period in this Century of uncertainty of the political situation that was at the time before and after the Great October Revolution and the beginning of World War II.