The Murmansk Legion, also known as the Finnish Legion, was a British Royal Navy organized military unit during the 1918–1919 Allied North Russia Intervention. It was composed of Finnish Red Guards who had fled after the Finnish Civil War from the White-dominated Northern Finland to Soviet Russia and of some Finns working on the Murmansk Railroad. The Legion, along with British troops, fought off the 1918 Viena expedition of Finnish White Guards and defended the Murmansk Railroad.[1]
Finnish White Guards had started their military campaign in March 1918. Their goal was to annex White Karelia from Bolshevist Russia. British Royal Marines had invaded Murmansk at the same time to prevent the Germans and their Finnish White Guard allies from gaining the White Sea coast and the Murmansk Railroad.[2]
The Murmansk Legion was armed with British equipment and wore British uniforms. The Legion was led by Oskari Tokoi and Verner Lehtimäki, who were both promoted to colonel by the British Navy. Strength of the Legion peaked in February 1919 and was about 1,200 men.[2] The Murmansk Legion was initially approved by Lenin but he later condemned it, as did the communists left behind in Finland, since the British were on the side of the White movement, although the Finns in the Legion refused to fight the Bolsheviks.[1]
The Murmansk Legion was disbanded in 1919 as the British troops withdrew. The Finnish government regarded them as traitors but the United Kingdom and the United States made their recognition of Finnish independence conditional on the new government expelling several German agents and pardoning the legionnaires. In the autumn of 1919 most of the Murmansk Legion fighters returned to Finland but some 20 highest-ranked officers such as Tokoi, Lehtimäki, Aarne Orjatsalo and Hannes Sula fled to North America.[2] Some legionnaires later joined the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and a few of the youngest even fought in the Finnish Army during World War II.
^ abRoyal Reds – Finns in the British Murmansk Legion 1918–1919 Retrieved 23 November 2013.
^ abcJussila, Osmo: "From Grand Duchy to Modern State: A Political History of Finland Since 1809", p. 123 Retrieved 23 November 2013.
The MurmanskLegion, also known as the Finnish Legion, was a British Royal Navy organized military unit during the 1918–1919 Allied North Russia Intervention...
Civil War. He later served as a lieutenant in the British organized MurmanskLegion and the Estonian Army. August Anselm Wesslin was born in the industrial...
Otto Wille Kuusinen in Moscow. On his advice, Orjatsalo joined the MurmanskLegion which was a British Royal Navy organized military unit during the 1918–1919...
expedition Finnish Civil War Metsäsissit North Russia Campaign Pork mutiny MurmanskLegion Group under Kurt Martti Wallenius consisted of conscripted soldiers...
(1918–1922) White Guard Estonia East Karelia North Ingria Russian SFSR MurmanskLegion Treaty of Tartu K. J. Ståhlberg Karl Fredrik Wilkama ~550 Winter War...
Estonian War of Independence MurmanskLegion Siberian intervention Southern Russia intervention Viena expedition 590 in Murmansk sector, 274 in Archangel...
Intervention he was one of the leading Finns of the British organized MurmanskLegion. In 1920, Sula was exiled to Canada where he worked as a newspaperman...
Intervention, Ahava served as a lieutenant in the British organized units of MurmanskLegion and Karelian Regiment. He was murdered in unclear circumstances in...
Russia. During 1919 and 1920, he worked as a political advisor to the MurmanskLegion, which was organized by the British against Finnish nationalists who...
since the beginning of the war in 1914 through the ports of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk (established in 1915), and Vladivostok. In April 1917 the United States...
Murmańczycy (Murmansk Group or Murmanians) was a common name for Polish military formations which fought against the Bolsheviks in the area of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk...
GTI Racing (2006) FIM Speedway Grand Prix 2 (2006) Expedition Trophy: Murmansk Vladivostok (2006) UAZ 4X4 Racing (2007) Full Drive: UAZ 4x4 – Ural Appeal...
summer coastal shipping for supplies from railheads at Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. The Soviet Union extended the Northern Sea Route past the Taymyr Peninsula...
France by ship on the so-called "Northern route" via Archangelsk and Murmansk-Murmansk on Masaryk's order), but their activities on the highway helped the...
calling up 150,000 citizens for military service. 4 April – The governor of Murmansk Oblast, Andrey Chibis, is severely wounded after being stabbed while meeting...
received various domestic and international honours, including the French Légion d'honneur (proclaimed 21 December 1920; Belgrade is one of four cities outside...
centers using Russian phone numbers including in Volgograd, Krasnodar, Murmansk and Kaliningrad. The BBC was told that they were still signing contracts...
the commander of the Second Brigade of the Polish Legion, switched sides in late 1917, and via Murmansk took part of his troops to France, where he created...
attacks on Tirpitz Holder (1943) – British special naval transport to Murmansk Husar (1943) – cancelled German anti-shipping operation in Kara Sea by...
its effort to capture Murmansk in a pincer attack. The northern pincer, conducted by Mountain Corps Norway, approached Murmansk directly by crossing the...
Global Information