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 1917β1918
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If a young person tells you "I can't wait to be old" look them in the eye and say "Being old is awful in ways you cannot imagine because they are so internal and personal that until you have experienced them you cannot fear them. Whatever it is you idealize about old age; Wearing gross sweatpants to the grocery store, metamucil, prostate exams, farting; you can do it now, while you're young, while life is still something to be enjoyed rather than endured"
(my tummy hurts and I am mad about it)
yeah I developed some weird undiagnosed gut problem in 2020 (the year of covid -- coincidence? I am only 30 but it seems unusually bad digestive difficulties and heartburn)
On the one hand, having a weird chemical engine that can turn dead stuff in to atp is pretty cool, but on the other hand why doesn't it work better?
Yeah, same here. My stomach, esophagus, intestines, and general digestive system has felt fucked since I got COVID in summer 2022. I've cut down to only really eating a big afternoon lunch and supper because if I eat after midnight I internally gremlinize.
I always worry that it could be because of an asymptomatic case of COVID that I never knew I caught because of the timing (and I've never had a symptomatic case). But I'll never know for sure.