White Finland is an often-used term referring to one of the two parties in the Finnish Civil War

Finnish Civil War

The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...

 (January to May 1918), the other one being 'the Reds', or the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic

Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic

The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic was a short-lived Finnish socialist government, established by a revolution just prior to the Finnish Civil War and in the aftermath of the October Revolution...

. The Whites were supported by the White Guards

White Guard (Finland)

The White Guard was a voluntary militia that emerged victorious over the socialist Red Guard as part of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War of 1918...

, Jäger

Jäger (military)

Jäger is a term that was adopted in the Enlightenment era in German-speaking states and others influenced by German military practice to describe a kind of light infantry, and it has continued in that use since then....

 troops and the political right

Right-wing politics

In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...

. They also received military support from Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

The Whites had no clear political aims in common, other than stopping the revolutionary

Communist revolution

A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, typically with socialism as an intermediate stage...

 Reds from taking power and returning to constitutional rule

Swedish Constitution of 1772

Sweden's Constitution of 1772 took effect through a bloodless coup d'état carried out by King Gustav III, who had become king in 1771, establishing a brief absolute monarchy in Sweden. This was a response to perceived harm wrought upon Sweden by a half-century of parliamentarism during the...

 by the Senate

Senate of Finland

The Senate of Finland combined the functions of cabinet and supreme court in the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1816 to 1917 and in the independent Republic of Finland from 1917 to 1918....

 (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

Rule of law

The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...

. The provisional head of state of White Finland was Pehr Evind Svinhufvud

Pehr Evind Svinhufvud

Pehr Evind Svinhufvud af Qvalstad , December 15, 1861 – February 29, 1944) was the third President of Finland from 1931 to 1937. Serving as a lawyer, judge, and politician in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland, he played a major role in the movement for Finnish independence...

, chairman of the senate at the time, and its military was commanded by Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim

Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War, Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defence Forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, and a Finnish statesman. He was Regent of Finland and the sixth President of Finland...

.

See also

• Finnish Civil War
  Finnish Civil War
  The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
  
  
• White Guards (Finland)
• Classical Conservatism
  • Edmund Burke
    Edmund Burke
    Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
    
    's Reflections on the Revolution in France
    Reflections on the Revolution in France
    Reflections on the Revolution in France , by Edmund Burke, is one of the best-known intellectual attacks against the French Revolution...
    
    
• Rule of Law
  Rule of law
  The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...
  
  
• Legalism (Western philosophy)
  Legalism (Western philosophy)
  Legalism, in the Western sense, is an approach to the analysis of legal questions characterized by abstract logical reasoning focusing on the applicable legal text, such as a constitution, legislation, or case law, rather than on the social, economic, or political context...