Kenttäoikeudet. Välittömät rankaisutoimet Suomen sisällissodassa 1918

Kenttäoikeudet on ensimmäinen kokonaisesitys punaisten ja valkoisten kenttäoikeuksista vuoden 1918 sisällissodassa Sisällissodan taistelujen ulkopuolella tapahtuneita väkivallantekoja, ns. punaista ja valkoista terroria, on selitetty yksityisinä kostotoimina, jotka tapahtuivat ilman kummankaan osapuolen sodanjohdon hyväksyntää. Laajaan lähdemateriaaliin pohjautuva tutkimus osoittaa, että huomattavaa osaa niin valkoisten kuin punaisten terrorista voidaan pitää rationaalisesti perusteltuna, organisoituna väkivaltana. Kyse ei ollut pelkästään yksittäistä rivimiehistä liikkeelle lähteneistä kostotoimista, vaan sotajoukkojen päällystön ja tätä toimintaa varten erikseen muodostettujen organisaatioiden toiminnasta. Se oli keino käydä sisällissotaa. Punaisesta terrorista noin kolmasosa, valkoisesta terrorista ehkä pääosa oli tällaista rationaalista rankaisutoimintaa. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan tilastollisesti kenttäoikeuksissa tuomittuja, tuomioita, tuomareita ja oikeuksien jäseniä. Punaisten osalta tarkastellaan useiden yksittäisiä tuomioita langettaneiden kenttäoikeuksien toimia sekä Toijalan ja Kouvolan terrorikeskuksia. Valkoisten harjoittamien rankaisutoimien osalta kuvataan Kemin, Värtsilän, Raahen, Varkauden, Hyvinkään, Hämeenlinnan, Lappeenrannan, Viipurin, Vihdin, Luumäen, Virolahden ja Viipurin läänin Uudenkirkon pitäjän puhdistusta kenttäoikeuksien pöytäkirjojen valossa. Kenttäoikeudet on ensimmäinen yleisesitys Suomen sisällissodan terrori-ilmiöistä yli 35 vuoteen. Tutkimus tuo myös, perehtymällä ensimmäistä kertaa kenttäoikeuksien pöytäkirjoihin, koko lailla uuden näkökulman sisällissodan väkivallantekoihin. Työ haastaa monella tavalla perinteiset tulkinnan sisällissodan väkivallanteoista. Court-Martial without Law. Punitive measures in the Finnish Civil War of 1918 Over 36 000 people died in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. In southern Finland the Finnish Red Guard staged a coup d´ état on 27th January 1918. The White Army, consisting basically of volunteer Civil Guards, started operations against Russian military troops and Finnish Red Guards at the same time in northern Finland. After three months of war the White Army prevailed in May, but the state of civil war persisted until the summer of 1918. In the Civil War about 5 000 Reds and 4 000 Whites died in battle. After the war was over 13 500 Reds died in POW camps, usually from hunger and disease. The most controversial part of the history of the Civil War in Finland was the question of the so-called Red and White terror. The Civil War in Finland, behind the front lines, was brutal. Both sides randomly shot their enemies after the battle. The Reds killed over 1 600 Whites or otherwise bourgeois people. At the same time, and also after the war, nearly 10 000 Reds were shot by the Whites. Red Guards ­ it has been told ­ killed in revenge and for individual and local reasons. After the Whites had occupied the areas that had been occupied by Reds, they, too, killed Reds in revenge. This is how the story of the Red and the White terror in the Civil War has been told for decades in Finland. For a long time the history of these killings has been covered by political myths and political interpretations. In the 1960s the historian Dr. Jaakko Paavolainen wrote the first studies on the Red and White terror. In these studies Paavolainen contended that Finnish terror, both red a! nd white, was summary execution for individual motives, by para-military soldiers. In this study the Red and the White terror are seen as a part of war, as tactics in the Civil War. In the Finnish Civil War both armies tried to legitimize their own violence against unarmed enemies. After the battle (the White or the Red) army continued fighting against potential and real enemies with acts of repression. A new perspective on this violence comes from the court-martial records, made by the Red Guard and White Army just after occupying areas. These records have not before been researched in a historical study. The Finnish revolutionaries used terror in three ways in the Finnish Civil War. First, with repressions the Reds took control of the occupied areas. Secondly, the Red terror had ideological underpinnings. The Whites and bourgeoisie were in this sense class enemies, who should be destroyed as a class. Rank-and-file men in the Red Guard had no idea of these ideological aspects, but the revolutionary leaders did have this ideological idea. In some areas ­ especially in Kymi industrial area and in Toijala near Tampere ­ they were also active in terror. Finally, the Red terror had individual motives, looting, and killings for individual motives and murders for revenge. The Red terror worked in two ways. Near the front were the Red Guard military courts. Usually the local Red Guard staff were members of this court. Behind the lines the terror was in the hands of the red investigation organs. On the battlefield, or after the occupation of an area, the staff of the local Red Guard formed a court from its own officers and judged counter-revolutionaries. Usually this meant shooting on the spot. When an occupied area was controlled for weeks, even months, the staff handed the investigation of counter-revolutionary activities over to a reconnaissance patrol, usually called a flying patrol. The Red courts usually seem to have worked in cases that were a foregone conclusion for the court. The red court condemned persons known to be guilty of the crimes they were accused of. In many cases this meant some kind of random killing, but in many cases those sentenced were indeed guilty. This study describes 120 cases in which the Red Guard investigated the victim before execution. In half (58 out of 120) of these cases the victims were the enemies of the Red Guard: Civil Guardists, white spies etc. Nearly all the other victims were ­ as the revolutionaries saw it ­ so-called class enemies: landowners, businessmen, industrial management. Even this small sample reveals some interesting aspects. The Red terror was not only indiscriminate violence from below, it was in many cases directed against the real and potential enemies of the Revolution. This Red terror was in the hands of the Red Guard leaders. During the war the para-military Civil Guards acted as a local police force in white-occupied Northern Finland. After the Whites advanced to Southern Finland, the local Civil Guards gained control of recently occupied areas. The orders to local Civil Guards were everywhere the same: round up all potential enemies, shoot the worst ones. The authorities everywhere gave the same orders to Civil Guards to seize power locally. Orders urged to list the revolutionaries now in three groups. Those in the first category could be shot on the spot after a short investigation and trial. Those in the second category could be taken prisoners and sent to POW camps. If the suspects were listed in category three, they were to be set free. This all means judgement by summary trial. It was made clear to local civil guardists and also to all local people, both sympathizers and enemies of the White movement. These purges lasted 2-3 weeks in White-occupied areas. Local guards arrested all Reds or suspects in their own area, tried them in the courts on and sentenced them. In Finnish history it has been reported that this White violence came from below, and as a reprisal, without the control and agreement of the White authorities. Court-martial records show us that in many ways this purge was very rational. And it happened as the authorities of the White Army ordered. The White Senate in Vaasa disagreed with how the White Army should be dealing with the rebels. On February 25 the commander of the White Army, General C. G. E. Mannerheim, gave orders not to use courts martial against Red rebels. Another order was given at the same time: it has recently been called the shoot on the spot order: if needed, it was possible to shoot the enemy on the spot ­ even if he was unarmed ­ in self-defence. The idea for the White military courts came from this. Because the officers wanted to use punitive measures against rebels, they used General Mannerheim´s order of February 25 as a decree. White officers made short investigations and gave their punishments according to this. Army organisations developed during the war for this investigative and punitive system: every military staff of the White Army had their own judges for this work. After April 6th 1918 the situation on the Red-White front changed to the Red´s disadvantage. Tampere, the revolutionaries´ stronghold city in Southern Finland, surrendered. From Tampere the White Army took over 11 000 men and women as prisoners of war after the battle. In this situation the White Army needed a military law to punish Red rebels. The General Staff asked vice president of the Vaasa Court of Appeal, K. Söderholm, if it was possible in this situation to use the wartime decree. In 1909 Czar Nicholas II had provided Finland with legislation for wartime. Because this legislation came in the years of oppression, the lawyers, and The White Senate disagreed on its legality. When Söderholm approved the use of this legistlation, the White Army leaders started to use Russian military law as grounds for sentencing. The prosecution of cases in occupied towns in Southern Finland was now given into the hands of the local Commandant. The Commandant worked as a part of the White Army: he had military patrols for all the work needed. In towns this was under the Commandant and his staff, in rural areas the local Civil Guards did the same work. For this interrogation work the Commandant had a Commandant´s office. The Office collected information about the Reds and their crimes during the war. This work was organised systematically in a few days after the occupation. In a couple of weeks the Commandant´s intelligence office had collected large amounts of intelligence on POWs and their crimes. Commandants set up three-men courts to conduct the investigation. They were called inquiry commissions. These inquiry commissions worked as described before, dividing Reds into three groups: first, second and third. The first group comprised all the Red Guard leaders, war criminals, murderers, looters and the main leaders of revolutionary civil organs. They would suffer capital punishment. The second group comprised all other men and women in the Red Guard and those who worked for it. They were imprisoned in POW camps. The third group was the innocent people. They were set free. Nearly all the members of the inquiry commissions were local people. Over 90% of all the members of these inquiry commissions lived in the same district where the commission was set up and gave its judgements. The members of these commissions were not those who had suffered the most from the Red uprising, neither were they those who worked for the Civil Guard or its staff. Most of these were ordinary bourgeois people. The largest social groups among these members were landowners (23.4 %), businessmen (21.8 %) and officials or local civil servants (12.0 % + 9.7 %). Twelve courts martial have been considered in this study. First, every court martial has been considered with a historical account, then charges, sentences and the social status of the suspects are considered statistically. Ten of these courts are considered together statistically. These courts give us data on over 2 500 persons regarding the sentences and the suspects. Two courts are considered by samplings of 100 (Varkaus) and 369 (Viipuri) persons: in Varkaus the total number of suspects was over 1 250 persons, in Viipuri nearly 12 000 people were interrogated. Of all the suspects three quarters had taken part in the revolutionary movement. Only 27 % of all suspects had taken part in a battle, armed and in the Red Guard. About 14.8 % of all the suspects had been in so-called requisition detachments. These groups worked as a part of the Red Guards´ maintenance. The members of these detachments were especially hated. To most of the landowners they were only looters. In many cases these men were even more hated than the local revolutionary leaders. Nearly all the revolutionary leaders and commanders of the Red troops were brought before a court martial before they were shot. Even the guiltiest men should be put on trial, and be duly sentenced. Courts martial meted out sentences to nearly all the suspects. About 40.6 % of them were set free, 25.3 % were sent to POW camps. Nearly the same proportion of all the suspects in the courts martial got capital punishment (13.4 %), or did not have a sentence at all (13.3 %). Of all the suspects nearly 19.3 % died in 1918. Most of them, 73.4 % were shot, and only one fifth of all of those who died in 1918 died in POW camps.