Editing Sword Scabbard Declaration

{{Short description|Declarations issued by Finnish statesman C.G.E. Mannerheim}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Unreferenced|date=October 2021}}

The '''Order of the Day of the Sword Scabbard''', or the '''Sword Scabbard Declaration''', actually refers to two related declarations by the [[Finland|Finnish]] [[Commander-in-Chief]] [[Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim]] during [[World War I]] and [[World War II]] against [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] control of [[East Karelia]].

==Background==

===World War I===
During the [[Civil War in Finland]], in February 1918, General Mannerheim, the commander of the anti-communist [[White Guard (Finland)|White Guards]], wrote his famous [[Mannerheim's Order of the Day|Order of the Day]], in which he declared that he would not set his sword to the scabbard ''"until Lenin's last soldier and hooligan is deported from Finland and [[East Karelia|White Karelia]]"'' ("... ennen kuin viimeinen Leninin soturi ja huligaani on karkoitettu niin hyvin Suomesta kuin Vienan Karjalastakin.").

The events at the end of [[World War I]] made this goal hard to accomplish, but nevertheless, two attempts were made to this end: the [[Viena expedition]] in 1918 and the [[Aunus expedition]] in 1919, during the [[Russian Civil War]], had allowed Finland to occupy and annex two regions of East Karelia - [[Repola]] and [[Porajärvi]] respectively.

===Between the wars===
Hostilities between Finland and [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] came to an end with the signing of the [[Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Finnish)|Treaty of Tartu]] in 1920. In accordance with the treaty, Soviet Russia ceded [[Pechengsky District|Petsamo]] to Finland and guaranteed special freedoms to the [[Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Karelian SSR]]. In return, Finland had to give up the two previously annexed Karelian counties. This was seen by many Finns as a very bad deal. The peace treaty thus got a nickname, "a Shame Peace" (''Häpeärauha'' in Finnish).{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}

===World War II===
Following the [[Continuation War|Soviet attack]] on Finland of 25 June 1941, Finland was again at war with its eastern neighbour. On 10 July 1941, Mannerheim referred to his 1918 declaration in his "Order of the Day" speech to his troops:  "... [I]n 1918 during the [[Finnish Civil War|War of Liberation]] I stated to the Finnish and Viena Karelians, that I would not set my sword to the scabbard before Finland and East Karelia would be free." ({{langx|fi|Vapaussodassa vuonna 1918 lausuin Suomen ja Vienan karjalaisille, etten tulisi panemaan miekkaani tuppeen ennen kuin Suomi ja Itä-Karjala olisivat vapaat.}}) This ''Order of the Day'' signified the beginning of an offensive, which would result in a three-year-long occupation of Eastern Karelia.

==Diplomatic consequences==
Immediately after the Axis invasion, Finland officially declared itself neutral in relation to the conflict. However, German minelayers, which had been hiding in the Finnish archipelago, laid two large minefields across the [[Gulf of Finland]]. Later the same night, German bombers flew along the Gulf of Finland to [[Leningrad]] and mined its harbor and the river [[Neva]]. On the return trip, these bombers landed on the [[Utti]] airfield for refueling. After three days, early on the morning of 25 June, preemptive Soviet air raids were launched on Finnish towns, airfields and industrial centers. The country was at war with its larger neighbor once again. This [[Continuation War]] was initially defensive for Finland, but with his nearly immediate restatement of his Sword Scabbard Declaration, Mannerheim lost the possibility to brand it a [[defensive war]], or even as a war of [[revanchism]] to regain the territory lost in the [[Winter War]], where one-eighth of the Finnish populace lived. Gradually, the Continuation War became, in the eyes of some, a [[war of conquest]], to capture land that had not historically belonged to Finland.

For large segments of the public, both in Finland and in other democratic countries, there was a huge difference between a defensive war and a [[war of aggression]]. In the Winter War Finland had the sympathy of  virtually the whole world (with the exception of [[Nazi Germany]] and the aggressor, the Soviet Union). The chief reason was that Finland, in international opinion, was unjustly attacked by a much larger power.  In the Continuation War, on the other hand, Finland was partly an aggressor in the eyes of some, attacking the Soviet Union alongside the Axis invasion. This badly damaged Finland's image in the eyes of the Churchill government and eventually caused the formerly sympathetic [[United Kingdom|Britain]] to declare war on Finland in December 1941.
<!-- adding some more consequences would be nice at this point-->

==See also==
*[[History of Finland]]
*[[Heimosodat]]
*[[Karelian question in Finnish politics]]

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|order of the day}}
* [http://www.mannerheim.fi/10_ylip/e_mtuppi.htm Order of the Day of the Sword Scabbard] at Mannerheim.fi
* [http://heninen.net/miekka/p-1918_e.htm English translation of the Order of the Day (1918)] at heninen.net

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[[Category:History of Karelia]]
[[Category:Finland–Russia relations]]
[[Category:Finland–Soviet Union relations]]
[[Category:Continuation War]]
[[Category:Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim]]
[[Category:1918 documents]]
[[Category:1941 documents]]
[[Category:Proclamations]]