Red, White, or Entente?: Challenges to National Identify in Finland and the Russian North at the End of World War II

• In Event: Russification and Memory in the Baltics and Finland: Narratives and Memory Policies

Abstract

This paper uses the memoirs of the Red, White, and American soldiers and civilians who participated in the Russian Civil War, including members of the Murmansk Legion, to gain a ground-level view of contested spaces in the Russian north. These materials were found at archives housed at the National Library of Finland, the Finnish National Archives, the University of Michigan, Hope College, and the Michigan Heroes Museum. It also uses official correspondence from the Finnish Foreign Affairs Ministry Archive and Finnish National Archive to gain insight into how Finnish, German, American, French, and Russian (both White and Red) governing structures struggled to gain control of events on the ground. This research is evolving into a unique multi-perspective understanding of the complexity of foreign intervention in the Russian Civil War.

Author

• Tracy Nichols Busch, Ferris State U