Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 180
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LE NORD
the Government has declared to be necessary for the purpose.«
Since then, Finland has regularly celebrated the anniversary
of her independence on the 6th December.
In spite of this declaration, Finland’s independence was not
yet an accomplished fact standing on a firm basis. The new in-
dependent Northern State had arisen from the welter of the War
and the chaos of the Russian Revolution. Even in Finland itself
there was complete political disorganisation throughout 1917.
This disorganisation was harmless only so long as it was con-
trolled by the common will and common work. It is no wonder
that in the achievement of independence, difficulties and even
dangers made their appearance.
First and foremost among these difficulties was the subsequent
settling of internal political matters. The social-democratic party,
which had been a decisive factor in the achievement of the
general franchise and the single-chambered Diet, and which had
enjoyed a majority in the first Diet of 19x7, could not with
equanimity content itself with the status of a minority (92
members outs of 200) in the second Diet of 1917. The success-
ful revolt of the Russian workers encouraged the working classes
of Finland to adhere to the demands for social reforms, which
it had exacted from the Diet partly by means of a general
strike. This strike, marked by violence and bloodshed, severed
the parliamentary relations between the bourgeois parties and the
Social-Democrats, the latter being then forced into a secondary
place in political life and being easily led along the wrong path.
The measures taken by the authorities to protect the country
and its law and order, together with the purchases of arms by
the government were interpreted by the extremists of the Social-
Democratic Party as measures aimed against the working classes,
and they too, hastened to arm themselves. It is nevertheless il-
lustrative of the conditions then prevailing that in the midst of
class dissension, distrust and hate, the Social-Democrats played
the most loyal part in obtaining the recognition of Finland’s in-
dependence from the new rulers of Russia at the end of 1917.
But the internal political trend could not be altered, and led
mechanically and automatically to the unhappy civil war of 1918.
Whether it be called a »War of Independence«, »Civil War« or
»Revolt«, it was nevertheless in reality an internal struggle for
power; to the »Reds« the November Strike renewed on a larger
scale, and to the »Whites«, apart from the struggle for power,