Mannerheim, Carl Gustav Emil Von

Mannerheim, Carl Gustav Emil Von 

Born June 4 (16), 1867, in Villnas, near Turku; died Jan. 28, 1951, in Lausanne. Baron; Finnish government and military figure; marshal (1933).

Mannerheim graduated from the University of Helsingfors in 1887 and the Nicholas Cavalry School in St. Petersburg. Until 1917 he served in the Russian Army. During World War I he commanded a large unit; he became a lieutenant general in 1917. In 1918 he commanded the White Finnish Army, which, together with the German interventionists, suppressed the Finnish revolution of 1918. Between December 1918 and July 1919 he was regent of Finland, and in 1939 he became commander in chief of the Finnish Army. He was chairman of the State Defense Council from 1931. He commanded the Finnish Army during the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 and also in 1941-44, when Finland was allied with fascist Germany. In September 1944 he was forced to withdraw from the aggressive Berlin Pact of 1940 and from the war on conditions set by the Soviet government. In August 1944 he became president of Finland. In March 1946, under pressure from democratic forces, he went into retirement.