Background
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was born on June 4, 1867, in Vilnyas, near Turku, Finland. He was from the family of the Finnish count Carl Robert Mannerheim.
1918
Mannerheim leading the victory parade at the end of the Finnish Civil War in Helsinki.
1940
Mannerheim (right) with a fellow student, Antanas Ričardas Druvė, in Nicholas Cavalry School, St Petersburg, late 1880s.
Mannerheim as Regent (seated), with his adjutants (left) Lt. Col. Lilius, Capt. Kekoni, Lt. Gallen-Kallela, Ensign Rosenbröijer.
Discussion with Hitler, Marshal Mannerheim and President Ryti. Hitler visited Mannerheim on his 75th birthday.
Marshal Baron Mannerheim leaves the Presidential Palace in Helsinki on 4 March 1946 after his short presidency.
Mannerheim's funeral parade in Helsinki Senate Square on 4 February 1951.
Mannerheim Square in Helsinki with an equestrian statue of Mannerheim.
(Finland's greatest statesman, Baron Carl Gustav Emil Mann...)
Finland's greatest statesman, Baron Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, was an anachronism in the 20th century. He guided Finland through the dark days of it's formation, united his country and gave them a genuine feeling that they were Finns, successfully steered Finland through three wars with great powers and one civil war, and was the man who most contributed to Finland's sovereignty that still exists today.
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1954
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was born on June 4, 1867, in Vilnyas, near Turku, Finland. He was from the family of the Finnish count Carl Robert Mannerheim.
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was sent to the Hamina Cadet School. He was expelled in 1886 when he left without permission. Next he attended the Helsinki Private Lyceum, where he passed the university entrance examinations in June 1887. Besides his Swedish mother tongue, Mannerheim learned to speak Russian, French, German, English and some Finnish. From 1887 to 1889, Mannerheim attended the Nicholas Cavalry School in Saint Petersburg. In January 1891, he joined the Chevalier Guard Regiment in Saint Petersburg.
Mannerheim volunteered for active service with the Imperial Russian Army in the Russo-Japanese war in 1904. He was promoted to Colonel for bravery in the Battle of Mukden in 1905 and briefly commanded an irregular unit of Hong Huzi, a local militia, on an exploratory mission into Inner Mongolia.
When Mannerheim returned to Saint Petersburg, he was asked to undertake a journey through Turkestan to Beijing as a secret intelligence-officer. Disguised as an ethnographic collector, he joined the French archeologist Paul Pelliot's expedition at Samarkand in Russian Turkestan (now Uzbekistan). They started from the terminus of the Trans-Caspian Railway in Andijan in July 1906, but Mannerheim quarreled with Pelliot, so he made the greater part of the expedition on his own. Returned to Saint Petersburg via Japan and the Trans-Siberian Express. His report gave a detailed account of Chinese modernization.
After Mannerheim's return to Russia in 1909, he was appointed to command the 13th Vladimir Uhlan Regiment in Poland. The following year, he was promoted to major general and was posted as the commander of the Life Guard Uhlan Regiment of His Majesty in Warsaw. Next Mannerheim became part of the Imperial entourage and was appointed to command a cavalry brigade.
At the beginning of World War I, Mannerheim served as commander of the Guards Cavalry Brigade, and fought on the Austro-Hungarian and Romanian fronts. In March 1915, Mannerheim was appointed to command the 12th Cavalry Division. However, Mannerheim fell out of favour with the new government, who regarded him as not supporting the revolution, and was relieved of his duties.
After the outbreak of the October (November) Russian Revolution in 1917, he returned to Finland, which had declared its independence from Russia. Mannerheim assumed command of the "White" (anti-Bolshevik) forces in January 1918 during the Finnish Civil War and, with German assistance, defeated the Finnish Bolsheviks and expelled Russian forces in a bloody four-month campaign.
Mannerheim became regent of Finland in December 1918, holding this post for seven months until a republic was declared in 1919. From 1919 to 1931 he lived in semiretirement, concerning himself with volunteer health and social welfare causes in Finland.
Reentering public life in 1931, Mannerheim became chairman of the national defense council. During his eight-year tenure, Finland constructed the so-called Mannerheim Line of fortifications across the Karelian Isthmus facing Leningrad (now St. Petersburg); this system of defenses was intended to block any potential aggressive moves by the Soviet Union.
When Soviet forces attacked Finland in December 1939, he served as commander in chief, and his brilliant leadership won considerable successes against vast numerical superiority, but the end result was defeat, resulting in a relatively harsh peace settlement in 1940. Hoping to win back some territory regarded by some as historically Finnish, Finland successfully joined Nazi Germany in its invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Mannerheim was named the only marshal of Finland in June 1942. But as Russian strength grew and Germany weakened, Mannerheim’s troops were forced to retreat. He was named president of the Finnish republic in August 1944 in the hope that he would be able to negotiate a separate peace with the Soviets, which he did, signing an armistice with them in September. The armistice ultimately led to a peace treaty by which Finland was forced to make concessions more extensive than those made after the Winter War. Mannerheim remained president until ill health forced his retirement in 1946.
After his resignation, Marshal Baron Mannerheim bought Kirkniemi Manor in Lohja, intending to spend his retirement there. In June 1946, he underwent an operation for a perforated peptic ulcer, and in October of that year he was diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer. In early 1947, it was recommended that he should travel to the Valmont Sanatorium in Montreux, Switzerland, to recuperate and write his memoirs.
Because Mannerheim was old and sickly, he personally wrote only certain passages of his memoirs. Some other parts he dictated. The remaining parts were written from his recollections by Mannerheim's various assistants. He was almost totally silent about his private life, and focused instead on Finland's history, especially between 1917 and 1944.
When Mannerheim suffered a fatal blocked intestine in January 1951, his memoirs were not yet in their finished form. They were published after his death.
Mannerheim died on 27 January 1951, in the Cantonal Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was buried on 4 February 1951 in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki in a state funeral with full military honours.
(Finland's greatest statesman, Baron Carl Gustav Emil Mann...)
1954Quotes from others about the person
Wipert von Blücher, the German ambassador to Finland: "Field Marshal Mannerheim had a tall, slender and muscular body, noble posture, confident demeanor and clear facial features. He belonged to the type of people who were as if specifically created to carry their mission of being the great historical personalities, with whom so rich were the eighteenth and nineteenth century... He was endowed with personal traits peculiar to all the great historical characters who lived before him. In addition, he was a great rider and gunner, gallant gentleman, an interesting interlocutor and an outstanding connoisseur of culinary art. He also made a great impression in the salons, as well as at the races, clubs and parades equally".
In 1892, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim married a wealthy and beautiful noble lady of Russian-Serbian heritage, Anastasia Arapova (1872-1936). They had two daughters, Anastasie (1893-1978) and Sophie (1895-1963). The parents separated in 1902 and divorced in 1919.