Dissolution and Reintegration in Finland, 1914–1932: How did a Disarmed Country Become Absorbed into Brutalization?

Finland avoided participation in the Great War, but in 1918 fell into a short civil war that culminated in a cycle of vicious terror. The focus of this article is to explain the high incidence of terror during that civil war in comparison with other civil wars that took place in the Baltic region. The violent polarization of Finnish society was triggered as reform expectations skyrocketed at the moment when the country’s institutions were in chaos and its economy in a free fall. Mutual distrust, armed mobilizations, and a sense that time was running out in the arms race were key factors that drove both warring parties to the violent conflict. The author concludes with a discussion of the reintegration of the dissolved state. He frames the conflict within various psychological theories and group behavior in the context of economic possibilities and expectations. The article is based on his own empirical research and on the studies of other scholars on the history of the Finnish Civil War.