Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867-1951) was a Finnish military leader and politician.

Mannerheim began his career in the Imperial Russian Army. During the Russian Civil War, Mannerheim briefly served the new revolutionary government, before he grew disenchanted with Communism. He was relieved of duty, and returned home to a newly independent Finland. After playing a crucial role in winning the Finnish Civil War for the "white" side, Mannerheim became regent in 1918, and, acting as an interim head of state, received foreign recognition for the new Republic, and oversaw the institution of a new constitution. He stood for election to the presidency in 1919, but lost, and retired from public life. He returned to service in the 1930s, accepting a position as chairman the national defense council, and was informed that, in the event of war, he would be immediately elevated to Commannder-in-Chief. Although Mannerheim was neither head of state, nor head of government, he exerted substantial influence over Finland's government.

Mannerheim led the military from November, 1940, when the Soviet Union attacked Finland through January, 1945, when Finland was able to reach a separate peace with the USSER. During the fighting, Finland had been an ally of Germany, although Mannerheim did his best to keep that alliance as informal as possible.

Mannerheim was concurrently elected president of Finland in 1944, but completed only two years of his six-year term before he resigned due to ill health.

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim in The War That Came Early
Although neither head of state nor head of government, Carl Mannerheim's visible and critical influence over the Finnish government allowed Joseph Stalin to use Mannerheim as a scape-goat to justify a pre-emptive Soviet invasion of Finland in December, 1939. Officially, Stalin stated that, as Denmark had already fallen to Germany, and Norway was falling, the "reactionary" Mannerheim could not be trusted to remain neutral.