Sword Scabbard Declaration
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The Order of the Day of the Sword Scabbard, or the Sword Scabbard Declaration, actually refers to two related declarations from Mannerheim, Finland's Commander-in-Chief.
During the Civil War in Finland, in February 1918, general Mannerheim, the commander of the anti-communist White Guards, wrote his famous Order of the Day, in which he declared that he would not set his sword to the scabbard "until the last Lenin's soldier and hooligan is deported as well from Finland as from Vienna Karelia too" ("... ennen kuin viimeinen Leninin soturi ja huligaani on karkoitettu niin hyvin Suomesta kuin Vienan Karjalastakin.").
The events at the end of World War I made this goal hard to accomplish, but the Aunus expedition in 1919, during the Russian Civil War, was at least an attempt.
After the German invasion to Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 Finland officially declared itself neutral in relation to that the conflict. However a well-prepared Finland was soon at war with the Soviet Union and the country stated that it was in a defensive war, but by the sword scabbard declaration, Mannerheim had lost the possibility to brand the Continuation War as a defensive war, yet even as a war of revanchism to regain the territory, on which 1/8 of the Finnish populace lived, lost in the Winter War. But gradually the Continuation War became a war of conquest, to capture land that had not historically belonged to Finland.
As the war fortune had disfavoured Finland, Mannerheim reminded about his 1918 declaration in his "Order of the Day" speech to his troops in July 10, 1941: "... in 1918 I stated to the Finnish and Vienna Karelians, that I would not set my sword to the scabbard before Finland and East Karelia would be free." ("Vapaussodassa vuonna 1918 lausuin Suomen ja Vienan karjalaisille, etten tulisi panemaan miekkaani tuppeen ennen kuin Suomi ja Itä-Karjala olisivat vapaat.")
It is often forgotten that Lenin had died only 16 years before, and that he had guaranteed special freedoms to the Vienna Karelians when the Finnish-Soviet Peace Treaty of Tarto was signed in 1920. In return Finland had given up two Karelian counties for the Soviet Union. This was seen by many Finns as a very bad deal. The Peace Treaty thus got a nick name, "a Shame Peace" (Häpeärauha in Finnish).
Finnish leaders and politicians were in many occasions in 1920s and 1930s trying to demand for this agreement to be honored by the Soviets. Instead, things turned real bad, and tens of thousands of Finns were killed in Karelia during Josef Stalin atrocities in 1930s.
In light of these events the words of Mannerheim were targeted to the soldiers as a moral booster, as the Soviet Union was at war with Finland again. This Order of the Day signified the start of an offensive, which would prove successful and result in a three-year long occupation of Russian Karelia.
For large segments of the public opinion, both in Finland and in democratic countries, there was a huge difference between a defensive war and a war of aggression. Finland had in the Winter War the sympathy of virtually the whole world (with exception for Nazi Germany and the aggressor, the Soviet Union). The chief reason was that Finland in the eyes of the international opinion was unjustly attacked by a much larger power. The Continuation War started when German minelayers, which had been hiding in the Finnish archipelago, laid two large minefields across the Gulf of Finland. Later the same night, German bombers flew along the Gulf of Finland to Leningrad and mined the harbor and the river Neva. On the return trip, these bombers re-fuelled in Utti airfield. After three days, early on the morning of June 25 a Soviet air-attack was unleashed on towns in Finland.
