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Ink drawing of the German battleship SMS Westfalen off Helsingfors (Helsinki), Russia, April 1918. From Paul to his brother.
Text:
S.M.S. Westfalen vor Helsingfors April 1918.
Reverse:
Zum Erinnerung Helsingfors, am(?) 28 April 1918.
dein Bruder (?)
Paul.
Memento of Helsinki, April 28, 1918.
Your brother,
Paul

Ink drawing of the German battleship SMS Westfalen off Helsingfors (Helsinki), Russia, April 1918. From Paul to his brother.

Image text

S.M.S. Westfalen vor Helsingfors April 1918.



Reverse:

Zum Erinnerung Helsingfors, am(?) 28 April 1918.

dein Bruder (?)

Paul.



Memento of Helsinki, April 28, 1918.

Your brother,

Paul

Other views: Front, Back

Thursday, May 16, 1918

"Both in Vienna and Berlin, the authorities had to keep alert to any danger of revolution, and were responsive to any calls for help against Bolshevism. In southern Russia, the new leader of the Don Cossacks, General Krasnov, appeal to the Germans on May 16 for financial and military help against the Red Army. This was given readily, and included fifteen million roubles and 12,000 rifles. German influence extended across a thousand miles of southern Russia. That day, in Finland, the Finnish national leader, General Mannerheim, entered Helsinki at the head of 16,000 men. More than a century of Tsarist rule, six months of Bolshevik control, and most recently German military occupation, were over."

Quotation Context

Finland was a region of Russia with significant autonomy, so much that Czarist police, and their revolutionary successors, had limited ability to pursue persons of interest, such as Vladimir Lenin who entered Russia from Finland after the 1918 February Revolution, and fled there after the July Days that summer. After the October Revolution that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power, the Russian government quickly agreed an armistice with the Central Powers, but, in negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, could not reach agreement on a peace treaty. Finland declared its independence from Russia in December, 1917, with Soviet Russia finalizing recognition on January 4, 1918 (December 22, 1917 Old Style).

Source

The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 422, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994

Tags

1918-05-16, 1918, May, Helsinki, Finland