Murmansk Legion

The Legion, along with British troops, fought off the 1918 Viena expedition of Finnish White Guards and defended the Murmansk Railroad.

[2] The Murmansk Legion was initially approved by Lenin, but he later condemned it, as did the communists left behind in Finland, since the British were on the side of the White movement.

The Finnish commander of the Murmansk Legion, Verner Lehtimäki, stayed loyal to the Bolshevik government, but August Wesley, Oskari Tokoi, and Karl Emil Primus-Nyman supported the Allies.

They urged the Finnish working cass to reject communism and join them in pursuit of a democratic socialist Finland.

In the autumn of 1919 most of the Murmansk Legion fighters returned to Finland but some 20 highest-ranked officers such as Tokoi, Lehtimäki, Aarne Orjatsalo and Hannes Sula fled to North America.