White Guard Affair

It followed from an article written by Paul von Gerich [fi], which caused outrage in various European nations, and the Finnish government to order that he be fired from his position as the chief of the Helsinki White Guard District.

[3] Even after the civil war had ended in Finland proper, the conflict continued in bordering Russian territories in the form of the Heimosodat, where more than 10,000 Finnish White volunteers conducted multiple "irridentist" and "semi-official military campaigns" starting from 1918.

[9] Supporters of the re-established movement included the Regent of Finland Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, who had led the White Army during the civil war.

[9] According to historians Pekka Hallberg and Tuomo Martikainen, the White Guards soon became "a bourgeois armed force that threatened the democratic system" and "hindered the exercise of power by the parliament and the government.

authored under the nom de plume "v. G."[10] The article criticized the Finnish foreign political alignment with other nations bordering the Soviet Union, and caused a diplomatic incident where ambassadors from France, Italy, Latvia, Poland and Romania expressed their outrage.

[11] In reality, the author of the article was the commander of the Helsinki White Guard District, General Paul von Gerich [fi], who had been transferred to the post earlier that year.

Westerlund claims that the planning of the assassination was attended by approximately 10 people, and that some 20 White Guardsmen had participated in the collection of a prize of some 25,000 Finnish marks for Tandefelt.