Karelian chasseur brigade 1928. The Karelian chasseur battalion on parade in Petrozavodsk |
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After suppression the Karelian uprising of 1921-1922 contrary to the Finnish political pressure the Central Committee of C.P.S.U.(B.) on March 5th 1922 decided to start finnisation of the Karelian Labour Commune. The leadership in the Karelian Labour Commune went to so-called "Red Finns1". The Finnish language became the official language in the Commune. It was used as the main language in Karelian schools and as a language used for cultural and political work among Karelians. On July 25th 1925 the Karelian Labour Commune was transformed into Autonomous Karelian Soviet Socialist Republic (AKSSR). In the political perspective the "Red Finns" saw the AKSSR as the outpost of the "world revolution" in the North of the Europe. They meant including it into "The great Red Finland2" and even "Red Scandinavia". Among other things the Finnisation policy meant creating in the AKSSR special national military unit. In October 1925 the first draft to the detached Karelian chasseur battalion was conducted. The battalion consested of four companies. The first battalion commander was Eiolf Igneus-Mattson3, holding the position till 1928. The first commissar was A.Mantere. In 1927th he was replaced by Urho Antikainen4.
National military unit was current personally by the Chairman of the AKSSR Soviet of the People's Commissar's Edvard Gylling. The battalion quarters were in Petrozavodsk, in the buildings of the former Orthodox theological seminary on Gogol street. In 1927-28 the head of battalion club was Ragnar Nyström - the poet, writer, playwright, the future founder of Karelian National Theatre on Petrozavodsk. In 1931 "due to aggressive external policy of Finland towards the USSR" and because of the high number of convicts on the territory of the AKSSR the battalion was transformed into Karelian chasseur brigade. The brigade commander, by recommendation of Edvard Gylling, became Eiolf Igneus-Mattson.
The Karelian chasseur brigade consisted of two chasseur battalions (Petrozavodsk and Olonets), artillery battalion, field company and communication company. The brigade was a territorial military unit - the soldiers served their five-year terms near their homes by the way of serving several 8 to 12 months muster. In the case of mobilization two more battalions should be formed (Zaonezhsky and Vepsky). In June 1932, when Karelian registration and enlistment office was liquidated the brigade Headquarters were supplemented with enlistment and quarters departments. The territorial formation of military units was usual for the Red Army at the time, but the name "chasseur" was unique. It was proposed by the management of the AKSSR in analog with Finnish chasseur units. Another big difference was that all commanding posts it the brigade were occupied by Finns5 and Karelians. The Karelian chasseur brigade was the only military unit on the territory of AKSSR. In the case of war with Finland the brigade operative plans were to cover Petrozavodsk from Finnish invasion. The last stand, as in 1919 planned to be the Sulashgora Heights. As an alternative there were plans to move brigade to Kola Peninsula to repel the British landing forces. The activities of "Red Finns" were going on the background of increasing political repression. In the spring 1930 OGPU6 arrested a group of "Red Finns" holding commanding positions in the detached Karelian chasseur battalion. The second wave of arrests began in 1932 and involved mainly the officers of the 2nd (Olonets) battalion of the detached Karelian chasseur brigade. 20 men were shot as a result of investigation on the cause of "counterrevolusionary rebel organisation". In 1933 OGPU "disclosed" so called "the plot of Finnish General Headqurters". Part of the commanding officers of the detached Karelian chasseur brigade were subjected to repressions. In 1935 the "Red Finns" were removed from the ruling posts in Karelia and the detached Karelian chasseur brigade was disbanded. At the end of 1935 on the territory of AKSSR there was stationed 18th Yaroslavl infantry division, holding the Order of the Red Banner. Some units of the Karelian brigade were incuded into it. Main part of the officers and privates of the Karelian chasseur brigade were killed during mass political repressions: . . . Holding the main commanding posts in Karelia this nationalist organisation organised ... preparation of armed uprising by the means of ... creating of the infantry chasseur brigade, staffed by national commanding and political officers. In this brigade they spread their counterrevolutionary propaganda and used it as a base for creating rebel organisations on the all territory of the Republic, this activity was performed in close junction with the "rights", working in Karelia... The draft of the "unreliable" Finns and Karelians into Red Army was stopped by 1938. Only in the end of summer 1939 few remaining Finnish officers were called from the reserve and in the middle of November there were a mass draft of Finns and Karelians. At the time in Petrosavodsk was forming the 1st infantry corps8 of the so called "Finnish People's Army" ...
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