Order of the Commander-in-Chief N 1

Commander-in-Chief headquarters
June 1941

Soldiers of Finland!

Our glorious Winter War was ended with the bitter peace. Despite the peace concluded, our country still was an object of the constant threats and coercion. Together with the criminal instigation towards the breaking of our unity this shows that from the time of signing the peace our enemy did not consider it as permanent. The peace was only the armistice, which ended now.

You know the enemy. You know the constancy of his goals, aimed to destroy our homes, our faith and our Fatherland and to enslave our nation. We have the same enemy and the same threat near our borders. Without any reasons it brutally attacked our peaceful nation and bombed several parts of our country. The future of the Fatherland calls you to the new feats.

I call you to the holy war against the enemy of our nation. The fallen heroes are rise from their mounds and stand along with us now, when, together with the powerful military forces of Germany, we, as the brothers in arms, decisively start the Crusade against our enemy to ensure a secure future of the Finland.

Brothers-in-arms! Follow me for the last time – now, when the people of Karelia is rising again and a new dawn is breaking out for Finland.

Mannerheim.