Books from Finland - A literary journal of writing from and about Finland.

Tampereen naiskaarti. Myytit ja todellisuus.
[The Tampere Women’s Guard. Myth and reality]
Helsinki: Ajatus Kirjat, 2008. 272 p., ill.
ISBN 978-951-20-7759-1
€ 34, hardback

Several thousand women took part in the battles of the 1918 Finnish Civil War, though not all were involved in the actual fighting. At full strength, the Tampere Women’s Guard numbered about 270 people, and it consisted primarily of industrial workers. Historian Dr Tuomas Hoppu has studied the fates of these women with the help of archival material and accounts by people who were alive at the time. Hoppu also describes the post-war period: the political trials of women, the conditions in the prison camps where the women were held, and the difficulties they encountered in returning to civilian life. According to Hoppu, the members of the women’s guard were genuine volunteers, while men were often forced to join the Reds under duress.