Teloitettujen punaisten muistomerkki 1955 Ketunnummi Nurmijarvi

The Perttula executions, also known as the "Perttula Blood Weddings", took place during the

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christian holiday which takes place on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers o ...

between May 18 and May 20, 1918 during the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper '' Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil ...

, when

Finnish Whites The Whites ( fi, Valkoiset, ; sv, De vita; rus, links=1, Белофи́нны, Belofínny, bʲɪɫɐˈfʲinɨ), or White Finland, was the name used to refer to the refugee government and forces under Pehr Evind Svinhufvud's first senate who op ...

shot about 30-40 Finnish Reds or suspected

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

. The executions took place in the village of Perttula, Nurmijärvi and were carried out by a battalion of Swedish-speaking Western-Uusimaa partisans of the White Guard. It was led by Swedish

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Edward Ward, with former

Russian Army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces ...

officer Ivar Hast and

Chief of Defense The chief of defence (or head of defence) is the highest ranked commissioned officer of a nation's armed forces. The acronym CHOD is in common use within NATO and the European Union as a generic term for the highest national military position wit ...

Ivar Ståhle as the company commanders. The exact number of executions in Perttula is unknown, but the number of victims is estimated at 29-37. The youngest victim was only 16 years old and there were women among the executed.

References

{{Finland-stub White terror in the Finnish Civil War History of Nurmijärvi May 1918 events 1918 in Finland

See also

References