August Wesley
| August Wesley | |
|---|---|
August Wesley in the Finnish Civil War
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| Native name | August Anselm Wesslin |
| Born |
August 3, 1887 Tampere, Grand Duchy of Finland |
| Died | unknown Leningrad, Soviet Union |
| Allegiance |
Red Finland Great Britain Estonia |
| Years of service | 1917–1920 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | |
August Anselm Wesley (born Wesslin); (3 August 1887; last rumoured to be alive 1942) was a Finnish journalist, trade unionist and revolutionary who was the chief of the Red Guards general staff in the 1918 Finnish Civil War. He later served as a lieutenant in the British organized Murmansk Legion and the Estonian Army.
August Anselm Wesslin was born in the industrial town of Tampere and emigrated to the United States in 1904 at the age of seventeen. He was an active member of the Socialist Party of America, working as an speaker among the Finnish-American workers. Wesley studied at the Work People's College in Duluth, Minnesota, where he also worked as a teacher in the mid-1910s. He was a journalist in the Finnish-language daily Industrialisti, which was linked to the Industrial Workers of the World. Wesley held the United States citizenship, but as the country joined World War I in 1917, Wesley returned to Finland to avoid the draft.
Wesley moved to Joensuu, in the remote province of North Karelia, the hometown of his spouse, Fanny Käyhkö (1897–1978). Wesley worked as a district party secretary of the Social Democratic Party. During the 1917 general strike, he was the head of the local strike committee and was soon elected commander of the Joensuu Red Guard. As the civil war started in late January 1918, the White Guards took control in Joensuu. Many of the Reds were captured, but Wesley managed to leave the town. He sneaked across the front line to the Red controlled southern Finland and headed to the capital city of Helsinki. He became the commander of the Helsinki Red Guard, and on 16 February, Wesley was named the chief of the Red Guards general staff, the second highest person in the Red Guards hierarchy.
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