Battle of Vyborg

Battle of Vyborg
Part of the Finnish Civil War
Captured Reds in Vyborg.
Date 24–29 April 1918 Location Vyborg, Finland Result Decisive White victory
Belligerents
Finnish Whites	Finnish Reds
Commanders and leaders
Ernst Löfström K. F. Wilkman Aarne Sihvo Eduard Ausfeld	Oskar Rantala Edvard Gylling Kullervo Manner Mikhail Svechnikov
Strength
18,500	5,000 in combat units
Casualties and losses
ca. 400 killed	ca. 500 killed in action ca. 800 executed 11,350 captured

The Battle of Vyborg was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought 24–29 April between the Finnish Whites against the Finnish Reds in Vyborg. Together with the Battle of Tampere and Battle of Helsinki, it was one of the three major urban battles of the Finnish Civil War. The battle is also remembered because of its bloody aftermath, as the Whites executed up to 400 non-aligned military personnel and civilians of Russian and associated ethnicities in an effort to kill all of the suspected Red Guards.

At the time of the Finnish Civil War, Vyborg was the second-largest city in Finland, with about 80,000 people. The surrounding Viipuri Province was the largest Finnish province with a population of 540,000. Vyborg was also the most multicultural city in Finland with a large minority of Russians and smaller minorities of Swedes, Germans, Tatars and Jews. Its location at the Karelian Isthmus near the Russian capital Saint Petersburg made the city an important center of transport and trade. During the Civil War, Vyborg was under Red control from its beginning in late January. Since 9 April, Vyborg was the capital of Red Finland as the Red Government and the Red Guard general staff left Helsinki.

The White Army formed a new unit for the offensive. The 18,300-men-strong Eastern Army (Itäarmeija) was under the command of the former Savo Division leader general major Ernst Löfström. It was composed of three regiments; the Western Unit was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Aarne Sihvo, the Northern by General Major Karl Fredrik Wilkman and the Eastern by the German Colonel Eduard Ausfeld.

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