Wie viel Prozent der Soldaten waren tatsächlich Finnen? Ich habe viel über diesen Krieg gelesen und für mich sah es so aus, als ob jede Infanterieeinheit schwedisch war oder zumindest schwedische Anführer hatte. Ich habe nirgendwo auf der Wikipedia oder in irgendeinem Kampf-Wiki eine einzige finnische Division erwähnt. Die einzigen finnischen Truppen, die den Anschein erweckten, als wären sie aktiv an den Schlachten beteiligt, war die finnische Artilleriedivision. Und bei der Belagerung von Sveaborg waren 200 finnische Bauern dabei, aber das ist auch schon alles. Kann mir das jemand klären?
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1q19qex
Von ProfessionalLevel908
7 Kommentare
Most finnish peasants did not have a surname at those times. So when they were drafted, they were given a swedish surname. Since the army command was swedish.
https://preview.redd.it/yuyxr01pxrag1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2dc85a166a37486448ae9969b25ffbbed36d64d3
1808: 13k finns and 8k swedes 1809: just says 36k
The Finnish Wikipedia says that in 1808 there were 13,000 Swedish and 8,000 Finnish troops. The total number of soldiers was 36،000 by the next year.
Probably most of the soldiers were Finnish. Commanders were often Swedish.
The Finnish-language article on Wikipedia has a lot more information, for starters (for obvious reasons) [https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomen_sota](https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomen_sota)
and there is also a separate article detailing the units involved:
[https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luettelo_Suomen_sodan_joukoista](https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luettelo_Suomen_sodan_joukoista)
The Swedish side had about 13,000 Finnish soldiers and 8,000 Swedish soldiers at the start of the war in 1808. The units were for the most part named after Finnish regions (Savo, Ostrobothnia, Uusimaa, Häme) or towns (Turku, Pori). Generally speaking they drew their recruits from the regions/towns whose names they bore. Some of these attained near-legendary status, thanks in part to the poetry collection by J.L. Runeberg extolling the heroics of Finnish soldiers in the war (*Fänrik Ståls sägner*, ‚Tales of Ensign Stål‘). The *March of the Pori Regiment* was adopted as the honour march for the President of Finland in the late 20th century.
The officers in the war of 1808-1809 were for the large part Swedish, and even those who were Finnish often had Swedish names, so on the face of it is difficult to tell who is Finnish and who is Swedish unless you just know which families were from where.
https://preview.redd.it/9jlaumz40sag1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07eea761e25206343841d7514ef4931715ff6880
How did you manage not to stumble upon this painting? Björneborgarnas marsch/Porilaisten marssi by Albert Edelfelt.
If you find one picture of the Finnish War, it’s probably this one. Inspired by a song by our national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg. He made Porin läänin jalkaväkirykmentti/Björneborgs läns infanteriregemente kind of superfamous. If you know of one unit that participated in the war, it’s probably this one. Even though it may not have been the most significant.
I’d imagine the companies were named after their commanders, so there would be many Swediah noble names and very few Finnish peasant names.