White Guard (Finland) in the context of "C. G. E. Mannerheim"

On October 14, 1930, at approximately 9:00 am EET, former and first President of Finland, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, and his wife, Ester Ståhlberg, were abducted near their home in Helsinki, Finland, by members of the far-right Lapua Movement.

The plan was spearheaded by ex-White Guard general Kurt Martti Wallenius. The kidnappers threatened to execute both hostages if their demands were not met, but were ultimately hesitant to carry out the threat. The pair were taken by car to Joensuu in Eastern Finland, where they were abruptly set free after the kidnappers failed to meet up with other accomplices.

The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition from a grand duchy ruled by the Russian Empire to a fully independent state. The clashes took place in the context of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by World War I (Eastern Front) in Europe. The war was fought between the paramilitary Red Guards, led by a section of the Social Democratic Party with backup of the Russian bolsheviks and the paramilitary White Guards of the senate. General C. G. E. Mannerheim led the White Guards with major assistance by both the Finnish Jäger Battalion trained in Germany and the German Imperial Army, along the German goal to control Fennoscandia and Petrograd of Russia. The Reds composed of industrial and agrarian working class people controlled the cities and industrial centres of southern Finland. The Whites composed of land owners and the middle and upper class people controlled the rural central and northern Finland.

In the years before the conflict, Finland had experienced rapid population growth, industrialisation, gradually increasing urbanisation and the rise of a comprehensive labour movement. The country's political and governmental systems were in an unstable phase of democratisation and modernisation. The socio-economic condition and education of the population had gradually improved, and national awareness and culture had progressed. World War I led to the collapse of the Russian Empire, causing a power vacuum in Finland, and the subsequent struggle for dominance led to militarisation and an escalating crisis between the left-leaning labour movement and the conservatives.

The Mäntsälä rebellion (Finnish: Mäntsälän kapina, Swedish: Mäntsäläupproret) was a failed coup attempt by the Lapua Movement to overthrow the Finnish government.

On 27 February 1932, some 400 armed members of the Civil Guards had interrupted a meeting of Social Democrats in Mäntsälä with small arms fire. This action had been done by a regional sect of the movement, however, the national organization soon joined in. In the next few days, leading members of the Lapua Movement and hundreds of armed members of Civil Guards arrived at Mäntsälä. The former Chief of General Staff Major General Wallenius also joined the leadership of the rebellion. The men refused to disperse and demanded the cabinet's resignation and a change in political course.

Aizsargi (lit. 'Defenders' or 'Guards'; officially – Latvian: Latvijas Aizsargu organizācija, lit. 'Guards Organization of Latvia', or LAO) was a volunteer paramilitary organization, militia with some characteristics of a military reserve force in Latvia during the interbellum period (1918–1939).

The Aizsargi was created on March 30, 1919, by the Latvian Provisional Government as a self-defense force - a kind of National Guard - during the Latvian War of Independence. In 1921, it was reorganized to follow the example of the Finnish Suojeluskunta (known as the "White Guard").