Matti Lappalainen

A very large, wide reaching text and pictorial History of Finland's great Military leader, Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim (1867-1951): he played a key role in the uprising that led to Finland breaking away from Imperial-Communist Russia 1918-19 (Reds v Whites) and went on to be an enormous political influence on the development and preservation of an independent democratic Republic of Finland in subsequent upheavals of peace (1919-39) & wartime (Winter War 1939-40 ; Continuation War 1941-44): Elected by Finland's Parliament as Finland's 6th President (Aug. 1944 - March 1946) it was Mannerheim's immense reputation and political acumen that enabled Finland to break-off its alliance with Nazi Germany whilst also persuading Stalin's USSR not to occupy Finland as it had other Baltic states with the end of WW2.
One remarkable anecdote is that the man credited as the 'founder' of modern day Finland never mastered the Finnish language, always preferring Swedish, despite Finnish being spoken by 90% of the popn - not so difficult in the dual-language nation.
Readers new to Mannerheim's life may prefer a more conventional sized biography.… (más)