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Sparring Partner For Russia . . . THE MEMOIRS OF MARSHAL MANNERHEIM -Translated by Count Eric Lewenhaupt, 450 pages. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1954. $6.75.
Finland as an independent nation is relatively young, having taken the opportunity to transform itself from a Russian Arch Duchy into a free republic during the Bolshevik Revolution. The transformation itself was not easy and during the intervening 37 years Russia has indicated that the separation does not please her. Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia all declared their independence from Russia during the same period Finland fought for hers. Only Finland continues to remain free of Russian domination. That is due principally to the tought fibre of the freedom-loving Finns, and also to the skill and determination of Marshal Baron Carl Gustav Mannerheim.
Mannerheim, who died in Switzerland in 1950, was not a firebrand in the Finnish desire for independence. One gathers from his memoirs that he was quite content for Finland to remain a part of the Russian Empire, but once the Bolshevik Revolution began and some Finnish leaders hoisted the flag of independence Mannerheim thenceforth vigorously opposed all efforts to reincorporate his native land into a Russian possession.
Born into the Finnish nobility, Baron Mannerheim became a member of the crack Chevalier Guards whose...