Mannerheim, Carl Gustaf Emil

(1867 –1951) was a Finnish military leader and statesman. Mannerheim made a career in the Imperial Russian Army. After the Bolshevik revolution, Finland declared its independence but was soon embroiled in civil war between the pro-Bolshevik “Reds” and the “Whites”, being the troops of the Senate of Finland, supported by troops of the German Empire. Mannerheim became the military chief of the Whites. Twenty years later, when Finland was twice at war with the Soviet Union from 1939 until 1944, Mannerheim successfully led the defence of Finland as commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces. In 1944, when the prospect of Germany’s defeat in World War II became clear, Mannerheim was elected President of Finland and oversaw peace negotiations with the Soviet Union and the UK. He resigned the presidency in 1946 and died in 1951. Given the broad recognition in Finland and elsewhere of his unparalleled role in establishing and later preserving Finland’s independence from the Soviet Union, Mannerheim has long been referred to as the father of modern Finland.
(source: Wikipedia)