Editing Espoo (section)

==== Red Espoo ====
At the start of the Civil War in January 1918, the [[Red Guards (Finland)|Red Guards]] took control of Espoo. There were no actual battles between the Reds and the Whites during the revolution, as Espoo was in practice already under Red control.<ref name="kouvola"/>{{rp|57}} Municipal power was transferred from the municipal council and the municipal board to a social democratic municipal organisation. The Reds took control without bloodshed and strengthened their position by sending patrols all around Espoo to confiscate any weapons found in the houses they visited.<ref name="kouvola"/>{{rp|45}}

By order from the [[Finnish People's Delegation]], a revolutionary court was founded in Espoo, with the Kauklahti-based worker Aleksi Aronen serving as its judge. The court sessions were held in Villa Odenwald in [[Kauniainen]]. Most of the sentences given by the court were prison sentences or fines. In addition, the Red Guard in Leppävaara had its own comrade court. The general staff of the Red Guard in Uusimaa had installed a [[curfew]] forbidding going outside after nine o'clock in the evening. Meetings were held in workers' houses assembling lists to provide support for the Red Guards. Patrols consisting of young men looking for food and weapons could take justice in their own hands in the typical form of red terror.<ref name="kouvola"/>{{rp|46}} In the spring, the Reds killed nine people in Espoo, of which six were civilians. Rumours of these acts of violence spread out, spreading fear among the people. Many people saw the municipal rule of the Reds as a reign of terror.<ref name="kouvola"/>{{rp|47}}

During the Civil War, many bourgeois people in Espoo, whom the Reds in power saw as a threat, fled to neighbouring municipalities, hidden cabins in the archipelago or forests in northern Espoo. For example, Hans Heimbürger, the speaker of the Espoo municipal council, fled to [[Degerö, Ingå|Degerö]] in [[Ingå]] in January together with his family. Two people from Espoo are said to have fled into caves to flee from the Red power.<ref name="kouvola"/>{{rp|58}}