Editing Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (section)

===The White General and the Regent of Finland===
<!--- [[File:Mannerheim In Victory Parade 1918.png|thumb|Mannerheim leading the victory parade at the end of the Finnish Civil War in Helsinki, 1918.]]--->
[[File:Mannerheim, Lilius, Kekoni, Gallen-Kallela, Rosenbröijer.jpg|thumb|Mannerheim as Regent (seated), with his adjutants (left) Lt. Col. [[Lilius]], Capt. Kekoni, Lt. [[Akseli Gallen-Kallela|Gallen-Kallela]], Ensign [[List of Finnish noble families|Rosenbröijer]].]]
{{See also|Finnish Civil War}}

In [[December 1917]], [[Finnish Declaration of Independence|Finland declared independence]] from [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] which was ruled by the [[Bolsheviks]] after they overthrew the Provisional Government in the [[October Revolution]]. The Soviets accepted the secession for a variety of reasons, mostly because they could not control Finland; also, they hoped they could inspire a communist revolution there modeled after the Russian one. The Finnish parliament appointed [[P. E. Svinhufvud]] to lead the newly independent grand duchy's [[interregnum]] government. In January 1918, a military committee was charged with bolstering the Finnish army, then not much more than some locally organised [[White Guard (Finland)|White Guards]]. Mannerheim was appointed to the committee, but soon resigned to protest its indecision. On 13 January, he was given command of the army.{{sfnp|Screen|2000|page=9}} He had only 24,000 newly enlisted, mostly untrained men. The Finnish [[Red Guard (Finland)|Red Guard]], led by communist leader [[Kullervo Manner]] and backed by Soviet Russia, had 30,000 men; and there were 70,000 Red Russian troops in Finland. Mannerheim's army was financed by a fifteen million mark line of credit provided by the bankers. His raw recruits had few arms. Nonetheless, he marched them to [[Vaasa]], which was garrisoned by 42,500 Red Russians.{{sfnp|Mannerheim|1953|page=138}} He surrounded the Russian garrison with a mass of men; the defenders could not see that only the front rank was armed, so they surrendered, providing badly needed arms. Further weapons were purchased from Germany. Eighty-four Swedish officers and 200 Swedish NCOs served in the [[Finnish Civil War]] (or War of Liberty, as it was known among the "Whites"). Other officers were Finns who had been trained by the Germans as a [[27th Jäger Battalion (Finland)|Jäger Battalion]]. In March 1918 they were aided by German troops landing in Finland and occupying [[Helsinki]].

[[File:Establishment of the Finnish Defence Forces with day order no 1.jpg|left|thumb|Mannerheim's Day Order No. 1 which established the first headquarters of the modern military of Finland on 2 February 1918]]
After the Whites' victory in the bitterly fought [[Finnish Civil War|civil war]], during which both sides employed ruthless terror tactics, Mannerheim resigned as commander-in-chief. He left Finland in June 1918 to visit relatives in Sweden.{{sfnp|Mannerheim|1953|page=184}} In Stockholm, Mannerheim conferred with Allied diplomats, emphasizing his opposition to the Finnish government's policy; Finnish leaders were confident the Germans would win the war, and had declared the Kaiser's brother-in-law, [[Frederick Charles of Hesse]], to be the King of Finland. In the meantime Svinhufvud served as the first [[Regent]] of the nascent kingdom. Mannerheim's rapport with the Allies was recognized in October 1918 when the Finnish government sent him to Britain and France to attempt to gain Britain's and the United States's recognition of Finland's independence. In December, he was summoned back to Finland; Frederick Charles had renounced the throne, and in his stead, Mannerheim had been elected Regent. As Regent, Mannerheim often signed official documents using ''Kustaa'', the Finnish form of his Christian name, to emphasize his Finnishness to those who were suspicious of his background in the Russian armed forces and his difficulties with the Finnish language.{{sfnp|Jägerskiöld|1986}} Mannerheim disliked his last Christian name, Emil, and wrote his signature as C. G. Mannerheim, or simply Mannerheim. Among his relatives and close friends Mannerheim was called Gustaf.{{sfnp|Meri|1990|page=104}}

[[File:The victory parade of the White Army 1918.jpg|thumb|General Mannerheim leading the [[White Victory Parade]] in Helsinki, 16 May 1918]]
Mannerheim secured recognition of Finnish independence from Britain and the United States. In July 1919, after he had confirmed a new, [[Republicanism|republican]] constitution, Mannerheim stood as a candidate in [[1919 Finnish presidential election|the first presidential election]], with parliament as the electors. He was supported by the [[National Coalition Party]] and the [[Swedish People's Party (Finland)|Swedish People's Party]]. He finished second to [[Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg]], and withdrew from public life.<ref name="Putensen"/>

====Language skills====
Mannerheim's mother tongue was [[Swedish language|Swedish]]. He spoke fluent [[German language|German]], [[French language|French]], and [[Russian language|Russian]], the last of which he learned in the forces of the [[Russian Imperial Army]]. He also spoke some English, [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Latin language|Latin]], and [[Chinese language|Chinese]].{{sfnp|Jägerskiöld|1986}} He did not start learning [[Finnish language|Finnish]] properly until after [[Independence of Finland|Finland's independence]].<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Koivunen, Elina |title=Carl Gustaf Mannerheim – Suomen historian myyttisin mies |magazine=[[Kotiliesi]] |pages=82–85 |number=12  |date=15 June 2010 |issn=0023-4281 |language=fi}}</ref>