Pork mutiny

The Pork mutiny (Finnish: Läskikapina Swedish: Fläskrevolten) was an incident in Northern Finland in 1922. On February 2 a group of armed Red Guard members crossed the Finnish-Soviet border near Kuolajärvi and Savukoski. They advanced to a logging yard owned by Kemijoki Oy. They arrested the heads of the yard and confiscated the cashbox.

The incident derives its name from the fact that the leader of the Red Guardists, Frans Myyryläinen, stood on a crate that had formerly contained pork when he delivered his speech called the 'Declaration of Battle of the Red Guerrilla Battalion of the North'. After the speech, some 300 workers joined the battalion and were armed and given money. The Battalion then made its way back to the border. On its way, it robbed a group of border guards and other workplaces. On February 7, the battalion, by that time about 240 men, crossed the border back to the Soviet Union. Information of the incident was received at Rovaniemi only on February 5, and the battalion managed to slip away before a group of the White Guard arrived.

See also

• Aunus expedition
• Finnish Civil War
• Heimosodat

Source: O Jussila, S Hentilä and J Nevakivi, From Grand Duchy to Modern State: A Political History of Finland since 1809 (Hurst & Co, London, 1999) p. 140