The Finnish term heimosodat is literally "Kindred Nations Wars", "Wars for kindred peoples" or "Kinship Wars" for Finnic kinship. It is often erroneously translated as "Tribal Wars". It refers to conflicts in territories inhabited by other Finnic peoples, often in Russia or in borders of Russia, in which some 9000 Finnish volunteers took part between 1918 and 1922, to help other Finnic peoples get rid of a non-Finnic yoke. Many of the volunteer soldiers were inspired by the idea of Greater Finland. Some of the conflicts were expeditions from Finland and some were risings by the people of these areas, where volunteers wanted either to help the people in their fight for independence or to annex the areas to Finland.

• Estonian War of Independence (1918—1920)
  • Pohjan pojat (Sons of the North) and I Suomalainen Vapaajoukko (I Finnish volunteer corps) helped Estonian troops.
• Viena expedition (1918)
  • Murmansk legion
• Aunus expedition (1919)
• Petsamo expeditions (1918 ja 1920)

• East Karelian Rising or rising of Forest Guerillas (1921 - 1922)
• National revolt of Ingrian Finns (1918-1920)

The phenomenon is closely linked to nationalism as Finland had just won its national independence, and a part of the population felt that they had obligations to help other Finnic peoples to attain the same. Estonia, the closest and numerically biggest kindred nation, had at the same time won its independence, but had less resources and less ready institutions to support its gained position, and more Russian troops inside its borders. Other Finnic peoples were at much lower cultural, economic and political capability level. The relatively small "warring" inside Finland had wakened a huge nationalistic feeling that sought tangible ways to make itself have impact. Finland had, for the two next decades, a relatively high citizen participation in nationalistic activities (e.g Carelia-ideology and also Finnicization of the country and its institutions). Only the strenuous five-year period 1939-45 of total war drained excess enthusiasm.

Glossary

• sota means a war and in this context, mostly something smaller such as border skirmishes, expeditions made by volunteer troops, expulsions of some remnant forces of occupation, and attempts to foment rebellion

• heimo (which often just is a tribe or a clan) also means the ethnic and language kinship between Finnic peoples - "they are clan to each others", so heimo in this context means "kindred peoples"

• sukukansa means another people who are linguistically/ethnically kin to the people from whose viewpoint they are "suku" (= related by blood)

See also

• List of Finnish wars

History of Finland

Heimosodat