Battle of Rautu

Battle of Rautu
Part of the Finnish Civil War in the Russian Civil War and Eastern Front of World War I
Rautu railway station on fire
Date 21 February – 5 April 1918 (1 month, 2 weeks and 1 day) Location Rautu, Finland Result Decisive White victory
Belligerents
Finnish Whites	Finnish Reds Soviet Russia
Commanders and leaders
Aarne Sihvo Ernst Löfström Lennart Oesch	M. V. Prigorovski † Oskar Rantala Arvid Leinonen Heikki Kaljunen
Strength
2,000	2.700 Russians 850 Finnish Reds
Casualties and losses
270 killed	860–1,200 killed in action or executed

Battle of Rautu was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought in Rautu, Finland (now Sosnovo, Leningrad Oblast, Russia) from 21 February to 5 April 1918 between the Finnish Whites and the Finnish Reds supported by the Russian Bolsheviks.

The battle was fought by the Rautu railway station, taken by the Reds in late February and soon sieged by the Whites. After weeks of trench warfare, the Whites launched their decisive attack and finally smashed the Red defense on 5 April. The last two days of the Rautu battle were one of the most fierce of all the Finnish Civil War battles. The battle is known as the massacre in the "Death Valley", where more than 400 fleeing Reds were killed by machine gunfire.^[1]

Unlike any other Finnish Civil War battle, the number of Russian Bolshevik troops was remarkable. The Russian interest is explained by Rautu's location only 60 kilometers north of Saint Petersburg. The Bolsheviks were concerned that the Finnish Whites and their ally Germany would launch an attack against the city along the Rautu railway. The Whites, in turn, were protecting their front on the western side of the Karelian Isthmus.^[1]