40,000 people perished during the Finnish Civil War, 4,000 more than previously estimated, a syndicated newspaper supplement report reveals.
The figures are based on the registry of names of the war dead published by a War Victims' Project led by Academic Professor Heikki Ylikangas.
The registry lists all war victims between 1914 and 1922, most of whom died during actual civil war hostilities in 1918. Estimates of victims among the red forces in 1918 rose by a third.
Parish communion records drawn up in 1919 indicated that only 26,000 perished in the civil war.
Interest in The War Victims' Project has been shown both in Finland and abroad. Enquiries have come, for example, from Russia, Spain, Germany and the Nordic countries.
Professor Ylikangas believes the project will calm traditionally stern and emotional feelings concerning the war which took place in the early days of Finnish independence.
YLE24