parliament. The power to enact laws was to be transferred from Saint Petersburg to Helsinki and from the Senate to the parliament. This law would have enabled a purely Social Democratic government to be formed in consequence of the position the party gained in the 1916 election. The Russian Provisional Government refused to approve the law and, with the co-operation of the Finnish bourgeois parties, dissolved the parliament. In the October 1917 election, the Social Democratic Party lost its majority, although it remained the largest party with 92 seats. The Senate now disbanded the People's Militia and established a police force which left-wing and labour activists were not allowed to join. Workers' Order Guards The food shortage launched a large number of agricultural strikes during the summer of 1917. On 13 July, a violent clash between the striking farm workers and their employers occurred in the Western Finnish municipality of Huittinen. The incident is often seen as the beginning of the events which finally led to the Civil War in January 1918. After the Huittinen riot, the right-wing farmers in the Satakunta province started forming Protection Guards and were soon followed in other parts of the country. The labour movement responded by establishing Workers' Order Guards. By the early October, guards were formed in seventeen towns and twenty rural municipalities, mostly in the industrialized areas of the Turku and Pori, Uusimaa and Viipuri provinces. These units had up to 7,000–8,000 men. On 20 October, the Finnish Trade Union Federation urged the party and trade union locals to establishing Workers' Order Guards throughout the country. In the next three weeks, the number of guards increase to 237 with more than 30,000 members. The rules of the Guards were published in the party newspapers. The formation was very similar to a common military organization, though the commander was replaced with a five-men committee. Finland was now split into two camps; the middle and upper classes, including the wealthy farmers, against the working class, poor peasants and the landless people. The first violent incidents between the Protective Guards and the Workers' Order Guards occurred during the general strike in November 1917. More workers were still joining the Order Guards, as the strike ended on 20 November, the number of members was 40,000–50,000. The newspaperman Ali Aaltonen, who had served as a lieutenant in the Imperial Russian Army, was named the first commander-in-chief of