exodus of refugees as tens of thousands of Red Guard fighters, their family members and other Red supporters fled towards the east. As the Germans seized Helsinki on 13 April, up to 8,000 local Reds surrendered. Thousands of others from the Uusimaa province joined the refugee column that was coming from the west. In two weeks, more than 100,000 Red refugees headed east, in order to flee to Soviet Russia. About 12,000 managed to cross the border, while most of the remaining were captured. In late April, up to 30,000 civilians and Red fighters fell into the hands of the German and White troops in Lahti. The captured were first placed at the Fellman camp, and then transferred to various prison camps across the southern Finland. Although most of the women and children were released, 200–600 Red women were executed and hundreds of others moved into other prison camps. The last major battle took place in Vyborg, which the Whites occupied on 29 April. The last remaining Red stronghold was in the Kymenlaakso province where the Reds finally surrendered to the Germans on 6 May. Between 23 March and 18 April, some clashes also occurred in the remote eastern Lapland. The Karelian nationalist Iivo Ahava was fighting against the Whites who launched the Viena expedition in order to annex the Russian White Karelia into the newly independent Finland. Ahava formed a Red Guard unit in the Russian town of Kandalaksha of the Reds who had fled from Lapland. Two other Finnish Red Guards were formed in Knyazhaya Guba and Kem. In the mid-March, these units had up to 2,500 men. Ahava managed to stop the Whites and he was also eager to attack their rear in the northern Finland. However, the Red leaders were not interested in supporting him as they considered that the war would be determined in the populated areas of south. After the War A substantial number of Finnish Red Guards managed to retreat into Russian-held territories after the Whites' victory in Finland. Red Guard units served in the 7th Red Army when it fought in Estonia. There, the Finnish Reds clashed with Finnish White volunteers fighting for the Republic of Estonia. See also Female Red Guards of the Finnish Civil War Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic Red Guard's March References Finnish Civil War Defunct communist militant groups Soviet units and formations of the Russian Civil War