to Eero Haapalainen, with the Russian colonel Mikhail Svechnikov as his military advisor from the end of February. Haapalainen was expelled on 20 March and replaced by Eino Rahja, Adolf Taimi and Evert Eloranta. The troika stayed at the office until 10 April, when Kullervo Manner was given the dictator's rights as head of the Red Government and the Red Guards. August Wesley served as the chief of the Red Guards general staff from 16 February to 6 April. On 25 April, Manner fled to Soviet Russia, and for the last ten days of the war, there was no commander-in-chief. The final major battle was fought in Vyborg under the command of Edvard Gylling and Oskar Rantala. Size Due to incomplete and destroyed records, the exact number of men who served in the Red Guards is unknown. Historians provide estimates between 80,000 and 100,000 men. As the war started, the number was about 40,000, but by the end of the war, the total strength rose to 80,000–100,000 men and women, including 2,600 female fighters and thousands of women in the unarmed maintenance units. Approximately 40,000 were at the front at any one time. The largest single unit was the Helsinki Red Guard with a strength of 8,000–10,000 men and women. Other major units were the Red Guards of Tampere and Vyborg and the Saint Petersburg Finnish Red Guard. The Female Guards had about 2,000–2,600 members. Russian participation remained low, although 40,000 soldiers of the Imperial Russian Army and the Baltic Fleet were still in Finland. Only a few hundred joined the Red Guards, including a few dozen officers. Most of the Russian troops simply wanted to leave the country and return home. In addition to the Finland-based troops, the Saint Petersburg Bolsheviks supported the Reds in some battles on the Karelian Front. Organization The Red Guards were composed of industrial workers, landless rural workers and crofters. Most of them were members of the Finnish Trade Union Federation. The number of middle-class people was very small. The average age was between 20 and 30, the youngest fighters were only 15 to 16-years-old. The Red military units consisted of infantry, artillery and a small unit of cavalry. Weapons and other equipment were mostly received from the Russian troops. In the beginning of February, a train commanded by Jukka Rahja arrived from Saint Petersburg, carrying a cargo of 15,000 rifles, machine-guns, artillery pieces