Verna Erikson

Verna Erikson (1893–1918) is a Finnish woman whose picture, taken when she was a weapon smuggler (shown on the right) was an icon of White Finland.^[1] This picture was taken in the spring of 1918, in the middle of the Finnish Civil War, when Erikson was a student at the Helsinki University of Technology.^[1] It was published on the cover of the weekly magazine Suomen Kuvalehti on June 15, 1918.^[1] The caption to the image declared, "One of the finest protectresses of the Helsinki White Guard. Miss E., a student at the University of Technology, bearing three bandoliers and a large pistol. Altogether Miss E. is carrying some 1,350 bullets strapped to her person."^[1]

Erikson was given the Order of the Cross of Liberty in 1918, as was her schoolmate, a girl called Salme Setälä; the Cross itself had been founded that year on the initiative of General C.G. Mannerheim.^[2][3]

Erikson died of cancer in 1918.^[2] She did not have time to go to the doctor when she first began feeling pain under her arms, and by the time she went she had a very advanced sarcoma.^[2] She is buried in Hietaniemi Cemetery in Finland.^[2]

The Finnish Civil War ended in 1918 with the White victory over the Reds, aided by the Germans.^[4]

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