User:Petri Krohn/Lappeenranta mass executions

Lappeenranta mass executions refers to one or possibly two massacres that happened in the town of Lappeenranta in South-Eastern Finland in 1918 and 1944 respectively. The clamed perpetrators in both instances were the same, being the White Guard in Lappeenranta headed by judge Toivo Tapanainen.

1944 massacre
The Soviet fourth strategic offensive in the summer of 1944 during the Continuation War caused the collapse of Finnish defences in the Karelian Isthmus and the loss of the mediaval city of Viipuri (Vyborg) on June 20. This resulted in panic and large scale desertion in the Finnish troops. The Finnish parliament responded by tightening the law on desertion. After 4 July 1944, it was possible to convict deserters to the death penalty and a total of 46 deserters were legally convicted and executed.