Paavo Talvela

Paavo Juho Talvela was a Finnish soldier and a Knight of the Mannerheim Cross. He volunteered in the Jäger Movement in Germany from 1916 until 1917. He was then a battalion commander in the Finnish Civil War. Afterwards Talvela was promoted to the rank of major, and was at the time the youngest major in Finland. In accordance with his nationalistic views, Talvela temporarily resigned from the Finnish Army to act as a leading figurehead for the Kinship Wars of the 1920s. He served as the Commander in Chief of the 1919 Aunus expedition.