“Uncle Gustav is here again”, was the message from Mikkeli to the front when the Continuation War broke out. The commander-in-chief, Marshal C G E Mannerheim, was a familiar sight in Mikkeli, as he often walked from the Headquarters to the Mikkeli Klubi for lunch.
The Headquarters statue, made by sculptor Kalervo Kallio and completed in 1967, brings together Mannerheim as the commander-in-chief, the Headquarters, and the experiences of the residents of Mikkeli in regard to their commander-in-chief during the war.
Nowadays, the Mannerheim statue can be found striding across Hallitustori square in Mikkeli, where the client and the sculptor had intended it to be. For the first 36 years of its existence, the statue was to be found wandering along the more remote Suur-Savon/Marskin aukio square, until it was moved in 2003.
