Henrik Meinander, Mannerheim: Marshal of Finland

 I didn't know a great deal about Mannerheim before this, but was intrigued why someone with a German name was the hero of Finnish independence. His story was even more intriguing - a german descended, Swedish-speaking member of the Finnish aristocracy whose first loyalty was to Tsarist Russia. He never learn to speak Finnish properly and was primarily motivated by restoring the Tsar and fighting communism - Finnish independence seems to have been an incidental by-product for him, however airbrushed this was later to present him as a Finnish patriot. An incredible figure though  - a spy in central Asia, the last of the great cavalry officers, a cunning geopolitician and the shaper of the Finnish state. I bored Helen by talking about him until she made me stop.