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The Aunus expedition (; ) was an attempt by Finland volunteers to occupy parts of East Karelia in 1919, during the Russian Civil War. Aunus is the Finnish name for Olonets Karelia. This expedition was one of many Finnic "kinship wars" ( heimosodat) fought against forces of Soviet Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and during the Russian Civil War.
Earlier attempts in 1918 to Petsamo and White Karelia (Viena expedition) had failed, partly due to a passive attitude of the Karelians. Later the United Kingdom occupied White Karelia.
During the summer of 1918, the government of Finland received various appeals from East Karelia for joining the area to Finland. Especially active were the inhabitants of the parish of Repola, which had held a vote to join Finland. The Finnish Army occupied the parish in the fall of 1918. In January 1919 a small expedition of volunteers occupied the parish of Porajärvi, but was quickly repulsed by Bolshevik forces. Porajärvi held a vote on January 7 to also join Finland.
In February 1919 Mannerheim made clear to the Western powers and the White Army that Finland would attack the Bolsheviks in Saint Petersburg if it would receive material and moral support. During the same time the plans for the Aunus expedition were prepared and Jaeger-Major Gunnar von Hertzen was chosen as the commander of the troops. He thought that the expedition would succeed with a thousand Finnish volunteers, but only if the Karelians would join the fighting. Mannerheim approved the plan, but demanded that Britain would also have to approve of it before it could proceed.
On May 15, 1918, as the Olonets Government of Southern Karelia would be founded following Finland's declaration of war on Soviet Russia.
Following the capture of Olonets on April 23, 1919, the Olonets Government of Southern Karelia was renamed to the Provisional Caretaker Government of Olonets.
Major Paavo Talvela's regiment started an attack aimed at Petrozavodsk on June 20, but was beaten by Red Army and Finnish Red Guard forces just outside the town. The British troops that operated along the Murmansk railroad were quite close by, but did not participate.
The Finns had hoped that the Karelian population would have joined the troops as volunteers but only a few did and their morale was never very high.
The initiative now passed to the Bolsheviks. On June 26 over 600 Finns of the Red Officer School in Saint Petersburg made a landing at Vitele across Lake Ladoga behind the Finnish lines. The southern group was forced to retreat to Finland after suffering heavy losses. Talvela's group was also forced to retreat back to Finland.
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