Head of Finland's 1918 Red revolutionary government, who later led the exiled Communist Party and served the Comintern
In July 1917, as Manner cried 'To free Finland!', the Eduskunta passed the Supreme Power Act and the gallery answered with the Finnish national anthem.
Finnish socialist revolutionary who led Finland's 1918 Red government as chairman of the People's Delegation. After the civil war's defeat, he fled to Soviet Russia, co-founded the Finnish Communist Party, and led it for fourteen years while serving on the Comintern executive committee.
Career Timeline
- 1900Graduated from Helsinki University; journalist at Porvoo newspaper
- 1906Joined SDP; founded and edited the workers' paper Työläinen
- 1910–1914, 1917Member of Parliament for Uusimaa
- 1917Speaker of Parliament and chairman of the SDP
- 1918.01–04Chairman of the Finnish People's Delegation (head of the Red government); also Commander-in-Chief of the Red Guards from April
- 1918.08Co-founded the Finnish Communist Party (SKP) in Moscow
- 1920–1934Chairman of the SKP; member of the ECCI (elected 1920, 1928)
- 1934–1935Reassigned as Comintern rapporteur for Latin American affairs
- 1935–1939Arrested, sentenced to 10 years; died in the Ukhta-Pechora camp
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionHead of the Finnish Red GovernmentDuring the 1918 Finnish Civil War he led the Red government as Chairman of the People's Delegation, and from April also served as Commander-in-Chief of the Red Guards with dictatorial powers. After defeat, he fled to Soviet Russia and co-founded the Finnish Communist Party in Moscow.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeCamp victimA co-founder and former leader of the Finnish Communist Party, he was arrested in 1935 and died in the Ukhta-Pechora camp in 1939.
The 1917 Power Act and Speakership
When the February Revolution weakened the Russian Empire's grip in 1917, Finland plunged into a constitutional struggle over the locus of supreme power. In April the Social Democratic majority in parliament (103 of 200 seats) elected Manner as Speaker, and in June the party congress made him SDP chairman. On 18 July, with Manner presiding, parliament passed the so-called "Power Act" (valtalaki), a law transferring the prerogatives of the Emperor-Grand Duke, except for foreign policy and military affairs, to the Finnish parliament. It was a bold measure verging on a declaration of sovereignty.
But the Bolsheviks' July uprising failed, and the Russian Provisional Government counterattacked, ordering the dissolution of the Finnish parliament on 31 July. Manner declared the dissolution illegal, refused to read out the decree, and, on the unanimous decision of the SDP caucus, summoned parliament to convene on 29 August. Russian gendarmes blocked the assembly hall, so the deputies moved to the House of the Estates and voted to invalidate the dissolution. Manner attempted another convocation in September, but it was little more than a symbolic gesture. In the October elections imposed by the Provisional Government, the SDP lost its majority, winning only 92 seats.
This defeat marked a political turning point for Manner. He regarded the conservative victory as fraudulent, insisted that the "Manner Parliament" remained the sole legitimate legislature, and began to turn from parliamentarism toward revolution. Three months later, in January 1918, he would enter the civil war as the head of Red Finland's government.