Finnish socialist who was Red Finland’s commissar of finance and later headed the government of Soviet Karelia
Born in Kuopio in 1881, the statistician and economist took his doctorate in 1909 with a thesis on crofting and became the Social Democrats’ agrarian expert. He sat in the Diet for the party from 1908 to 1917, was its vice chairman, and in November 1917 co-wrote “We demand” with Kuusinen. In the civil war he was Commissar of Finance of the People’s Delegation, led the talks for the 1 March treaty with Soviet Russia and signed it, and organised the defence of Viipuri at the end. Escaping to Sweden, he headed the Stockholm bureau of the Communist Party of Finland and in 1920 reported to Lenin on Karelian autonomy. As chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of Soviet Karelia in 1923–1935 he pursued Finnicisation, was condemned for “nationalist chauvinism” and removed, and was shot in Moscow in 1938.
Also known as: Edvard Otto Vilhelm Gylling
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1905Editor-in-chief of the Marxist journal Sosialistinen aikakausilehti
- 1908–1917Social Democratic member of the Diet; party vice chairman
- 1918Commissar of Finance, Finnish People’s Delegation
- 1918–1920Head of the Stockholm bureau of the Communist Party of Finland
- 1920–1923Leading the Karelian Workers’ Commune
- 1923–1935Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Karelian ASSR