Head of the Finnish Senate who declared independence and sought German intervention in the civil war
On hearing of the February Revolution in his Siberian exile at Tomsk, he walked to the police station and announced, 'The person who sent me here has been arrested. Now I'm going home.'
Head of the Senate that declared Finland's independence in December 1917, he led the White government in the civil war of 1918 and sought German intervention. He was president from 1931 to 1937.
Career timeline
- 1894Began Diet work as representative of the Estate of Nobles
- 1907–1912Speaker of the Finnish Parliament
- 1914–1917Exiled to Tomsk for resisting Russification
- 1917–1918Chairman of the Senate (first head of government)
- 1918Regent (head of state)
- 1930–1931Prime Minister of Finland
- 1931–1937President of Finland
Jurist who shaped Finland’s republican constitution and, as its first president, sought to reconcile the defeated Reds
Born in Suomussalmi in 1865, he was a jurist and a constitutionalist of the Young Finnish Party who resisted Russification by legal means. He was senator for trade and industry in the Mechelin Senate in 1905–1907, professor of administrative law at the University of Helsinki in 1908–1918 and Speaker of Parliament in 1914. As chairman of the Constitutional Council from 1917 he led the drafting of the republican constitution, and in 1918 he backed a republic against the constitutional monarchy favoured by the victors of the civil war. Elected the first president by Parliament in July 1919, defeating Mannerheim by 143 votes to 50, he favoured peace with Soviet Russia, pardoned most of the Red prisoners and ratified the Treaty of Tartu. He did not seek re-election in 1925, was kidnapped by Lapua Movement activists in 1930 and died in 1952.
Career timeline
- 1905–1907Senator for trade and industry in the Mechelin Senate
- 1908–1918Professor of Administrative Law, University of Helsinki
- 1914Speaker of the Parliament of Finland
- 1917–1918Chairman of the Constitutional Council
- 1918First President of the Supreme Administrative Court
- 1919–1925First President of Finland
Aristocratic soldier who rose from Russian Imperial lieutenant general to Marshal of Finland, facing the Soviet Union in two wars
"Forts, cannons and foreign aid will not help unless every man himself knows that he is the guard of his country."
A Swedish-speaking Finnish aristocrat who served 30 years in the Imperial Russian Army, rising to lieutenant general through the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War. In the 1918 Finnish Civil War he commanded the White Army to victory, then as regent consolidated Finland's independence, telling the London Times that 'the historic mission of Finland is to drive Bolshevism out.' As commander-in-chief in the Winter War and Continuation War, he led outnumbered Finnish forces against the Soviet Union, fighting alongside Nazi Germany but refusing to assault Leningrad. Elected president in 1944, he concluded peace with the USSR and expelled German forces in the Lapland War, leaving Finland the only Eastern European nation to escape occupation.
Career timeline
- 1889–1917Cavalry officer, Imperial Russian Army; retired as lieutenant general, 1917
- 1918Commander-in-chief, White Army; led victory in Finnish Civil War
- 1918–1919Regent of Finland (head of state)
- 1931–1939Chairman, Finnish Defence Council
- 1939–1944Commander-in-chief, Finnish Defence Forces (Winter War & Continuation War)
- 1944–19466th President of the Republic of Finland
A historian who linked scholarship with social democracy
In Moscow in 1940, he signed the peace treaty that ended the Winter War.
Väinö Voionmaa was a Finnish historian, professor and Social Democratic politician who helped shape the early republic. He founded institutions for workers’ education and joined scholarship to popular political work through parliament, diplomacy and social policy. As a Social Democratic member of Finland’s delegation to the Moscow Peace Treaty negotiations in 1940, he signed the settlement that ended the Winter War, embodying the difficult compromises imposed on Finland between war and great-power politics.
Career timeline
- 1894Earned a doctorate in history at the University of Helsinki
- 1903–1918Docent in Nordic history at the University of Helsinki
- 1917Member of the economic division of the Tokoi Senate and head of the transport commission
- 1919–1947Social Democratic member of the Parliament of Finland
- 1920Member of Finland’s delegation to the Tartu peace negotiations
- 1926–1927Minister for Foreign Affairs
- 1937–1939Minister of Trade and Industry, acting Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1938
- 1940Finnish delegate and signatory to the Moscow Peace Treaty
