People of the Revolution and the USSR

Finland state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1865–1952 ○ Natural causes

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.

Finland state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1879–1943 ○ Natural causes

Finnish forest scientist and statesman who built forest-type theory and led the cabinet on the eve of war

During the Winter War the poorly equipped reservists, sent out with little beyond civilian clothes, a belt and a rifle, were popularly nicknamed 'Model Cajander'. The label stuck to him as premier, though responsibility for the defence shortfalls was not his alone.

Finnish forest scientist and politician. Born in Uusikaupunki, he took a botany doctorate in 1903 based on Siberian fieldwork, became docent in botany at Helsinki in 1904 and professor of silviculture in 1911. Acting director-general of the Forest Board (Metsähallitus) in 1918 and director-general in 1934, he led state forest administration until his death. He was prime minister three times, in 1922, 1924 and 1937, and chaired the National Progressive Party from 1933. He resigned after the Winter War began and died at the Parliament House on 21 January 1943.

Finland state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1889–1956 ○ War-responsibility conviction 1946, pardoned 1949

Finnish president who, as wartime prime minister, negotiated the Moscow Peace Treaty

This trial is a farce. The real prosecutor is not the Finnish state but the government of one superpower, and the real defendant is the Finnish people.

When the Winter War broke out, Risto Ryti became prime minister of Finland and led the legitimate government that the Soviet Union refused to recognize while backing the Terijoki puppet regime; he negotiated the Moscow Peace Treaty in March 1940. A liberal economist and governor of the Bank of Finland, he was elected president and led Finland through the Continuation War in cooperation with Germany, but in 1944 he signed the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement in his personal capacity and resigned, enabling his successor Mannerheim to make peace with the USSR. Convicted to ten years' imprisonment in the post-war war-responsibility trials under Soviet pressure, he was pardoned in 1949 and is remembered in Finland as a leader who sacrificed himself for his country.