People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity(set)
Any Political and party leadership 4 Government and administration 8 Legislature and state representation 2 Military command 5 Diplomacy and international organization 3 Economy, finance and planning 2 Industry and production 1 Agriculture and land policy 1 Social movements and organizing 2 Scholarship and theory 2 Law and justice 1
Affiliation

Most people

Any Social Democratic Party of Finland 1

All 1 affiliations

Finland

Social Democratic Party of Finland 1
Position
Any Non-Bolshevik socialists 1 Revolutionary socialism 1
Citizenship(set)
Any Soviet Union 205 Russia 39 France 23 Poland 18 Germany 13 Hungary 11 United States 6 Estonia 5 United Kingdom 5 China 4 Czechoslovakia 4 Romania 4 Belarus 3 Spain 3 Trinidad and Tobago 3 Albania 2 Czechia 2 Democratic People's Republic of Korea 2 Finland 2 Greece 2 Korea 2 South Africa 2 Switzerland 2 Austria 1 Brazil 1 Bulgaria 1 Chile 1 East Germany 1 El Salvador 1 India 1 Latvia 1 Lithuania 1 Madagascar 1 Vietnam 1 Yugoslavia 1
Background
Any Finland 2
Era
Any

People of the wider world

The revolutionary wave and the world war1917–1945 2
Social movements and organizing Citizenship: Finland Clear all

Oskari Tokoi

Oskari Tokoi
Finland state institutions Non-Bolshevik socialists Finland Finland 1873–1963 ○ Natural causes

Finnish labour leader who became the world’s first Social Democratic head of government and then joined the Red government

Born in Kannus in Central Ostrobothnia in 1873, he emigrated to America at 17, worked in the mines and joined the radical Western Federation of Miners. Back in Finland from 1900, he entered Parliament for the Social Democrats in 1907, chaired the Finnish Trade Union Federation in 1912–1917 and was Speaker in 1913. In 1917 he became vice-chairman of the Senate’s economic department, the world’s first social democratic prime minister. In the civil war he was commissar for supply in the People’s Delegation, signed the 1 March treaty with Soviet Russia and fled to Russia after the defeat. In 1919–1920 he advised the British-organised Murmansk Legion, for which the Communist Party of Finland sentenced him to death. From 1922 to 1949 he edited the social democratic paper Raivaaja in the United States, and the 1944 Lex Tokoi cleared him of the civil war charges.

Career timeline
  • 1907–1918Social Democratic member of the Parliament of Finland
  • 1912–1917Chairman of the Finnish Trade Union Federation
  • 1913Speaker of the Parliament of Finland
  • 1917Vice-chairman of the Senate’s economic department (head of government)
  • 1918Commissar for supply, Finnish People’s Delegation
  • 1919–1920Political adviser to the Murmansk Legion
  • 1922–1949Editor of Raivaaja in the United States

Ali Aaltonen

Ali Aaltonen
Social Democratic Party of Finland Revolutionary socialism Finland Finland 1884–1918 ✕ Executed by shooting

Labour journalist and former Russian army officer who became the first commander-in-chief of the Finnish Red Guards

Born in 1884 to a poor land worker’s family in Jämsä, he joined the Russian Army in 1903, served as a lieutenant in the Russo-Japanese War, joined the socialists in the 1905 revolution, and was jailed in Moscow and expelled from the military. Back in Finland he worked for the labour press in Turku, Vyborg and Kotka and as a Social Democratic party official. In October 1917 he organised the Workers’ Order Guards in Helsinki and after the November general strike became their commander-in-chief. In January 1918, despite heavy drinking in Petrograd, he bought a large cargo of guns and ammunition from the Bolsheviks, but on 28 January he was replaced by Eero Haapalainen. He broke out of besieged Tampere on the battle’s last night, was captured near Lahti and was shot at the Hennala camp in May 1918.

Career timeline
  • 1904–1905Lieutenant in the Russian Army in the Russo-Japanese War
  • 1917Organiser of the Workers’ Order Guards in Helsinki
  • 1917–1918First commander-in-chief of the Order Guards and Red Guards
  • 1918Red Guard general staff; staff of the Häme Front