Kustaa Adolf Simonpoika Rovio (23 January 1887 in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

– 21 April 1938) also known as Gustav Ravelin, was a Finnish

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

politician and was the First Secretary of the Karelian Communist Party. Rovio was executed during the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

. He was also the head of the Helsingfors (Helsinki) Police.

Biography

Kustaa Rovio was born in a Russian-speaking Finnish family from the

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

(Saint Petersburg) area. At the age of 12, he began working as a delivery boy in workshops, then as a turner at the Atlas plant, and began attending Marxist circles. In 1905, he took part in the procession to the

Winter Palace The Winter Palace is a palace in Saint Petersburg that served as the official residence of the House of Romanov, previous emperors, from 1732 to 1917. The palace and its precincts now house the Hermitage Museum. The floor area is 233,345 square ...

. In December 1905, he joined the

RSDLP The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire. The ...

. In 1907, he was arrested and exiled to

Vologda Vologda (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda (river), Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. Population: The city serves as ...

, from where he fled. In 1910, he was arrested again and exiled to Tula. He then fled to Finland and became a member of the

Social Democratic Party of Finland The Social Democratic Party of Finland ( , SDP, nicknamed: ''demarit'' in Finnish; , SD) is a social democratic political party in Finland. It is the third-largest party in the Parliament of Finland with a total of 43 seats. Founded in 1899 as ...

. From 1913 to 1915, he worked as the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Social Democratic Youth Union of Finland. During the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

, he was nominated to the post of chief of police of

Helsingfors Helsinki () is the capital and most populous city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipality, with million in the capital region and ...

(Helsinki). Rovio sheltered

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

in his apartment at 1 Hakaniemi Square, in the north of Helsingfors from 10 August 1917. Lenin demanded Rovio to procure Russian newspapers every day and arrange the secret delivery of letters back to his party comrades. After

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...

, Rovio fled to Russia and rose to political prominence in Karelia. From 1920 to 1926, he was Commissar of the Petrograd International Military School and Vice-rector of the

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

branch of the Communist University of the National Minorities of the West. He also participated in the suppression of the

Kronstadt rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion () was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors, Marines, naval infantry, and civilians against the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik government in the Russian port city of Kronstadt. Located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, ...

and the Karelian uprising. From 1929, Rovio was the first secretary of the Karelian communist party for six years and was the chief party figure in Soviet Karelia. He demanded for Finnish to be made the second state language, alongside Russian. In August 1935, Rovio was removed as party secretary. After losing his positions, he left Karelia and was permitted to live in Moscow. He was arrested in the July 1937 and was accused of being a traitor and an agent of German-Finnish fascism. Rovio's fate remained a mystery until 2002 when documents were released to the Memorial Society from the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. On April 19, 1938, Rovio's execution by shooting was approved and he was shot at

Kommunarka shooting ground The Kommunarka firing range (), former dacha of secret police chief Genrikh Yagoda, was used as a burial ground from 1937 to 1941. Executions may have been carried out there by the NKVD during the Great Terror and until the war started; altern ...

on 21 April.

References

External links

Letter from Lenin to Rovio
1887 births 1938 deaths Politicians from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Old Bolsheviks Social Democratic Party of Finland politicians Communist Party of Finland politicians People of the Finnish Civil War (Red side) Finnish emigrants to the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Finland Residents of the Benois House Executed communists {{Finland-bio-stub