Eero Haapalainen ( Russian Эро Эрович Хаапалайнен, ''Ero Erovich Khaapalaynen''; 27 October 1880 – 27 November 1937) was a Finnish politician, trade unionist and journalist, who served as the commander-in-chief of the

Red Guards The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a ...

from January to March 1918 during the

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 ...

. Haapalainen was one of the most prominent figures of the Finnish

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

movement in the early 1900s and the first chairman of the Finnish Trade Union Federation. Haapalainen was appointed commander of Red forces and elected to the Finnish People's Delegation of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic in January until he was removed from both posts by April. Haapalainen fled to Soviet Russia in May 1918 after the Reds' defeat where he joined the exile Communist Party of Finland and was active in Soviet

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

. Haapalainen was arrested and 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 ...

in 1937.

Life

Early years

Eero Haapalainen was born on 27 October 1880 in the town of

Kuopio Kuopio ( , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately , while the Kuopio sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mos ...

in eastern Finland. His father Aaro was a carpenter and the mother, Wilhelmiina Kinnunen, a housewife who earned extra income as a seamstress for the shop of the author and social activist

Minna Canth Minna Canth (; born Ulrika Wilhelmina Johnson; 19 March 1844 – 12 May 1897) was a Finnish writer and social activist. Canth began to write while managing her family draper's shop and living as a widow raising seven children. Her work address ...

. Haapalainen's parents wanted him to become a priest, but after graduating from the Kuopio Lyceum, he studied for two years in a business college and entered the Helsinki University Faculty of Law in 1901. In

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, 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 municipali ...

, he became involved with the

labour movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

and joined the Sawmill Workers' Union and the Social Democratic Party of Finland. In 1904, Haapalainen was not able to finish his studies due to lack of money and left the university. From 1903 to 1906, Haapalainen worked in the Social Democratic newspaper '' Työmies'' in Helsinki, and in 1907 he was the editor of ''Työ'' in Viipuri. Haapalainen was one of the leading Red Guard organizers in Helsinki during the 1905 general strike. A year later, he was the delegate of the Finnish Social Democratic Party at the 4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. In the summer of 1906, Haapalainen represented Finnish Social Democrats in the underground

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

committee planning the Sveaborg rebellion. In April 1907, Haapalainen was elected as the first chairman of the Finnish Trade Union Federation (SAJ) which was founded in the Tampere Workers' Hall. Haapalainen was expelled from the office in 1911 due to his

alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...

. Haapalainen became a writer, publishing and translating several books and articles focusing in trade unionism and

cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

. He also worked as an editor for the SAJ newsletter released monthly. In 1914, he served three months in prison for political agitation.

Finnish Civil War

After the 1917

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 ...

in Russia, the social situation in Finland became restless due to the food shortage and deep unemployment. Haapalainen was one of the most radical persons in the labour movement, openly calling for armed revolution, and organized Red Guards in southern Finland. In October, he became the commander of the Kymi Paper Mill Red Guard in Kuusankoski. A month later, Haapalainen was elected to the five-men committee which was in charge of all Finnish Red Guards. As the

broke out in late January 1918, Haapalainen replaced Ali Aaltonen as the Red Guards' commander-in-chief, even though he did not have any military training. He was also elected to the Finnish People's Delegation (the Red government) as the delegate for "internal affairs," effectively making him the

interior minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

for the Red movement in Finland. As a Red Guard commander, he issued a

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

proclaiming the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic, a

socialist state A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. This article is about states that refer to themselves as socialist states, and not specifically ...

which openly challenged the established Government of Finland. In February, he guaranteed the safe removal for the composer

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his countr ...

from his home Ainola to the capital Helsinki. On 20 March, Haapalainen was removed as commander-in-chief of the Red Guards after a series of defeats. He was replaced by a '' troika'' composed of Eino Rahja, Adolf Taimi and Evert Eloranta. Haapalainen remained a member of the Finnish People's Delegation, but was dismissed in late April when the government had fled to Viipuri. Haapalainen was charged of drunkenness, inappropriate behavior and careless use of firearm. The Viipuri court martial ordered him to the front, but the decision was not implemented as the Red government and most of the Red Guard staff fled to the Soviet Russia in 25 April. Haapalainen and Edvard Gylling were one of the few leading Reds who stayed in Viipuri and organized the city's defense, but the Reds finally surrendered on 29 April. Haapalainen and Gylling avoided being caught and, in May, fled to Petrograd on a motor boat.

Life in the Soviet Union

Haapalainen became one of many prominent communists who fled to Russia after the failed revolutions in Europe. Haapalainen became a member of the

Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

and was also one of the founders of the exile Communist Party of Finland in August 1918. Later in the autumn, he fought in the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

in a unit organized by the Finnish Red Felix Ravelin in Perm. In the summer of 1919, Haapalainen was establishing a nursing home for disabled Finnish Red Guard veterans near

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, but the idea never realized. Haapalainen moved to Petrograd, where he worked as a lecturer in the Red Officer School and served as a political officer in the 6th Finnish Regiment of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. From March to April 1920, Haapalainen fought against the Finnish White Guards in the Russian Civil War. In the summer of 1920, Haapalainen was moved to

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (, ; Karelian language, Karelian, Veps language, Vepsian and ) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population of the city is 280,890 as of 2022. ...

in the

region. He held several posts in the Karelian Workers' Commune but was dismissed in 1923 due to his drinking problem. He was transferred to the town of Kalevala where he worked as an interpreter. In the beginning of 1925, Haapalainen was a member of the Finnish

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

delegation in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He started drinking again and was sent back to Russia in March. As a result, Haapalainen was now expelled from the Communist Party. He moved back to Kalevala, where he worked as a teacher and a newspaperman. From May 1931, his last assignment was the head of the revolution research department in the Karelian Research Institute in Petrozavodsk. In October 1935, he was expelled as a "

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

" in October 1935 and lived as a pensioner.

Death

On 27 October 1937, Haapalainen was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

during the

on charges of being a

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

and a nationalist counterrevolutionary. He was one of many foreign communists in the Soviet Union arrested on false charges due to

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's personal suspicion of them. Reportedly, he was interrogated and tortured by the NKVD but refused to confess to his alleged crimes. On 20 November, Haapalainen was sentenced for 10 years, but a tribunal of Karelian ASSR section of the NKVD sentenced him to death. On 27 November 1937, Haapalainen was shot in Petrozavodsk. Haapalainen was rehabilitated in the Soviet Union during the

de-Stalinization De-Stalinization () comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and Khrushchev Thaw, the thaw brought about by ascension of Nik ...

process in May 1957, four years after the death of Stalin. In the early 1990s, Haapalainen's remains were discovered in a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

at a gravel pit in Petrozavodsk that was used as an execution site by the NKVD. On 30 October 1994, Haapalainen was one of 38 victims of the Great Purge who were reburied at a cemetery in the Zareka district of Petrozavodsk.

References