Frans Evert Eloranta (10 October 1879 – 1936) was a Finnish politician and a Member of the Parliament for the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

in 1908–1918. 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 ...

, Eloranta served as the Minister of Agriculture of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. In March 1918, he was elected 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 ...

as a member of the triumvirate with Eino Rahja and Adolf Taimi. After the war, Eloranta fled to the

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

, where he allegedly died in 1936.

Life

Early years

Frans Evert Tuominen was born in Harjavalta, Satakunta province, as a son of a poor tenant farmer Johan Erland Erlandsson (b. 1852) and Eva Christina Fransdotter (b. 1854). The family lived in several places, finally settling in 1894 in Mynämäki, Finland Proper province. Eloranta worked from the early age and went to a school for only a year. He had jobs as a farm worker, construction worker, stonemason and a lumberjack. Eloranta also had a croft of his own in Karjala, where he joined the local worker's society and the Social Democratic Party. Eloranta soon started working as a speaker and a party district secretary. In the 1908 general election he was elected to the

Parliament of Finland The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral and Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that ...

from the electoral district of Finland Proper. During the era of the

Russification of Finland The policy of Russification of Finland (; ; ) was a governmental policy of the Russian Empire aimed at limiting the special status of the Grand Duchy of Finland and possibly the termination of its political autonomy and cultural uniqueness in 18 ...

, the parliament was often disbanded and Eloranta was elected six times between 1908 and 1917.

The Civil War

As the Finnish Civil War was launched in January 1918, Eloranta was a member of the Social Democratic party secretary. He was now elected to the Finnish People's Delegation, the governmental body of the

Red Finland The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR), more commonly referred to as Red Finland, was a self-proclaimed socialist state in Finland during the Finnish Civil War from January to May 1918. The FSWR was established by the Finnish People's D ...

, and became the ″Delegate for Agriculture″. On 20 March, Eero Haapalainen was expelled from the post of the commander-of-chief of the Red Guards, and replaced by the triumvirate Eloranta, Adolf Taimi and Eino Rahja. They held the office for less than two weeks. After the defeat of the Battle of Tampere, the Red Government and the Red Guards staff fled from the capital

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 ...

to the eastern Finnish town of

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

. The triumvirate was replaced by Kullervo Manner, who was given the dictatorial powers.

Life in the Soviet Union

During the Battle of Vyborg in the end of April, most of the leading Reds fled to the Soviet Russia, where Eloranta soon joined the exile

Communist Party of Finland The Communist Party of Finland (, SKP; ) was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944. The SKP was banned by the state from its founding and did not participate in any elec ...

. Like many Finnish Reds, he entered the Petrograd Red Officer School and 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 1921–1922 Eloranta worked as a librarian in

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. ...

. Later he travelled across the country as a speaker of the

League of Militant Atheists The League of Militant Atheists (), also Society of the Godless () or Union of the Godless (), was an atheism, atheistic and Antireligion, antireligious organization of workers and intelligentsia that developed in Russian Soviet Federative Socia ...

and worked in the 1930s as a carpenter in

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 ...

. Eloranta was granted the Soviet citizenship in 1929. His last years remain unknown, his last letter to his son was sent in 1938, but Eloranta allegedly died in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1936 according to official Soviet sources.

Family

From 1912 to 1924 Evert Eloranta was married with Selma Alexandra Helkiö (1885–1985). He is the grandfather of the prominent Finnish psychiatrist Raisa Cacciatore and the great grandfather of the Social Democratic member of parliament Eeva-Johanna Eloranta.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eloranta, Evert 1879 births 1936 deaths People from Harjavalta Politicians from Turku and Pori Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Finnish atheists Social Democratic Party of Finland politicians Communist Party of Finland politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (1908–1909) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1909–1910) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1910–1911) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1911–1913) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1913–1916) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1916–1917) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1917–1919) Finnish People's Delegation members People of the Finnish Civil War (Red side) Finnish emigrants to Russia People of the Russian Civil War Naturalized citizens of the Soviet Union