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The Kuusinen Club Incident (Finnish : Kuusisen klubin murhat) was the murder of eight members of the Finnish Communist Party in the Kuusinen Club (their Petrograd office), on 31 August 1920. [1]
After the ending of the Finnish Civil War in 1918, thousands of Red Guards fled to Russia, mostly to Petrograd. The leaders of the Guard lived lavishly, spending their time in the best hotels and restaurants of Petrograd. They had millions of Finnish marks' worth of foreign exchange that they had stolen from the Bank of Finland.[ citation needed ]
Many other Finnish Communists who had fled to Soviet Russia were living in very poor conditions, and those who openly criticized party leaders were discharged from the party.
The party began to schism into so-called "revolver oppositions", whose target was to remove the gap between the leaders and the supporters by open violence.
The shooters were six students of the red officer academy, led by Aku Paasi (former August Pyy) and Allan Hägglund.
The shooters wrote letters describing their motives, and then surrendered voluntarily to militia. In 1922, they were convicted; Voitto Eloranta, who was not even present at the shooting scene, was sentenced to death as the organizer, and the others were sentenced to three to five years in prison in Buryatia. Eventually, the death sentence of Eloranta was commuted, and by July 1922, all the shooters were released from jail. Eloranta, however, was executed in 1923 after Eino Rahja lobbied the reconsideration of the commutations. [1] Eloranta's wife Elvira Willman was executed in April 1925.
The victims were buried at the Monument to the Fighters of the Revolution on the Field of Mars. An estimated 100,000 people attended the funeral. A memorial service took part in Hermitage on 20 September 1920.
The memorial plaque says that the victims were "Murdered by White Finnish Guards", although the killers had actually been former Red Guard members.
Otto Wilhelm "Wille" Kuusinen was a Finnish-born Soviet communist and, later, Soviet politician, literary historian, and poet who, after the defeat of the Reds in the Finnish Civil War, fled to the Soviet Union, where he worked until his death. He briefly led the so-called Finnish Democratic Republic before serving as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.
The Red Terror was a campaign of political repression and executions in Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine, as well as occupied territories in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland, which was carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It officially started in early September 1918 and lasted until 1922. Arising after assassination attempts on Vladimir Lenin and Trotsky along with the successful assassinations of Petrograd Cheka leader Moisei Uritsky and party editor V. Volodarsky in alleged retaliation for Bolshevik mass repressions, the Red Terror was modeled on the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, and sought to eliminate political dissent, opposition, and any other threat to Bolshevik power. The decision to enact the Red Terror was also driven by the initial 'massacre of their "Red" prisoners by the office-cadres during the Moscow insurrection of October 1917', allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and the large-scale massacres of Reds during the Finnish Civil War in which 10,000 to 20,000 revolutionaries had been killed by the Finnish Whites.
Arvo "Poika" Tuominen was a Finnish communist revolutionary and later a social democratic journalist, politician and author. He was given his nickname Poika in 1920 because of his boyish look.
Eero Haapalainen was a Finnish politician, trade unionist and journalist, who served as the commander-in-chief of the Red Guards from January to March 1918 during the Finnish Civil War.
Jukka Rahja was a Russian-Finnish Bolshevik who was killed by the Petrograd Opposition.
Eino Abramovich Rahja was a Finnish-Russian revolutionary who joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, becoming aligned with the party's Bolshevik faction. Rahja organized Lenin's temporary escape to Finland in the summer of 1917. During the Finnish Civil War, Rahja was one of the most capable military leaders of the Reds. After the Reds lost the war, he fled to the Russian SFSR where he lived for the rest of his life and became, for example, a commander of the army corps (komkor) in the Red Army.
Adolf Pietarinpoika Taimi was a Finnish-Soviet Bolshevik and a member of the People's Delegation during the Finnish Civil War. After the civil war Taimi fled to Soviet Russia where he was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of Finland.
Frans Evert Eloranta was a Finnish politician and a Member of the Parliament for the Social Democratic Party in 1908–1918. During the Finnish Civil War, 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 as a member of the triumvirate with Eino Rahja and Adolf Taimi. After the war, Eloranta fled to the Soviet Russia, where he allegedly died in 1936.
The Finnish People's Delegation was the government of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic created by a group of members in the Social Democratic Party of Finland during the Finnish Civil War from January to May 1918.
Tuomas Wilho Hyrskymurto was a Finnish Communist revolutionary who was originally a merchant from Turku.
Väinö E. Jokinen was a Finnish journalist and MP. Jokinen was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1908 to 1918, representing the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP). During the 1918 Finnish Civil War, Jokinen was the secretary of the Central Workers' Council.
The Revolutions of 1917–1923 were a revolutionary wave that included political unrest and armed revolts around the world inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution and the disorder created by the aftermath of World War I. The uprisings were mainly socialist or anti-colonial in nature. Some socialist revolts failed to create lasting socialist states. The revolutions had lasting effects in shaping the future European political landscape, with for example the collapse of the German Empire and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.
Johan Viktor (Voitto) Eloranta was a Finnish schoolteacher, journalist and politician, born in Janakkala. He was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1907 to 1908 and again from 1909 to 1911, representing the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP). In 1918, during the Finnish Civil War, he was a member of the Staff of the Central Front of the Red side. After the collapse of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic, Eloranta fled to Soviet Russia, where he was among the founders of the Communist Party of Finland (SKP). He eventually joined the internal opposition of the SKP and in 1922, after the Kuusinen Club Incident, where eight Finnish communists were shot by members of the party opposition, he was sentenced to death by a Soviet tribunal, accused of being the main instigator of the incident. He was shot in 1923.
Johan (Jussi) Walfrid Sainio was a Finnish pastry chef, trade union organiser and politician. He was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1908 to 1917. In 1918 he took part in the Finnish Civil War on the Red side. After the collapse of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic he fled to Soviet Russia, where he was among the founders of the Communist Party of Finland (SKP). Sainio, along with seven other Finnish communists, was killed by members of the internal opposition of the SKP on 31 August 1920 during the Kuusinen Club Incident in Petrograd.
Konstantin (Konsta) Evert Lindqvist was a locomotive driver and member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland party and a delegate for transport in the Finnish People's Delegation the government of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic during the Finnish Civil War period. After the war Lindqvist fled to Russia where he died two years later.
Agnes Elvira Maria Willman was a Finnish playwright, journalist and a revolutionary socialist who was one of the most prominent women of the early Finnish labour movement. Willman is also considered as the first female working-class writer in Finland, despite coming from a bourgeois background. After the 1918 Finnish Civil War Willman and her husband, Voitto Eloranta fled to the Soviet Russia. They were both later accused of being involved with the Kuusinen Club Incident, a murder of eight Finnish communists. Eloranta was executed in 1922 and Willman in 1925.
Toivo Antikainen was a Finnish-born communist and a military officer of the Soviet Red Army. He was one of the founders and leaders of the exile Communist Party of Finland. Antikainen died in suspicious circumstances in the Soviet Union in 1941.
Toivo Juhonpoika Vähä was a Finnish born Soviet colonel of the KGB. He fled to Soviet Russia after the 1918 Finnish Civil War and made a long career in the Red Army and the Soviet Border Troops. Vähä was one of the few Finnish exile revolutionaries who survived the Great Purge. He is best known for his role in the 1925 capture of the British super-spy Sidney Reilly during the Operation Trust.
Toini Maria Mäkelä (1895-1973) was a Finnish socialist revolutionary and military officer who fought in the Finnish and Russian Civil Wars and worked for the illegal Communist Party of Finland (SKP).
Jaakko Mäki was a Finnish coppersmith, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he represented Vaasa Province South between August 1908 and September 1918. Mäki went to Soviet Russia during the Finnish Civil War and was executed there in January 1938 during Stalin's Great Purge.