Kullervo Manner
Encyclopedia
Kokemäki
Kokemäki is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
– January 15, 1939 in Ukhta
Ukhta
Ukhta is an important industrial town in the Komi Republic of Russia. Population: Oil springs along the Ukhta River were already known in the 17th century. In the mid-19th century, industrialist M. K. Sidorov started to drill for oil in this area. It was one of the first oil wells in...
-Pechora
Pechora
Pechora is a town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated on the Pechora River, near the northern Ural Mountains. Population: It is served by Pechora Airport and is affiliated with the nearby Pechora Kamenka military air base....
, the USSR) was a Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
journalist and politician. He was a member of the Finnish parliament, serving as its Speaker in 1917. He was also chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland
Social Democratic Party of Finland
The Social Democratic Party of Finland is one of the three major political parties in Finland, along with the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party. Jutta Urpilainen is the current SDP leader. The party has been in the Finnish government cabinet for long periods and has set many...
between 1917–1918. During the Finnish Civil War
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
, he led the Finnish People's Delegation
Finnish People's Delegation
The Finnish People's Delegation was created by leftists, mostly members of the Social Democratic Party. Its formation as the government of Finland was announced in Helsinki's radical opposition newspaper Työmies on January 29, 1918, marking a rebellion against the Finnish Senate...
. After the war, he emigrated to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, where he co-founded the Finnish Communist Party.
Early life
Manner was born as a priest's son in KokemäkiKokemäki
Kokemäki is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
. His father Gustaf Manner worked in various parishes, including those of Lappi and Vampula
Vampula
Vampula is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated with Huittinen on 1 January 2009.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The municipality had a population of 1,677 and covered a land area of . The population density was .The...
. After graduating from high school in 1900, Manner worked as a journalist in Porvoo
Porvoo
Porvoo is a city and a municipality situated on the southern coast of Finland approximately east of Helsinki. Porvoo is one of the six medieval towns in Finland, first mentioned as a city in texts from 14th century...
and later in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
.
In 1911, Manner received a prison sentence for lèse majesté
Lèse majesté
Lese-majesty is the crime of violating majesty, an offence against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state.This behavior was first classified as a criminal offence against the dignity of the Roman republic in Ancient Rome...
against Nicholas II. He was elected to the Finnish Parliament as a Social Democrat
Social Democratic Party of Finland
The Social Democratic Party of Finland is one of the three major political parties in Finland, along with the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party. Jutta Urpilainen is the current SDP leader. The party has been in the Finnish government cabinet for long periods and has set many...
from Uusimaa
Uusimaa
Uusimaa, or Nyland in Swedish, is a region in Finland. It borders the regions Finland Proper, Tavastia Proper, Päijänne Tavastia and Kymenlaakso...
in 1910 and 1917. He was appointed Speaker of the Parliament in 1917. Manner's brother Arvo was governor of Viipuri
Viipuri Province
The Viipuri Province was a province of independent Finland from 1917 to 1947 but had already been founded in 1743.-History:The province was established in 1743 by separating the city of Viipuri and territories ceded from the Swedish Empire to Russia by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, from the Saint...
and Kymi
Province of Kymi
The Kymi Province was a province of Finland from 1947 to 1997.The Kymi Province was the remainder of the territory from the Viipuri Province after the main part was left to Russia at the Moscow Armistice in 1944...
provinces from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Civil War
On January 28 in 1918, during the Finnish Civil WarFinnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
, Manner was appointed Chairman of the Finnish People's Delegation
Finnish People's Delegation
The Finnish People's Delegation was created by leftists, mostly members of the Social Democratic Party. Its formation as the government of Finland was announced in Helsinki's radical opposition newspaper Työmies on January 29, 1918, marking a rebellion against the Finnish Senate...
. On April 10 of the same year, Manner was appointed Head of State and commander-in-chief of the Red Guards with dictatorial powers.
In the USSR
After the Civil War, Manner fled to Soviet RussiaRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
where he became the second chairman of the Finnish Communist Party after Yrjö Sirola
Yrjö Sirola
Yrjö Elias Sirola was a Finnish socialist politician, teacher, and newspaper editor...
. He also became an official of the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
.
In the 1930s, Manner and his wife Hanna Malm fell out of favor with Otto Wille Kuusinen. Manner was dismissed from most of his duties in May 1934. He continued to work as a Comintern rapporteur on Latin American affairs until July 1935, when he was arrested and sentenced for ten years of hard labor. Manner was taken to a labor camp
Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
in Ukhta
Ukhta
Ukhta is an important industrial town in the Komi Republic of Russia. Population: Oil springs along the Ukhta River were already known in the 17th century. In the mid-19th century, industrialist M. K. Sidorov started to drill for oil in this area. It was one of the first oil wells in...
-Pechora
Pechora
Pechora is a town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated on the Pechora River, near the northern Ural Mountains. Population: It is served by Pechora Airport and is affiliated with the nearby Pechora Kamenka military air base....
in Komi Republic
Komi Republic
The Komi Republic is a federal subject of Russia .-Geography:The republic is situated to the west of the Ural mountains, in the north-east of the East European Plain...
. Hanna Malm also received a ten year sentence. She was taken to a labor camp in the Solovetsky Monastery
Solovetsky Monastery
Solovetsky Monastery was the greatest citadel of Christianity in the Russian North before being turned into a special Soviet prison and labor camp , which served as a prototype for the GULag system. Situated on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, the monastery braved many changes of fortune...
island, where she later committed suicide by drowning.
Manner died in the Ukhta-Pechora labor camp on January 15, 1939. The official cause of death was tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. However, according to historian Aleksandr Popov, the real cause of Manner's death was radiation poisoning
Radiation poisoning
Acute radiation syndrome also known as radiation poisoning, radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, is a constellation of health effects which occur within several months of exposure to high amounts of ionizing radiation...
which he developed when working in a radium
Radium
Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...
mine.
Manner was rehabilitated
Rehabilitation (Soviet)
Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...
in 1962.