Armas Äikiä
Encyclopedia
Armas Äikiä was a Finnish
communist writer
and journalist
. He wrote the Anthem of Karelo-Finnish SSR
. A citizen of two countries, who had several collection of poems published in the Soviet Union
. Äikiä was one of the few Finnish exile writers and politicians who in the 1930s and 1940s avoided Stalin's terror
and forced labour camps
. Back in Finland, when the Communist Party was banned, he spent years in prison and wrote defiant poems.
as the son of Matti Äikiä, a tailor, and Eeva (Koskinen) Äikiä. He was educated at an elementary school. At the age of 19 he moved to Helsinki
, where he joined the Finnish Communist Party and worked as a chief editor at the Communist newspapers Liekki, Itä ja Länsi, and Tiedonantaja. Äikiä published his early poems in the anthology Vallankumousrunoja (1928). Between the years 1927-1928 and 1930-35 he was imprisoned because of political activities. During these years Äikiä wrote many of the poems, which were published in the 1940s in several collections.
From 1935 to 1947 Äikiä was a political refugee in the Soviet Union in the Russian Carelia, where he edited the magazine Punalippu. Äikiä also published poems in magazines, and his works were widely introduced to the public. In 1941 he wrote Laulu Kotkasta, which centered on the Communist leader Toivo Antikainen, and Kaksi Soturia drawing its subject from the Winter War
of 1939-1940. Kalterilyyra (1945) presented Äikiä's vengeful prison poems, which originated in the Tammisaari penitentiary in 1927-28.
During these years, when Finland was fighting against Soviet aggression
, Äikiä was a member of the Soviet-backed Terijoki government in Karelia. Its head was the emigrant communist Otto Wille Kuusinen. Although the puppet-government tried to appeal to every Finn to join in the struggle against Fascism, the Finns realized that the Soviet Union intended to occupy the country. In his words to a popular song, 'Jesli zavtra voina', Äikiä associated the Red Army with the emergence of light: "Oli tähdetön Pohjolan taivas, / oli synkeä Suomemme yö. / Valo tulkohon siis, / tuli leimahtakoon, / Puna-Armeija lahtarit lyö!" (from Taistelulauluja, ed. by S.K. Hel'man, 1941) Äikiä also served as a propaganda officer and he was a well-known radio voice. Much later Mauri Sariola portrayed him in a comic light in Armeija piikkilankojen takana (1970), which dealt with Finnish prisoners of war in Carelia. One of the prisoners says, hesitating after his agitation, that Äikiä is like a radish - but perhaps white and Finnish inside.
In 1945 Äikiä wrote the anthem of the Anthem of Karelo-Finnish SSR
:
After the Continuation War
(1941–44) Äikiä returned to Finland in 1947 with other emigrant Communists (Tuure Lehén, Inkeri Lehtinen etc.). The political climate in the country had swung to the left. The Finnish Communist Party (SKP), outlawed since 1918, was legalized. Äikiä became a columnist at the newspaper Työkansan sanomat and director of the press agency Demokraattinen lehtipalvelu (DLP), which was organizationally under the new left-wing electoral alliance, SKDL (The Finnish People's Democratic League
). As a columnist he used in Vapaa Sana and Työkansan Sanomat the pseudonym 'Liukas Luikku' (roughly "slippery slinker"). Until 1948, Äikiä's books appeared only in the Soviet Union, but in 1948 the Finnish publisher Kansankulttuuri printed his collection of poems, Henkipatto centering on the defeat of Nazism
in the Eastern Front
by the Soviet Union
, and of Finland after the collapse of the Finnish-German war pact. In the poem 'Maiju Lassila', from Henkipatto about the famous working class writer killed in the Civil War (1917–18), Äikiä identified with the writer, whose philosophical works had met mixed criticism.
. Due to his orthodox opinions Äikiä was in confrontation with a number of writers, especially with Arvo Turtiainen
, the chairman of the influential literary organization Kiila
(the wedge). Turtiainen rejected Stalinism
, and was concerned with Äikiä's self-made position as the foremost poet of the Finnish Communist Party. The Marxists literary historian Raoul Palmgren
, Turtiainen's close friend, became also Äikiä's opponent from the late 1940s. When Äikiä attacked Jean-Paul Sartre
's play Dirty Hands, performed at the National theater in Finland, as hostile to the Soviet Union, Palmgren criticized him for bourgeois moralizing and was supported by Hertta Kuusinen
, Otto Ville Kuusinen
's daughter.
Äikiä's literary production consists also of non-fiction, translations from Russian, and at least one book written in Russian. Äikiä died in Helsinki
on 20 November 1965. His fiction is mostly forgotten, partly due to its ideological content, and wooden, declamatory expression. Äikiä's Mayakovsky translations have been praised, but a number of notable writers and critics such as Raoul Palmgren did not accept elements of vulgarity which often appeared in his work.
Äikiä's funeral took place in Malmi
Cemitary in Helsinki in a tight police
protection only present by leaders of the party Aimo Aaltonen, Ville Pessi and president Urho Kekkonen
. Äikiä's grave is a communal grave of Finnish Communist Party
members.
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...
communist writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
. He wrote the Anthem of Karelo-Finnish SSR
Anthem of Karelo-Finnish SSR
The State Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish SSR was the national anthem of Karelia when it was a republic of the Soviet Union and known as the Karelo-Finnish SSR.-Background:...
. A citizen of two countries, who had several collection of poems published in 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....
. Äikiä was one of the few Finnish exile writers and politicians who in the 1930s and 1940s avoided Stalin's terror
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
and forced labour camps
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
. Back in Finland, when the Communist Party was banned, he spent years in prison and wrote defiant poems.
Biography
Armas Äikiä was born in Pyhäjärvi, now Otradnoye on the Karelian IsthmusKarelian Isthmus
The Karelian Isthmus is the approximately 45–110 km wide stretch of land, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva . Its northwestern boundary is the relatively narrow area between the Bay of Vyborg and Lake Ladoga...
as the son of Matti Äikiä, a tailor, and Eeva (Koskinen) Äikiä. He was educated at an elementary school. At the age of 19 he moved to 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...
, where he joined the Finnish Communist Party and worked as a chief editor at the Communist newspapers Liekki, Itä ja Länsi, and Tiedonantaja. Äikiä published his early poems in the anthology Vallankumousrunoja (1928). Between the years 1927-1928 and 1930-35 he was imprisoned because of political activities. During these years Äikiä wrote many of the poems, which were published in the 1940s in several collections.
From 1935 to 1947 Äikiä was a political refugee in the Soviet Union in the Russian Carelia, where he edited the magazine Punalippu. Äikiä also published poems in magazines, and his works were widely introduced to the public. In 1941 he wrote Laulu Kotkasta, which centered on the Communist leader Toivo Antikainen, and Kaksi Soturia drawing its subject from the Winter War
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
of 1939-1940. Kalterilyyra (1945) presented Äikiä's vengeful prison poems, which originated in the Tammisaari penitentiary in 1927-28.
During these years, when Finland was fighting against Soviet aggression
War of aggression
A war of aggression, sometimes also war of conquest, is a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense usually for territorial gain and subjugation. The phrase is distinctly modern and diametrically opposed to the prior legal international standard of "might makes right", under...
, Äikiä was a member of the Soviet-backed Terijoki government in Karelia. Its head was the emigrant communist Otto Wille Kuusinen. Although the puppet-government tried to appeal to every Finn to join in the struggle against Fascism, the Finns realized that the Soviet Union intended to occupy the country. In his words to a popular song, 'Jesli zavtra voina', Äikiä associated the Red Army with the emergence of light: "Oli tähdetön Pohjolan taivas, / oli synkeä Suomemme yö. / Valo tulkohon siis, / tuli leimahtakoon, / Puna-Armeija lahtarit lyö!" (from Taistelulauluja, ed. by S.K. Hel'man, 1941) Äikiä also served as a propaganda officer and he was a well-known radio voice. Much later Mauri Sariola portrayed him in a comic light in Armeija piikkilankojen takana (1970), which dealt with Finnish prisoners of war in Carelia. One of the prisoners says, hesitating after his agitation, that Äikiä is like a radish - but perhaps white and Finnish inside.
In 1945 Äikiä wrote the anthem of the Anthem of Karelo-Finnish SSR
Anthem of Karelo-Finnish SSR
The State Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish SSR was the national anthem of Karelia when it was a republic of the Soviet Union and known as the Karelo-Finnish SSR.-Background:...
:
- Oma Karjalais-suomalaiskansamme maa,
- Vapaa Pohjolan Neuvostojen tasavalta.
- Kotimetsäimme kauneus öin kajastaa
- Revontultemme taivaalta leimuavalta.
-
- Neuvostoliitto on voittamaton,
- Se kansamme suur-isänmaa ijät on.
- Sen Tienä on Kansojen Kunniantie,
- Se Karjalan Kansankin voittoihin vie.
- Isänmaa Kalevan, kotimaa runojen,
- Jota Leninin Stalinin lippu johtaa.
- Yli kansamme uutteran onnellisen
- Valo kansojen veljeystähdestä hohtaa.
-
- Neuvostoliitto on voittamaton,
- Se kansamme suur-isänmaa ijät on.
- Sen Tienä on Kansojen Kunniantie,
- Se Karjalan Kansankin voittoihin vie.
- Kotimaamme loi uudeksi kansamme työ,
- Tätä maata me puollamme kuin isät ammoin.
- Sotasuksemme suihkavat kalpamme lyö.
- Asemahdilla suojaamme Neuvosto-Sammon.
After the Continuation War
Continuation War
The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II.At the time of the war, the Finnish side used the name to make clear its perceived relationship to the preceding Winter War...
(1941–44) Äikiä returned to Finland in 1947 with other emigrant Communists (Tuure Lehén, Inkeri Lehtinen etc.). The political climate in the country had swung to the left. The Finnish Communist Party (SKP), outlawed since 1918, was legalized. Äikiä became a columnist at the newspaper Työkansan sanomat and director of the press agency Demokraattinen lehtipalvelu (DLP), which was organizationally under the new left-wing electoral alliance, SKDL (The Finnish People's Democratic League
Finnish People's Democratic League
Finnish People's Democratic League was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party...
). As a columnist he used in Vapaa Sana and Työkansan Sanomat the pseudonym 'Liukas Luikku' (roughly "slippery slinker"). Until 1948, Äikiä's books appeared only in the Soviet Union, but in 1948 the Finnish publisher Kansankulttuuri printed his collection of poems, Henkipatto centering on the defeat of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
by 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....
, and of Finland after the collapse of the Finnish-German war pact. In the poem 'Maiju Lassila', from Henkipatto about the famous working class writer killed in the Civil War (1917–18), Äikiä identified with the writer, whose philosophical works had met mixed criticism.
Opposition and criticism
As a strict communist, Äikiä did not accept free verse. He was a strong advocate of the Soviet art theory and Socialist realismSocialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
. Due to his orthodox opinions Äikiä was in confrontation with a number of writers, especially with Arvo Turtiainen
Arvo Turtiainen
Arvo Turtiainen was a Finnish writer and recipient of the Eino Leino Prize in 1973.-References:...
, the chairman of the influential literary organization Kiila
Kiila
Kiila is the eighth studio album by the Finnish rock band Apulanta. It was released on March 16, 2005. Some tracks on the album also contain violins. The album is sung in Finnish...
(the wedge). Turtiainen rejected Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, and was concerned with Äikiä's self-made position as the foremost poet of the Finnish Communist Party. The Marxists literary historian Raoul Palmgren
Raoul Palmgren
Raoul Palmgren was a Finnish writer and recipient of the Eino Leino Prize in 1972.-References:...
, Turtiainen's close friend, became also Äikiä's opponent from the late 1940s. When Äikiä attacked Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
's play Dirty Hands, performed at the National theater in Finland, as hostile to the Soviet Union, Palmgren criticized him for bourgeois moralizing and was supported by Hertta Kuusinen
Hertta Kuusinen
Hertta Elina Kuusinen was a Finnish Communist politician. She was a member of the central committee and the political bureau of the Communist Party of Finland, member of parliament , general secretary and the leader of the parliamentary group of the Finnish People's Democratic League...
, Otto Ville Kuusinen
Otto Ville Kuusinen
Otto Wilhelm Kuusinen was a Finnish-born 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.- Early life :Kuusinen was born to the family of village tailor Wilhelm Juhonpoika...
's daughter.
Äikiä's literary production consists also of non-fiction, translations from Russian, and at least one book written in Russian. Äikiä died 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...
on 20 November 1965. His fiction is mostly forgotten, partly due to its ideological content, and wooden, declamatory expression. Äikiä's Mayakovsky translations have been praised, but a number of notable writers and critics such as Raoul Palmgren did not accept elements of vulgarity which often appeared in his work.
Äikiä's funeral took place in Malmi
Malmi, Helsinki
Malmi is a regional center and a major district on the north-eastern part of Helsinki, Finland.It has a population of 24,312 . Malmi is divided into six subareas, which are Ylä-Malmi, Ala-Malmi, Pihlajamäki, Tattariharju, Malmin lentokenttä and Pihlajisto.Malmin peruspiiri is a related but...
Cemitary in Helsinki in a tight police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
protection only present by leaders of the party Aimo Aaltonen, Ville Pessi and president Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen , was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland and later as the eighth President of Finland . Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen...
. Äikiä's grave is a communal grave of Finnish Communist Party
Communist Party of Finland
The Communist Party of Finland was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944.SKP did not participate in any elections with its own name. Instead, front organisations were used...
members.