Atos Kasimir Wirtanen was a Finnish left-wing intellectual, journalist, member of Finnish parliament

Parliament of Finland

The Eduskunta , is the parliament of Finland. The unicameral parliament has 200 members and meets in the Parliament House in Helsinki. The latest election to the parliament took place on April 17, 2011.- Constitution :...

 (1936–1953) and cultural critic. He was born in Saltvik. Wirtanen rose to parliament from 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...

 (SDP) list, but in 1946 he defected to 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...

 (SKDL). Wirtanen was also active in the Socialist Unity Party

Socialist Unity Party (Finland)

Socialist Unity Party was a left-wing political party in Finland. The SYP was founded in March 1946 by socialists working inside the communist-dominated Finnish People's Democratic League . Most of the founders were former members of the Social Democratic Party of Finland...

 (SYP) and served as its chairman 1948-1955. In 1955, Wirtanen led the SYP's out of the SKDL. Wirtanen was fired twice (1941 and 1947) from the publication Arbetarbladet and once (1953) from the magazine Ny Tid

Ny Tid (Finland)

Ny Tid is a Swedish Green Leftist weekly magazine in Finland. It was founded in 1944 as Swedish political magazine for the Finnish left wing umbrella organization SKDL. The magazine has been independent from political parties since 1991, when its ownership was transferred to the reader owned...

.

Atos Wirtanen was a close friend of Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson

Tove Marika Jansson was a Swedish-Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. She is best known as the author of the Moomin books.- Biography :...

 and a model for the Snufkin

Snufkin

Snufkin is a character in the Moomin series of books authored by Swedish-speaking Finn Tove Jansson, appearing in six of the nine books...

 character, whose green hat is borrowed from Wirtanen. The first Moomin

Moomin

The Moomins are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. They are a family of trolls who are white and roundish, with large snouts that make them resemble hippopotamuses...

comic strips were published in October 1947 in Ny Tid

Ny Tid (Finland)

Ny Tid is a Swedish Green Leftist weekly magazine in Finland. It was founded in 1944 as Swedish political magazine for the Finnish left wing umbrella organization SKDL. The magazine has been independent from political parties since 1991, when its ownership was transferred to the reader owned...

. The series had to stop earlier than planned, however, as readers criticized it and especially the Moominpappa

Moominpappa

Moominpappa - is a character in the Moomin series of books by Finnish author Tove Jansson.Orphaned in his youth, Moominpappa is a somewhat restless soul who left the orphanage to venture out into the world but has now settled down, determined to be a responsible father to his family: his wife...

 character for his bourgeois sympathies.

Wirtanen published two memoirs: Mot mörka makter (Against Dark Forces), and Political Memoirs. He also published several collections of aphorisms, and other literary works.

Wirtanen married a dance artist Irja Hagfors

Irja Hagfors

Irja Margareta Hagfors was a Finnish dance artist, choreographer and dance teacher.-Biography:Hagfors initially studied dance in Finland, at the Gripenberg School and Salminen-Naparstok School. In 1926 she began her studies in Hellerau Laxemburg-school of dance in Laxenburg, near Vienna...

in 1954. He died in 1979 in Helsinki.