Väinö Olavi Leskinen 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...

 politician, minister and a member of the parliament from 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...

. He is perceived as one of the major Finnish social democratic politicians of the 1950s and 1960s.

Sports career

Before his political career Leskinen was a successful swimmer in the association of Helsinki Workers' Swimmers. He won the 200 and 400 meter breaststroke events in workers' olympics in Antwerp 1937. Leskinen was later the Secretary General of the Workers' Sports Federation 1940-1943 and the chairman 1951-1955. Leskinen fought in the Winter and Continuation Wars

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...

. He was wounded in 1941. His military denomination was a Major.

Political career

Leskinen was a key member in the union of brother's in arms movement which operated among the Social Democrats after the war. The group was called 'asevelisosialistit' and it successfully defeated the Communists in the fight for a majority in several left-wing organizations. In the 1950s the fragmented Social Democratic Party was led by Väinö Tanner

Väinö Tanner

Väinö Tanner was a pioneer and leader in the cooperative movement in Finland, and Prime Minister of Finland from 1926 to 1927....

 as figurehead while Leskinen was considered as one of the most important leaders. He was discredited by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union because of his Western-oriented political views.

Leskinen sought to offset the relations with the Soviet Union following the defeat of SDP in the 1962 parliamentary election. He also tried to increase cooperation among the Left in Finland. Leskinen led the negotiations for the founding of Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions

Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, usually referred to by the acronym SAK is the largest trade union confederation in Finland...

. In 1966, Leskinen visited Moscow in an effort to re-establish relations with the Communist Party of Soviet Union. Leskinen and SDP supported 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...

 in the 1968 presidential election.

Leskinen was a member of the parliament from 1945–1947 and 1947-1969. His career as minister is divided into two parts. During the 1940s and 1950s, he was in the cabiner as a right-wing representative of SDP. After the reconciliation with the Soviet Union, he was a closer associate of Urho Kekkonen.

- Minister for Social Affairs 1952-1953

- Minister of the Home Affairs 1954

- Minister of the Interior 1954-1955

- Minister for Social Welfare 1958-1959

- Minister of Trade and Industry 1968-1970

- Minister of Foreign Affairs 1970

- Minister of Foreign Affairs 1970-1971

Väinö Leskinen died of a heart attack on his 55th birthday while skiing near Lauttasaari

Lauttasaari

Lauttasaari is an island and neighbourhood of Western Helsinki , about 3 kilometres west of the city centre....

in Helsinki.