Eero Haapalainen

Eero Haapalainen
Born	(1880-10-27)October 27, 1880 Kuopio, Grand Duchy of Finland
Died	November 27, 1937(1937-11-27) (aged 57) Petrozavodsk, Soviet Union
Occupation(s)	politician, trade unionist, journalist
Organization(s)	SDP, SAJ, SKP, CPSU

Eero Haapalainen (27 October 1880 – 27 November 1937) was a Finnish politician, trade unionist and journalist, who was one of the most prominent figures of the Finnish socialist movement in the first two decades of the 1900s. In the 1918 Finnish Civil War he served as the commander-in-chief of the Red Guards. After the war, Haapalainen fled to the Soviet Russia where he joined the exile Communist Party of Finland and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He was executed during the Great Purge in 1937.

Life

Early years

Eero Haapalainen was born in the town of Kuopio in eastern Finland. His father Aaro was a carpenter and the mother, Wilhelmiina Kinnunen, a housewife who earned extra income as a seamstress for the shop owned by the author and social activist Minna Canth. Parents wanted him to become a priest, but after graduating from the Kuopio Lyceum, Haapalainen studied for two years in a business college and entered the Helsinki University Faculty of Law in 1901. In Helsinki, he was allflicted with the labor movement and joined the Social Democratic Party of Finland. Due to lack of money, Haapalainen was not able to finish his studies and left the university in 1904. In 1903–1906, Haapalainen worked in the Social Democratic newspaper Työmies in Helsinki, and in 1907 he was the editor of Työ in Vyborg.

During the 1905 general strike, Haapalainen was one of the leading Red Guard organizers in Helsinki. A year later, he was the delegate of the Finnish Social Democratic Party at the 4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in Stockholm. In the summer of 1906, Haapalainen represented Finnish Social Democrats in the undergound Bolshevik committee planning the Sveaborg rebellion. In April 1907, Haapalainen was elected as the first chairman of the Finnish Trade Union Federation (SAJ) which was founded in the Tampere Workers' Hall. Haapalainen was expelled from the office in 1911 due to his drinking problem. Haapalainen now became a writer, he published and translated several books and articles focusing in trade unionism and cooperatives. Haapalainen also worked as an editor for the SAJ released monthly.

In the 1918 Civil War

After the 1917 February Revolution in Russia, the social situation in Finland became restless due to the food shortage and deep unemployment. Haapalainen was one of the most radical persons in the labour movement, he was openly speaking for the armed revolution. As the Civil War broke out in late January 1918, Haapalainen replaced Ali Aaltonen as the Red Guards commander-in-chief, even though he did not have any military training.

After series of defeats, Haapalainen was replaced in 20 March by the troika Eino Rahja, Adolf Taimi and Evert Eloranta. He remained a member of the Red Government, but was dismissed in late April when the goverment had fled to Vyborg. Haapalainen was charged of drunkenness, inappropriate behavior and careless use of firearm. The Vyborg court martial ordered him to the front, but the decision was not implemented as the Red Goverment and most of the Red Guard staff fled to the Soviet Russia in 25 April. Haapalainen and Edvard Gylling were one of the few leading Reds who stayed in Vyborg. The organized and led the city's defense, but finally the Reds surrendered in 29 April. Haapalainen and Gylling avoided being caught, later in May they managed to flee to Saint Petersburg with a motor boat.

Life in the Soviet Union

Haapalainen was executed in Soviet Union for counterrevolutionary nationalist activities in 1937.