Antikainen, Toivo

Born June 8, 1898; died Oct. 4, 1941. One of the founders and leaders of the Finnish Communist Party and an active participant in the struggle for the Soviet regime in Russia.

Antikainen was born in Helsinki into the family of a worker. He joined the Finnish Social Democratic Workers’ Party in 1915 and was a member of its left wing. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Finnish Socialist Union of Working Youth in 1917. During the 1918 Revolution he was secretary of the Executive Committee of the Workers’ Diet and one of the organizers of the Red Guards. He emigrated to Soviet Russia after the suppression of the revolution in Finland. He was a delegate to the constituent congress of the Finnish Communist Party in August 1918 and a delegate to the First All-Russian Congress of the Komsomol (Ail-Union Lenin Communist Youth League) in Moscow. He participated in the Civil War and in the suppression of the anti-Soviet Kronstadt rebellion in 1921. He took part in the routing of the White Finnish intervention army in January 1922 in Karelia and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for this. After 1923 he was a member of the central committee and since 1925 a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Finnish Communist Party. He was the leader of the underground Finnish Communist Party for several years. On Nov. 6, 1934, he was arrested by the Finnish secret police and sentenced to life at hard labor. He was released on May 3, 1940, with the assistance of the Soviet government, and came to the USSR. In 1940 he was elected deputy to the USSR Supreme Soviet. He fought in the Great Patriotic War and died in combat.