Frans Evert Eloranta (10 October 1879 – 1936) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

politician and a Member of the Parliament for the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

in 1908–1918. During the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

, Eloranta served as the Minister of Agriculture of the

Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR), more commonly referred to as Red Finland, was a self-proclaimed Finnish socialist state that ruled parts of the country during the Finnish Civil War of 1918. It was outlined on 29 January 1918 by th ...

. In March 1918, he was elected the commander-in-chief of the

Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...

as a member of the triumvirate with

Eino Rahja Eino Abramovich Rahja (20 June 1885 – 26 April 1936) was a Finnish-Russian revolutionary who joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, becoming aligned with the party's Bolshevik faction. Rahja organized Lenin's temporary escap ...

and

Adolf Taimi Adolf Pietarinpoika Taimi (21 September 1881 – 1 November 1955) was a Finnish-Soviet Bolshevik and a member of the People's Delegation during the Finnish Civil War. After the civil war Taimi fled to Soviet Russia where he was one of the found ...

. After the war, Eloranta fled to the

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

, where he allegedly died in 1936.

Life

Early years

Frans Evert Eloranta was born in

Harjavalta Harjavalta () is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region, southeast of Pori. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The populat ...

, Satakunta province, as a son of a poor tenant farmer Johan Erland Erlandsson (b. 1852) and Eva Christina Fransdotter (b. 1854). The family lived in several places, finally settling in 1894 in

Mynämäki Mynämäki (; sv, Virmo) is a municipality of Finland located in the Southwest Finland region. Neighbouring municipalities are Aura, Eura, Laitila, Masku, Nousiainen, Pöytyä, Rusko, Taivassalo, Turku and Vehmaa. The municipality has a popul ...

Finland Proper Southwest Finland, calqued as Finland Proper ( fi, Varsinais-Suomi ; sv, Egentliga Finland), is a region in the southwest of Finland. It borders the regions of Satakunta, Pirkanmaa, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Uusimaa, and Åland. The regi ...

province. Eloranta worked from the early age and went to a school for only a year. He had jobs as a farm worker, construction worker, stonemason and a lumberjack. Eloranta also had a

croft Croft may refer to: Occupations * Croft (land), a small area of land, often with a crofter's dwelling * Crofting, small-scale food production * Bleachfield, an open space used for the bleaching of fabric, also called a croft Locations In the Uni ...

of his own in

Karjala Karjala is a Finnish lager type beer manufactured by the Hartwall brewery. Karjala beer was manufactured by the cooperative shop Osuusliike Itä-Karjala owned Sortavalan panimo Oy brewery from 1932 until 1944. Production was resumed in 1948. ...

, where he joined the local worker's society and the Social Democratic Party. Eloranta soon started working as a speaker and a party district secretary. In the 1908 general election he was elected to the

Parliament of Finland The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...

from the electoral district of

. During the era of the

Russification of Finland The policy of Russification of Finland ( fi, sortokaudet / sortovuodet, lit=times/years of oppression; russian: Русификация Финляндии, translit=Rusyfikatsiya Finlyandii) was a governmental policy of the Russian Empire aimed at ...

, the parliament was often disbanded and Eloranta was elected six times between 1908 and 1917.

The Civil War

As the Finnish Civil War was launched in January 1918, Eloranta was a member of the Social Democratic party secretary. He was now elected to the

Finnish People's Delegation The Finnish People's Delegation ( fi, Suomen kansanvaltuuskunta sv, Finska folkdelegationen) was a governmental body, created by a group of members in the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP), to serve as the government of the Finnish Social ...

, the governmental body of the

Red Finland The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR), more commonly referred to as Red Finland, was a self-proclaimed Finnish socialist state that ruled parts of the country during the Finnish Civil War of 1918. It was outlined on 29 January 1918 by t ...

, and became the ″Delegate for Agriculture″. On 20 March,

Eero Haapalainen Eero Haapalainen (Russian Эро Эрович Хаапалайнен, ''Ero Erovich Khaapalaynen''; 27 October 1880 – 27 November 1937) was a Finnish politician, trade unionist and journalist, who was one of the most prominent figures of the Finn ...

was expelled from the post of the commander-of-chief of the Red Guards, and replaced by the triumvirate Eloranta, Adolf Taimi and Eino Rahja. They held the office for less than two weeks. After the defeat of the

Battle of Tampere The Battle of Tampere was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought in Tampere, Finland from 15 March to 6 April between the Whites and the Reds. It is the most famous and the heaviest of all the Finnish Civil War battles. Today it is particular ...

, the Red Government and the Red Guards staff fled from the capital

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

to the eastern Finnish town of

Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...

. The triumvirate was replaced by

Kullervo Manner Kullervo Achilles Manner (, Russian Куллерво Густавович Маннер, ''Kullervo Gustavovich Manner''; 12 October 1880 – 15 January 1939) was a Finnish politician and journalist, and later a Soviet politician. He was a membe ...

, who was given the dictatorial powers.

Life in the Soviet Union

During the Battle of Vyborg in the end of April, most of the leading Reds fled to the Soviet Russia, where Eloranta soon joined the exile

Communist Party of Finland The Communist Party of Finland ( fi, Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, SKP; sv, Finlands Kommunistiska Parti) was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944. The SKP was banned by ...

. Like many Finnish Reds, he entered the Petrograd Red Officer School and fought in the

Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...

. In 1921–1922 Eloranta worked as a librarian in

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (russian: Петрозаводск, p=pʲɪtrəzɐˈvotsk; Karelian, Vepsian and fi, Petroskoi) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population ...

. Later he travelled across the country as a speaker of the

League of Militant Atheists The League of Militant Atheists (), also Society of the Godless () or Union of the Godless (), was an atheistic and antireligious organization of workers and intelligentsia that developed in Soviet Russia under influence of the ideological and ...

and worked in the 1930s as a carpenter in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. Eloranta was granted the Soviet citizenship in 1929. His last years remain unknown, his last letter to his son was sent in 1938,but Eloranta allegedly died in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1936 according to official Soviet sources.

Family

From 1912 to 1924 Evert Eloranta was married with Selma Alexandra Helkiö (1885–1985). He is the grandfather of the prominent Finnish psychiatrist Raisa Cacciatore and the great grandfather of the Social Democratic member of parliament Eeva-Johanna Eloranta.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eloranta, Evert 1879 births 1936 deaths People from Harjavalta People from Turku and Pori Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Finnish atheists Social Democratic Party of Finland politicians Communist Party of Finland politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (1908–09) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1909–10) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1910–11) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1911–13) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1913–16) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1916–17) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1917–19) Finnish People's Delegation members People of the Finnish Civil War (Red side)