Hella Wuolijoki (née Ella Marie Murrik; 22 July 1886Hella Wuolijoki in the Free Online Encyclopedia
/ref> – 2 February 1954), also known by the pen name Juhani Tervapää, was an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n-born Finnish writer known for her ''Niskavuori'' series.Wuolijoki, Hella. Eesti Entsüklopeedia 10. Estonian Encyclopaedia Publishers, Tallinn, 1998

Early life

Wuolijoki was born in the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

Ala Ala, ALA, Alaa or Alae may refer to: Places * Ala, Hiiu County, Estonia, a village * Ala, Valga County, Estonia, a village * Ala, Alappuzha, Kerala, India, a village * Ala, Iran, a village in Semnan Province * Ala, Gotland, Sweden * Alad, S ...

Helme Parish ) , leader_name = Tarmo Tamm , area_total_km2 = 312.73 , population_total = 2525 , population_as_of = 01.01.2009 , population_density_km2 = auto , website www.helme.ee Helme Parish ( et ...

(now in

Tõrva Parish Tõrva Parish ( et, Tõrva vald) is a rural municipality in Valga County. It includes the town of Tõrva. Settlements ;Town Tõrva ;Boroughs Helme, Hummuli ;Villages Aitsra, Ala, Alamõisa, Holdre, Jeti, Jõgeveste, Kalme, Karjatnur ...

Valga County Valga County ( et, Valga maakond or ''Valgamaa'') is a first-level administrative unit and one of 15 counties of Estonia. It comprises the former area of Valga District. The present-day county was created on 1 January 1990. The capital and lar ...

, Governorate of Livonia. She began her studies in Tartu, before moving to

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

in 1904. In 1908, she married Sulo Vuolijoki, a personal friend of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

. They divorced in 1923. Later, Wuolijoki began spelling her name with a W.

Career

Author

Wuolijoki wrote several books under the male

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Juhani Tervapää that were characterised by strong female characters. The 1947 film ''The Farmer's Daughter'' was adapted from her 1937 play ''Juurakon Hulda'', which she also wrote as Juhani Tervapää. She collaborated with Bertolt Brecht on the initial version of his ''

Mr Puntila and his Man Matti ''Mr Puntila and his Man Matti'' (german: Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti) is an epic comedy by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. It was written in 1940 and first performed in 1948. The story describes the aristocratic land-owne ...

''.

Spy

In the 1920s and 1930s, Wuolijoki hosted a literary and political salon that discussed culture and promoted left-wing ideas. She had secret connections with the Soviet intelligence and security structures. The Finnish police suspected her of being an illegal resident spy, but there was no solid proof until 1943, when she was arrested for hiding

Kerttu Nuorteva Kerttu Nuorteva (November 10, 1912 in Astoria, Oregon, United States – August 29, 1963 in Karaganda, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union) was a Soviet intelligence agent. She was the daughter of Santeri Nuorteva, the president of ...

, a

Soviet 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 nation ...

paratrooper spy on a mission to acquire information about the political sentiment and the German troops in Finland, and sentenced to life imprisonment. She was released in 1944, after the armistice that ended the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrieg. A ...

Post-war and death

Wuolijoki was a member of the

Finnish Parliament 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 ...

and the head of the

SKDL Finnish People's Democratic League ( fi, Suomen Kansan Demokraattinen Liitto, SKDL; sv, Demokratiska Förbundet för Finlands Folk, DFFF) was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic P ...

parliamentary group from 1946 to 1947. Wuolijoki also served as the director of the national broadcasting company,

YLE Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...

, from 1945 to 1949. Wuolijoki died in

in 1954, aged 67.

Personal life

Her younger sister,

Salme Dutt Salme Pekkala-Dutt (: Salme Anette Murrik) (29 August 1888 – 30 August 1964) was an Estonian-British communist politician, wife of Rajani Palme Dutt. The Finnish-Estonian author Hella Wuolijoki was her elder sister. Murrik was also grandaunt of ...

, was an influential member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Wuolijoki was the grandmother of Erkki Tuomioja (b.1946), Finland's minister for foreign affairs between 2011 and 2015.

Works

* '' Juurakon Hulda'' (1937) * '' Entäs nyt, Niskavuori?'' (1953)

References

External links

Hella Wuolijoki in 375 humanists 9.1.2015, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wuolijoki, Hella 1886 births 1954 deaths People from Tõrva Parish People from the Governorate of Livonia Estonian emigrants to Finland Finnish people of Estonian descent Finnish People's Democratic League politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (1945–48) Finnish people of World War II Estonian women novelists Finnish women novelists Pseudonymous women writers Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Finland Finnish prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment 20th-century Finnish novelists 20th-century Finnish women writers 20th-century Finnish women politicians Women members of the Parliament of Finland 20th-century Estonian novelists Women in World War II 20th-century pseudonymous writers Finnish salon-holders