Jukka Rahja (1887,

Kronstadt Kronstadt (russian: Кроншта́дт, Kronshtadt ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt or Kronštádt (from german: link=no, Krone for " crown" and ''Stadt'' for "city") is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city ...

– 31 August 1920, Petrograd) was a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

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 ...

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

who was killed by the Petrograd Opposition. Jukka was the brother of

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 esca ...

and Jaakko Rahja. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903. He was also active in the Finnish labour youth movement. He was active in the

1905 Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

working as part of the

faction in Kronstadt. Following the defeat of the revolution, he fled to Kuopio,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and became active in the socialist movement there. In 1913 he returned to St Petersburg, and went on to become active amongst the Petrograd Bolsheviks. After the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

he was sent to Finland to organise 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 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 ...

begun, Rahja was wounded in the

Battle of Kämärä The Battle of Kämärä was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle fought at the Kämärä (now Gavrilovo, Leningrad oblast, Russia) railway station on 27 January 1918 between the Whites and the Reds. The battle began as a White Guard battalion from V ...

and stayed in the hospital until the end of war in May 1918. Following the defeat, Rahja fled to the

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

and became a founding member of the

Finnish Communist Party 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 ...

(SKP). He was a delegate for the SKP and the First and Second congresses of the

Third International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...

.''Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern'' By Branko M. Lazić, Milorad M. Drachkovitch,

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...

Press, 1987 On 31 August 1920, during the

Kuusinen Club Incident 300px, The Kuusinen Club was located in Kamenno-ostrovski prospekt 26–28, in Saint Petersburg The Kuusinen Club Incident ( fi, Kuusisen klubin murhat) was the murder of eight members of the Finnish Communist Party in the Kuusinen Club (their Sai ...

, Rahja was murdered by the Petrograd Opposition, a faction within the SKP. This so-called "revolver opposition" consisted mainly of students of the Petrograd Red Officer School. The word "Rahjaism" was used to describe the politics of the brothers, who were usually in conflict with their comrades and attracted many enemies. The Rahjas were involved in smuggling, black-marketing, horse-trading and counterfeiting, for example, and they were accused of corruption, extravagant life and

drunkenness Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ...

in the SKP.

References

1887 births 1920 deaths People from Kronstadt People from Petergofsky Uyezd Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks Communist Party of Finland politicians 20th-century Finnish politicians Finnish people murdered abroad People murdered in the Soviet Union Finnish emigrants to the Soviet Union Burials on the Field of Mars (Saint Petersburg) {{Finland-bio-stub