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 the
Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and was parachuted into Finland by the
Soviet Airborne Troops
The Soviet Airborne Forces or VDV (from ''Vozdushno- desantnye voyska SSSR'', Russian: Воздушно-десантные войска СССР, ВДВ; Air-landing Forces) was a separate troops branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. First formed be ...
in 1942.
[ ] She was arrested and deported to the
Soviet Union at the end of the war.
Family and education
Nuorteva was born in
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria is a port city and the seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The county is the northwest corne ...
,
United States, where her father had lived since the 1910s, when he was deported from
Tampere,
Finland.
In the
Soviet Union, Santeri had a good relationship with
Lenin and became the president of
Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
Kerttu Nuorteva was raised and went to school in
Petrozavodsk and later attended university in
Leningrad. She married the Finnish-born Jalmari Aho, a member of the Finnish
Red Guards. She later married a journalist, Leo Varshavski.
In 1937, Nuorteva was accused of treason and arrested by the
NKVD. She was held for two years and then sentenced to three years at hard labor.
During the
Second World War, in December 1941, the NKVD suggested that she could join intelligence training and sent her on a mission to Finland. Her brothers Matti and Pentti had been sent on similar missions, but both were arrested in occupied Petrozavodsk and executed by the Finnish forces.
Mission in Finland
Nuorteva parachuted into
Vihti on March 30, 1942. Her mission was to acquire information about the
German troops in Finland and the political sentiment there.
She was to make contact with the
Social Democratic
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
politician
Väinö Tanner. For equipment, she had a
radio transmitter. One of her two contacts was the playwright and politician
Hella Wuolijoki
Hella Wuolijoki (née Ella Marie Murrik; 22 July 1886 – 2 February 1954), also known by the pen name Juhani Tervapää, was an Estonian-born Finnish writer known for her ''Niskavuori'' series.Wuolijoki, Hella. Eesti Entsüklopeedia 10. Estonian ...
, whose code name was "the Poet." Her jump was not well targeted, and she was dropped 100 km to the west of her final destination. Her parachute became trapped in a spruce tree, and she injured her foot as she disentangled herself. After the jump, she managed to find only the radio transmitter, and her other equipment were missing.
Nuorteva hid in a barn and ate chocolate and biscuits. The wrappers of the chocolate with
Russian-language text were later found, as well as a small tube of lipstick, which was used as evidence that a woman had been there. A Russian-language map of
Southern Finland
Southern Finland ( fi, Etelä-Suomen lääni, sv, Södra Finlands län) was a province of Finland from 1997 to 2009. It bordered the provinces of Western Finland and Eastern Finland. It also bordered the Gulf of Finland and Russia.
History
O ...
with markings was also found.
A beautiful and well-dressed woman got a ride from a young boy to the center of
Vihti. Her presence had already been noted earlier and she was suspected of being a "desant," as Soviet spies and saboteurs parachuted into Finland were called. The jump place was located, but the boy who had given Nuorteva a ride lied about her description.
Nuorteva's undercover mission was to work as a trainee cosmetician in a beauty salon in
Aleksanterinkatu
Aleksanterinkatu ( sv, Alexandersgatan; "Alexander Street") is a street in Kluuvi, the commercial centre of Helsinki, Finland. In the city plan by Carl Ludvig Engel, it was the ''Decumanus Maximus'', the main east–west street in the city, cross ...
,
Helsinki. Nuorteva's residence was located at Vuorimiehenkatu 19, in the district of
Ullanlinna. Nuorteva was discovered when her radio transmitter was found in a bag that she had left in a local laundry.
Nuorteva was arrested on September 7, 1942, as she came back to retrieve her radio.
Sentenced and prison time
Finnish Security Police
The Finnish Security Intelligence Service ( fi, Suojelupoliisi, Supo; ), formerly the Finnish Security Police, is the security and intelligence agency of Finland in charge of national security, such as counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism, ...
Valpo and Military Headquarters arranged her interrogation, but Nuorteva was silent for many months. She told her story only when the chief of the
Turku office of Valpo,
Paavo Kastari, brought
Arvo "Poika" Tuominen, an old friend of her father and a member of the
Communist Party of Finland who had begun to help the Finnish police, to the interrogations to talk with her.
Tuominen succeeded in convincing her that
Stalinism
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
had betrayed and destroyed communism and managed to crack her ideology. Nuorteva's worldview broke down, and psychologically broken, she confessed everything. Nuorteva was in medical treatment for two months for mental problems.
Nuorteva's information led to arrest of 11 persons, including
Hella Wuolijoki
Hella Wuolijoki (née Ella Marie Murrik; 22 July 1886 – 2 February 1954), also known by the pen name Juhani Tervapää, was an Estonian-born Finnish writer known for her ''Niskavuori'' series.Wuolijoki, Hella. Eesti Entsüklopeedia 10. Estonian ...
. Heikki Teerikangas, who had helped her to hide, was sentenced to death. Wuolijoki got a life sentence in penitentiary. Other persons got lesser sentences.
Nuorteva was sentenced in field court to
capital punishment,
which was confirmed by a court-martial. Relatives of Nuorteva, including her father's cousin, Professor Paul Nyberg, managed to postpone the execution.
In prison, Finnish Security Police arranged the author
Yrjö Kivimies to talk with Nuorteva. After the talks, Kivimies wrote her memoir under the pen name Irja Niemi, which was in 1944 published by Oy Suomen Kirja. The name of the book was ''Neuvostokasvatti''.
In 1944, Nuorteva was for a second time in medical treatment for mental problems, and during that time, she made a doll using her own hair. The doll is in Joroinen Defence Museum.
Nuorteva was offered a chance to move to a western country in the autumn of 1944. She decided not to leave and was deported to the
Soviet Union in 1944. She went to live in
Petropavlovsl, in
Kazakhstan, and in 1947, she was sentenced to ten years in the
gulag. After her release in 1954, she studied construction engineering and worked at
hydroelectric power stations. Nuorteva died in
Karaganda in 1963 after she had suffered from
meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or ...
.
In 2009, the Finnish film director
Jörn Donner made the film ''
Kuulustelu
''The Interrogation'' ( fi, Kuulustelu) is a 2009 Finnish war drama film directed by Jörn Donner.
The plot focuses on the interrogation of Kerttu Nuorteva (played by Minna Haapkylä, who won the Jussi Award for best lead actress for her perfor ...
'' about Nuorteva's interrogation.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuorteva, Kerttu
1912 births
1963 deaths
People from Astoria, Oregon
American people of Finnish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
People convicted of spying for the Soviet Union
American emigrants to the Soviet Union
Finnish spies for the Soviet Union