Gustaf Adolf Lindström (6 November 1882 – 15 November 1928), better known under his pen name Kössi Kaatra, was a Finnish working-class poet, journalist and theatre director.

Biography

He was born into a poor working-class family. He became an orphan. As a child, he earned his living by working as a street vendor of newspapers. In 1899 Kaatra became a lawyer for a law firm. From that period he began to take part in the labor movement. In 1902, he debuted as a poet and wrote in the style of Neo-romanticism. Kossi-Kaatra-1903

From 1903 to 1910 he was a journalist and director of the Workers' Theater in Tampere. On November 14, 1905 (November 1 O.S.), he was a leading member of the general strike and it the balcony of Tampere City Hall, he read out the "

Red Declaration The Red Declaration ( fi, punainen julistus) is a document published in Tampere on 14 November 1905, though it was dated under the "old style" calendar used in the Russian Empire at the time as 1 November 1905. It called for the Senate of Finland ...

" (Manifesto of the Finnish People) demanding civil liberties, democracy and labor rights. After the strike, Kaatra started to focus on directing and worked as theatre director in the Tampere Workers' Theatre. After the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

, Kaatra began to write essays and poetry once. During the Finnish Civil War, his dacha in Oulu was taken over by the White forces. He managed to survive the

White Terror White Terror is the name of several episodes of mass violence in history, carried out against anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, revolutionaries, or other opponents by conservative or nationalist groups. It is sometimes contrasted wit ...

by hiding in the attic of his dacha. Kaatra managed to escape to Sweden where he settled and continued his literary activities until his death in 1928.

Selected works

* ''Kynnyksellä'', poetry. 1903 * ''Elämästä'', poetry. 1904 * ''Runoja''. 1905 * ''Kyttä'', poetry. 1906 * ''Kahleet pois!'' 1906 * ''Murroksessa'', poetry. 1906 * ''Suurlakkokuvia''. 1906 * ''Punaiset ja valkoiset'', novel. 1919 * ''Suuririkos''. 1921 * Alhaisolauluja, poetry. 1922 * ''Ihmisen kauneuteen!'' 1923. * ''Äiti ja poika'', 1924 * ''Soi vapun virsi'', poetry. 1926 * Sä ''syty vapahduksen haltioon!'' poetry. 1926 * ''Alhaisolauluja'': selected 1903-1927. 1978.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaatra, Kossi 1882 births 1928 deaths 20th-century Finnish poets 20th-century Finnish novelists 20th-century Finnish journalists Finnish theatre directors Finnish socialists Social Democratic Party of Finland politicians Finnish emigrants to Sweden