Matti Väisänen (25 February 1887, in

Kaavi Kaavi is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Northern Savonia region. Kaavi is also a part of historical Karelia. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . It is fr ...

– 24 April 1939) 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 ...

trade union activist and politician. He sided with the

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863 * USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...

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 ...

in 1918 and after the defeat of the Red side he fled to

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

, from where he returned to

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 ...

in 1919. Väisänen was the chairman of the Finnish Trade Union Federation (SAJ) from 1920 to 1923. He served as a

Socialist Workers' Party of Finland Socialist Workers' Party of Finland ( fi, Suomen Sosialistinen Työväenpuolue, SSTP) was a Finnish political party in the early 1920s. The SSTP consisted of radical leftists who split from the Social Democratic Party of Finland after the Finnish ...

(SSTP) Member of 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 5 September until 20 December 1922, when he lost his seat. He was imprisoned on sedition charges in 1923. In the 1925 Finnish presidential election, while still in prison, he was the presidential candidate of the Socialist Electoral Organisation of Workers and Smallholders, receiving 6.6% of the vote. From 1929 to 1930, he was active in the short-lived Left Group of Finnish Workers.Eduskunta/Matti Väisänen
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References

1887 births 1939 deaths People from Kaavi People from Kuopio Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Socialist Workers Party of Finland politicians Socialist Electoral Organisation of Workers and Smallholders politicians Left Group of Finnish Workers politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (1922–24) Finnish trade union leaders People of the Finnish Civil War (Red side) Prisoners and detainees of Finland Finnish expatriates in Russia Finnish refugees Refugees in Russia {{Finland-politician-stub