Olga Lydia Terho (née Virtanen) was a Finnish politician. She represented the Finnish People's Democratic League in parliament 1945–1948. Olga Virtanen was born on 23 July 1910 in Siikainen, a rural village in south-western Finland.Eduskunta.
Olga Terho
' Her parents were Evert Virtanen and Hilma Kaisantytär, and she grew up in a tenant peasant family. She completed four years of elementary school. She began as a seamstress working at age of 15. In 1929 she moved to

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

. In Lahti she became involved in left-wing politics, joining a leftist sports club and an association to support political prisoners. She befriended Väino Sievänen, who invited her to become a member of the District Committee of the underground

Communist Party of Finland 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). Olga Virtanen was a political prisoner 1932–1933, 1936-1940 and 1941–1944. In 1932 she was arrested by the Detective Central Police. She spent months in jail before being given a suspended eight-month sentence in 1933. After leaving jail Virtanen migrated to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Soviet Union 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 national ...

. In Leningrad she attended a party school. The party school was closed down in June 1936. Virtanen returned to Finland in October 1936. She was pregnant at the time, the father of her child was killed in a purge. She was again arrested and sentenced to four years in jail for treason in January 1937. She and her baby were held at

Hämeenlinna prison Hämeenlinna (; sv, Tavastehus; krl, Hämienlinna; la, Tavastum or ''Croneburgum'') is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Tavastia and the modern province of Kanta-Häme in the south of ...

. In 1939 Sievänen helped arrange for her child to stay with a foster family in Lahti. Virtanen was released in the fall of 1940, but was restricted from leaving

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

and could rarely see her child. In Helsinki she became an activist in the Society for Peace and Friendship between Finland and the Soviet Union. In October 1941 she was again arrested and sentenced to eight years imprisonment for treason. Virtanen was released from jail after the 1944 armistice. Soon after returning to Helsinki the Communist Party sent her to work as organizer in south-western Finland. She married Martti Rafael Terho in 1945. Olga Terho was elected to parliament in the

1945 Finnish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 17 and 18 March 1945. The broad-based centre-left government of Prime Minister Juho Kusti Paasikivi (National Coalition/Independent) remained in office after the elections. Background The communists ...

, standing as a SKDL candidate in the Turku North I constituency. Olga Terho was a member of the

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

municipal council. She died on November 22, 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Terho, Olga 1910 births 2003 deaths People from Siikainen People from Turku and Pori Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Communist Party of Finland politicians Finnish People's Democratic League politicians Political prisoners in Finland Finnish prisoners and detainees Members of the Parliament of Finland (1945–1948) Finnish emigrants to the Soviet Union