Aleksandra Lehtinen (10 January 1859 – 5 September 1954) was a Finnish politician and trade unionist. A member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

, she was elected to

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

in 1907 as one of the first group of female MPs, remaining in parliament until 1910.

Biography

Lehtinen was born in

Parikkala Parikkala () is a municipality of Finland located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the South Karelia region, from Lappeenranta and from Joensuu. The town center of Parikkala is about from the Russian border. The municipality ...

in 1873.Sandra Lehtinen
Parliament of Finland She worked as a servant and seamstress in

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

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

, before becoming an organiser and speaker for the Social Democratic Party in 1903. In 1905 she was a member of the committee that organised a

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

. Lehtinen contested the 1907 elections on the party's list in North Häme and was one of 19 women elected to parliament. She was re-elected in 1908 and

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Januar ...

, serving until February 1910. During her time in parliament she sat on the Editorial Affairs, Legal Affairs and Municipal committees. She was also a member of the

City Council of Helsinki The City Council of Helsinki (, ) is the main decision-making organ in the local politics of Helsinki, Finland. The City Council deals with issues such as city planning, schools, health care, and public transport. The 85-seat Council's members a ...

. After leaving parliament, she was a spokeswoman for the Social Democratic Women's League and served as its secretary between 1916 and 1918. Her husband

Jussi Jussi () is a male given name. In Finnish originally it is short for Juhani or Juho, Finnish for Johannes/John, but is also recognized as a name in its own right for official purposes. It can also be short for Justus, or a Finnish form of Justin. ...

was elected to parliament in 1917. Following 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 ...

, the couple moved to Buy in Russia, where she became head of a children's home. However, she returned to Finland three years later, becoming an organiser for the Socialist Workers' Party. Lehtinen also became an organiser for the Food Workers' Union and was a speaker for the Workers' Abstinence Federation between 1925 and 1929. In 1929 she was imprisoned for her political views. After being released in 1932,The first women Members of Parliament in Finland, 1907-1908
University of Helsinki she moved to the

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 ...

the following year, living in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (russian: Петрозаводск, p=pʲɪtrəzɐˈvotsk; Karelian, Vepsian and fi, Petroskoi) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population ...

. She returned to Finland again in 1945 and died in Helsinki in 1954. Her daughter

Inkeri Ingria is a historical region in what is now northwestern European Russia. It lies along the southeastern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordered by Lake Ladoga on the Karelian Isthmus in the north and by the River Narva on the border with Esto ...

was an activist for the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lehtinen, Sandra 1873 births 1954 deaths People from Parikkala People from Viipuri Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Social Democratic Party of Finland politicians Socialist Workers Party of Finland politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (1907–08) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1908–09) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1909–10) Women members of the Parliament of Finland Finnish trade unionists People of the Finnish Civil War (Red side) Finnish expatriates in Russia Finnish expatriates in the Soviet Union Prisoners and detainees of Finland 20th-century Finnish women politicians