Tuomas Wilho Hyrskymurto (September 14, 1881 – August 31, 1920) 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 ...

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

revolutionary who was originally a merchant from

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

. Hyrskymurto was born in Turku in 1881. He was in prison during the Hakaniemi skirmish in 1906. In 1917 he was a member of Turku

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 ...

city council's radical wing and one of the founders of the Turku

Red Guard Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...

. 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 ...

Hyrskymurto was in the Red Guard in Northern frontier as control commissar and member of the

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

Red Guard. At the start of the war, Hyrskymurto led the Turku Red Guard with 300 cavalries and occupied

Toijala railway station Toijala railway station (; ) is located in the Toijala district of the town of Akaa, Finland. The station is located at a crossing point of three different railway tracks: from Riihimäki to Tampere, from Turku to Toijala, and from Toijala to Val ...

on January 26, 1918. He also planned the Suinula massacre, which took place on January 31, where he ordered that the Red Guard should not take any prisoners. After the massacre, he was known as the "Butcher of Suinula". When the White Guard was besieging Tampere, Hyrskymurto left the city and went to

Toijala Toijala is a former town and municipality of Finland, located some south of Tampere. On 1 January 2007, it was consolidated with Viiala to form the town of Akaa. Toijala is known as an important railway crossroads. The Helsinki–Tampere and Tur ...

Red Guard commanders

Eino Rahja Eino Abramovich Rahja (20 June 1885 – 26 April 1936) was a Finnish-Russian revolutionary who joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, becoming aligned with the party's Bolshevik faction. Rahja organized Lenin's temporary escap ...

's deputy and tried to break the Tampere siege from the south. On April 20, he ordered the murder of 23 Mustiala agriculture students in Kuurila. After the war, Hyrskymurto fled to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Leaving Finland, Hyrskymurto left at the border a huge collection of Finnish and foreign

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

literature which was offered to the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

. The books were taken later to the university's library. In Soviet Russia, Hyrskymurto worked as the organizer of the

Finnish Communist Party 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 ...

central committee. He was one of the eight victims killed by Finnish Communists on August 31, 1920, in

Saint Petersburg 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 ...

during the

Kuusinen Club Incident 300px, The Kuusinen Club was located in Kamenno-ostrovski prospekt 26–28, in Saint Petersburg The Kuusinen Club Incident ( fi, Kuusisen klubin murhat) was the murder of eight members of the Finnish Communist Party in the Kuusinen Club (their Sai ...

. Hyrskymurto was buried at the

Monument to the Fighters of the Revolution The Monument to the Fighters of the Revolution (russian: Памятник Борцам Революции) is a memorial on the Field of Mars in Saint Petersburg. It marks the burial places of some of those who died during the February and Octobe ...

on the

Field of Mars The term Field of Mars ( la, Campus Martius) goes back to antiquity, and designates an area, inside or near a city, used as a parade or exercise ground by the military. Notable examples of places which were used for these purposes include: * Campus ...

in Saint Petersburg. His name is found located on the grave of the August Communards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyrskymurto, Tuomas 1881 births 1920 deaths People from Turku People from Turku and Pori Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Social Democratic Party of Finland politicians Communist Party of Finland politicians People of the Finnish Civil War (Red side) Finnish mass murderers Finnish people murdered abroad Burials on the Field of Mars (Saint Petersburg) Politicide perpetrators War criminals of World War I