Tuure Valdemar Lehén (28 April 1893 – 12 October 1976) was a prominent Finnish communist and later Finnish-
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
politician as well as a philosopher, journalist and historian.
Biography
Lehén was born in to family of a carpenter. In 1915 he entered the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...
and studied in its Faculty of Philosophy. Initially, in 1913–18 as a member of the
Social Democratic Party of Finland
The Social Democratic Party of Finland ( , SDP, nicknamed: ''demarit'' in Finnish; , SD) is a social democratic political party in Finland. It is the third-largest party in the Parliament of Finland with a total of 43 seats.
Founded in 1899 as ...
, and since 1918 as a member of the Communist Party of Finland. After the Civil War he underwent training in the
Frunze Military Academy
The M. V. Frunze Military Academy (), or in full the Military Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Academy in the name of M. V. Frunze (), was a military academy of the Soviet and later the Russian Armed Forces ...
. He first came to prominence by writing texts on mob fighting and strike tactics, and in 1926 married Hertta Kuusinen.
From 1925 he was an illegal activist of the Communist Party of Germany for the
Communist International
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...
. Lehén also fought in the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
and was among the chief of staff of the
International Brigades
The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...
. Returning to Moscow in 1927, he was appointed head of the Central Military-Political School of the
Executive Committee of the Communist International
The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI (Russian acronym ИККИ - for ), was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI, established by the Fo ...
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
for Finland in December 1939. He was also the first rector (1940–41) of Karelo-Finnish, now Petrozavodsk State University. After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
he became a general in the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
.
After the war in 1946, Lehén returned to Finland and continued his research work as the director of the publishing company Kansankulttuuri. Lehén's works interpreting
Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
Marxism–Leninism
Marxism–Leninism () is a communist ideology that became the largest faction of the History of communism, communist movement in the world in the years following the October Revolution. It was the predominant ideology of most communist gov ...
. The most famous of Lehén's philosophical and political works was the ''Working Class Worldview'', written in the late 1940s.
Lehén bore the title of Honorary Doctor of
Moscow State University
Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
. He died in 1976 in Helsinki and was buried at the Malmi Cemetery.
Works
*''The Road to Victory'' (originally ''Der Weg zum Sieg'' ; pseudonym Alfred Langer). Published in German in 1926, in Finnish in 1928 and 1932.
*''Työväenluokan maailmankatsomus: Luentoja dialektisesta materialismista''. 2. painos 1950. Helsinki: Kansankulttuuri, 1950.
*''Kommunismi ja kristinusko''. 2. painos 1953. Helsinki: Kansankulttuuri, 1951.
*''Kansa ja valtio: Luentoja marxilaisen valtio-opin alkeista''. Helsinki: Kansankulttuuri, 1952.
*''Työväenluokan maailmankatsomus: Luentoja dialektisesta materialismista''. 3. uusittu ja täydennetty painos. Kotka: .n. 1959. Teoksen verkkoversio.
*''Työväenluokan maailmankatsomus: Luentoja dialektisesta materialismista''. 4. painos. Helsinki: Kansankulttuuri, 1962.
*''Materialisteja ja idealisteja: Tutustumisretki filosofian historiaan''. Helsinki: Kansankulttuuri, 1964.
*''Työväenluokan maailmankatsomus: Luentoja dialektisesta materialismista''. Työväenliikkeen tietokirjoja, Taskusarja. 5. painos. – 6. painos 1972. – 7. painos 1976. Helsinki: Kansankulttuuri, 1971.
*''Vallankaappaushölmöily 1948''. Kansankulttuuri 1948.
*''Kansa ja valtio'' (neuvostomarxismin mukaista valtio-oppia)
*''Punaisten ja valkoisten sota''. Kansankulttuuri 1967.