Toivo Tuomas Savolainen, later Karanko (20 September 1891
Nurmes
Nurmes is a town and municipality of Finland, located in the county of North Karelia. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which
is water. The
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 ...
) was a Finnish Jäger captain and a journalist.Suomen jääkärien elämäkerrasto 1938Suomen jääkärien elämäkerrasto 1975
Studies
Savolainen enrolled as a student at Nurmes Co-educational School in 1913 and joined the Karelian Association. He attended the Finnish Artillery School in 1918 and the Field Artillery Shooting School in 1923, as well as the refresher course for officers of the Defense Forces Officers' School in 1924. He continued his studies at the University of Helsinki in 1930.
In Germany
Savolainen volunteered to join the 27th Jäger Battalion for training and military experience on November 23. He took part in the fighting in the First World War on the eastern front of Germany in the battles of Misse River, the Gulf of Riga and the
Christmas Battles
The Christmas Battles ( lv, Ziemassvētku kaujas; german: Aa-Schlachten; russian: Митавская операция) were offensive operations of the Russian army and Latvian units during World War I in the area of Jelgava, Latvia, by the R ...
at river Aa. He also completed a special sabotage course in Polangen in 1917.
Finnish Civil War
Savolainen arrived in Finland with the main group of Jägers, promoted to non-commissioned officer on 25 February 1918. He was assigned to the 2nd Jäger Battery and took part in battles in Länkipohja, Pitkäjärvi,
Orivesi
Orivesi () is a town and a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality official language is monoling ...
,
Kangasala
Kangasala is a city in Finland which is situated about 16 kilometres East of Tampere. The city was founded in 1865 and had a population of people as of . Kangasala covers an area of of which is water. The population density is .
Finnish auth ...
and
Lempäälä
Lempäälä (; Swedish also ) is a municipality in the Pirkanmaa region of Finland with inhabitants (). Lempäälä is located south of the city of Tampere. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. The population density is .
Th ...
and Tampere. In the reorganization of the artillery after the conquest of
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 ...
, he was placed as the division director in the 4th battery of the 2nd Jäger Battery of the newly formed Jäger Artillery Brigade and took part in the battles in Kämärvi and
Vyborg
Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...
.
Between the wars
Karanko left the army in 1921 and became the chief of the
Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...
White Guard 8th district, until he returned to the service in 1922. He moved from
Pielisjärvi
Pielisjärvi is a former municipality in the region of North Karelia in Finland. The municipality had inhabitants in 1970. Pielisjärvi was a Finnish-speaking municipality.
Pielisjärvi municipality was joined with the city of Lieksa in 197 ...
to
Jämsä
Jämsä () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Central Finland region, about southwest of Jyväskylä. The municipality has a population of (), which make it the second largest town of the Central Finland after Jyväskyl ...
in 1927, where he worked as a teacher of gymnastics and health education at Jämsä Co-educational School and Real High School until 1928. He later worked in the newspaper industry and was a journalist for the domestic news department at
Helsingin Sanomat
''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...
from 1929 to 1930. He next became a journalist for Ajan Sana ltd and joined the main committee of the Finno-Ugric Cultural Congress the following year. In 1932 he joined Publishing Company Vasara, a publishing company that published Nazi and anti-Semitic literature, and in 1934 he became editor-in-chief of Siniristi, a nazi magazine.Jari Hanski: Juutalaisvastaisuus suomalaisissa aikakauslehdissä ja kirjallisuudessa 1918–1944. Kirja kerrallaan, Helsinki 2006.
Karanko translated
Erich Ludendorff
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general, politician and military theorist. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. ...
's book "Threat of a World War on German Land" and
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
's book
On the Jews and Their Lies
''On the Jews and Their Lies'' (german: Von den Jüden und iren Lügen; in modern spelling ) is a 65,000-word anti-Judaic and antisemitic treatise written in 1543 by the German Reformation leader Martin Luther (1483–1546).
Luther's attitude t ...
. In the preface to Luther's book, he supported Luther's proposed actions against the Jews and considered the book's message particularly topical.
Winter and Continuation War
Karanko took part in the Winter War as the commander of the supply center of 4th Division. During the Continuation War he was inspector of the Prisoner of War Camps number 2 and 4.
Family
His parents were primary school teacher, farmer Pekka Savolainen and Aina Maria Piironen. He was married in 1924 to Gerda Fredrika Magdalena Saxberg. Karanko was the stepfather of
Ole Torvalds
Ole Torvalds (4 August 1916 – 8 February 1995) was a Finnish-Swedish journalist and poet. He was the father of journalist-politician Nils Torvalds and grandfather of software engineer Linus Torvalds famous for the Linux kernel.
His full name w ...
, who was the father of politician
Nils Torvalds
Nils Ole Hilmer Torvalds (born 7 August 1945) is a Finnish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2012. He is a member of the Swedish People's Party of Finland, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for ...
and the grandfather of software engineer
Linus Torvalds
Linus Benedict Torvalds ( , ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and, historically, the lead developer of the Linux kernel, used by Linux distributions and other operating systems such as Android. He also c ...
famous for the
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...
.
Awards
*Cross of Freedom 4th class with swords
*Medal of Freedom 2nd class
*Commemorative medal of the War of Freedom with clasp
*Commemorative medal of the Winter War
*Jäger medal
*German Honor Cross of the Participants of the Great War
Sources
*Puolustusministeriön Sotahistoriallisen toimiston julkaisuja IV, Suomen jääkärien elämäkerrasto, WSOY Porvoo 1938.
*Sotatieteen Laitoksen Julkaisuja XIV, Suomen jääkärien elämäkerrasto 1975, Vaasa 1975 .