Santeri "Santtu" Nuorteva (born Alexander Nyberg; 29 June 1881 – 31 March 1929) 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 ...

-born

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

journalist and one of the first members of the

Finnish Parliament The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...

, where he served as 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 ...

from 1907 to 1908 and 1909 to 1910. Nuorteva emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in 1911 and played a leading role in the sizable Finnish-language socialist movement in America. At various times, he edited the magazines ''Säkeniä'' ("The Spark") and the newspapers ''Toveri'' ("The Comrade") and '' Raivaaja'' ("The Pioneer"). He was the official spokesman in America for the Finnish Socialist Revolutionary government of 1918 and, after its overthrow, was influential in the official affairs of the government of

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

in the United States. In 1920, he was deported to Soviet Russia. His daughter was the famous Finnish-Soviet spy

Kerttu Nuorteva Kerttu Nuorteva (November 10, 1912 in Astoria, Oregon, United States – August 29, 1963 in Karaganda, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union) was a Soviet intelligence agent. She was the daughter of Santeri Nuorteva, the president of ...

Early life

Santeri was named Alexander Nyberg when he was born in Viipuri,

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecess ...

, on June 29, 1881. His father, Claes Fredrik Nyberg, was a

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

officer and his mother was the

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

-born Anna Aleksandrovna Saharova. Even before graduating from high school, Santeri had been working in a shop and as a

seaman Seaman may refer to: * Sailor, a member of a marine watercraft's crew * Seaman (rank), a military rank in some navies * Seaman (name) (including a list of people with the name) * ''Seaman'' (video game), a 1999 simulation video game for the Seg ...

and

boilerman A fireman, stoker or watertender is a person whose occupation it is to tend the fire for the running of a boiler, heating a building, or powering a steam engine. Much of the job is hard physical labor, such as shoveling fuel, typically coal, into ...

. After graduating high school in 1904, he started to work as a teacher and journalist in

Forssa Forssa is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located almost in the centre of a triangle defined by the three largest major cities in Finland (Helsinki, Turku and Tampere), in the Tavastia Proper region, and which is crossed by Highway 2 ...

. He was a language teacher at the Forssa primary school in 1904 to 1907 and editor of the ''Forssa News'' in 1904 to 1906. After leaving Forssa, Nuorteva worked as journalist for the magazine ''Socialist'' in

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''; ...

in 1908 and then as editor of the magazine ''Kansan'' in

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 ...

in 1909 to 1911. Nuorteva was imprisoned for lèse majesté in 1909.

Political career

Nyberg took the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

Santeri Nuorteva in 1906, during the period of the

Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

in the Russian Empire, which included Finland. He became a member of the

in 1907 and served there until 1910. Nuorteva immigrated to the

in 1911, where he instantly became a leading member of the

Finnish Socialist Federation The Finnish Socialist Federation () was a language federation of the Socialist Party of America which united Finnish language-speaking immigrants in the United States in a national organization designed to conduct propaganda and education for social ...

in America and one of its most prominent spokesmen. He worked as editor of the daily newspaper ''Toveri'' ("The Comrade") in

Astoria, Oregon Astoria is a port city and the seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The county is the northwest corne ...

in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Thou ...

from 1912 to 1913. He left for the East coast to edit the monthly magazine ''Säkeniä'' ("The Spark") and worked on the editorial staff of ''Raivaaja'' ("The Pioneer"). 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 ...

, Nuorteva was the

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassado ...

of the

Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR), more commonly referred to as Red Finland, was a self-proclaimed Finland, Finnish socialist state that ruled parts of the country during the Finnish Civil War of 1918. It was outlined on 29 January 1 ...

in Washington, DV, in 1918 to 1919. On May 10, 1918, when the government that Nuorteva represented had been overthrown, an audience of socialists filled New York City's

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

to hear him denounce the Finnish anti-Bolsheviks as allies of the German Junker class and not friends of America and its allies, as they claimed. Implicitly defending the recent

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (also known as the Treaty of Brest in Russia) was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Russia and the Central Powers ( Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), that ended Russi ...

, which marked Soviet Russia's exit from the war against Germany, he hailed the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia as the greatest threat to Germany: "Today the Socialist Republic flag of Russia floats over a Socialist embassy in Berlin, a terrible symbol of the greatest menace to the German rulers, for this flag represents the power of a great popular idea that involves the complete destruction of kaiserism and junkerdom and all their works." He campaigned for US diplomatic recognition of the Soviet government. On September 21, 1918, the ''

New York Evening Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established i ...

'' charged that he was the author and fabricator of the

Sisson Documents The Sisson Documents () are a set of 68 Russian-language documents obtained in 1918 by Edgar Sisson, the Petrograd representative of the United States Committee on Public Information. Published as ''The German-Bolshevik Conspiracy'', they purported ...

, a controversial set of Russian-language papers that, if genuine, proved that the German General Staff had financed the Russian Revolution and that both Lenin and Trotsky were German agents.For Nuorteva to participate in such an attempt to discredit the Russian Revolution would give credence to later suggestions that he was an anti-Bolshevik. ''New York Times''
"Nuorteva Reported an Anti-Soviet Spy," May 24, 1921
accessed February 25, 2010. Eventually, he became the information chief of the Russian Information Bureau, the de facto embassy of the Russian government, in 1919 to 1920, as assistant to

Ludwig Martens Ludwig Christian Alexander Karl Martens (or Ludwig Karlovich Martens; russian: Людвиг Карлович Мартенс; – 19 October 1948) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary, Soviet diplomat and engineer. Biography Early years Ludwig Mar ...

, the unrecognized Soviet ambassador and a controversial figure in America. In 1918, he also collaborated on a translation into English of Lenin's " Letter to American Workers." In 1920, Nuorteva left the United States by traveling first to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

and then to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, where he was deported after 10 days to

, the destination that he requested, rather than a return to the US.''New York Times''
"British Deport Nuorteva" July 17, 1920
accessed February 25, 2010

Soviet years

Back in Soviet Russia, Nuorteva was made the head of the Anglo-American Division of the

People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of External Relations (MER) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (russian: Министерство иностранных дел СССР) was founded on 6 July 1923. It had three names during its existence: People's Co ...

."Says Nuorteva Gave Life for Working Class," ''The Daily Worker,'' vol. 6, no. 30 (April 10, 1930), pp. 1, 3. In 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 nationa ...

, Nuorteva was again briefly arrested and jailed in 1921 to 1922. After his release, he worked as the manager in the

Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic The Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ( rus, Каре́льская Автоно́мная Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респу́блика, r=Karelskaya Avtonomnaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respub ...

in Petroskoi in 1922. After he returned to

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 ...

, Nuorteva worked as a journalist and as the commissar of

Anglo-American Anglo-Americans are people who are English-speaking inhabitants of Anglo-America. It typically refers to the nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who spe ...

department in

in 1923 to 1924, when

Rosta Rosta may refer to: * Rosta, Iran, a historical district in Isfahan area in Iran * Rosta, Piedmont, a ''comune'' in the province of Turin, Piedmont, Italy ** Rosta railway station * Rosta, Republic of Dagestan, a rural locality in Russia * Rosta, � ...

, the Soviet news agency, sent Nuorteva for a short time to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

as its representative. After working there, Nuorteva became the chairman of the Soviet Karelian Central Committee in 1924 to 1927.

Death and legacy

Nuorteva died on March 31, 1929 in

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 ...

while he worked for the editor of the Soviet dictionary.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nuorteva, Santeri 1881 births 1929 deaths Writers from Vyborg Finnish people of Russian-Jewish descent People from Viipuri Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Social Democratic Party of Finland politicians Finnish communists Members of the Parliament of Finland (1907–08) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1909–10) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1910–11) People of the Finnish Civil War (Red side) Soviet politicians Finnish Marxist writers People from Astoria, Oregon Socialist Party of America politicians from Oregon Soviet journalists Male journalists Finnish emigrants to the Soviet Union Finnish emigrants to the United States People deported from the United States 20th-century journalists