Emma "Emmi" Serafia Mäkelin (1 April 1874 – 6 August 1962) was a Finnish

midwife A midwife (: midwives) is a health professional who cares for mothers and Infant, newborns around childbirth, a specialisation known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughou ...

and politician who served in the

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

from 1922 until 1923. A member of the communist Socialist Workers' Party of Finland, she represented the western portion of the Kuopio Province.

Biography

Emma Serafia Mäkelin was born on 1 April 1874, in the town of Lappi, Finland, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Her father, Karl Fredrik Lindeman, was a construction foreman. She received a secondary school education, and became a certified

in 1904. She worked as a midwife in the central city of

Kuopio Kuopio ( , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately , while the Kuopio sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mos ...

from 1904 until 1931. Following Finland's independence from Russia in 1917, Mäkelin became involved in the politics of the new nation. She joined the communist Socialist Workers' Party of Finland (SSTP), and was elected to the Kuopo City Council in 1918. She was also a member of the , though she left the organization in 1920 following a split between the communists and

social democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

. In the 1922 Finnish parliamentary election, Mäkelin was elected to the

, representing the western portion of the Kuopio Province. Mäkelin was one of six female SSTP MPs, and was the most educated and oldest of the group. Later in 1922, Mäkelin was part of a group of 25 communist MPs who proposed the creation of a new Finnish Socialist Soviet Republic. She was arrested in August 1923 during a , though she was released the following year. In October 1923, while imprisoned, she was expelled from parliament. Mäkelin continued working as a midwife after retiring from politics. She died on 6 August 1962 in

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Central Finland. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Jyväskylä is approximately , while the Jyväskylä sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mäkelin, Emmi 1874 births 1962 deaths Finnish midwives Members of the Parliament of Finland (1922–1924) 20th-century Finnish women politicians Socialist Workers Party of Finland politicians Political prisoners in Finland Finnish prisoners and detainees Women members of the Parliament of Finland Finnish city councillors Finnish communists People from Rauma, Finland People from Kuopio