Väinö Alfred Tanner (; 12 March 1881 – 19 April 1966; surname until 1895 ''Thomasson'') was a leading figure in the Social Democratic Party of Finland, and a pioneer and leader of the cooperative movement in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. He was

Prime Minister of Finland The prime minister of Finland (; ) is the leader of the Finnish Government. The prime minister and his or her cabinet exercise executive authority in the state. The prime minister is formally ranked third in the protocol after the president ...

in 1926–1927.

Biography

Tanner was born in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

as the son of a railway brakesman of modest means. After matriculating from Ressu Upper Secondary School in 1900, he studied at the business college ''Suomen Liikemiesten Kauppaopisto'' (one of two predecessors of the present-day Business College Helsinki). He also studied law, graduating as a

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

in 1911. Tanner started work as a trainee at the ''Großeinkaufs-Gesellschaft Deutscher Consumvereine (GEG)'' in Hamburg, Germany, while still a student, and in 1903, after returning to Finland, became manager of ''Turun Vähäväkisten Osuusliike'', then the largest cooperative retail society in Finland. He was later appointed to the supervisory board of the Helsinki-based cooperative ''Elanto'' in 1907, and also became chairman of ''

Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta The S Group (, ) is a Finland, Finnish retailing cooperative organisation with its head office in Helsinki. Founded in 1904, it consists of 19 regional cooperatives operating all around Finland in addition to SOK, ''Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskus ...

(SOK)'' in 1909 and CEO of ''Elanto'' in 1915. He also served as president of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) from 1927 until 1945. He did not participate in the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...

, maintaining a neutral attitude. When the war ended he became Finland's leading Social Democratic Party (SDP) politician, and a strong proponent of the

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their Election, democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of t ...

. His main achievement was the rehabilitation of the SDP after the Civil War. Väinö Tanner served as Prime Minister (1926–1927), Minister of Finance (1937–1939),

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

(1939–1940), and after the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

Minister of Trade and Industry (1941–1942) and Minister of Finance (1942–1944). Väinö Tanner's legacy is in his directing the Finnish working class from their extremist ideology towards pragmatic progress through the democratic process. Under his leadership the Social Democrats were trusted to form a minority government already less than 10 years after the bloody civil war. Tanner's minority socialist government passed a series of important social reforms during its time in office, which included a liberal amnesty law, reduced duties on imported foods, and pension and health insurance laws. During President Relander's brief illness Tanner, who held the post of prime minister, was even the acting president and Commander-In-Chief. In this role he even received the parade of the White guards on the 10th anniversary of the White victory. This was perceived as a remarkable development at the time. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Social Democrats formed several coalition governments with the Agrarian party. In the

Väinö Tanner was the foreign minister. Väinö Tanner's leadership was very important in forming the grounds and creating the Spirit of the Winter War which united the nation. After the end of the Continuation War, Tanner was tried for responsibility for the war in February 1946, and sentenced to five years and six months in prison.Political Paavo
''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', December 6, 1948 After the Continuation War, and while still in prison, Tanner became the virtual leader of a faction of the SDP which had strong support from the US. This faction eventually came out on top after a great deal of internal party strife lasting for much of the 1940s. Tanner criticised Finland's post-war doctrine known as Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine, in which Finnish foreign affairs were kept strictly neutral and friendly with the USSR. Tanner managed to return to the Finnish parliament as a representative in the 1951 parliamentary elections. The acting foreign minister at the time, Åke Gartz, insisted that the head of the Finnish Social Democratic Party Emil Skog should try to keep Tanner away from the party. Skog retorted by saying that if Tanner's candidacy was blocked for foreign policy reasons, anyone else's candidacy could be blocked in the upcoming election for any reason. Tanner would go on to win the 1957 SDP chairman election. Tanner won the race by 1 vote. The party was internally divided due to Tanner's controversial past and eventually some representatives seceded and formed a new party called the Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders aka TPSL. TPSL eventually reunited with SDP in December 1972. Tanner won his final SDP chairman election in 1960 and resigned from his parliamentary seat in 1962 and the SDP's chairmanship in 1963, hence becoming the last member of the Eduskunta (Finnish parliament) elected in Finland's first parliamentary election in 1907 to be involved in parliamentary work. Tanner is also the only Finnish politician to have served as a member of the Eduskunta for seven different decades, and is also one of only four Finnish politicians (the others being Veikko Vennamo, Paavo Väyrynen and Pekka Haavisto) to have been a candidate for President of Finland three times without winning. Due to his aforementioned criticism of the Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine, his relationship with the later-President of Finland

Urho Kekkonen Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (; 3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as Prime Minister ...

became extremely strained, and after Tanner died in 1966 Kekkonen did not attend his funeral because he was on a ski trip. Only with the blessing of a long-serving parliamentarian was the presidency allowed to be represented by an aide-de-camp and wreath at Tanner's funeral.

Personal life

Tanner met his future wife Linda (née Anttila; 1882–1978) in 1907 at a meeting of the Social Democratic Association of Students. They entered into a

common-law marriage Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, de facto marriage, more uxorio or marriage by habit and repute, is a marriage that results from the parties' agreement to consider themselves married, follo ...

in 1909 and formalised their marriage in 1918 after civil marriage was legalised in Finland. They had eight children, one of whom, (1912–1984), became a medical doctor and writer.

Cabinets

* Tanner Cabinet

References

*''The Winter War: Finland against Russia 1939–1940'' by Väinö Tanner (1957, Stanford University Press, California; also London)

External links