1918: Edla Sofia Hjulgrén, Finnish parliamentarian
1 comment May 22nd, 2018 Headsman
One hundred years ago today, former Member of Parliament Edla Sofia Hjulgrén was shot during the Finnish Civil War.
A labor activist for many years, Hjulgrén (English Wikipedia entry | the vastly more detailed Finnish) won election to the Eduskunta in 1913 as a Social Democrat.*
At the time, Finland was still a Grand Duchy within tsarist Russia. When the Russian revolutionaries who conquered power in St. Petersburg in 1917 proved reluctant to agree to Finnish independence, the Finns just declared it, and a civil war ensued in the first months of 1918 — between Soviet-backed Red Guards and German-backed White Guards.
The Whites won a nasty war thick with atrocities on both sides. Although she was a pacifist, our Sofia Hjulgrén was among hundreds of Red supporters swept up after the decisive Battle of Vyborg clinched White victory. She was shot there — it’s Viipuri to the Finns, and Vyborg to the Russians — in the cemetery. The Soviets got Vyborg back in a subsequent war with Finland, and erected a monument there to the hundreds of victims of the Whites’ April-May 1918 Vyborg Massacre.
* Finland boasts of being the first legislature in the world with full gender equality — meaning that, as of 1906, women enjoyed full equality both to vote and to stand for office. Women comprised above a tenth of its parliamentary delegates on the eve of Finland’s independence.
On this day..
- 2002: Johnny Joe Martinez - 2020
- 1538: John Forest and the image of Saint Derfel Gadarn - 2019
- 1889: Fulgence-Benjamin Geomay, at the Paris Exposition - 2017
- 1916: Four French soldiers of the 96 RI - 2016
- 1929: Nikolaus Karlovich von Meck, wrecker - 2015
- 1824: Antonio Brochetti, galley-dodger - 2014
- 1942: Stjepan Filipovic, "death to fascism, freedom to the people!" - 2013
- 1856: Casey and Cora, by the San Francisco Vigilance Committee - 2012
- 2001: Terrance Anthony James, snitch-killer - 2011
- 1393: The Muzaffarids, by Timur - 2010
- 1946: Karl Hermann Frank - 2009
- 1833: Midgegooroo, Noongar rebel - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,Finland,History,Occupation and Colonialism,Politicians,Power,Russia,Shot,USSR,Wartime Executions,Women
Tags: 1910s, 1918, civil war, finnish civil war, may 22, sofia hjulgren, vyborg
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