Alli Trygg-Helenius

Alli Trygg-Helenius (1852–1926) was a Finnish activist who worked with the temperance movement at the beginning of the 20th century, focusing especially on temperance work with children. In addition, she was a pioneer of the women's movement in Finland and a social activist responsible for the establishment of several organizations. Trygg-Helenius was the spouse and close colleague of Matti Helenius-Seppälä, who was influential in the temperance movement and the Christian labour movement.

Early life Maria Alexandra (Alli) Trygg was born on 16 July 1852 in Raisio in south-western Finland. Her parents were Captain Carl Oskar Trygg and Elisabet Alexandra Reis. She was the only girl of five children and spent her childhood in the countryside of Raisio as her family owned several farms. Her father had been in military service in Russia from 1855 and, after their mother's death in 1868, the children moved to the town of Oulu to live with their uncle, a saddler. Trygg first attended a German school in Turku in Finland, before continuing her studies in Oulu and then training to be a teacher in Ekenäs, graduating in 1874. Her father, who suffered bankruptcy, died in an explosion in 1888. Trygg fell in love with a cousin, son of the uncle who had taken the family in, and they were engaged to be married, but he died of typhoid.

Teaching career Trygg worked as a teacher for twenty years, at the Fagervik Ruukki School in Inkoo from 1874 to 1880 and in a working-class district of the Finnish capital of Helsinki from 1880 to 1894. On Sundays in Fagervik she gave lessons to the parents and was also the church organist. In addition to teaching, she earned extra income as a journalist. Although Trygg was from a Swedish-speaking family, she became an ardent supporter of the Fennoman movement the Finnish nationalism movement. However, she never learned to speak flawless Finnish. She later began to distance herself from the cautious line of the Women's Association and moved to a new kind of activism involving more concrete action, although she maintained her membership in the organization until the last years of her life. Trygg corresponded with Uno Cygnaeus, considered the father of the Finnish public school system, and with the rector of the University of Helsinki, Zachris Topelius, among others she had met during various seminars. In 1877, she took a trip to Copenhagen with a travel grant organized by Cygnaeus. a kindergarten, classrooms, an alcohol-free brewery, a cooperative, an employment agency and premises for workers' organizations. In addition, Trygg herself lived in the attic of the house in the early years. The Sörnäinen Workers' Association was founded on the premises of the people's home in 1894, and the founding of the Työmies magazine, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Finland took place there.