Erkki Raatikainen

Erkki Raatikainen (1930–2011) was a Finnish journalist and politician. He served as the secretary of Social Democratic Party (SDP) between 1966 and 1969.

Early life and education Raatikainen was born in Jyväskylä on 24 May 1930. He published several editorials in the SDP publication Sosialistinen aikakauslehti. He was replaced by Kalevi Sorsa in the post. Yle was subject to censorship particularly about the reports on the Soviet Union. In one of such cases Raatikainen had to apologise for the Yle reporters’ work due to a letter from the Finnish President in 1971. He remained in office until 1979 when Sakari Kiuru was named as the head of Yle. One of the publications Raatikainen contributed to was Apu magazine.

Views During his term as secretary of the SDP Raatikainen adopted the idea of societal rationalization borrowed from the Swedish social democrats which was about extensive economic planning going beyond the individual industrial sectors.