Helmer Kalas

Kaarlo Helmer Kalas (former surname Kilkki ; 1 July 1921 – 1976) was a Finnish soldier, memoirist and spy.

Early life and World War II Kalas' parents were police constable August Evald Kilkki and Martta Huopalainen. Kalas graduated from high school in 1940 (transferred to the VII grade from Mikkeli Lyceum ). The work was ghostwritten by thriller writer Aarne Haapakoski. The book also appeared as a follow-up story in Kuvaposti.

In 1955, the Supreme Court sentenced Kalas to four years and two months in the penitentiary for going over to the enemy's side during the war, and the Helsinki Court of Appeals also sentenced Kalas to 18 months in the penitentiary for forging bills, which were combined into a five-year penitentiary sentence. However, Kalas fled to France, from where he moved in 1957 to West Germany and later to Gothenburg, Sweden. Around this time, Kalas joined the CIA to spy against the Soviet Union. In 1958, he recruited the Estonian emigrant Heinrich Mark as a spy for the CIA, who obtained information about Soviet Estonia. Kalas' wife finally turned him in by delivering a briefcase containing secret documents to the Swedish police. Kalas and Mark were imprisoned in January 1961. In March of the same year, Kalas was sentenced to ten months of forced labor, compensation of 5,000 kroner to the state and deportation from Sweden for espionage. Mark was sentenced to seven months of forced labor. Heinrich Mark later became the Prime Minister and President of the Estonian government-in-exile.