Kössi Kaatra

Gustaf Adolf Lindström (6 November 1882 – 15 November 1928), better known under his pen name Kössi Kaatra, was a Finnish working-class poet, journalist and theatre director.

Biography He was born into a poor working-class family. He became an orphan. As a child, he earned his living by working as a street vendor of newspapers.

In 1899 Kaatra became a lawyer for a law firm. From that period he began to take part in the labor movement. In 1902, he debuted as a poet and wrote in the style of Neo-romanticism.

From 1903 to 1910 he was a journalist and director of the Workers' Theater in Tampere. On November 14, 1905 (November 1 O.S.), he was a leading member of the general strike and it the balcony of Tampere City Hall, he read out the "Red Declaration" (Manifesto of the Finnish People) demanding civil liberties, democracy and labor rights. After the strike, Kaatra started to focus on directing and worked as theatre director in the Tampere Workers' Theatre.

After the February Revolution, Kaatra began to write essays and poetry once. During the Finnish Civil War, his dacha in Oulu was taken over by the White forces. He managed to survive the White Terror by hiding in the attic of his dacha.

Kaatra managed to escape to Sweden where he settled and continued his literary activities until his death in 1928.

Selected works

Kynnyksellä, poetry. 1903 Elämästä, poetry. 1904 Runoja. 1905 Kyttä, poetry. 1906 Kahleet pois! 1906 Murroksessa, poetry. 1906 Suurlakkokuvia. 1906 Punaiset ja valkoiset, novel. 1919 Suuririkos. 1921 Alhaisolauluja, poetry. 1922 Ihmisen kauneuteen! 1923. Äiti ja poika, 1924 Soi vapun virsi, poetry. 1926 Sä syty vapahduksen haltioon! poetry. 1926 Alhaisolauluja: selected 1903-1927. 1978.