Matti Turkia

Matti Turkia (26 February 187110 January 1946) was a Finnish newspaper editor, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), he represented Uusimaa Province between October 1930 and April 1945. He had previously represented Viipuri Province West from May 1907 to May 1909 and from February 1914 to April 1917. He was the son of crofter Esaias Turkia and Helena Kristiina Pekkala. The family moved to Halla near Kotka where Esaias Turkia worked in the local sawmill. After attending public school, Turkia, aged 12, started working at the Halla sawmill in 1883. The mill owners fired the strike organisers and conspired with other employers in the Kotka region to blacklist them. They had three children: Anna (b. 1902), Aune (b. 1905) and Aino (Salo) (b. 1906). He was re-elected at the 1908 and 1913 parliamentary elections.

Civil war and exile In May 1917 Turkia met Vladimir Lenin, who promised to support Finnish independence. He was also appointed to the Supreme Leading Committee of the Red Guards (the army of the revolutionary government). He was sentenced to 8½ years in prison. He received a presidential pardon on 10 February 1928 and had his citizenship and civic rights restored despite the opposition of the Supreme Court. He was released from Tammisaari concentration camp on 13 February 1928.

Turkia was editor of Suomen Sosialidemokraatti from 1928 to 1932. He was re-elected at the 1933, 1936 and 1939 parliamentary elections.

Turkia was a presidential elector at the 1931, 1937, 1940 and 1943 presidential elections.