Toivo Antikainen

Toivo Antikainen (, 8 June 1898 – 4 October 1941) was a Finnish-born communist and a military officer of the Soviet Red Army. He was one of the founders and leaders of the exiled Communist Party of Finland. Antikainen died in suspicious circumstances in the Soviet Union in 1941.

Biography Early years Toivo Antikainen was born to a working-class family in Helsinki. His parents were trade unionists and Toivo joined the Social Democratic youth organization at the age of 8. Antikainen went to school for six years and started working as he was 12. In the late 1910s, Antikainen had several posts in the Social Democratic organizations. As the Finnish Civil War broke out in January 1918, Antikainen served in the Red administration, but did not fight in the Red Guards. He also took part in the investigation of the Kuusinen Club Incident in 1920, and the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion a year later. After working as a lecturer in the Red Officer School, Antikainen was transferred to the Communist International in 1924. Since 1926 he gave lectures at the International Lenin School in Moscow. Antikainen was even noticed by the Finnish American volunteers of the Spanish Civil War, a machine gun company of the Abraham Lincoln brigade was named after him. Due to the Antikainen case, the Finnish right-wing was eager to bring back the capital punishment, but this was strongly rejected by the liberals who collected a petition of more than 120,000 names against the intention. Finally, Antikainen was sentenced for 8 years of a preparation of a high treason. In May 1937, the Supreme Court sentenced him a life in prison of the murder of Antti Marjoniemi, although there was only circumstantial evidence. In 1974, the Finnish-born KGB officer Toivo Vähä published his memoirs claiming that he had killed Marjoniemi with a knife by an order from Antikainen. This information, however, cannot be verified from other sources. It is also claimed that he was assassinated by the later head of the Soviet Union Yuri Andropov, because Antikainen tried to take his place in the Komsomol of the Soviet Karelo-Finnish Republic.

Antikainen is buried to the village of Kegostrov in Arkhangelsk Oblast (currently in the city of Arkhangelsk). Streets in Petrozavodsk, Segezha and Kostomuksha are named after Antikainen. In 1970, the cargo ship MS Toyvo Antikaynen was named in his honor.