Word: svinhufvud
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...birthday present" money was raised this year by nation-wide subscription-on the distinct understanding that the President will donate his present to help fight tuberculosis (Finns being especially susceptible to this disease). Last week came the 70th birthday of a National Hero elected last February: President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud whom 4,000,000 Finns call Ukko Pekka ("Old Man Pehr''). Outside the little yellow Palace with its "palace guard" of two trig sentries, patriotic groups gathered one after another all day to warble...
President Svinhufvud is famed and beloved chiefly because his efforts to free the former Grand Duchy of Finland from Russia landed him at first in an even bleaker place than Finland, namely the Tsarist prisons of Siberia. In 1914 six Tsarist Secret Police marched into Judge Svinhufvud's Court, arrested him for sedition, chased everyone out of the courthouse, sealed it with the Double Eagle of Imperial Russia and lodged their prisoner in a Finnish jail whence he would be deported to Siberia. Indomitable Mrs. Svinhufvud took in boarders while her husband languished in Siberian exile, visited him every...
...collapse of Imperial Russia freed Prisoner Svinhufvud who was hailed as a hero on his return to Helsingfors. became President of the Senate (1917-18) and Regent of Finland (1918). Threatened by Red Russia. Regent Svinhufvud offered the Crown of Finland to Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, brother-in-law of Wilhelm II (who did not abdicate until November 1918). During the interval Prince Frederick Charles accepted Finland's Crown but delayed and dillydallied about going so far into the "bleak North" until too late. Temporarily, Finland went Red in spots. Several Finnish landowners were murdered in their beds...
Victory for the Allies and the appearance of a British expeditionary force in Finland were signals for Democracy. On June 17, 1919 the Finnish Diet proclaimed the present Finnish Republic and ex-Regent Svinhufvud took up the life of a country gentleman on his Finnish farm...
Eleven years later Finland again had need of Ukko Pekka, much as Republican Germany whose first president was the Socialist Friederich Ebert turned at last to the former Monarchist von Hindenburg. In 1930 Gentleman Farmer Svinhufvud became Premier. Early this year he who had been Regent was elected President. Under his frowning rule (for the steely eyes can be stern as well as twinkle) Communism has been made illegal in Finland, Communists punished or forced into other parties. "But we know where they are," rumbles the President contentedly, "We keep a good watch on those fellows...