Fanni Luukkonen

Fanni Luukkonen
Born	Fanni Marie Luukkonen 13 March 1882
Died	October 27, 1947(1947-10-27) (aged 65)
Burial place	Kruununsaari cemetery, Ii, Finland
Citizenship	Finnish
Known for	Leader of Lotta Svärd

Fanni Luukkonen (13 March 1882 – 27 October 1947) was the longtime leader of the Finnish Lotta Svärd, a voluntary auxiliary organisation for women.

Early life and education

Fanni Marie Luukkonen was born in Helsinki, the middle child and only daughter of Katariina Sofia (née Palmgren) and Olli Luukkonen. She was born into what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous state ruled by the Russian Empire. The family moved to Oulu immediately after her birth with her older brother Mauritz Emil. The family lived on the island of Kiikel, off the coast of Oulur, where her father was a machine operator at the town's first electric power station. The family were religious (Protestant), supporters of temperance, and enjoyed spending time at sea, which had a lifelong impact on their daughter. The young Fanni was a good sailor and keen on sports, particularly gymnastics.

Luukkonen studied at the Oulu Girls' School where her class teacher was Angelika Wenell (1857-1940), a well-known advocate of pentecostalism, who had a strong influence on her future outlook. Luukkonen later studied at the Finnish Further Education College in Helsinki.

Teaching career

On 15 February 1899, the February Manifesto, a legislative act by Emperor of Russia Nicholas II was published. It defined the laws of the Grand Duchy of Finland which also concerned the interest of the Russian Empire, and only allowed the Diet of Finland an advisory role in passing laws. This set the scene for the first period of Russian oppression in the country and the start of the Russification of Finland in the period up to the end of the Russian Empire. The manifesto had a shocking effect on the young Luukkonen and her fellow students; the young women of the Postgraduate School were dressed in black all spring after the Manifesto was published. She later wrote that "This first patriotic twinge was deepened by the continuing events of the royal years, which provided a compelling impetus to take part in the constitutional struggle. It was followed by the great strikes, which a person who loved his country lived not to forget, but to prepare for something greater."

She graduated secondary school in 1902 and qualified as a primary school teacher in 1906. Her first teaching job was in Oulu from 1906 to 1913, then she moved to teach in Sortavala, in Finnish Karelia, between 1913 to 1931 as head teacher of a girls' training school. Her mother Sofia Luukkonen moved with her, and took care of their household until her death in 1921. It was during this time that Luukkonen's sense of Finnish nationalism and patriotism grew stronger as the town suffered from Russian oppression.

Joining the Lotta Svärd

The town of Sortavala was in the Ladogan Karelia area and had been a centre of the growing Finnish independence and nationalism movement in the late 19th century, which was not approved of by the Russian authorities, whose oppression and retaliation was particularly harsh. Teachers and students at the college had to be cautious but the oppression led to an increase of nationalist spirit and activism. Luukkonen and many of her compatriots became more radical in their approach to the patriotic calls for action.

The 1917 February Revolution and the subsequent Russian Revolution resulted in the Finnish Declaration of Independence from Russia on 6 December 1917. This, coupled with the turmoil of the First World War led to politicial conditions became unsettled. In the autumn of 1917 a White Guard (Civil guard militia corps) unit was founded in Sortavala by the town council, and in January 1918, they launched a surprise attack and seized weapons from the remaining Russian troops.

Fanni Luukkonen attaching a medal to the lapel of President Kyösti Kallio at the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty (Finland) in Vaasa 1938

The Finnish Civil War (27 January 1918 – 15 May 1918) broke out between White Finland and Red Finland for control of the country. The Red Guards, led by a section of the Social Democratic Party, were composed of industrial and agrarian workers, and controlled the cities and industrial centres of southern Finland. The White Guards, controlled by the senate, opposed socialism and were assisted late in the war by the German Imperial Army. The faction represented land owners and the middle and upper classes, controlled rural central and northern Finland, and was led by General C. G. E. Mannerheim. With the start of the war most of the male students at the College left for the front, and the College buildings were requisitioned by the military. Luukkonen undertook auxiliary work in support of the soldiers, alongside many other women. For three years she lived in the college surrounded military barracks and got to know life in a military installation at close quarters. She became aware of the sort of work women could do to support military operations and how such work could be organised. This gave her a clear idea of what kind of tasks the Defence Forces could offer women.

The White prevailed, with support of German troops and Finland moved into the German sphere of influence, but as an independent, democratic republic. About 36,000 Finns died in the conflict and its impact affected the nation for decades. After the Civil War, Fanni Luukkonen joined the Lotta Svärd women's organisation and was elected district secretary in 1921. She became known for her work ethic and in 1925 she became a member of the central board of Lotta Svärd. In 1929 she was unanimously elected president of the organisation, succeeding Helmi Arneberg-Pentti. By the time Luukkonen became president, the organisation had around 60,000 members. Under her leadership by 1938 membership was at over 100,000 women, and during the war years the figure continued to rise, so that when the organisation was finally dissolved in 1945, there were over 240,000 lottas. Lotta Svärd was become the largest women's organisation in Finland, and remains the largest ever voluntary association of Finnish women to date.

Second World War: the Winter War and the Continuation War

During the Second World War, about 90,000 Lottas worked in the Finnish Defence Forces.

The Winter War began when the Soviet Union invaded Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II. It ended with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940, after significant Soviet Union losses but with Finland cededing 9% of its territory to the Soviet Union. After this conflict, the Lottas training was improved, as the Winter War had revealed how much more training was needed by the Lottas, and others. Luukkonen supervised some of the most important courses at Tuusula, where a Lotta college had been founded before the war near the Civil Guard officers' school there. In June 1940, Marshal Mannerheim appeared at one of these training courses to award Luukkonen the Order of the Cross of Liberty first class. She was the first woman to receive this decoration, and was awarded it with a red (wartime) ribbon, to be worn around the neck like soldiers. The only other woman to have received this medal is Elisabeth Rehn, a former minister and UN delegate, who was awarded it in 2002 for her work in peacetime.

Fanni Luukkonen was awarded the Order of the German Eagle with Star from Adolf Hitler on May 19, 1943

There was 15 months of Interim Peace in Finland during which the government gradually moved closer to Germany in order to fend off perceived Soviet aggression and the Soviet interference in Finnish domestic politics. Finland later perceived co-operation with Germany as offering the potenil to reclaim areas ceded to the Soviet Union during the Winter War. Two days after the beginning of Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 Soviet–Finnish hostilities resumed with start of the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union.

Again, the Lottas stepped up to support the armed forces in auxiliary roles. Luukkonen travelled the country from Lapland to the Karelian Isthmus, as well as over the border to the Dvina and Onega regions which had previously been Finnish territory. She sometimes hosted foreign visitors interested Lotta Svärd's activities under front-line conditions. She gave lectures and talks, in Finland and abroad, on the history and activities of the Lottas, and build relationships with other Scandinavian and Baltic Lotta organisations. The Finnish Lotta organisation was well regarded in Germany, and Luukkonen visited Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler's headquarters on 19 May 1943 where she received the Order of the German Eagle with Star from Hitler for her role in "the fight against Bolshevism". She was the only non-German woman to be awarded this medal.

Fanni Luukkonen's Gravestone

Post war

The terms of the peace agreement with the Soviet Union at the end of the 1941-1944 Continuation War, included the abolition of the Lotta Svärd organisation and the White Guard. Immediately after the announcement of the Lotta Svärd disollution, Luukkonen was awarded the Order of the Cross of Liberty 1st Class with a grand star - the highest decoration ever granted to a woman in Finland. The end of the Lotta Svärd this meant a major life change for Luukkonen: she lived in Helsinki on her small pension, doing temporary translation work. After the war, she was insulted and received anonymous letters of slander for her previous role, which was branded anti-Soviet. The mental pressure of the time worsened her already poor health. She was considered persona non grata and may have been kept under surveillance, with travel to the Nordic countries made difficult.

Fanni Luukkonen died of a heart attack age 65 on 27 October 1947 in Helsinki. She was buried in the family grave in Kruununsaari cemetery in Ii, Finland. The stone on her grave reads "Fatherland is God's idea".

Legacy and commemoration

There is a plaque commemorating Fanni Luukkonen at Tehtaankatu 21 in Helsinki, and another plaque at Heinätori School in Oulu.

In the 2004 Suuret Suomalaiset (Greatest Finns) competition (similar to the 100 Greatest Britons) Fanni Luukkonen was voted for 44th place.

A documentary film Sotalotta, by Raimo Salo, has been made about the life of Fanni Luukkonen, the leader of the Lottas. Interviews in the film revealed how difficult it was for Luukkonen to disband the organisation and how the Lottos felt that their leader was treated harshly.