Mauno Pekkala

Mauno Pekkala (born January 27, 1890 in Sysmä , † June 30, 1952 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish politician and Prime Minister.

Professional and political career

Study and Minister

Pekkala graduated with a degree in philosophy and forestry . From December 1926 to December 1927 he was Minister of Agriculture in the cabinet of Väinö Tanner . From 1937 to 1944 he was acting director of the State Forest Administration.

From December 1939 to May 1942, Pekkala was Finance Minister in the cabinets of Risto Ryti , Karl Rudolf Walden and Johan Wilhelm Rangell during the Finnish-Soviet winter war .

In 1944 he switched from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to the newly founded Democratic Union of the Finnish People (SKDL), which emerged from the Communist Party of Finland (SKP) , which was legalized after the war . From 1944 to 1952 he represented the interests of the SKDL in the Finnish parliament . In November 1944 he was minister without a portfolio for a week. He was then a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office. From April 1945 to March 1946 he was Minister of Defense and again Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.

Prime Minister and presidential candidate

After Juho Kusti Paasikivi was elected president, Pekkala succeeded him as prime minister on March 26, 1946. As such, he headed a coalition government made up of the SKDL, SDP, Landbund (ML) and the Swedish People's Party (SFP-RKP). On April 6, 1948, in Moscow , he signed a friendship, cooperation and assistance treaty with the Soviet Union . However, after the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, the relationship between the SKDL and the bourgeois parties involved in the government deteriorated . To prevent a similar takeover of power by the Communist Party in Finland, President Paasikivi took preventive measures. In July 1948, the Communist Interior Minister Yrjö Leino resigned in protest against these orders. In the parliamentary elections that followed, the SKDL lost eleven of its seats, while the bourgeois parties and the SDP won seats. On July 29, 1948, Pekkala was replaced as Prime Minister by Karl-August Fagerholm . During his reign he also assumed the post of Deputy Minister of Defense.

In the 1950 presidential election, Pekkala ran for the SKDL. He achieved 67 of the 300 electoral votes in the area code and was thus subject to the re-elected President Paasikivi, who received 171 votes. The later long-time President Urho Kekkonen took third place in this election with 62 votes.

Biographical sources and background information

personal data
SURNAME	Pekkala, Mauno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Finnish politician, member of the Reichstag and Prime Minister
DATE OF BIRTH	January 27, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sysmä
DATE OF DEATH	June 30, 1952
Place of death	Helsinki