Gustav Rovio Russian and Finnish revolutionary Date of Birth: 23.01.1887 Country: Finland

Biography of Gustav Rovio

Gustav Rovio was a Russian and Finnish revolutionary who actively participated in the revolution in Finland. After the defeat in the civil war, he was forced to emigrate to Soviet Russia. He was born into a working-class family and started working in workshops at the age of 12. Eventually, he became a lathe operator at the "Atlas" factory. Through a acquaintance who was a Bolshevik, Rovio became interested in social democrats and started attending Marxist circles.

On January 9, 1905, he participated in a march to the Winter Palace. In December 1905, he was admitted to the RSDLP (b). In 1907, he was arrested and exiled to Vologda, from where he escaped. In 1910, he was again arrested and exiled to Tula. Later that same year, he fled to Finland, where he became a member of the Finnish Social Democratic Party.

From 1913 to 1915, Rovio worked as the secretary of the Central Committee of the Social Democratic Youth Union of Finland. In April 1917, the social democratic and worker organizations took control of the police and appointed Gustav Rovio as the chief of police in Helsinki. Prior to the October Revolution in August 1917, Lenin took shelter at Rovio's apartment. After the revolution in Finland and the defeat in the civil war, Rovio was forced to emigrate to Soviet Russia.

From 1920 to 1926, he served as the commissioner of the International Military School in Leningrad and the vice-rector of the Leningrad branch of the Communist University of National Minorities of the West. From June 19, 1929, to August 21, 1935, he was the first secretary of the regional party committee of Karelia. Together with Edward Gullling, he advocated for the Finnishization of Karelians.

In July 1937, Rovio was arrested and in 1938, he was executed. In 1974, the Finnish Ministry of Education granted the former Helsinki apartment of Rovio to the Finnish Lenin Museum. In 1976, the apartment was transformed into the Lenin Memorial Room. However, in 1995, the apartment was closed and renovated for residential use once again.