Heikki Ritavuori - Career

Career

The murder of a government minister is such a rare occurrence in Finland that it has almost completely overshadowed Ritavuori's achievements as a builder of Finnish society. The Turku-born lawyer, member of parliament and government minister was one of the most notable politicians in the early years of Finland's independence. He was dedicated to justice, equality among citizens, and a unified nation.

Defending these values took a great deal of courage in the unstable times following the Finnish civil war, when radical groups sought their own ends by any means necessary. Ritavuori was frightened of neither the extreme left-wing nor the extreme right, but instead implemented the reforms he felt were necessary as K.J. Ståhlberg's most trusted man. He took particular care in defending the civil rights of red prisoners of war kept in prison camps, and advocated laws to pardon them.

Ritavuori was already familiar with social questions when he became Secretary of the Foundation Board of the Parliament of Finland in 1907; he was especially interested in land-owning rights and the position of peasants. As a lawyer, he liked to handle communal cases in defense of the poor. He was elected as a member of the parliament from the Turku Province southern election circle first in 1914, and then again in 1919.

The acceptance of Finland's republic form of government in June 1919 is largely because of Ritavuori's work as chairman of the Foundation Board. The dispute about the form of government between the royalists and the republicans had been holding back governmental activity for months. To stop the unhelpful "temporary situation", the republican government of Kaarlo Castrén proposed a law establishing the new form to the Parliament of Finland in June; it was written by the President of the High Court, K.J. Ståhlberg.

For the parliament to be able to accept the proposed law, it had to be classified as urgent by the meeting order. One vote more was needed for the required five-sixths majority, and so the reform of the government was about to be delayed again. It was then that Heikki Ritavuori involved himself in the matter, and only a couple of days later he gave his own proposal for a new governmental form (which he had already submitted for consideration earlier) to the parliament. The members of the parliament were amazed, but now the proposal was classified as urgent, and based on it, the parliament accepted the new form of government on 21 June 1919. Thus, Finland became a republic.

Ritavuori, having served as Minister of Internal Affairs twice, was frequently confronted by activists representing the extreme right-wing. Because of the laws to pardon red prisoners of war, he was branded the "red minister", one who threatened the legacy of white Finland. Supporting Ståhlberg as the opponent of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim in the presidential elections in summer 1919 and opposing the independence of the protection guards in the crisis of 1921 made Ritavuori even less liked in right-wing circles.