14 Facts About Aino Forsten

Aino Forsten was a member of the Parliament of Finland for the Social Democratic Party from 1916 to 1918.

Aino Forsten was born in a poor peasant family in the Southwest Finland municipality of Maaria.

Two years later Aino Forsten moved to Pori, where her brother Jussi Rainio was a newspaperman for the local labour press.

Aino Forsten first worked as a saleswoman, but was hired as an agitator for the Social Democrats.

Aino Forsten became one of the leading socialists in the Pori area, and was best known of her work for the labour women and their families.

In 1909 Aino Forsten married the mail carrier Kaarlo Verner Aino Forsten, who was a member of the Social Democratic Party.

Aino Forsten was elected to the Parliament of Finland in the 1917 election from the electoral district of Satakunta.

Aino Forsten's husband stayed in Pori as one of the local Red Guard leaders.

In July 1918, they settled in Saint Petersburg, where Aino Forsten worked as an accountant for the Communist Party of Finland.

Verner Aino Forsten was the Vice-Minister of Economy of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the chairman of the Kalevala County Council.

Aino and Verner Forsten were arrested during the Great Purge in July 1937, accused of counter-revolutionary nationalist action.

Verner Forsten was sentenced to 8 years of forced labour, but Aino Forsten received a death sentence in November 1937 and was immediately executed.

Aino Forsten's husband survived the Siberian labour camps and was released from Krasnojarsk in 1946.

Aino and Verner Forsten were rehabilitated after Stalin's death in 1955.