10 Facts About Ali Aaltonen

Aleksi "Ali" Aaltonen was a Finnish journalist and former lieutenant of the Russian Imperial Army, who served as the first commander-in-chief of the Finnish Red Guards from November 1917 to the end of January 1918.

Ali Aaltonen was executed in Lahti after the Finnish Civil War in May 1918.

In 1897, Ali Aaltonen attended a high school in Jyvaskyla at the expense of his female primary school teacher.

Ali Aaltonen dropped out of high school in 1903 and joined the Russian Army.

Ali Aaltonen worked as a party official for the Social Democrats.

In October 1917, Ali Aaltonen was in Helsinki organizing the Workers' Order Guards, which soon became the Red Guards.

Ali Aaltonen started drinking and the Finnish Reds had no clue of his whereabouts.

Ali Aaltonen was sent to Tampere, where he served in the staff of Hame Front, under the command of Svechnikov, Hugo Salmela and Verner Lehtimaki.

Ali Aaltonen was captured and taken to the Hennala camp, where he was shot by the Estonian colonel Hans Kalm in May 1918.

Ali Aaltonen was buried in a mass grave of more than one thousand Reds.