Boris V Popper was a White Russian emigre living in Finland who was one of the so-called Leino prisoners.
15 Facts About Boris Popper
1.
2.
Boris Popper later used the names Boris Berin-Bey and Batu Berin-Bey.
3.
Boris Popper's family came to Finland as refugees shortly after the October 1917 revolution.
4.
Boris Popper studied economics for three years at the Universite catholique de Louvain and participated in the activities of Russian emigrant organizations.
5.
Boris Popper graduated in Belgium with a degree in electroplating engineering and studied automotive engineering and electronics.
6.
In July 1938, Boris Popper traveled to Vyborg from Brussels at the request of relatives.
7.
The state police had received information from their agents that Boris Popper had come to Finland to contact the Patriotic People's Movement, and in particular Paavo Susitaival, and to prepare terrorist attacks in the Soviet Union.
8.
Boris Popper was interrogated but was then released, because State Police wanted to infiltrate Boris Popper's inner circle.
9.
However, no significant information was obtained about his projects, and Jalmari Sinivaara began to suspect that this was a provocation organized by the Soviet intelligence services in which Boris Popper acted as an intermediary.
10.
In early 1939, Boris Popper presented to the Finns the idea of training Russian emigres as a strike team who, when an uprising in Russia began, would cross the border to lead it.
11.
Boris Popper received a 10-year prison sentence in the Soviet Union.
12.
Boris Popper returned to Finland in the summer of 1956 to settle in Helsinki.
13.
The State Police at the time suspected that Boris Popper had been recruited for Soviet intelligence.
14.
Boris Popper was the honorary chairman of the Turku Society for the Spiritual Sciences, founded by Siitoin, and he gave presentations at club events in the 1970s.
15.
In connection with the Kursiivi printing house arson lawsuit, Tiedonantaja magazine claimed that Boris Popper had acted as a financier of Siitoin and acquired weapons and ammunition from the military's warehouses for the use of Siitoin's groups.