thumb|Hertta Kuusinen in [[East Berlin on the 3rd congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (1950)]]
Hertta Elina Kuusinen (14 February 1904 – 18 March 1974) was a Finnish communist politician. She was a member of the central committee (1944–1971) and the political bureau of the Communist Party of Finland; member of Finland's parliament, the Eduskunta (1945–1972); general secretary (1952–1958); and leader of the parliamentary group of the Finnish People's Democratic League.
Early life
Born in Luhanka on 14 February 1904, she was the daughter of Soviet politician and one-time Finnish communist leader Otto Ville Kuusinen. Hertta Kuusinen moved to the Soviet Union after her father in the 1920s. She worked for the Comintern beginning in 1922, witnessed Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany during 1932–1933, Between 1969 and 1974, Kuusinen served as the chairperson of the Women's International Democratic Federation.
References
Further reading
- Hertta Kuusinen Papers, Kansan arkisto (People's archive) Helsinki, Finland
- Pirkko Kotila, "Hertta Kuusinen - the leading communist woman in Finland in the post-war era" "People of a special mould"? International conference on comparative communist biography and prosopography Manchester, 6–8 April 2001
- Pirkko Kotila, "Hertta Kuusinen - The 'Red Lady of Finland,'" Science and Society, Vol. 70, No. 1, January 2006: 46-71
- Brita Polttila, Hertta Kuusinen - Ihmisen tie. Helsinki: Tammi, 1975