Karl-August Fagerholm (31 December 1901, in Siuntio – 22 May 1984, in Helsinki) was a Finnish politician. Fagerholm served as Speaker of Parliament and three times as Prime Minister of Finland (1948–50, 1956–57, and 1958–59). Fagerholm became one of the leading politicians of the Social Democrats after the armistice in the Continuation War. As a Scandinavia-oriented Swedish-speaking Finn, he was believed to be more to the taste of the Soviet Union's leadership than his predecessor, Väinö Tanner. Fagerholm's postwar career was, however, marked by fierce opposition from both the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Finland. He narrowly lost the presidential election to Urho Kekkonen in 1956.
Early life
Fagerholm was born in Siuntio as the youngest child of stonecutter Johan August Fagerholm and Olga Serafina Worbs (née Nordman). The elder Fagerholm died of tuberculosis in June 1901, six months before the birth of his youngest son. Fagerholm had in his youth worked as a paperboy for Hufvudstadsbladet and later as a barber, and was also briefly chairman (1920–1923) of the Barbers' Union. In 1930, he was elected member of Finland's Parliament. In the 1920s and the 1930s, the main challenge for the Social Democrats was the rehabilitation after the Finnish Civil War, in which the Social Democrats had belonged to the defeated side. A revival of anti-socialist opinion had in Finland like in many countries in Continental Europe led to a right-wing shift in public opinion and the emerge of the semi-fascist Lapua Movement. One consequence was that socialists were barred from the Cabinet 1929 to 1937. Principles of parliamentarism again were finally heeded in 1937, when Fagerholm became Minister for Social Affairs in a series of Cabinets from 1937 to 1943.
In government, Fagerholm was one of the chief executors of the neutralist Scandinavia-orientation, which had increasingly been seen by Conservatives and Socialists in the 1930s to be Finland's deliverance from the danger of Soviet expansionism. That danger seemed to have increased with fierce Soviet anticapitalist sentiments being met with equally fierce anticommunist sentiments in Finland. As a native Swedish speaker, Social Democrat, former Union leader, and head of the Ministry for Social Affairs, he was just cut out for that task, but the time that he had was too short. Furthermore, thanks to his old personal contacts, he played a key role in the reconstruction of Finland's Nordic relations and later in Finland's accession to the Nordic Council.
Fagerholm was also a candidate for chairman of the Social Democrats in 1946, but lost with only 61 votes against Emil Skog's 146.
As leader of the Social Democrats, he was prime minister from 1948 to 1950 despite fierce Communist opposition and accusations by the Soviet Union that he intended to undermine the Finnish-Soviet Treaty by taking Finland into NATO. Even Finland's growing integration into the world economy, as demonstrated by its joining the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1949, was viewed with similar suspicion although it served Soviet interests since it contributed to Finland's ability to meet the harsh war reparations requirements of the Paris Peace Treaty.
Opposition from the domestic Communists, under Soviet guidance, exemplified by communist strike agitators who in 1949 tried to take over the dockworker's union and indirectly threatened the stability of the government of Karl-August Fagerholm.
1950s
thumb|Speaker of Parliament Fagerholm at [[Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, in 1955]]
The war and the post-war times of economic hardship had motivated government control of prices and wages attempting to hamper inflation. One of the themes in the elections and one of the important objectives for Fagerholm's government was to transfer the handling of incomes policy to negotiations between the unions and the employers' organizations. In January 1950, the Parliament agreed to increase wages and to end wage controls.
Soon afterward, a minority cabinet under Kekkonen assumed power. Wage negotiations ended in an impasse in the spring. A warning of general strike was issued to speed up the negotiations. In the tense situation, Fagerholm, now Speaker of Parliament, brokered a solution that was supported in ballot by a clear majority of trade union members.
Fagerholm's relation to the aged president of Finland, Juho Kusti Paasikivi, remained controversial, but the release of the latter's diary has thrown some light on the issue. Supporters of Fagerholm argue that his line in foreign politics was considerably closer to that of Paasikivi, but Fagerholm, in many aspects, was ideologically remote from the Conservative fennoman Paasikivi. Supporters of Kekkonen argue that Fagerholm's contact with the US embassy and pecuniary support from the US could not have been approved by Paasikivi. Although Paasikivi considered both contenders for the position as prime minister as skilful and politically capable, he actually came down more often in favor of Kekkonen, who enjoyed the support of the Soviet leadership.
In the 1956 Finnish presidential election Fagerholm would have won if two electors had voted otherwise; he got 149 votes to Urho Kekkonen's 151.
That concession, however, was not enough to remove the Soviet pressure on Fagerholm. On 4 December 1958, Fagerholm filed his resignation. In January 1959, after Kekkonen had traveled to Leningrad to personally assure Nikita Khrushchev that Finland would be a "good neighbor" and a prime minister from Kekkonen's Agrarian Party was appointed, all economic intercourse resumed.
Personal life
Fagerholm married Judith Jormala in 1926, and had three children: Brita (1927–2013), Stina (b. 1929) and Einar (b. 1935).
Bibliography
- Friherre Carl Gustaf Mannerheim. Vid Marskalkens av Finland bår. Minnestal (1951)
- Talmannens röst (1977)
Cabinets
- Fagerholm I Cabinet
- Fagerholm II Cabinet
- Fagerholm III Cabinet