Johannes Virolainen

Valtioneuvos Johannes Virolainen
Virolainen in 1975.
30th Prime Minister of Finland
In office 12 September 1964 – 27 May 1966
President	Urho Kekkonen
Deputy	Ahti Karjalainen
Preceded by	Reino R. Lehto
Succeeded by	Rafael Paasio
Speaker of the Finnish Parliament
In office 5 June 1979 – 25 March 1983
Preceded by	Ahti Pekkala
Succeeded by	Erkki Pystynen
In office 3 June 1966 – 26 March 1968
Preceded by	Rafael Paasio
Succeeded by	V. J. Sukselainen
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 29 August 1958 – 4 December 1958
Prime Minister	Karl-August Fagerholm
Preceded by	Paavo Hynninen
Succeeded by	Karl-August Fagerholm
In office 27 May 1957 – 29 November 1957
Prime Minister	V. J. Sukselainen
Preceded by	Ralf Törngren
Succeeded by	Paavo Hynninen
In office 20 October 1954 – 3 March 1956
Prime Minister	Urho Kekkonen
Preceded by	Urho Kekkonen
Succeeded by	Ralf Törngren
Deputy Prime Minister of Finland
In office 15 May 1977 – 26 May 1979
Prime Minister	Kalevi Sorsa
Preceded by	Ahti Karjalainen
Succeeded by	Eino Uusitalo
In office 22 March 1968 – 14 May 1970
Prime Minister	Mauno Koivisto
Preceded by	Reino Oittinen
Succeeded by	Päiviö Hetemäki
In office 13 April 1962 – 18 December 1963
Prime Minister	Ahti Karjalainen
Preceded by	Eemil Luukka
Succeeded by	Aarne Nuorvala
In office 29 August 1958 – 4 December 1958
Prime Minister	Karl-August Fagerholm
Preceded by	Tyyne Leivo-Larsson
Succeeded by	Onni Hiltunen
In office 31 October 1957 – 29 November 1957
Prime Minister	V. J. Sukselainen
Preceded by	Aarre Simonen
Succeeded by	Reino Oittinen
In office 11 January 1957 – 27 May 1957
Prime Minister	Karl-August Fagerholm
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Nils Meinander
Minister of Education
In office 3 March 1956 – 27 May 1957
Prime Minister	Karl-August Fagerholm
Preceded by	Kerttu Saalasti
Succeeded by	Kerttu Saalasti
In office 5 May 1954 – 20 October 1954
Prime Minister	Ralf Törngren
Preceded by	Arvo Salminen
Succeeded by	Kerttu Saalasti
In office 9 July 1953 – 17 November 1953
Prime Minister	Urho Kekkonen
Preceded by	Reino Oittinen
Succeeded by	Arvo Salminen
Personal details
Born	(1914-01-31)31 January 1914 Viipurin maalaiskunta, Finland
Died	11 December 2000(2000-12-11) (aged 86) Lohja, Finland
Political party	Agrarian League/Centre Party
Spouse(s)	Kaarina Virolainen Kyllikki Virolainen (1981–2000)

Johannes Virolainen (pronounced [ˈjohɑnːes ˈʋirolɑi̯nen] ^ⓘ; born 31 January 1914 in Rural municipality of Viipuri, died 11 December 2000 in Lohja) was a Finnish politician and who served as 30th Prime Minister of Finland, helped inhabitants of Karelia, opposed the use of alcohol and created Mandatory Swedish in Finnish basic schools.

Virolainen was born near Viipuri. After the Continuation War Virolainen moved to Lohja, but he remained one of the leaders of the evacuated Karelians, and never gave up the hope that Soviet Union and later Russia would return Finnish Karelia to Finland. After World War II Virolainen became the first president of the Maaseudun Nuorten Liitto later known as Finnish Centre Youth, which has been educating dozens of ministers and hundreds of members of the Finnish Parliament.^[1]

He was also famous as a teetotaller, saying that the only circumstance where he would countenance downing a toast would be if Karelia was ceded back to Finland. He was fond of repeating the line, and it has been claimed that he said it to, among others, Nikita Khrushchev and Anastas Mikoyan on the Soviet side, to fend off needling by them for lacking the Soviet style of social graces.

A member of the Agrarian League (later the Centre Party), Virolainen was a Member of Parliament 1945–1983 and 1987–1991.^[2]

He had a long ministerial career, serving as Assistant Minister of the Interior 1950–1951; Minister at the Council of State Chancellery 1951, and 1956–1957; Minister of Education 1953, 1954, 1956–1957, and 1968–1970; Minister of Foreign Affairs 1954–1956, 1957, and 1958;^[3] Deputy Prime Minister 1957, 1958, 1962–1963, 1968–1970, and 1977–1979; Minister of Agriculture 1961–1963; Minister of Finance 1972–1975;^[4] and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry 1976–1979.^[5]

Virolainen was Prime Minister from 1964–1966, presiding over a coalition government comprising the Centre Party, National Coalition Party, Swedish People's Party, and Finnish People's Party. He also served as Speaker of the Parliament from 1966–1968 and 1979–1983. Virolainen is considered one of the strongest Centre Party leaders in the post-war era, second only to Urho Kekkonen.

Virolainen had a variable, often tense relationship with President Kekkonen, who considered him an unreliable, too frequently opinion-changing politician.^[6] Virolainen himself claimed that the two basic reasons for their tense relationship were that he had never been a member of the right-wing, nationalist Academic Karelia Society (Kekkonen had, until 1932), and that he was a teetotaller (Kekkonen drank and at times smoked).^[7] Moreover, Kekkonen was unconvinced that Virolainen always supported his official foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. In June 1979, he publicly rebuked Virolainen, who was then Speaker of Parliament, for "bearing a false testimony" about Finland's foreign policy, and for harming Finland's international relations. Shortly before this harsh accusation, Virolainen had suggested in an interview by the Suomen Kuvalehti magazine that the National Coalition Party had remained in the opposition despite its major victory in the 1979 parliamentary elections because of "general reasons" or foreign policy.^[8][9]

After Kekkonen resigned in October 1981, Virolainen became the Centre Party's presidential candidate, but he was handily defeated in the 1982 presidential elections by the Social Democratic candidate, Mauno Koivisto. In the 1983 parliamentary elections, Virolainen was one of the major-party deputies to lose their seats because of allegations that he had illegally received the parliamentary daily allowance for commuting between Helsinki and his official hometown. Determined to finish his parliamentary career in style, he was re-elected to Parliament in the 1987 parliamentary elections. During his last electoral term, Virolainen supported constitutional amendment proposals that reduced the President's power.^[10]

During his nine-year retirement from Parliament, Virolainen still actively followed the Finnish political affairs and sometimes gave interviews on current topics (the Finnish broadcasting corporation YLE "Living Archives" / Elävä arkisto, search words: "Johannes Virolainen"). He also wrote some volumes of political memoirs, including "A Defence of Politics" (Politiikan puolustus), "From the Path" (Polun varrelta), and "The Pictures Move" (Kuvat kulkevat).