Äikiä, Ärmas

Äikiä, Ärmas 

(peudonym of Vilje Wiio). Born Mar. 14, 1904, in Konnitsa; died Nov. 20, 1965, in Helsinki. Finnish poet, journalist, and public figure. Member of the Communist Party of Finland from 1924.

Äikiä was imprisoned on several occasions between 1923 and 1930 for political activity. He was the author of the narrative poem The Song of the Eagle (1935–40), which deals with the life of the Finnish revolutionary T. Antikainen, and of the poetry collection The Lyre Behind Bars (1945). In the poetry collections The Fiery Kantele (1947) and The Exile (1948) he exposed German fascism and Finnish reactionary circles. In 1962 he published The Singer at the Foot of the Volcano, about the life and work of K. Kaatra. Äikiä also translated poems of A. S. Pushkin and M. Iu. Lermontov, as well as works by V. V. Mayakovsky and other Soviet poets.

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Ne merknet svet. Petrozavodsk, 1944.
Pod severnym siianiem. Introduction by O. Kuusinen. Moscow, 1955.
”Stikhi.” In the collection Poeziia Finliandii. Moscow, 1962.
Stikhotvoreniia. Moscow-Leningrad, 1963.

REFERENCES

“Ärmas Äikiä on kuollut.” Kansan Uutiset, 1965, Nov. 21.