Santeri Alkio

Alkio, Santeri 

(pseudonym of S. Filander). Born June 17, 1852, in Laihia; died July 24, 1930, in Laihia. Finnish writer and public figure. Son of a village shopkeeper.

In 1888, Alkio initiated a rural youth movement with an enlightening orientation. He was one of the founders of the Agrarian Union Party (1906). He served as deputy in the representative assembly from 1907 to 1922. In 1919–20 he was minister of social affairs. He was the author of stories from rural life: Pictures From the Bad Harvest Year 1867 (1885) and Pictures of Our Times (vols. 1–3, 1889–91), in which he idealized the “sturdy” peasant. His novels Throat-cutters (1894) and Destroying Forces (1896) depict the life of the peasants of northern Finland. In the novels Patriarch (1916) and State Crime (1923), Alkio describes the progress of Finland in the 19th century from the standpoint of bourgeois ideology.

WORKS

Kootut teokset, vols. 1–13. Helsinki, 1919–28.
Valitut teokset, 4th ed. [Porvoo,] 1957.

REFERENCE

Haila, V. A., and K. Heikkilä. Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden historia. Helsinki, 1956.