Algoth Niska
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Algoth Niska (1888-1954) was a Finnish liquor smuggler and adventurer.
Algoth Niska was born in Viipuri in December 5, 1888. He was the youngest child. When his father died 1903, the family moved to Helsinki, where he got interested about soccer. He was a member of a soccer team in Stockholm Olympics in 1912.
Niska joined his first ship crew in 1908. When the First World War begun, he went to navigation school and graduated next year — thought he never got his papers out. He married twice in his lifetime and divorced both women.
1919, when the Finnish prohibition came into force, he had acquired a large supply of now-illegal liquor. High society in Helsinki soon found out whom they could ask for refreshments. When the supply begun to run out, he bought a boat and begun to smuggle liquor from Estonian and German ships who waited outside the Finnish territorial waters. Later he also smuggled liquor from Sweden, where it was legal but tightly controlled.
Over the years he used various tricks to dodge police boats - and sometimes the bullets of their machineguns - during his trips between Turku, Helsinki, Tallinn and Stockholm and in Åland archipelago. He never shot back. In one case he unloaded his cargo right in the heart of Helsinki harbor when the people were distracted during the visit of Gustav V of Sweden. In one stage he was sentenced for a year in prison for resisting police. He claimed to the end of his days that he was innocent.
Niska was eventually wanted both in Sweden and Finland. He was sentenced for short periods in both countries. In prison he became a model prisoner and was often released early for good behavior.
1932 Niska was exiled from Sweden and he spent time in Riga, Tallinn and Danzig. He spoke at least Swedish, German and English.
In 1938, prior to the World War II, Niska begun to smuggle something else — Jewish refugees from Germany to relative neutrality of Finland. His own estimate was 151 Jews. He used stolen and forged passports and various devious plots to get Jews from Germany through Netherlands and Estonia. Reputedly he sometimes refused payment. When his network was exposed in 1939, he fled to Estonia and found that Soviet Union had occupied the country. According to himself, he fled back to Finland with a rowboat.
Niska fought in Laatokka during Winter War. There is no clear knowledge of what he did during Continuation War.
In mid 1940's Niska tried to finance building of a new boat by giving interviews about his life - he needed the money and knew he could afford to ask. 1951 Niska went through surgery in Antwerpen but did not pay the bill — he was in serious debt in that time. In 1953 he was diagnosed with brain tumor and lost his speech and movement. He died in May 28, 1954.
[edit] Trivia
He wrote two books, Över gröna gränsen (Over the green border) and Mina äventyr (My adventures). One biography is available, Kari Kallonen's Algoth Niska - Salakuljettajien kuningas (Algoth Niska - King of Smugglers) Revontuli 2000.
