Oskari Tokoi

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Antti Oskari Tokoi (April 15, 1873, Perho, Finland- April 4, 1963, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, United States) was a Finnish politician.

Tokoi was born as Oskari Hirvi in 1873 in Perho, Kannus in Central Ostrobothnia. In 1891 he moved to America, where he worked as a miner and got involved in labour unions. He returned to Finland in 1900 and worked as a farmer and a merchant.

In 1905 Tokoi was elected chairman of the workers' association of Kannus. In 1907 he was elected to the parliament (Eduskunta) as a representative of the Social Democrats. In 1913 he was elected speaker of the Eduskunta, and in 1917 head of the Senate of Finland.

During the Finnish Civil War Tokoi sided with the Reds and worked as "comissar in charge of provisions". After the war, fearing punishment from the victorious Whites, he fled to Russia. Between 1919 and 1920, he worked as a political advisor to the Murmansk Legion which was organised by the British to fight the Bolsheviks. Because of his prominent involvement in the losing Red side of the Civil War, Tokoi still couldn't return to Finland, and moved first to England, then to Canada and eventually in 1921 to the United States. There he became an editor at the newspaper "Raivaaja".

In 1944 the Finnish Parliament passed the so-called Lex Tokoi, by which Tokoi was exonerated of all charges related to the Civil War. After World War II he organised help for Finland among the Finnish-Americans. He visited Finland in 1957 for the 50th anniversary of the Eduskunta. He died in 1963 in the United States. A quay in Helsinki, Tokoinranta, is named after him.