Ele Alenius

Ele Allan Alenius (5 June 1925 – 19 November 2022) was a Finnish socialist politician. He was a Member of the Parliament of Finland for the Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL) 1966–1977 and the Deputy Minister of Finance 1966–1970. Alenius was also the chairman of the SKDL 1967–1979.Alenius was born to the family of the stonemason and Red Guardist August Elenius. In the World War II, Alenius fought in the Finnish Army. After the war, he studied economics at the University of Helsinki and made his master's thesis in 1958.As the leader of the communist SKDL, Alenius distanced the party from the real socialism and introduced his own ideas in the 1969 and 1974 books Sosialistiseen Suomeen ("To the Socialist Finland") ja Suomalainen ratkaisu ("The Finnish Solution") which were strongly criticized by the Soviet Union. In 1968, Alenius condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. He left the politics in 1977 and worked as a board member of the Bank of Finland until 1992.

Ele Alenius' parents were bricklayer August Felix Alenius (1899-1957) and Sylvia Matilda Koskinen (1902-1987) from Hämeenkyrö. He was the only child in his family. In the civil war, the Alenius family was on the side of the Reds. His grandfather August Alenius (1872-1923) was a member of Lyly's red guard staff on the Vilppula front and was sentenced to eight years in prison after the war. source? August Alenius' health deteriorated in captivity and he died soon after his pardon. Father August was also in the Red Guard, but escaped without conviction. Alenius spent his early childhood in Amur, Tampere. In 1930, the family moved to Helsinki, when August Alenius, who worked as a bricklayer, had completed a private apprenticeship course and began studying at the University of Helsinki. After graduating with a master's degree in philosophy, he was blacklisted by employers in the 1930s due to his leftism, which made it difficult to get a job.

In Helsinki, the Aleniuks first lived in Kallio and later in Töölö. Alenius spent his childhood summers with his maternal grandparents in Kyröskoski in Hämeenkyrö. After the folk school, Alenius moved to the real high school in Helsinki, where his classmates included Lasse Heikkilä and Helge Dahlman. During the Winter War, the Alenius family was fleeing the bombings of Helsinki, staying with their father's brother in Toejoe, Pori, who, however, was also targeted by the bombings. Alenius participated in the continuation war. Before the end of the war, he was ordered to the 59th course of the Reserve.

Alenius graduated in 1945 and then studied economics at the University of Helsinki. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1948 and a licentiate in 1956 and received his doctorate in 1958. Alenius's university career was interrupted by his political activity, and he was also not accepted into a labor-controlled bank or cooperative. He said that he had received information that the intelligence organization of SDP led by Veikko Puskala would have been influencing in the background.

Alenius worked as CEO of the family company Taideliike Artegrafica from 1958 to 1977.