Juho Kusti Paasikivi

Juho Kusti Paasikivi (27 November 1870 – 14 December 1956) was a Finnish politician who served as the seventh president of Finland from 1946 to 1956. Representing the Finnish Party until its dissolution in 1918 and then the National Coalition Party, he previously served as senator, member of parliament (1907–1909, 1910–1914), envoy to Stockholm (1936–1939) and Moscow (1940–1941), and Prime Minister of Finland (1918 and 1944–1946). He also held several other positions of trust, and was an influential figure in Finnish economics and politics for over fifty years. Paasikivi is remembered as a main architect of Finland's foreign policy after the Second World War; for example, the Paasikivi Society (Paasikivi-seura), founded in 1958 under the leadership of Jan-Magnus Jansson, sought to nurture Paasikivi's political legacy, especially during the Cold War, by promoting fact-based foreign policy thinking in Finland and making Finland's policy of neutrality internationally known. Early life and political career Birth and childhood Paasikivi was born Johan Gustaf Hellsten in 1870 at the smoke sauna of the Kulma-Seppälä house in the Huljala village of Koski Hl (today Hämeenkoski) in Päijänne Tavastia in Southern Finland, to Tamperean travelling merchant August Hellsten and his wife, Karolina Wilhelmina, née Selin. Hellsten's parents lived in Tampere, but the son was born on their business trip to the Lahti market. After returning home, Hellsten was officially entered in Tampere's church books. Hellsten's mother died when he was four, and his father died in debt when Hellsten was 14. Hellsten's half-sister Karolina died soon after. Upon his father's death, Hellsten's aunt, Kaisa Hagman, assumed responsibility for his raising. Hellsten Finnicized his name to Juho Kusti Paasikivi in 1885. His surname literally means "flagstone" in both languages.