Karl-August Fagerholm

Who was Karl-August Fagerholm?

Karl-August Fagerholm was Speaker of Parliament and three times Prime Minister of Finland. Fagerholm became one of the leading politicians of the Social Democrats after the armistice in the Continuation War. As a Scandinavia-oriented Swedish-speaking Finn, he was believed to be more to the taste of the Soviet Union's leadership than his predecessor Väinö Tanner. Fagerholm's post-war career was however marked by fierce opposition from both the Kremlin and domestic communists. He narrowly lost the presidential election to Urho Kekkonen in 1956.