Turku 1000
Stop 34 of 50
1905–1907

General strike and the vote for everyone

In the autumn of 1905 Finland stopped work for a week. Within two years every woman and man over 24 had the vote, and nineteen women took their seats in parliament, the first in the world.

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The big story

General strike and the vote for everyone

Around 1900 most people in Finland had no say in how the country was run. Only a small share of men could vote, and no women at all. In a few years that changed completely. Workers in Turku helped start the movement, a great strike forced the emperor to give way, and in 1907 Finland held one of the most democratic elections in the world.

Turku, 1899: a party for workers

  • Born in Turku. The Finnish Workers’ Party was founded at a congress in Turku on 17–20 July 1899. In 1903, at a meeting in Forssa, it took the name Social Democratic Party, which it still has Well documented.
  • 85 delegates. The minutes list 85 delegates from 34 workers’ associations, meeting in the rooms of the Turku Workers’ Association. The party’s board was to sit in Turku Well documented.
  • What they wanted. The draft programme demanded “universal, equal and direct” voting rights for all citizens aged 21, and a working day of eight hours Well documented.
  • Who could vote? Finland was a grand duchy of the Russian Empire, with its own Diet of four estates: nobles, clergy, burghers and peasants. Only about 15 percent of men had a vote, and women had none Well documented.
  • A hard time. In 1899 the emperor’s February Manifesto had begun to limit Finland’s own laws. Many Finns, not only workers, felt their rights were under attack Well documented.

The great strike of 1905

  • From Russia. In October 1905 a huge strike spread across the Russian Empire after a lost war against Japan and months of unrest. On 29–30 October it reached Finland, and a mass meeting in Helsinki called a general strike across the country Well documented.
  • Everything stops. Trains, factories, shops, offices and schools closed. In many towns workers and middle-class people struck side by side Well documented.
  • The Red Declaration. On 1 November workers in Tampere demanded a national assembly elected by universal and equal suffrage Well documented.
  • The emperor gives in. On 4 November Nicholas II signed the November Manifesto, which cancelled the February Manifesto and promised a reform of the Diet. When it was read out in Helsinki on 6 November, the strike ended. The Times of London called it a “peaceful revolution” Well documented.

The strike in Turku

  • One memory. Almost everything we know about the strike days in Turku comes from one man: Mooses Lehtinen, a shipyard worker who led the strikers’ order guard. He wrote it down years later and admitted that he might remember some details wrongly Likely.
  • Noon on 1 November. According to Lehtinen, the strike began in Turku at noon on 1 November. At the shipyard a sheet-metal worker rang the signal, and the workers marched to the Market Square Likely.
  • A joint committee. Workers, constitutionalists and Young Finns formed a joint strike committee. On 2 November it met at Hotel Phoenix and agreed on three demands: universal and equal suffrage, a parliament with one chamber, and the repeal of illegal decrees Likely.
  • Running the town. For a few days the committee ran Turku. Ships needed its permission to sail, and it gave out travel passes. Even maids from wealthy families joined the strike Likely.
  • Anger. A crowd set off along Linnankatu towards Kakola prison to free the prisoners, but turned back. Young men took a portrait of the emperor from the Court of Appeal, smashed it and threw it off the Cathedral Bridge into the river Likely.

From four estates to one parliament

  • The reform. The old Diet met for the last time in 1906 to vote itself out of existence. On 20 July 1906 the emperor confirmed the new Parliament Act Well documented.
  • 200 members. A single chamber of 200 members replaced the four estates. Everyone aged 24 or over, women and men, rich and poor, could vote and stand for election Well documented.
  • Ten times more voters. Before the reform only about 15 percent of men could vote. Afterwards the number of voters was about ten times larger Well documented.
  • The first election. On 15–16 March 1907, 1,272,873 people were registered to vote and 70.65 percent of them did. The Social Democrats won 80 seats, more than any other party, and the Finnish Party 59 Well documented.
  • Not yet free. The new parliament could pass laws, but the emperor could still refuse them and dissolve parliament, which he did several times before 1917 Likely.
How do we know?

The national story is well documented in newspapers, official papers and the minutes of Parliament. The founding of the Workers’ Party in 1899 is known from its printed minutes. For the strike in Turku we have found only Lehtinen’s memoir, kept in the Labour Archives. It is a valuable eyewitness account, but it is one person’s memory, written down long afterwards.

Finland
Turku

Tap a day. Dots show where something happened.

The general strike of 1905 and what followed. Tap a day to see what happened in Finland and in Turku.Events in Turku come from one memoir written years later, so they are marked as likely rather than known.
Why it matters

In two years Finland went from one of the least democratic systems in Europe to one of the most democratic in the world. The vote did not end conflict: the gap between workers and the better-off grew wider, and in 1918 it ended in civil war (stop 35). But the idea that every adult has an equal vote has stayed, and the parliament created in 1906 is the one that still sits in Helsinki today.

On the lighter side

The first women in parliament

In 1907 nineteen women walked into Finland’s new parliament. No country had ever elected women to its national parliament before. Who were they, how did they get there, and what did they want to change? Several of them had their roots in Turku.

First in the world

  • Vote and stand. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893, but not the right to stand for parliament. In 1906 Finland became the first country in Europe where women could vote, and the first in the world where all women had the full right both to vote and to be elected Well documented.
  • 62 candidates. In the election of 1907, 62 women stood as candidates and 19 were elected. That was 9.5 percent of the seats. Most of them were Social Democrats Well documented.
  • Not a gift. Women’s groups had campaigned for decades, and working women took part in the strike of 1905. Both the workers’ movement and the women’s movement pushed for votes for women Likely.
  • The first sitting. The new parliament met for the first time in May 1907 in Helsinki. Parliament’s own website gives the date as 23 May, another official site as 25 May Debated.

Three women with Turku roots

  • Mimmi Kanervo, the maid. Mimmi Kanervo, born in 1870 in Urjala, worked as a maidservant in the countryside and in Turku. She sat on the strike committee in 1905, and from 1907 to 1917 she was a Social Democratic MP for the northern Turku constituency. After the civil war she was imprisoned Well documented.
  • Ida Aalle, the baker. Ida Aalle, later Aalle-Teljo, was a baker and a party speaker. She was a Social Democratic MP for the southern Turku constituency from 1907 to 1917. In 1918 she joined the Reds’ leadership, and she was kept in prison until 1922 Well documented.
  • Hedvig Gebhard, from the other side. Hedvig Gebhard was born in Turku in 1867, the daughter of a shoemaker who became rich. She sat for the conservative Finnish Party in 1907–1909 and again in the 1920s Well documented.
  • Miina Sillanpää. The best known of the nineteen came from Forssa, not Turku. She started factory work at the age of 12, led the servants’ union for about 50 years, sat in parliament for 38 years and became Finland’s first woman minister on 13 December 1926 Well documented.

What did they want?

  • Women’s lives. In June 1907 Maria Raunio proposed raising the minimum age for marriage. Other early proposals dealt with the rights of married women and of unmarried mothers Likely.
  • Working hours. The first parliament passed a law on working hours in bakeries, which mattered to bakers like Ida Aalle, and a law banning alcohol Well documented.
  • Blocked laws. The emperor did not confirm many of the new laws. The ban on alcohol, for example, only came into force in 1919, after independence Likely.
  • A long road. It took decades for women to reach a third of the seats in parliament. In 2000 Finland elected its first woman president Likely.
NobilityClergyBurghersPeasants200

The Diet met as four separate estates. Only about 15 percent of men could vote, and women could not vote at all. Well documented

  • Social Democrats 80
  • Finnish Party 59
  • Young Finns 26
  • Swedish People’s Party 24
  • Agrarian League 9
  • Christian Workers 2
  • Women 19
  • Men 181

62 women stood in the election and 19 were elected, most of them Social Democrats. Well documented

Votes for women around the world
Parliament before and after the reform. Switch between the views, then follow votes for women around the world.Each dot is one seat. The seats are grouped by party for clarity, not in the real seating order.
How do we know?

The election results and the names of the MPs are in Parliament’s records, and a book of portraits of the Social Democratic MPs was printed in 1907. Lists of the nineteen women do not quite agree with each other, so we name only the few whose details we could check. Votes for women in other countries are general knowledge from many histories, and we have not checked each date separately.

Why it matters

The first women MPs showed that ordinary women, maids and bakers among them, could make laws. Finland’s example was followed closely in other countries where women were still fighting for the vote. Today women hold close to half of the seats in Finland’s parliament.

Sources and further reading

  1. Minutes of the founding congress of the Finnish Workers’ Party, Turku, July 1899 — 85 delegates, 34 associations, suffrage at 21 and the eight-hour day (in Finnish).
  2. Social Democratic Party of Finland — founded in Turku in 1899 as the Workers’ Party, renamed at Forssa in 1903.
  3. Finland 100: timeline of 1905 — the general strike, the November Manifesto and the “peaceful revolution”.
  4. Agricola Historiakone: the year 1905 — the general strike day by day (in Finnish).
  5. Tampere University, Koskivoimaa: the general strike in Tampere and the Red Declaration (in Finnish).
  6. Mooses Lehtinen’s memoir “The general strike of 1905 in Turku”, kept in the Labour Archives — the only source found for events in Turku (in Finnish).
  7. thisisFINLAND: the first women in parliament — 62 candidates, 19 elected, the first session and its laws.
  8. Federal Agency for Civic Education (Germany): 1906, votes for women in Finland — the Parliament Act and the growth of the electorate (in German).
  9. Parliament of Finland: history — the reform of 1906, 200 members and the first sitting of 1907.
  10. Parliament of Finland: “One chamber, two sexes” (2017) — the first women MPs and their first bills (in Finnish).
  11. 1907 Finnish parliamentary election — voters, turnout and seats by party.
  12. Women’s suffrage in Finland — the first country where women could both vote and stand for parliament.
  13. Women Vote Peace: Finland 1906 — the first in Europe and the first with full political rights for women.
  14. Mimmi Kanervo — maidservant in Turku, member of the 1905 strike committee, MP for North Turku province 1907–1917.
  15. “Punaset” (1907): portraits of the first Social Democratic MPs, including Mimmi Kanervo and Ida Aalle (in Finnish).
  16. Ida Aalle-Teljo — baker, MP for South Turku province 1907–1917, imprisoned after 1918.
  17. Hedvig Gebhard — born in Turku in 1867, MP for the Finnish Party 1907–1909 and in the 1920s.
  18. Miina Sillanpää — factory worker at 12, MP for 38 years, Finland’s first woman minister in 1926.

Spotted a mistake? Know more?

This site is open and free. Corrections and additions are welcome — every page lists its sources so you can check them.