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Vilho Helanen (1899-1952) |
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Mystery writer, playwright, Ph.D., whose novels were pioneering works of Finnish detective fiction. Vilho Helanen's series character was the lawyer Kaarlo Rauta, who made his appearance in Helsingissä tapahtuu (1941) and then in several other novels. Among Helanen's best mystery stories are Filmitalon murhenäytelmä (1948), Ristilukin arvoitus (1949), and "Kansantuhooja" (1951). Between the World Wars Helanen was active in right-wing organizations gaining much renown as an ardent orator. He also advocated closer ties among kindred people in the Baltic countries and Finland; especially well-known figure he was in Estonia. "Olen ollut melko taitava hankkimaan vihamiehiä, ystäviä on keräämättä kertynyt riittävän paljon. Vilho Helanen oli yksi niitä, joihin välit katkesivat AKS:n vaiheissa, kun hän valitsi IKL:n, ja hänhänm pysähtyi elämään noita aikoja ja kirjoitti niistä aikanaan romaanin. Siinä taidan minäkin esiintyä." (President Urho Kekkonen in Vuosisatani, 1981) Vilho Helanen was born in Oulu, the son of District Judge Klaus Robert Helanen and Johanna Aurora Gummerus. While still at school he began to write, and edited the school magazine. Helanen read voluptuously and had his first encounter with the works of Nietzsche and Strindberg. When Helanen's father became a senator, the family moved to Helsinki. At Helsingin Suomalainen Lyseo (Helsinki normal lyceum until 1914), Helanen's classmates included the future writer Uuno Mattila (pseydonym Yrjö Kivimies). During
the Civil War Helanen joined the White Guards. He participated in the
spring of 1918 in underground activities against the Reds. In the
autumn of the same year, he entered the University of Helsinki,
where he studied history and economics, receiving his M.A. in 1922
and Ph.D. in 1937 for his thesis entitled Pohjalainen Osakunta VV. 1828–1852, I VV. 1828–1837. It was published by Otava retitled as Suuri murros, Pohjalaisen Osakunnan historia ajalta 1828–1837 eli yliopiston Helsinkiin muutosta Osakunnan pakkojakoon. In 1919 Helanen participated as volunteer in the
Estonian freedom fight. A few years later he joined the right-wing
student organization AKS (Academic Karelia Society). He was elected three times as its chairman (1927-1928, 1934-1935,
1936-1944). In addition, Helanen was the chief editor of the student magazine Ylioppilaslehti (1926-28), and he contributed to the magazine Suomen Heimo, AKS's mouthpiece, which presented positive views regarding Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler's reign. Having an interest in theater, he was a member of the board of the National Theater (1934-1944). From 1922 to 1941 Helanen worked as the secretary of the board of directors at the insurance company Salama, and editor of its magazine Leimaus, but eventually resigned, disappointed in his employer. As a writer Helanen began his career at the age of 17
when his short story 'Ilmoitus' appeared in a newspaper. His first book
was a non-fiction study of the contribution of Finland on the Estonian
independence process, Suomalaiset Viron vapaussodassa (1921). It was based on documents and memoirs, which Helanen assembled into a coherent whole. In 1923 Helanen made his bebut as a novelist with Saratus. It went without commercial success. The work took its name from a temperance society ("dawn") and depicted the life of young students and their visions about the future of their home country. "Silti minä olen vielä nytkin iloinen siitä, että tulin nuorena kirjoittaneeksi tuon koulupoikaromaanin. Olen tietoinen sen suurista puutteista. Mutta sittenkin siihen on melko tuoreeltaan vangittu kappale Suomen syvimmän murroskauden nuoruutta." (Helanen in Meistä tuli kirjailijoita, 1947). One of the characters, a school girl, was modelled after his wife, Kaarina Emilia Hurskainen, whom he married in 1922. Helanen had met her already at the age of 16. Vilho and Kaarina Emilia Helanen had four children, one of whom was adopted – she was born in Ingria, and later moved to Sweden. Their son Juhani disappeared in 1946 while sailing across the Gulf of Bothnia. According to some assumptions he was helping Estonian refugees to escape to Sweden. For his services in creating contacts between Finland and Estonia Helanen was awarded in 1931 a diploma and an Estonian badge of honour. In 1934 he was arrested in Tallinn due a diplomatic conflict and declared person non-grata. Behind the decision was Helanen's connections to the ultra-nationalist organization Eesti Vabadussõjalaste Liit (The Vaps Movement) and to one of its central figures, Arthur Sirk (1900-1937). The leaders of the Vaps movement planned a coup d'etat – it failed and the conspirators were brought to trial. Sirk died in Luxembourg under dubious circumstances. In the 1930s Helanen took part in
the Lapua movement, which campaigned to root out all vestiges of
Marxism. He was also a member of the nationalistic party IKL
(People's Patriotic Movement). Their black shirt uniform, designed
by Paavo Susitaival, was inspired by the Italian fascists. A
representative of the IKL, Helanen sat in the city council
between 1933 and 1936. As the chairman of the AKS Helanen advocated the Greated Finland ideology. In a speech delivered
at the Old Student House (Vanha Ylioppilastalo) in 1928, Helanen said
that the present borders are not natural but arbitrary. "We hate war.
But even more we hate slavery. (Isänmaa vaarassa: AKS:n maanpuolustustyö 1922-1939 by Kullervo Leinonen, 2013, p. 37) Having no doubt, that there would be a war against the Soviet
Union in the future, Helanen actively promoted the national defense
awareness campaign, the "Country's Security" (Maan Turva). Basically
Maan Turva was Helanen's creation. Prime Minister Risto Ryti thanked
him in the Spring of 1941 on the work that AKS had done for the spirit
of the Winter War. Helanen called the Continuation War a "holy war," a view that was not atypical in the
press at large. "Nyt luodaan eheän, yksimielisen, elämäntahoisen
kansamme voimalla Suomi, jonka yltä idän uhka in iäksi poissa," he
wrote in Suomen Heimo in June 30, 1941. (Now, with our united,
unanimous people with a strong desire to live, we create a new Finland,
and dispel the threat of the East forever.) Helanen's opposition to the
Communist ideology was also seen in his novels, most clearly in Helsingissä tapahtuu. He participated with it in the Nordic detective novel competition of 1939, coming second to Mika Waltari's Who Killed Mrs Skrof? In the story an Ukrainian dancer, who is a Communist and a spy, is
killed, and Kaarlo Rauta's friend, a leader of a patriotic
organization, is accused of her murder. Rauta reveals
that culprit is a woman, Iines Salonen, the leader of an
anarcho-communist spy ring. The novel was published by Otava under the pseudonym
Heikki Aksila in 1941. A perfect Aryan, Helanen's hero Rauta is tall, blond, broad shouldered, and he has a strong jaw. His favorite hobbies include boxing and theater. And he smokes a lot. What becomes of Waltari's first prized work, Helanen acknowledged its merits, but did not value Waltari's following detective novel, Komisario Palmun erehdys (1940, Inspector Palmu's Mistake) – "Waltari's mistake too," he said. (Rauta ja Ristilukki: Vilho Helasen salapoliisiromaanit by Paula Arvas, 2009, p. 14) For Helanen's disappointment, his books never reached the screen as it was the case with the Palmu series. Helanen served in the army as an information officer (1941-43) and then as a director of immigrant committee, helping among others Ingrian refugees in Tallinn. The Germans, with whom he kept close contact, considered him as "ein fanatischer Chauvinist." In 1944 he assisted a number of Estonians to escape over the Finnish gulf in front of the advancing Red Army. Among them was Leo Murrik, the brother of the leftist writer Hella Wuolijoki. After the end of the Continuation War, all allegedly pro-fascist parties and organizations were outlawed, including the anti-democratic IKL and the Academic Karelia Society. Political prisoners were released, democracy was restored, and the Finnish Communist Party was made legal. Helanen was crushed mentally and physically by the fall of his dreams. Believing that Finland will be occupied by the Soviet troops, Helanen grew mustache to make his identification more difficult. However, Helanen did not leave the country as some of his far-right friends and high rank officers of the army. An ironic twist was that the friendship society Suomi Neuvostoliitto Seura (Finland Soviet Union Society) promised to grant Helanen political immunity if he joined the society – he refused the offer. Helanen never received official recognition for his humanitarian work with Estonian refugees. To support his family, Helanen began writing mystery novels, several of which were serialized first in the magazines Suomen Kuvalehti or Kansan Kuvalehti. Some of the ideas for the stories Helanen acquired from S.S. van Dine, whose work he admired. Beginning from Valvova silmä (1946), in which the murderer is a young a hunchbacked woman, Helanen avoided dealing with politically sensitive matters – Communist villains were replaced by scheming women. In Rauhaton rannikko (1947) the victim is a German-Swedish Elisabeth Vaara, who has loose sexual morals. The killer is a young woman, who has fallen in love with Elisabeth's husband. In Ristilukin arvoitus (1949) Helanen's hero Kaarlo Rauta reveals with the help of his wife a black-market organization, led by a sadistic woman, the poet Irja Laantila and her German husband, Obersturmführer von Markenfeld. Berenike,
a historical play written under
the pseudonym Jussi Sara, won the second prize in a drama competition
arranged by the Association of Workers' Theatres. It became a small
scandal, when the identity of the rightist winner was revealed, and the play was
not
performed until 1954. The film company
Suomi-Filmi employed Helanen as a dramaturgist in 1947-48, but his script drafts, Rauhaton rannikko and Ristilukin arvoitus, were not filmed. Under the pseudonym "Tero" Helanen contributed columns for the magazine Kauppalehti–
Tero was the name of the family's Irish
setter. Helanen's targets of his pen were Communists, educated people
who have
turned their coat and started to support the left, Raoul Palmgren, the
"Red Valpo" (State Police, Valtiollinen poliisi), and Hella Wuolijoki's
Finnish Broadcasting Company. In 1948, Helanen was accused of
treason. During the period when he sat in prison, he got ulcer, but still
finished the novel Filmitalon murhenäytelmä (1948).
The cause of Helanen's imprisonment was that in 1944 he had helped a
Danish radio engineer, Thoralf Kyrre, who cooperated with the German
and Finnish intelligences. Kyrre maintained a secret radio station in
Helsinki; he was murdered in 1960 in Copenhagen. The supreme court
sentenced Helanen in 1950 for six year imprisonment. Following the
deterioration of his health, he was
pardoned the next year by President J.K. Paasikivi. "- Rakas lapsi, minun puolestani saat sanoa Metsikön leikkiä miksi tahansa. Tavallaan se kuitenkin kuvasti sitä erilaisten mahdollisuuksien ja mahdottomuuksien viidakkoa, jonka keskelle minut on tämän murhan tutkijana nyt tipautettu. Olen vakuuttunut siitä, että saan tarpoa monia vääriä polkuja, ennen kuin löydän oikean. Minun on pakko puhkoa se sekä poliittisen pelin että henkilökohtaisten suhteiden hämäryys, joka ympäröi ministeri Saarkiven elämää ja jonka jostain nurkasta on löydettävissä vastaus siihen, miksi nuo kolme laukausta ammuttiin." (from Kolme laukausta yössä) Kolme laukausta yössä (1950) was set in the years of the Continuation War. Captain Kaarlo Rauta is assigned to solve the murder case of a high government official, who has eagerly supported warm relationships between Finland and Nazi Germany, allied at that time. The atmosphere in the capital town, far from the front lines, is drawn with few skillfully observations: Alvar Aalto's Olympic Stadion in Helsinki is seen as a monument of the canceled Olympic Games of 1940. A shelter is built in the middle of Esplanade road. Rauta's wife Inkeri plays piano and voluntarily helps at a hospital. While making his investigation Rauta meets politicians, spies, beautiful dark women, and spends much time in restaurants in Stockholm and Helsinki before finding out that that behind the murder was a jealous husband. The events of "Kansantuhooja" (1951) were placed in art and theater world. This time the villain is a well-to-do managing director who is a heroin dealer at the same time. In Kohtalon silta (1952) Rauta realizes that the world has changed much since the war. "Eikä ollut helppo päästä selville siitä, mitä itse kukin oli tappioon päättyneen sodan seurauksena olleesta romahduksesta pystynyt ja halunnut itselleen pelastaa." Helanen's promising career as a dramaturgist and detective story writer was cut by a heart attack in Frankfurt at the railway station, on June 8, 1952. His plans to meet the Swedish mystery writer Maria Lang and have his own books published in Sweden and in Germany never realized. The ninth Rauta novel was left on the idea stage. In a letter to his publisher, Helanen said that the Rauta series would consist of ten novels, like in David Hume's (pseudonym of John Turner) Mick Cardby series. (Rauta ja Ristilukki: Vilho Helasen salapoliisiromaanit by Paula Arvas, 2009, p. 27) For further reading: Meistä tuli kirjalijoita, edited by K. Sorjonen and V. Rekola (1947); Hornanlinnan perilliset by Timo Kukkola (1980); Voi voitettuja: pitkän elämän varrella muistiin merkittyä by Niilo Pesonen (1992); Etelän tien kulkija - Vilho Helanen, edited by Heikki Roiko-Jokela ja Heikki Seppänen (1997); Rauta ja Ristilukki: Vilho Helasen salapoliisiromaanit by Paula Arvas (2009); Rakkaat heimoveljet: Unkari ja Suomi 1920-1945 by Anssi Halmesvirta (2010); Isänmaa vaarassa: AKS:n maanpuolustustyö 1922-1939 by Kullervo Leinonen (2013); Suomalaiset fasistit: mustan sarastuksen airuet by Oula Silvennoinen, Marko Tikka & Aapo Roselius (2016) - Other popular Finnish mystery writers: Marton Taiga, Outsider, Mauri Sariola Selected works:
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