Mayu Lassila

Algot Tietäväinen was born into a family of poor peasants Jakko Wilhelm Tietäväinen and Maria Simontuyar Hakulinen. In 1879, the family moved to Ruskeala due to debts, where the head of the family soon died. In 1881, Algot took the name of Untol's stepfather. Tietäväinen had many pseudonyms: Mayu Lassila (feminine name), Irmari Rantamala , Väinö Shtenberg , J.I. Watanen , Liisan-Antti and Jussi Porilainen . Lassila was a teacher by education. In 1887, with the help of a local priest teacher, he came to Sortavala Teachers' Seminary. After graduating from a seminary, which was interrupted due to financial difficulties, from 1891 to 1898 he served as a teacher at a public school in Raahe.

From 1898 to 1904, Lassila lived in St. Petersburg , where he worked in an intermediary timber trading company. There he became close to the socialist revolutionaries ; according to some reports, he was in the militant organization of the Social Revolutionaries and participated in the preparation of the assassination attempt on the Minister of Internal Affairs Pleve .

In 1904 he returned to Finland, in Lohja, where he returned to teaching at a public school. After that, for many years he was associated, as an agitator and editor of the newspaper, with the conservative party of the "old Finns" (or the " Finnish Party "). However, after the suppression of the revolution of 1905, it was also published in the proletarian newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Finland , Tuyömies (Worker).

The most famous books of Algot Untol are: “Harhama” (“Wandering”, 1909), written under the pseudonym Irmari Rantamala , and “ For matches ” ( Tulitikkuja lainaamassa , 1910), written under the pseudonym Mayu Lassila ^[1] . For these books, the writer was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Literature, which he refused.

In 1916 he published “Letters of the Bourgeois ”, in which he dissociated himself from bourgeois political forces and identified himself with the revolutionary socialists : “From now on, only socialism gives the force of life, followed by the future. Everything healthy that has been achieved recently has become possible only thanks to the energy and onslaught of socialism . ” He welcomed the October Revolution in Russia and actively joined in the revolutionary activity of the Left Social Democrats.

During the Civil War, Untola was on the side of the " Red Guard ". After the capture of Helsinki by the White Guards and German troops , Untola was arrested on April 12-13, 1918 .

On May 21, 1918 , while being transported on a boat from Helsinki to Santahaminsk prison, Algot Untola died under unclear circumstances. According to one version, he tried to escape and jumped into the water. According to another, Untola was shot on a ship and then thrown into the water. There is a legend that the writer was killed when he tried to intercede for a woman prisoner.

Lassila's works were translated into Russian by M. M. Zoshchenko . This was the first translation of the works of a Finnish writer into a foreign language. His books were translated into Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and other languages ​​and also appeared in Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, and the PRC. Lassile devoted an essay to Yuri Nagibin.

• Pirttipohya and its inhabitants. Per. L. Virolainen / Pirttipohjalaisia, 1911
• Crazy. Per. A. Hurmevaara / Liika viisas, 1915
• Risen from the dead. Per. M. Zoshchenko / Kuolleista herannyt, 1916

In the book “ Ilmari Chianto, Mayu Lassila. Library of Finnish literature. - Moscow: Fiction, 1978. - 527 p. "

• For matches (film)

• K. Salonen. Rantamala // Literary Encyclopedia : in 11 vol.: Vol. 9 / Ch. ed. Lunacharsky A.V .; Scientific secretary Mikhailova E. N. - M .: OGIZ RSFSR, State. institute “Owls. Encycl. ", 1935. - St. 517-519. - 832 stb. : ill.
• Who sent everyone ... "for matches"?