Otto Wille Kuusinen was a well-known as something of a philanderer and married three times in his life. His first wife, Saima Dahlström (1873-1950), was the sister of a former schoolmate. The two met when Kuusinen visited the Dahlström family estate in Luhanka. Saima Dählström was eight years his senior and the daughter of a freeholder, but apparently she paid little regard to the expectations placed on a woman of her status, as her relationship with the poor son of a tailor deepened rapidly.

Their first daughter, Aino, was born at the end of July in 1901, but the couple were not married until October 20, 1902. Kuusinen took a year off from his studies after the birth of their first child and returned to Central Finland to provide for his family, a fact that seems to have led to his ultimate acceptance by his in-laws.

His new wife and small daughter, who died in 1903, were left to live with the Dahlströms in Luhanka when Kuusinen went back to Helsinki to continue his studies in 1902. They had five more children: their daughters Hertta and Riikka were born in 1904 and 1908, respectively, and their son Esa in 1906, so that when rest of the family eventually followed their father to the capital in 1909, Kuusinen already had four mouths to feed. In Helsinki they had two more sons, Heikki in 1911 and Taneli in 1913.

After the Civil War, Kuusinen fled to the Soviet Union, and like many other leaders of Red Finland who had escaped, he also divorced his wife—this was apparently to safeguard the reputations of the families left behind in Finland, although such moves proved ineffective. Their marriage seems to have already cooled before the Civil War, but nevertheless the exiled Kuusinen did not completely sever ties with his family, and his three oldest children followed him to the Soviet Union in the 1920s.

His daughter Hertta continued in her father’s ideological footsteps, and was one of the most notable figures in the Communist Party of Finland after the Second World War. His son Esa and the husband of his daughter Riikka were in turn arrested during the purges of Joseph Stalin. When, during the Winter War, Otto Wille Kuusinen was the head of the Terijoki puppet government established by Stalin, he used his position to have his son released, but his son-in-law was left to fend for himself. Esa Kuusinen died in 1949 as a result of tuberculosis contracted in the prison camp, but Riikka Kuusinen was still alive at her father’s funeral.

Otto Wille Kuusinen met his second wife Aino Kuusinen (before Sarola, née Turtiainen, 1886-1970) while in hiding in Finland in 1919. Aino Kuusinen moved to the Soviet Union in 1922, and after marrying Kuusinen she became an employee of Comintern. In the early 1930s, Comintern first sent Aino Kuusinen to work in the United States, and then ito Japan. Long absences from Moscow also had an impact on the marriage, and in her memoirs Aino Kuusinen writes that she returned from the United States to a “complete stranger.”

The name of Otto Wille Kuusinen has remained famous because he managed to keep his life, freedom and position through all the purges of Stalin, but Aino Kuusinen was not as fortunate. She was arrested in 1938, and with the exception of a brief period as a free woman, she spent the next 17 years of her life in prisons and forced labour. She survived, but was understandably deeply embittered towards her husband, who had done nothing to help his wife.

Aino Kuusinen did not see Otto Wille Kuusinen again until his funeral in 1964. After the death of her husband, Aino Kuusinen finally felt it possible to leave the Soviet Union behind, and in 1965 she moved to Finland. In her twilight years she wrote a memoir of her time in the Soviet Union, which was published posthumously in 1972.

Otto Wille Kuusinen had been in no hurry to see his wife released because in 1935, when he was staying in the Crimea, he had already met Marina Amiragova, a medical student, 30 years his junior, who followed him to Moscow. Because Otto Wille and Aino Kuusinen were never officially divorced, though they were separated, the marriage between Marina Amiragova and Kuusinen was unofficial.

Marina Amiragova gave birth to their daughter Violetta in 1937, but the child died before her first birthday. Marina was also present at the funeral of Kuusinen in 1964, as was his official wife Aino Kuusinen, who failed even to mention Amiragova in her memoirs.

It has been left to posterity to wonder how a staunch supporter of communist ideology could have left those closest to him at the mercy of fate, a fact that no doubt is the cause of his controversial reputation. Perfect answers are unlikely to be found, but it would seem that his sacrifice of personal relationships was partly responsible for his survival through the purges of Stalin and his ability to maintain his position in the upper echelon of the Soviet leadership.

Sources:

Kuusinen, Aino. Jumala syöksee enkelinsä. Muistelmat vuosilta 1919-1965 (’God Fells His Angels. Memoirs 1919-1965). Finnish translation by Aaro A. Vuoristo. Otava. Keuruu 1972.
Sainio, Venla. Kuusinen, Otto Wille. Online publication of the National Biography. Accessed September 24, 2015.
Salminen, Vesa (ed.) Nuori Otto Ville Kuusinen 1881-1920 (‘Young Otto Ville Kuusinen 1881-1920’). K.J. Gummerus Osakeyhtiö. Jyväskylä 1970.
Uitto, Antero. Suomensyöjä Otto Wille Kuusinen (‘Otto Wille Kuusinen, Devourer of Finland’). Kustannusosakeyhtiö Paasilinna. Juva 2013.