Juho Kusti Paasikivi was born into a family from the Häme region in central Finland in 1870. In the church register the place of birth is given as Tampere, but Lahti further south was to be his home. When Juho’s mother died, the family moved first to Hollola and then to Kauppala near Lahti.

Paasikivi had begun his studies in Hollola, but it was only when his father sent him to the senior school in Hämeenlinna that Juho began to excel. In the normaalilyseo he read diligently and was top of the class several times. For its time the school was a little curiosity since it was one the first one founded by the Fennomans, as well as the first to promote the Fennoman agenda by instructing in Finnish. For Paasikivi, this was the first taste of one of the most heated topics of the day, one which in later years he was to get further involved in.

In 1890 Paasikivi enrolled in the Imperial Alexander University to study history. Of particular interest for him was Russian history, language and literature. He completed his studies in the faculty of philosophy in extremely short order and gained a bachelor of arts degree after just two years. But his studies did not end there: he continued in the Faculty of Jurisprudence, a move that could probably be put down to the better employment prospects.

Paasikivi graduated as a Master of Laws in 1897 and in the same year married Anna Forsman. Paasikivi went on with his studies, and in 1901 thanks to a doctoral thesis he was successful in securing an associate professor’s post in the University in 1902. His varsity career remained short as in the very next year he was awarded the position of director general in the State Treasury. Alongside the job Paasikivi worked in politics for several years but abandoned it because of conflicts of interest. He also resigned his post at the State Treasury.

In 1913 he took the presidency of the KOP bank, a position he was to hold for the next twenty years. He piloted the bank successfully through the turbulent war years. In his economic thinking Paasikivi was a classic liberal. During his tenure, the bank grew into one of Finland’s biggest commercial banks, which drew him more closely into national politics. The age of austerity which dominated the 1930s had a deleterious impact on the bank’s activity and led to tensions amongst the bank’s executives. The death of Paasikivi’s wife in 1931 made matters worse. He resigned the presidency in 1934, after which his attention shifted for the most part to the world of politics. And by his side was his new bride, Alli Valve.

References:

• Tuomo Polvinen, ”Paasikivi, Juho Kusti (1870 - 1956)”.Finnish Dictionary of National Biography online. Accessed 24 April, 2015.
• ”Juho Kusti Paasikivi”. Helsingin Sanomat newspaper obituary.  Accessed April 24, 2015.
• Wikipedia, ”Juho Kusti Paasikivi”. Accessed April 24, 2015.