Ali Aaltonen
| Ali Aaltonen | |
|---|---|
A 1916 scetch of Ali Aaltonen
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| Native name | Aleksi Aaltonen |
| Born |
August 2, 1884 Jämsä, Grand Duchy of Finland |
| Died | May 1918 (33 years) Lahti, Finland |
| Allegiance |
 Russian Empire Red Finland
|
| Years of service | 1903–1905, 1917–1918 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | |
Aleksi ″Ali″ Aaltonen (2 August 1884 – May 1918) was a Finnish journalist and former lieutenant of the Russian Imperial Army, who served as the first commander-in-chief of the Finnish Red Guards from November 1917 to the end of January 1918. He was executed after the Finnish Civil War in May 1918.
Aaltonen was born to a poor land worker's family in Jämsä. In 1897, Aaltonen attended a high school in Jyväskylä by the expense of his female primary school teacher. Aaltonen dropped out of high school in 1903 and joined the Russian Army. In 1904–1905 he served as a lieutenant in the Russo-Japanese War and was later afflicted with a socialist groups of the Russian revolution of 1905. As the revolution failed, Aaltonen was jailed in Moscow and expelled from the military. After his release, Aaltonen returned Finland and worked for labour press in Turku, Vyborg and Kotka. In addition to the newspaper articles, he wrote poems and short stories, but they were never published as a book. Occasionally Aaltonen wrote under the pseudonym Ali Baba. He also worked as a party official for the Social Democrats.
In October 1917, Aaltonen was in Helsinki organizing the Workers' Order Guards, which soon became the Red Guards. After the general strike in November, he was elected the commander-in-chief of the Order Guards as Adolf Taimi refused. This was mainly due to his military experience in Russia. In the beginning of January 1918, Aaltonen travelled to Saint Petersburg to purchase weapons for the Red Guards. Aaltonen, however, started drinking and the Finnish Reds had no clue of his whereabouts. In 13 January, the Red Guard general staff decided to fill his empty office as soon as possible. Despite of his heavy driking in Saint Petersburg, Aaltonen managed to buy a large cargo of guns and ammunition from the Bolsheviks. Finally in 28 January, Aaltonen was replaced by Eero Haapalainen. The Civil War had started a day before.
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