Kerttu Nuorteva

Kerttu Nuorteva (10 November 1912, Astoria, Oregon, United States – 29 August 29, 1963, Karaganda, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union) was a Soviet intelligence agent. She was the daughter of Santeri Nuorteva, President of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Kerttu Nuorteva was and parachuted into Finland by the Soviet Airborne Troops in 1942. She was arrested and deported back to the Soviet Union at the end of the war.

Nuorteva was born in Astoria, Oregon, United States where her father had lived since the 1910s as he was deported from Tampere, Finland. In the Soviet Union, Santeri had a good relationship with Lenin and became the president of Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Kerttu Nuorteva was raised and went to school in Petrozavodsk and later attended university in Leningrad. She married Finnish-born Jalmari Aho, a member of the Finnish Red Guards. She later married journalist Leo Varshavski.

In 1937, Nuorteva was accused of treason and arrested by the NKVD. She was held for two years and then sentenced to three years at hard labor. During the Continuation War in December 1941, the NKVD suggested that she could join intelligence training and sent her on a mission to Finland. Her brothers Matti and Pentti had been sent on similar missions, and were both arrested in occupied Petrozavodsk and executed by the Finnish forces.

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