Kurt Martti Wallenius

Kurt Martti Wallenius (July 25, 1893 in Kuopio – May 3, 1984 in Helsinki) was a Finnish Major General.

Wallenius was a member of the Finnish Jäger troops trained in Germany prior to Finnish independence. In 1915 Wallenius travelled to Germany where he enrolled in the Royal Prussian 27th Jäger Battalion. He took part in the battles on the Misse River.

After returning to Finland, Wallenius took part in the Finnish Civil War of 1918 on the side of the anti-Communist Whites. He commanded a platoon in Tervola and Tornio. In Lapland Wallenius met reindeer herder Aleksi Hihnavaara, with whom he travelled around Lapland, and the two became good friends. Wallenius was later appointed commander of the troops around Kuolajärvi and Kuusamo. Here he was given the command of the northern group in the failed March 1918 Viena expedition, which tried to annex parts of East Karelia to Finland.

After the Civil War Wallenius commanded troops in North-Western Finland: the Salla Regiment and the 1st Border Guard Regiment of Lapland. In the 1920s he was briefly made a military attaché in Berlin.

In 1930 Wallenius was promoted to the rank of Major General. However, he was forced to retire in that year when he was implicated in the kidnapping of the former Finnish President Kaarlo Ståhlberg, though Wallenius was eventually acquitted of all charges. In the 1930s Wallenius became involved in right-wing activities, becoming the secretary-general of the Lapua movement. In this capacity he was involved in the so-called Mäntsälä rebellion. Wallenius was imprisoned twice for a total of over one year.

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