Frans Myyryläinen

Frans Johan ”Janne” Myyryläinen (b.1881 Viipuri —d. 1938 Petroskoi) was a Finnish Red Guardian during the civil war. He was also a Red Guardian in Kainuu and an officer Guardian in Soviet Russia.

Myyryläinen worked as forest guardian and as a shop cheaper in Kainuu and as an inspector in the early 1900s. He became member in the Kainuu red guards. The opposition White Guard said that Myyryläinen was a dangerous man.

During the Finnish civil war in 1918 Myyryläinen was arrested and tried. His punishment was 2 years in prison and he lost is civic confidence for 12 years but he was able to escape. He was captured later. On his way to prison camp in Lahti Myyryläinen was able to escape second time and this time to Soviet Union. In Russia he was in a red guard officer school. Later he organized underground movement in Kainuu.

Myyryläinen is known as the leader of the Pork mutiny in 1922 in Salla and in Savukoski. Myyryläinen, using the name of Jahvetti Moilanen, stood on a crate that had formerly contained pork when he delivered his speech called the 'Declaration of Battle of the Red Guerrilla Battalion of the North'. After the speech, some 300 workers joined the battalion and were armed and given money. The Battalion then made its way back to the border. On its way, it robbed a group of border guards and other workplaces. On February 7, the battalion, by that time about 240 men, crossed the border back to the Soviet Union. Information of the incident was only received at Rovaniemi on February 5 and the battalion managed to slip away before a group of the White Guard arrived. In Soviet Union Myyryläinen continued as a Red Army teacher in the Russian part of Karelia. Later he worked as journalist in Petrozavodsk using the name Juuso Matero.

During the Great Purges Myyryläinen was arrested in and judged for some unclear case. He was arrested in May 5 and was executed on May 8 in 1938 perhaps in somewhere in Petrozavodsk.

During the Khrushchev thaw, a military tribune overturned the verdict against Myyryläinen on 21 May, 1957.

Myyryläinen was married two twice and had three children from his second marriage.

The location of his grave is unknown.