Väinö Tanner

Väinö Tanner (March 12, 1881 – April 19, 1966) was a pioneer leader in Finland's Co-op Movement. After the Civil War in Finland, in which he hadn't participated, he became Finland's leading Social Democratic politician, and a strong proponent of Parliamentarism. His main achievement was the party's rehabilitation after the Civil War. Väinö Tanner served as Prime Minister (1926-1927), Minister of Finance (1937-1939), Foreign Minister (1939-1940), and after the Winter War, when he according to Soviet wishes had resigned from the Foreign Ministry, as Minister of Trade (1940-1942).

To accommodate the Soviet Union, Väinö Tanner was after the Continuation War tried for "war-responsibility" in February 1946, and sentenced to 5½ years in prison.

After the Continuation War, already while in prison, Tanner was the virtual leader of the US supported faction of the Social Democratic Party, that eventually came out on top of party strifes lasting most of the 1940s.