We need men like these, but not too many.
sh pacifist and conscientious objector.
In 1926, Pekurinen refused repeatedly military service, leading to his imprisonment between 1929 and 1931. In 1930, an international petition on his behalf was sent to the Finnish defense minister Juho Niukkanen, which included the signatures of sixty British MPs and notables such as Albert Einstein, Henri Barbusse and H. G. Wells. On April 14, 1931, the Lex Pekurinen, Finland's first alternative to military service, was passed. However, its provisions extended only as far as peacetime.
When the Winter War broke out in 1939, therefore, Pekurinen once again found himself imprisoned. At the onset of the Continuation War in autumn 1941, he was sent to the front, where he refused to wear a uniform or carry arms. Following an order issued by Captain Pentti Valkonen, he was shot. The first two soldiers ordered to execute him refused.
After the war, an investigation of Pekurinen's death was begun but never completed. He remained effectively forgotten for over fifty years, until the publication in 1998 of the book Courage: The life and execution of Arndt Pekurinen by Erno Paasilinna. The city of Helsinki has named a park, Arndt Pekurisen puisto, in his memory.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arndt_Pekurinen
In 1926, Pekurinen refused repeatedly military service, leading to his imprisonment between 1929 and 1931. In 1930, an international petition on his behalf was sent to the Finnish defense minister Juho Niukkanen, which included the signatures of sixty British MPs and notables such as Albert Einstein, Henri Barbusse and H. G. Wells. On April 14, 1931, the Lex Pekurinen, Finland's first alternative to military service, was passed. However, its provisions extended only as far as peacetime.
When the Winter War broke out in 1939, therefore, Pekurinen once again found himself imprisoned. At the onset of the Continuation War in autumn 1941, he was sent to the front, where he refused to wear a uniform or carry arms. Following an order issued by Captain Pentti Valkonen, he was shot. The first two soldiers ordered to execute him refused.
After the war, an investigation of Pekurinen's death was begun but never completed. He remained effectively forgotten for over fifty years, until the publication in 1998 of the book Courage: The life and execution of Arndt Pekurinen by Erno Paasilinna. The city of Helsinki has named a park, Arndt Pekurisen puisto, in his memory.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arndt_Pekurinen
posted by Tristan Tzara at 2:48 AM
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