Arndt Pekurinen
| Arndt Pekurinen | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Arndt Juho Pekurinen 29 August 1905 Juva, Finland |
| Died | 5 November 1941 (aged 36) Kalevala district, Soviet Union |
| Cause of death | Executed |
| Resting place |
Malmi cemetery, Helsinki 60°14′09″N 25°01′38″E / 60.2359°N 25.0273°E |
Arndt Juho Pekurinen (29 August 1905 in Juva, Finland – 5 November 1941 in Kalevala district, Soviet Union, now Russia) was a Finnish pacifist and conscientious objector.
In 1926, Pekurinen repeatedly refused mandatory conscription, leading to his imprisonment between 1929 and 1931. He refused to either wear a uniform or take arms. While Pekurinen was deeply religious, his motives were not based on his faith. While his contemporaries suggested he was Communist, he was not interested in politics. Because of his pacifist conviction, in the atmosphere of the Militaristic thirties he was deemed as guilty of high treason, and the Lapua movement harassed him relentlessly. 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 14 April 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, Pekurinen once again found himself imprisoned. At the onset of the Continuation War in autumn 1941, he was sent to the front, with orders to make sure he did wear the uniform, and bear and use a weapon. At the front he still refused to wear a uniform or bear arms. Following an order issued by Captain Pentti Valkonen, he was executed without trial. The first two soldiers (Sergeant Kivelä and Private Kinnunen) ordered to execute him refused; only the third, Corporal Asikainen, obeyed Valkonen's direct order.
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