Johannes Virolainen

Johannes Virolainen (Audio|Fi-Johannes_Virolainen.ogg|pronunciation) (January 31 1914 – December 11 2000) was a Finnish politician.

Virolainen was born near Viipuri. After the Continuation War Virolainen moved to Lohja, but he remained one of the leaders of the evacuated Karelians, and never gave up the hope that Soviet Union and later Russia would return Finnish Karelia to Finland. He was also famous being a teetotaller, and saying that the only circumstance where he would countenance downing a toast was when Karelia was ceded back to Finland. He was fond of repeating the line, and it has been claimed that he used it at least to Nikita Khrushchev and Anastas Mikoyan on the soviet side, to fend off needling by them for lacking the soviet style of social graces.

A member of the Agrarian League (later the Centre Party), Virolainen was a Member of Parliament 1945–1983 and 1987–1991.

He had a long ministerial career, serving as Assistant Minister of the Interior 1950–1951; Minister at the Council of State Chancellery 1951, and 1956–1957; Minister of Education 1953, 1954, 1956–1957, and 1968–1970; Minister for Foreign Affairs 1954–1956, 1957, and 1958; Deputy Prime Minister 1957, 1958, 1962–1963, 1968–1970, and 1977–1979; Minister of Agriculture 1961–1962, 1962–1963; Minister of Finance 1972–1975; and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry 1976–1977 and 1977–1979.

Virolainen was Prime Minister in 1964–1966, presiding over a coalition government comprising the Centre Party, National Coalition Party, Swedish People's Party, and Finnish People's Party. He also served as Speaker of the Parliament in 1966–1968 and 1979–1983. Virolainen was one of the strongest Centre-Partist leaders in the post-war era, second only to Urho Kekkonen.