Johan Kock

Captain Johan Kock (born June 4 1861 in Helsinki – died April 13 1915, Bunker Hill Township, Michigan) was a Finnish soldier who had been decommissioned from the Finnish army in Viipuri in 1897. Kock was a revolutionary who was the leader of the Finnish Red Guards from 1905 to 1906.

In 1900 Kock was a reporter in Viipuri. He organised routes to smuggle revolutionary writings from Sweden via Finland to Russia. In 1905 during the general strike the academic society and labour protested together against the Russian czar. Kock became the leader of the national guard during the strike. Kock gained the support and trust of the general governor Ivan Obolensk. Nevertheless, Obolenski negotiated with the Constitutionals how to solve the strike by political means. The Acamedic society couldn't accept Kock's leadership: university students and polytechniques split off, founding their own organisation under the leaership of Göstä Theslöff.

The Constitutionals wanted to end the srike on November 5, but the Red Guards to continue. Kock, who supported the strike, attended the negotiations to end the strike. The strike ended on November 6, and on the next day Kock, pulled his troops from the Helsinki police stations. Kock took part in the Viapori Rebellion in 1906 in the Suomenlinna fortress. When the rebellion failed, Kock fled the country among with other activists to Sweden and from there to England before moving to the United States.