Johannes Virolainen

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Johannes Virolainen (January 31 1914 - December 11 2000) was a Finnish politician.

He was a Member of Parliament in 1945-1983 and 1987-1991, Prime Minister in 1964-1966 and Speaker of the Parliament in 1966-1968 and 1979-1983. He presented the Centre Party of Finland.

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 sober, and saying "The day I will drink beer is the day when Karelia is again back to Finland". In the post-war elections (which completely changed the political spectrum in Finland) he became a member of Parliament. He was one of the strongest Centre-Partist leaders in the post-war era, second only to Urho Kekkonen.

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