Bold. Versatile. Full of contradictions. Writer. Politician. Businesswoman. Hella Wuolijoki was very many things and even today it’s hard to place her in any one category.

Mint of Finland has the honour of commemorating Hella Wuolijoki with a collector coin in 2011, 125 years after her birth.

The Hella Wuolijoki and Equality collector coin is the second in the Great Finnish Women coin series. In 2010, the series was launched with the Minna Canth and Equality collector coin.

"The Wuolijoki woman"

Hella Wuolijoki is best remembered for her Niskavuori series of novels and for Hulda from Juurakko. Along with the novels there developed a concept of the Wuolijoki strong woman. In Niskavuori life proceeded at the hands of strong, decisive women.

The main protagonist in Hulda from Juurakko is also independent and strong-willed. Hulda was turned into a film, Farmer’s Daughter, and the lead role secured an Oscar for the actress Loretta Young in 1947.

Strong Finnish women

The first instalments of the Niskavuori series were published before Finland’s Winter War. It is easy to see the link between these plays and Finnish society where men of working age fought at the front line and women kept things going on the home front.

Finland would not be what it is today without these strong women - women who raised children, maintained their households and at the same time kept the wheels of the country turning.