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Arvo Albin Turtiainen (16 September 1904 – 8 October 1980) was a Finnish writer and translator.
Turtiainen attended five years at Ressu Upper Secondary School and graduated as a dental technician. From 1932−1933 he studied at the University of Tampere and worked as a journalist afterwards, until he became a freelance writer in 1934.
His first wife was Aino Helena Vormula and his second Brita Polttila, who married Turtiainen in 1953.
In the Winter War Turtiainen served as a company commander, but for conscientious reasons he refused to participate in the Continuation War and went into hiding in 1941. He was arrested in early March 1942 along with the writer Raoul Palmgren and his wife Irja. Turtiainen was convicted on four counts of desertion and attempted high treason, sent to a labour penitentiary for six months and stripped of his rank. He was released in 1944.
Turtiainen was a member of Kiila, an association for writers and artists, and the Communist Party of Finland. He also worked for the socialist magazine 40-luku ( The 40's) from 1945 to 1947.
He received the Eino Leino Prize in 1973. Kustantajat.fi
Based on his prison experience, he wrote the works Ihminen n:o 503/42 ( Person No. 503/42) and Laulu kiven ja raudan ympyrässä ( A song in a circle of stone and iron).
He expressed his disappointment with the events of the 1968 Prague Spring with the publication of his work Puheita Porthaninrinteellä ( Speeches from Porthaninrinne).
Turtiainen was an active citizen of Helsinki and he received the nickname "Stadin Arska","Arska of the City", from "Stadi" ("City"), a slang term for Helsinki, and "Arska", a diminutive of "Arvo". particularly for his depictions of Helsinki's working class. He also used "stadi" (Helsinki) slang in several poems.
As a translator, Turtianen translated into Finnish the works of Edgar Lee Masters, Graham Greene, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Walt Whitman, among others.
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