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Kalervo Kurkiala (born Kalervo Groundstroem, 16 November 1894 – 26 December 1966) was a Finns soldier who later became a pastor. During World War I, he served as a volunteer in the German light infantry, his first engagement being on the Misa River in Latvia on the eastern front in 1916. He was a battalion commander in the White Army during the Finnish Civil War, which broke out in 1918. After being ordained in 1919, for a while he was an army chaplain before assuming civilian duties as a pastor and teacher. For several years, he served with the Seamen's mission in Australia. During World War II, in 1941, Kurkiala volunteered as chaplain to the Finnish volunteer brigade in the Waffen-SS. After the war, for many years, he was a pastor in Sweden.
Finland was part of the Russian empire throughout Groundstroem's early life. A degree of civil liberty was obtained in 1907, with a parliament elected under universal suffrage. However, the parliament was often dissolved by tsarist Governors General and many Finns despaired of gaining full political rights. Some sympathized with the Russian extremists who were preparing to use force to topple the Russian Empire.
The Jäger Movement consisted of Finnish volunteers who had slipped away to Germany to train as soldiers and to fight during World War I. Many of these volunteers were motivated by the goal of obtaining Finnish independence from the Russian Empire. Groundstroem was made a lieutenant. He fought in battles on the German Eastern Front on the Misa River, the Gulf of Riga and the Gauja. Groundstroem married Elisabeth Rolfs, a German woman, in 1918.
Groundstroem was influenced by a militarism that he thought beneficial to young men, including "country boys" as well as "bookworms and spoilt, sloppy idlers". In his view, military training, besides preparing a person for the future, built muscle and character. In 1919 he wrote that military service can build an unshakable sense of duty in the individual. The barracks life, where many conscripts live close together, removes pettiness, selfishness and vanity. In another tract, however, he warns recruits of the dangers of barracks life.
After the October Revolution in Russia, the Finnish socialists followed Vladimir Lenin's urging and on 9 November 1917 set up a Revolutionary Central Council of Workers in Helsinki. In December the center-right coalition that controlled parliament declared independence. In January the socialists seized control of Helsinki and announced the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. The "White" parliamentary government fled Helsinki. They named Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim commander in chief, and he quickly took control of central and northern Finland. Mannerheim, from the Swedish-speaking elite, formed his high command from 84 volunteers from the Swedish army, and his officer corps from 1,130 Jäger volunteers.
Groundstroem returned to Vaasa, the temporary capital of Finland in the White region, and on 25 February 1918 was promoted to lieutenant. In March 1918 he was appointed a battalion commander in the White forces, taking part in battles in Tampere, Lahti, Lyykylä, Mannikkala and Tali, where he was slightly wounded. The civil war ended on 15 May, when the Whites took over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from the Russian troops. White Finland and General Mannerheim celebrated the victory with a large military parade in Helsinki on 16 May 1918. Groundstroem served in the General Staff organization from 3 June 1918 until he resigned from the army on 26 June 1919.
After leaving the army, Groundstroem traveled to Australia and worked there as a seamen's chaplain until 1926. In 1926 he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Finnish Seamen's Mission. During this phase of his life, he changed his last name to the more Finnish-sounding Kurkiala. He was secretary of the Finnish general ecclesiastical committee between 1928 and 1931. On 1 May 1931 he was appointed chaplain of Ikaalinen, and also worked as an English teacher in the Ikaalinen school from 1931 to 1938. Kurkiala obtained a degree in doctrinal education in 1932. He was a member of the local military organization from 1934 to 1938. On 1 May 1938 he was appointed Vicar of Hattula.
The volunteer battalion had 834 soldiers, and was attached to the Nordland SS regiment. In December 1941 the Finns fought around the Mius River in the southwest of Russia, and in 1942 fought in the Caucasus. The battalion stayed intact during the subsequent westward retreat, and in May 1943 was sent to Bavaria to recover. The battalion then returned to Finland, where it was disbanded. Kurkiala made a speech to the battalion on 2 June 1943 in which he accused the Prime Minister, Edwin Linkomies, of failing to provide support. He was chairman of the SS Brothers in Arms Association from 1943 to 1944.
Iivari Rämä's biography of Kalervo Groundstroem (later Kurkiala) was published in 1994, titled Jääkäripapin pitkä marssi (The Jäger Priest’s Long March).
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