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About Onni Palaste
- Onni Palaste, born Onni Bovellan (27 December 1917 - 1 July 2009) was a Finnish Winter War veteran and writer. Onni Bovellan was born in Kiuruvesi, Finland on 27 December 1917 to parents Joona Bovellan and Olga Miina Kärkkäinen.
- He was a frail child and was not originally expected to live long.
- However, he survived and became healthy.
- After finishing school, Bovellan went to work in a sawmill. In the Winter War, Bovellan fought in Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo's troops.
- He led many successful patrols to Soviet territory and was awarded the Iron Cross. After the Winter War, Onni Bovellan changed his surname to Palaste.
- He worked as director of the Vuokatti sports academy and also met his wife Kerttu Klemetti. Onni Palaste started writing factual, but slightly dramatised novels about the Winter War in 1967.
- His original inspiration to writing was winning a short story competition during the war, after which his fellow soldiers suggested he try writing full-length novels.
- He had written about twenty war novels, the latest of which was published in 2004.
- He has also written a three-novel mini-series about Simo Hurtta, a Swedish tax official during the 17th-18th century Greater Wrath. Onni and Kerttu Palaste lived their elder years in Helsinki, Finland.
- Onni Palaste died on 1 July 2009 at the age of 91.
- He and his wife Kerttu are survived by their four children.
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