Tupa – Ahti Karjalainen Career Museum

The Ahti Karjalainen Career Museum “Tupa” is located in downtown Hirvensalmi. The museum building is a farmhouse built in 1898 that served as a parish hall and a town hall until 1984. The museum was opened up to the public in 2005. Tupa has an exhibition dedicated to Ahti Karjalainen’s career and thus pictures and items related to turning points in the history of Finland.

Ahti Karjalainen was one of the most significant politicians in the post-WWII history of Finland. He was born in 1923 in the village of Kuitula in Hirvensalmi and his childhood home, Lepola, is now a museum. Karjalainen attended school in Mikkeli. When he was 16, he volunteered to fight in the war. After serving during the Winter and Continuation Wars, Karjalainen started to study political science and finance at the University of Helsinki.