Career
In 1948, Kuusinen became only the second woman to serve as a Finnish cabinet minister. She was the daughter of Soviet politician and one-time Finnish communist leader Otto Ville Kuusinen. Hertta Kuusinen moved to the Soviet Union after her father in the 1920s.
She worked for Communist International beginning in 1922, witnessed Hitler"s rise in Germany 1932–1933, and taught in the International Lenin School 1933–1934.
Kuusinen returned to Finland in 1934 to work underground for the illegal communist party. Instead she ended up in prison for over ten years.
Kuusinen was released. And in the first post-war elections held in 1945, she was elected to the Eduskunta from the Finnish People"s Democratic League (Suomen Kansen Demokrattinen Liitto (Finnish People's Democratic League)) list.
Kuusinen was married to communist politicians Tuure Lehén (1923–1933) and Yrjö Leino (1945–1950).