Editing Risto Ryti (section)

=== Member of parliament and finance minister ===
[[File:Risto Ryti Home 1918.jpg|thumb|Ryti's home in Helsinki 1918-35]]
[[File:Risto Ryti House plaque.jpg|thumb|Plaque on the above building]]
During the [[Civil War in Finland|Finnish Civil War]] Ryti played no active part, remaining in hiding with his family in Red-dominated [[Helsinki]]. Afterwards, however, he would become deeply involved in politics, being elected a [[Kansallinen Edistyspuolue|National Progressive]] member of [[Parliament of Finland|Parliament]] in 1919, at the age of thirty the second youngest member. In the same year, the party candidate, an admirer of Ryti, [[Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg]], was elected the first president of Finland.{{sfnp|Turtola|2000|page=405}} Ryti served as a member of Parliament from 1919 to 1924 and from 1927 to 1929. During his first few years in Parliament, Ryti served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and later the Finance Committee. He also served as a member of [[Helsinki City Council]] from 1924 to 1927.{{fact|date=March 2025}}

According to the Finnish historian Martti Turtola, Ryti succeeded in politics in the first few years after the Finnish Civil War because his liberal, democratic, and republican ideals were popular then. Moreover, Ryti's personal political success continued even after his liberal-oriented National Progressive Party shrank to a fringe party, because he was considered an expert especially in economic policy and, very importantly, an impartial servant of the fatherland who refused to play partisan politics (see Martti Turtola, ''Risto Ryti:  A Life for the Fatherland'').{{fact|date=March 2025}}

In 1921, the thirty-two-year-old Ryti was appointed [[Minister of Finance (Finland)|finance minister]] in the government of [[Juho Vennola]]. He served in that position twice until 1924.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://valtioneuvosto.fi/tietoa/historiaa/hallitukset-ja-ministerit/raportti/-/r/v9l/13 |title=Council of State - Ministers of Finance|publisher=Valtioneuvosto.fi |access-date=12 January 2018 }}</ref> In 1923 President Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg appointed him governor of the [[Bank of Finland]],<ref>{{cite web 
  |url=https://www.suomenpankki.fi/en/bank-of-finland/organization/board/board-members-in-the-history-of-the-bank-of-finland/ 
  |title=Board Members in the history of the Bank of Finland 
  |publisher=Bank of Finland 
  |access-date=13 April 2017 
  |archive-date=7 August 2017 
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807192103/https://www.suomenpankki.fi/en/bank-of-finland/organization/board/board-members-in-the-history-of-the-bank-of-finland/ 
  |url-status=dead 
  }}</ref> a post he remained in until he became prime minister in 1939. Ryti only began to exercise his duties as chairman of the Bank of Finland after he resigned as finance minister in January 1924. During his early years in parliament, Ryti succeeded in bringing order to the [[government budget]]. Although he was a Ståhlbergian, Ryti did not approve of pardoning [[Red Guards (Finland)|Red]] prisoners. In his opinion, the Reds were criminals. Ryti refused to see the social background of the Finnish Civil War.{{sfnp|Turtola|2000|page=405}}