[1] Mäki went to Soviet Russia during the Finnish Civil War and was executed there in January 1938 during Stalin's Great Purge.

Mäki was born on 2 January 1878 in Kokkola in Ilmajoki municipality in western Grand Duchy of Finland.

[3][4] Mäki moved to Helsinki where he worked as a labourer on construction sites and joined the copper-tin-roofing trade union.

[4] In April 1902 he was involved in the street riots in Senate Square, Helsinki in which he threw a stone at a police officer, rendering him unconscious.

[1][2][4] Returning to Finland on the eve of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Mäki acquired a plot of land in Huissinkylä in Ilmajoki and worked as a farmhand and blacksmith from 1905 until 1918.

[13][14][15][16][17][18] His main focus in parliament was reform of crofting law and was willing to work with bourgeoisie (right-wing) parties to achieve political consensus for change.

[19] In the summer of 1917, as the grain shortage and inflation worsened, particularly in cities, the relationship between urban workers and rural landowners/farmers became more antagonistic, inside and outside parliament.

[20] In a parliamentary speech, Mäki accused Agrarian League leader Santeri Alkio of encouraging farmers to hoard and warned that workers wouldn't be allowed to die of hunger whilst granaries remained full.

[22] Just prior to the general strike, Mäki and Aleksanteri Vasten travelled to Petrograd to procure weapons for the Red Guards but returned to Finland empty handed.

[23] Mäki, like many SDP MPs, had opposed armed conflict and in January 1918 gave a speech in Ilmajoki in which he condemned all violence.

[26] On 28 January 1918, a number of MPs including Mäki were arrested by the Red Guards as they were on their way to a meeting of parliament at the House of the Estates and taken to Aleksanterinkatu police station for questioning.

[30] Mäki and Feliks Kellosalmi tried unsuccessfully to start peace negotiations, going against the official policy of the revolutionary government.

[2] Mäki moved to Petroskoi (Petrozavodsk) in 1920 and was head of the Agricultural Affairs Department for the Karelian Labor Commune.