Karl Harald Wiik (13 April 1883 – 26 June 1946) was a Swedish-speaking

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

Social Democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

(SDP) leader. Elected to parliament numerous times between 1911 and the time of his death and Secretary of the SDP for more than a decade, Wiik is remembered as one of six radical SDP members of parliament expelled from the SDP in the aftermath of the

Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Imprisoned during the years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Wiik was released in 1944, becoming a leader of the

Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League ( fi, Suomen Kansan Demokraattinen Liitto, SKDL; sv, Demokratiska Förbundet för Finlands Folk, DFFF) was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Pa ...

(SKDL), a left wing political organization dominated by the newly legalized

Communist Party of Finland The Communist Party of Finland ( fi, Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, SKP; sv, Finlands Kommunistiska Parti) was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944. The SKP was banned by ...

(SKP).

Biography

Early Years

Karl Harald Wiik was born 13 April 1883 in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, the capital of the

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecessor ...

Political activity

Wiik was a Member of the Finnish Parliament representing the

Social Democratic Party of Finland The Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP, fi, Suomen sosialidemokraattinen puolue ; sv, Finlands socialdemokratiska parti), shortened to the Social Democrats ( fi, link=no, Sosiaalidemokraatit; sv, link=no, Socialdemokrater) and commonly kno ...

(SDP) from 1911 to 1918, from 1922 to 1929, from 1933 to 1941 and from 1944 to his death.

Revolutionary period

An influential member of the Party's left wing, he was imprisoned for a time after the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

for having participated in the revolutionary government.

Interwar years

During the years after the fall of the 1918

Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR), more commonly referred to as Red Finland, was a self-proclaimed Finnish socialist state that ruled parts of the country during the Finnish Civil War of 1918. It was outlined on 29 January 1918 by th ...

, Wiik emerged as a leader of the left wing of the SDP, taking an uneasy view of the successful effort of the influential SDP centrist

Väinö Tanner Väinö Alfred Tanner (; 12 March 1881 – 19 April 1966; surname until 1895 ''Thomasson'') was a leading figure in the Social Democratic Party of Finland, and a pioneer and leader of the cooperative movement in Finland. He was Prime Minister ...

to cobble together a coalition government late in 1926.Stephen Salter, ''The Working Class and Politics in Europe and America, 1929-1945.'' London: Longman, 1990; pg. 51. Wiik and others on the SDP left felt that an overly reformist orientation and efforts to build alliances with non-socialist moderates would have the effect of driving radical Finnish workers away from SDP and into the arms of

Otto Kuusinen Otto Wilhelm "Wille" Kuusinen (; russian: О́тто Вильге́льмович Ку́усинен, Otto Vilgelmovich Kuusinen; 4 October 1881 – 17 May 1964) was a Finnish-born Soviet communist and, later, Soviet politician, literary his ...

and the underground

Finnish Communist Party The Communist Party of Finland ( fi, Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, SKP; sv, Finlands Kommunistiska Parti) was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944. The SKP was banned by ...

(SKP). Wiik was elected Secretary of the SDP in 1926 and served in that capacity until 1936, working during that time to maintain the organization's commitment to establishment of an explicitly socialist government elected by mobilization of the

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

and radicalized farmers.Salter, ''The Working Class and Politics in Europe and America,'' pg. 52. Wiik was unsuccessful in building a radical mass political organization, however, with SDP membership falling from a peak of just over 67,000 in 1919 to about 25,000 during the last half of the 1920s and early 1930s, with three of the party's main constituencies — workers, small farmers, and young people — each largely unenthusiastic about the party, its program, and its prospects.

Expulsion and imprisonment

In 1940 he and five other Social Democratic MPs were expelled from the Social Democratic Party because of their leftist orientation. The six expelled MPs formed the short-lived Socialist Parliamentary Group, all of whose members spent the years 1941 to 1944 in prison because of their unrelenting opposition to the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrieg. A ...

. Upon their release from prison in September 1944 after the armistice with the

, Wiik and the other formerly jailed members of the Socialist Parliamentary Group were among the founders of the

(SKDL), a

united front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...

organization of the Finnish radical left dominated in practice by the SKP.

Death and legacy

Karl Wiik died on 26 June 1946 in Helsinki. He was 63 years old at the time of his death. Wiik's papers, including an extensive diary, are housed by the National Archive of Finland.

Works

* Arbeterskor!. Skrifter utgifna af Finlands Svenska Arbetareförbund n:o 5. Helsingfors 1907. * ''Till Marx’ minne. Tvänne uppsatser'' o Marx's Memory: Two Essays With Runar C. Öhman. Helsingfors: Folktribunens förlag, 1908. * ''Berättelse över Helsingfors' svenska arbetarförenings värksamhet 1898-1908.'' Helsingfors: 1908. * ''Kovan kokemuksen opetuksia: sananen Suomen työväelle.''Helsinki: Kansanvalta, 1918. * "Die demokratisierung Deutschlands und die baltischen länder" he Democrats of Germany and the Baltic States ''Der Sozialist,'' 1921; pg. 38. * "Finnland auf dem wege zur demokratie" inland on the Road to Democracy ''Der Sozialist,'' 1922; pg. 6. * ''Die Arbeiterbewegung in Finnland'' he Workers' Movement in Finland With N.R. Ursin. Leipzig: 1926. * ''Eri maiden sos.-dem. puolueiden keskuselinten kokoonpano: selostus.'' Helsinki: Social Democratic Party Committee, 1930. * Väkivaltaa ja taantumusta vastaan!. Sos.-dem. Puolueen vaalikirjanen 1930, n:o 1. Sos.-dem. puoluetoimikunta, Helsinki: 1930. * ''Mot våld och förtryck!'' gainst Violence and Oppression!Helsinki: Social Democratic Party, 1930. * Keskustelua kuolemanrangaistuksesta: piirteitä kysymyksen vaiheista eduskunnassamme; koonnut K. W. Tekijä, Helsinki 1935. * ''Finnland in der Krisenzeit'' inland in the Crisis Period n.c.: n.p, 1934. * ''Raittiusliike työväenliikkeen kasvattajana.'' Helsinki: Finnish Social Democratic Publishing House, 1937. * ''Työväki ja varusteluvimma: uuden perushankintaohjelman johdosta.'' Helsinki: 1938. * ''En finsk justitieförbrytelse: K. H. Wiiks brev till en bemärkt riksdagskollega, i vilket han fastslår att han och hans kamrater blivit oskyldigt dömda, ingår i denna skrift'' Finnish Criminal Offense: K.H. Wikk's Letter to a Noted Parliamentary Colleague, Finding that His Comrades Have Been Innocently Convicted With Viktor Brand (pseudonym of Anders Viktor Johansson). Stockholm: Hjälpkommitén för Finlands politiska fångar, 1944. * ''Karl H. Wiiks dagbok: från storstrejken till upproret 1917-1918'' arl H. Wiik's Diary: From the Great Strike Till the Uprising of 1917-1918 Sven Lindman, ed. Turku: Turku Academy, 1978.