National Socialist Union Of Finland

The National Socialist Union of Finland (Finnish: , SKSL), later the Finnish-Socialist Party () was a Finnish Nazi political party active in the 1930s, whose driving force and ideologue was Professor Yrjö Ruutu. With an ideology based on Ruutu's theories, the party came to reject orthodox German Nazism.

A minor fringe party, it received 1,406 votes in the 1933 Finnish parliamentary election.

Several prominent politicians of the right-wing faction of the post-war Social Democratic Party of Finland began their political careers in Ruutu's party.

History

SKSL was founded on September 7, 1932. In addition to Ruutu, who was elected chairman and declared the party "chief" (analogous to Führer), the first party board included Paavo Virtanen, and Juhani Konkka. The new organization had been planned for several years and had its roots in the Vasama Association, founded by Ruutu in 1924. In the autumn of 1932, the organisation's name was changed to the Helsinki National Socialist Association, and it became the local branch of SKSL. (''National Socialist''), a party organ, also began to appear in September.Ekberg 1991, s. 51–59. SKSL received support from, among others, the Free Workers' Union, from which a group led by Einar Lindholm split. In the winter of 1932–1933, SKSL organized numerous events that attracted hundreds of people.

The party used uniforms, the Roman salute and swastikas. Ruutu was also the first to introduce the concept of ''Volksgemeinschaft'' to the Finnish political lexicon. Ruutu was attracted to fascism by the promise of removing class conflict and an economic theory that puts the "national whole" first. Ruutu's ideology was closer to the left-wing of the Nazi party. However, this was no obstacle to joining prominent Finnish orthodox Nazis such as and Ensio Uoti and party members were later recruited to the Waffen SS.

After Hitler came to power in 1933, Ruutu began to criticize the German Nazis, especially after Hitler had destroyed the Strasserists and the Sturmabteilung in 1934. For Ruutu, Hitler and Goebbels were traitors of true National Socialism who had sold out to big business. Ruutu expelled the supporters of Hitlerite Nazism from his party and adopted the new name ''Finnish-Socialist Party''. The party's newspaper published articles praising Turkish President Kemal Atatürk and his "Turkish socialism" or Kemalism.

The SKSL competed with the Finnish People's Organisation (, SKJ) led by Captain Arvi Kalsta, another major Finnish Nazi organisation. The SKSL and the SKJ disagreed about the language question. While the SKSL insisted on Finnish-language nationalism, the SKJ was bilingual, had many prominent Swedish-speaking Finnish Nazis such as Hjalmar von Bonsdorff and was popular among the Swedish-speaking population of Uusimaa.

Ideology

Ruutu had developed the idea of uniting nationalism and socialism in the early 1920s and concluded that the Finnish national interests required the abandonment of both Marxism and laissez-faire capitalism. Of the contemporary European Fascists and Nazis who presented similar ideas, Ruutu's thinking differed, for example, in that he supported parliamentarism and did not believe in establishing a dictatorship.

The party demanded the nationalization of large companies and other assets vital for national interests, a self-sufficient planned economy and parliament controlled by trade unions, the appointment of technocrats to ministers, the removal of Swedish as an official language of Finland and the removal of Swedish-language education from universities. It also demanded the creation of a Greater Finland, achieved through international cooperation.

Legacy

Some former members of Ruutu's party, such as Yrjö Kilpeläinen and Unto Varjonen, became prominent figures in the right-wing faction of the post-war Social Democratic Party of Finland. Another prominent former member Vietti Nykänen became the vice chairman of the Radical People's Party. Member of the board of the party Heikki Waris later became Minister of Social Affairs in Von Fieandt Cabinet.Autio, Veli-Matti (toim.): Professorimatrikkeli 1918–1996 Professorsmatrikel, s. 598–599. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto, 1997. ISBN 951-45-7818-X.

After the end of his party, Ruutu initially joined the SDP, and afterwards, in post-war Finland, made a political career in the far left Socialist Unity Party. He was also the chairman of the secularist Union of Freethinkers of Finland.

References

External links

The party program
(in Finnish)

{{Fascism
Defunct political parties in Finland
Nationalist parties in Finland
Nazi parties
Political parties established in 1932
Nazism in Finland
Anti-communist organisations in Finland
Strasserism