Socialist Unity Party ( fi, Sosialistinen Yhtenäisyyspuolue, SYP) was a left-wing political party in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The SYP was founded in March 1946 by socialists working inside the communist-dominated

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). Most of the founders were former members of 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). The SYP had many known politicians in its ranks but it never became a mass party. In 1955, the party split from the SKDL and was disestablished soon afterwards. The founders of the SYP included the so-called "socialist six" (in Finnish "kuutoset") who were expelled from the SDP parliamentary group in 1940 before the summer 1941

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 ...

against Soviet Union. Another important group was the former "

peace opposition Peace opposition (, {{Lang-sv, fredsoppositionen) was a Finnish cross-party movement (from 1943 to 1944) uniting both bourgeois politicians like Paasikivi, Kekkonen, Sakari Tuomioja etc. and (mostly left-leaning) social democrats, aiming at steppin ...

" which split from the SDP after the war. In autumn 1946 two members of the SDP parliamentary group joined the SYP/SKDL. Some of the socialists working inside the SKDL never joined the SYP. The first chairman of the SYP was J.W. Keto, former leader of the peace opposition. He was succeeded by

Atos Wirtanen Atos Kasimir Wirtanen (27 January 1906 in Saltvik – 10 March 1979) was a Finnish left-wing intellectual, journalist, member of Finnish parliament (1936–1953) and cultural critic. He was born in Saltvik, Åland. Wirtanen entered parliament on t ...

in 1948. In 1955, Wirtanen organized an extraordinary party congress in which it was decided that the SYP would leave SKDL. The congress, however, was held under somewhat shady conditions. The secretary of the congress was Wirtanen's wife and no representatives from the important Southern Workers Organization of Helsinki were present. Many leading members and sections of the SYP dismissed the congress, left the party and continued their work inside the SKDL.Kalevi Haikara: ''Isänmaan vasen laita'' (Otava 1975), pages 119–124. The SYP organ was ''Vapaa Pohjola'' (Free

Pohjola Pohjola (; from 'base, bottom', but used in derived forms like ''pohjois-'' to mean 'north' + ''-'' 'place'), sometimes just Pohja (), is a mythical place, location in Finnish mythology. It is one of the two main polarities in the Finnish nationa ...

), a weekly newspaper which was published until 1949 and edited by

Ensio Hiitonen Kaarlo Ensio Paulus Hiitonen (last name until 1923 ''Hidén''; 27 October 1900 Helsinki – 14 January 1970) was a Finnish Doctor of Law and lawyer of Alko. Hiitonen's parents were Dr. Karl Julius Hidén and Helmi Liisi Parmanen. Hiitonen became ...

. In 1952, the SYP published nine issues of the paper ''Yhteisrintama'' (United Front). During the summer of 1955, the party had a paper called ''Veckoposten'' (Weekly Post).

References

Finnish People's Democratic League Political parties established in 1946 Political parties disestablished in 1955 Defunct political parties in Finland Socialist parties in Finland 1946 establishments in Finland 1955 disestablishments in Finland {{Finland-party-stub