Vilho Veikko Päiviö Helanen (24 November 1899 – 8 June 1952) was a Finnish civil servant and politician. Helanen was born in Oulu, and was a student as the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

, where he gained an MA in 1923 and completed his doctorate in 1940.

Philip Rees Philip Rees (born 1941) is a British writer and librarian formerly in charge of acquisitions at the J. B. Morrell Library, University of York. He has written books on fascism and the extreme right. Works *''Fascism in Britain'' (Harvester Pres ...

, ''

Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 The ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890'' is a reference book by Philip Rees, on leading people in the various far right movements since 1890. It contains entries for what the author regards as "the 500 major figures on the r ...

'', 1990, p. 176 From 1924 to 1926 he edited the student paper '' Ylioppilaslehti'' and around this time joined the Academic Karelia Society. He served as chairman of the group from 1927 to 1928, from 1934 to 1935 and again from 1935 to 1944, helping to turn the Society against

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...

. Helanen visited

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in 1933 and was amazed at the high levels of popular support for the far right that he witnessed there, in contrast to Finland where it was a more marginal force. As a result, he was involved in the coup attempt of the

Vaps Movement The Vaps Movement ( et, Eesti Vabadussõjalaste Keskliit, later ''Eesti Vabadussõjalaste Liit'', ''vabadussõjalased'', or colloquially ''vapsid'', a single member of this movement was called ''vaps'') was an Estonian political organization. Fo ...

in Estonia in 1935. Helanen was a major inspiration for the Patriotic People's Movement and a close friend of

Elias Simojoki Lauri Elias Simojoki (28 January 1899 – 25 January 1940) was a Finnish clergyman who became a leading figure in the country's far right movement. The son of a clergyman, Simojoki was born on 28 January 1899 in Rautio. Philip Rees, '' Biographic ...

, although he did not join the group and instead became a vocal supporter of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

. He formed his own group, Rising Finland, in 1940 which, despite his earlier radicalism, became associated with the mainstream National Progressive Party. Helanen was one of the leaders of the Pro-German resistance movement in Finland.Lappalainen, Niilo: Aselevon jälkeen. WSOY, 1997. . p. 106 Rising to be head of the civil service during the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

he was imprisoned after the war for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

able offences.Rees, ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right'', p. 177 Following his release he worked for Suomi-Filmi and also wrote a series of

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

s. He died of a heart attack in the railway station at

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, West Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helanen, Vilho 1899 births 1956 deaths People from Oulu People from Oulu Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Patriotic People's Movement (Finland) politicians Finnish civil servants Writers from Northern Ostrobothnia Finnish military personnel of World War II Prisoners and detainees of Finland 20th-century Finnish novelists Finnish Nazis Nazi politicians