Finnish People's Democratic League (in Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

: Suomen Kansan Demokraattinen Liitto, SKDL, in Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

: Demokratiska Förbundet för Finlands Folk, DFFF) was a Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party. It was founded in 1944 as the anti-communist

Anti-communism

Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...

 laws in Finland were repealed, and lasted until 1990, when it merged into the newly formed Left Alliance

Left Alliance (Finland)

The Left Alliance is a left-wing political party in Finland. It was founded on the basis of the Finnish People's Democratic League and the Communist Party of Finland in 1990....

. At its time, SKDL was one of the largest leftist parties in Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

, with its main member party, the Communist Party of Finland, being one of the largest communist parties west of the Iron Curtain

Iron Curtain

The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...

. The SKDL enjoyed its greatest electoral success in the 1958 parliamentary election

Finnish parliamentary election, 1958

Year 1958 Eduskunta election took place 6–7 July 1958. As the result of the election Democratic Alliance of the Finnish People has been one of a few cases for a communist party to have become the dominant party in a Western European country during the Cold War...

, when it gained a support of approximately 23 per cent and a representation of 50 MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

s of 200 total, making it the largest party in the Eduskunta.

SKDL joined several Finnish governments

Finnish Council of State

The Cabinet of Finland is the body that directs the Government of Finland. However, in governmental translations to English, the distinction is often blurred between cabinet and government in the wider sense...

. The first SKDL minister was Yrjö Leino

Yrjö Leino

Yrjö Leino was a Finnish communist politician. Imprisoned twice for his communist activities, and spending much of the Second World War as an underground communist activist, he served as a minister in three cabinets between 1944 and 1948.- Early years :Yrjö Leino was the only child of tanner Oskar...

 who took office in November 1944. After the 1945 parliamentary election

Finnish parliamentary election, 1945

Eduskunta election in 1945 was held from March 17 to 18, 1945. In Finland, the communists could for the first time since 1929 freely present their candidates. Through the Finnish People's Democratic League, they were able to win over a large section of Social Democratic voters. The Patriotic...

 SKDL was a major player in the Paasikivi III coalition with social democrats and parties of the centre, and in 1946 SKDL's Mauno Pekkala

Mauno Pekkala

Mauno Pekkala was a Finnish left-wing politician and Prime Minister from 1946 to 1948 . Pekkala was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland until he left the party during the Continuation war. After the war, Pekkala joined the Finnish People's Democratic League , an alliance of...

 became the prime minister. The Pekkala government led the state until summer 1948, after which the SKDL didn't participate in any coalitions until 1966. The late 1960s governments, led by social democrats and including centre, were called popular front

Popular front

A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...

 by the SKDL. The party left the government in spring 1971 but returned in 1975. Kalevi Sorsa

Kalevi Sorsa

Taisto Kalevi Sorsa was a Finnish politician who was Prime Minister of Finland four times: 1972–1975, 1977–1979, 1982–1983 and 1983–1987 and at the date of his death still held the Finnish record of most days of incumbency as prime minister...

's third coalition was the last one SKDL was in, until December 1982.

Organisation

A person could be aligned to the SKDL through its basic organisations or as member of the "community members" which were the Communist Party of Finland

Communist Party of Finland

The Communist Party of Finland was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944.SKP did not participate in any elections with its own name. Instead, front organisations were used...

 (SKP), the Democratic League of Finnish Women (1944–1990), Academic Socialist Society (1944–1965), Suomen Toverikuntien Liitto (1946–1952), the Socialist Unity Party

Socialist Unity Party (Finland)

Socialist Unity Party was a left-wing political party in Finland. The SYP was founded in March 1946 by socialists working inside the communist-dominated Finnish People's Democratic League . Most of the founders were former members of the Social Democratic Party of Finland...

 (SYP) (1946–1955), the Socialist Student League (1965–) and the Democratic Youth League of Finland (1967–1990). During most of its existence the SKDL had over 50 000 "own" members. In addition to the community members, tens of different nationwide organizations were controlled by the SKDL members, see for example the People's Temperance League

People's Temperance League

People's Temperance League , is a temperance organization formerly linked to the Finnish People's Democratic League . In the 1970s KRL was taken over by the orthodox pro-USSR-wing of the Communist Party of Finland...

.

The supporters of the SKP constantly had a majority in the SKDL, thus it was regarded by many as a communist 'umbrella organisation'. The SKP members often attended two consecutive meetings to decide on the same issues. However, not even socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 was mentioned in the party programme until the late 1960s. The number of communist party members amongst the SKDL MPs constantly raised from 1945 on, even though many prominent left-wing socialists and former social democrats had joined the alliance in the 1940s.

One of the few organized non-SKP forces in SKDL was the Socialist Unity Party

Socialist Unity Party (Finland)

Socialist Unity Party was a left-wing political party in Finland. The SYP was founded in March 1946 by socialists working inside the communist-dominated Finnish People's Democratic League . Most of the founders were former members of the Social Democratic Party of Finland...

 (SYP) which was founded mainly by former social democrats in 1946. The small and marginalized SYP left the SKDL in 1955 but most of the socialists inside the SKDL chose not to follow the decision made by the party chair Atos Wirtanen

Atos Wirtanen

Atos Kasimir Wirtanen was a Finnish left-wing intellectual, journalist, member of Finnish parliament and cultural critic. He was born in Saltvik. Wirtanen rose to parliament from the Social Democratic Party of Finland list, but in 1946 he defected to the Finnish People's Democratic League...

 and they remained members of the SKDL through its basic organisations. In the early 1970s a Joint Committee of the SKDL Socialists was formed but it never developed an organisation and remained a loose coalition.

Publications

Vapaa Sana was SKDL's party organ from 1944 until 1956. SKDL also published many regional daily newspapers. In 1957 Vapaa Sana was merged with the SKP organ Työkansan Sanomat to launch Kansan Uutiset

Kansan Uutiset

Kansan Uutiset is a Finnish weekly newspaper. It is the party organ of Left Alliance.Kansan Uutiset was founded in 1957 as the joint organ of Communist Party of Finland and Finnish People's Democratic League , both of which, until then, had had their own papers, Työkansan Sanomat and Vapaa Sana...

, which was the organ of both parties until 1990. Kansan Uutiset still appears and since 2000 it has been the organ of Left Alliance.

Leaders

Chairmen K. H. Wiik 1944 Cay Sundström 1944–1946 J. W. Keto 1946–1948 Kusti Kulo 1948–1967 Ele Alenius 1967–1979 Kalevi Kivistö 1979–1985 Esko Helle 1985–1988 Reijo Käkelä 1988–1990

General secretaries Tyyne Tuominen 1944–1949 Yrjö Enne 1949–1952 Hertta Kuusinen Hertta Kuusinen Hertta Elina Kuusinen was a Finnish Communist politician. She was a member of the central committee and the political bureau of the Communist Party of Finland, member of parliament , general secretary and the leader of the parliamentary group of the Finnish People's Democratic League... 1952–1958 Yrjö Enne 1959–1961 Mauno Tamminen 1962–1965 Ele Alenius 1965–1967 Aimo Haapanen 1967–1977 Jorma Hentilä 1977–1984 Reijo Käkelä 1984–1988 Salme Kandolin 1988–

Elections

Parliament>ry elections Year MPs Votes Share of votes 1945 Finnish parliamentary election, 1945 Eduskunta election in 1945 was held from March 17 to 18, 1945. In Finland, the communists could for the first time since 1929 freely present their candidates. Through the Finnish People's Democratic League, they were able to win over a large section of Social Democratic voters. The Patriotic... 49 398 618 23,47% 1948 Finnish parliamentary election, 1948 Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 1 and 2 July 1948.-Background:The political atmosphere during the July 1948 Finnish parliamentary elections was heated. Many Finns across the party lines believed that the Communists and People's Democrats had pursued their goal of making Finland a... 38 375 538 19,98% 1951 Finnish parliamentary election, 1951 Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 1 and 2 July 1951.-Background:Urho Kekkonen had served as Prime Minister since March 1950, after losing the February 1950 presidential election clearly to President J.K... 43 391 134 21,58% 1954 Finnish parliamentary election, 1954 Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 7 and 8 March 1954.-Background:In June 1953, Prime Minister Kekkonen had presented a simultaneous deflationary program, which tried to lower wages, prices and public expenditures to the level of the export industry's profitability... 43 433 251 21,57% 1958 Finnish parliamentary election, 1958 Year 1958 Eduskunta election took place 6–7 July 1958. As the result of the election Democratic Alliance of the Finnish People has been one of a few cases for a communist party to have become the dominant party in a Western European country during the Cold War... 50 450 220 23,16% 1962 Finnish parliamentary election, 1962 Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 4 and 5 February 1962.-Background:Sukselainen's second minority government had resigned in 1961, followed by Prime Minister Martti Miettunen's first government, also a centrist minority government. In the spring of 1961, Mr... 47 506 829 22,02% 1966 Finnish parliamentary election, 1966 Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 20 and 21 March 1966.-Background:Prime Minister Johannes Virolainen had led a centre-right coalition government since September 1964. Meanwhile, the Social Democratic leader Rafael Paasio had moved the party somewhat more to the left, in order to... 41 502 374 21,20% 1970 Finnish parliamentary election, 1970 Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 15 and 16 March 1970.-Background:Social Democrat Mauno Koivisto had replaced his party leader Rafael Paasio as Prime Minister in March 1968. His government was very broad-based, including the Social Democrats, Centrists, Communists, Swedish People's... 36 420 556 16,58% 1972 Finnish parliamentary election, 1972 Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 2 and 3 January 1972.-Background:Prime Minister Karjalainen's centre-left government lost one party, the Communists, in March 1971 and was forced to resign in October 1971, due to the Social Democrats' and Centrists' disagreement over the amount of... 37 438 757 17,02% 1975 Finnish parliamentary election, 1975 Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 21 and 22 September 1975.-Background:Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa's government survived until June 1975. It resigned because of internal disagreements over the ways to combat Finland's recession, which had largely been caused by the 1973 Oil Crisis,... 40 519 483 18,89% 1979 Finnish parliamentary election, 1979 Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 18 and 18 March 1979.-Background:Prime Minister Miettunen's centrist minority government had resigned in May 1977. After a two-year break, Social Democrat Kalevi Sorsa returned to office as Prime Minister... 35 518 045 17,90% 1983 Finnish parliamentary election, 1983 The Finnish parliamentary election in 1983 was held after the victory of Mauno Koivisto in the presidential election of 1982. As was customary in Finland after a presidential election, the government resigned after Koivisto's victory in January 1982... 27 400 930 13,46% 1987 Finnish parliamentary election, 1987 The Finnish parliamentary election of 1987 moved the country somewhat to the right. It was uncertain how far, because the voter participation rate--at a comparatively low 75 percent, 5 percent lower than usual--hurt the left more than the right and had a varying impact... 16 270 433 9,39%

Local elec>ions Year Councillors Votes Share of votes 1945 2 496 275 324 1947 2 005 314 156 20,4 % 1950 2 517 347 102 23,04 % 1953 2 546 406 324 23,10 % 1956 2 272 353 967 21,2 % 1960 2 409 432 146 22,0 % 1964 2 417 470 550 21,9 % 1968 1 770 382 882 16,91 % 1972 1 731 437 130 17,48 % 1976 2 050 494 920 18,45 % 1980 1 835 456 177 16,64 % 1984 1 482 354 582 13,15 % 1988 1 209 270 532 10,29 %

Presidential elections

Year	Electors	Votes	Share of votes	Candidate
1950 Finnish presidential election, 1950 Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1950, the first time the public had been involved in a presidential election since 1937 as three non-public elections had taken place in 1940, 1943 and 1946. On 16 and 17 January the public elected presidential electors to an electoral...	67	338 035	21,4%	Mauno Pekkala Mauno Pekkala Mauno Pekkala was a Finnish left-wing politician and Prime Minister from 1946 to 1948 . Pekkala was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland until he left the party during the Continuation war. After the war, Pekkala joined the Finnish People's Democratic League , an alliance of...
1956 Finnish presidential election, 1956 Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1956. On 16 and 17 January the public elected presidential electors to an electoral college. They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Urho Kekkonen, who won in the third round of voting. Voter turnout in the public...	56	354 575	18,7%	Eino Kilpi
1962 Finnish presidential election, 1962 Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1962. On 15 and 16 January the public elected presidential electors to an electoral college. They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Urho Kekkonen, who won in the first round of voting. Voter turnout in the public...	63	451 750	20,5%	Paavo Aitio
1968 Finnish presidential election, 1968 Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1968. On 15 and 16 January the public elected presidential electors to an electoral college. They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Urho Kekkonen, who won in the first round of voting. Voter turnout in the public...	56	345 609	17,0%	seconded Urho Kekkonen Urho Kekkonen Urho Kaleva Kekkonen , was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland and later as the eighth President of Finland . Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen...  of Centre Centre Party (Finland) The Centre Party is a centrist and Nordic agrarian political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the Social Democratic Party , the National Coalition Party and the True Finns , and currently has 35 seats in the Finnish Parliament...
1978 Finnish presidential election, 1978 Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1978, the first since 1968 after Urho Kekkonen's term was extended by four years by Parliament. The public elected presidential electors to an electoral college on 15 and 16 January. They in turn elected the President. The result was a...	56	445 098	18,2%	seconded Urho Kekkonen Urho Kekkonen Urho Kaleva Kekkonen , was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland and later as the eighth President of Finland . Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen...  of Centre Centre Party (Finland) The Centre Party is a centrist and Nordic agrarian political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the Social Democratic Party , the National Coalition Party and the True Finns , and currently has 35 seats in the Finnish Parliament...
1982 Finnish presidential election, 1982 Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1982. The public elected presidential electors to an electoral college on 17 and 18 January. They in turn elected the President...	32	348 359	11,0%	Kalevi Kivistö
1988 Finnish presidential election, 1988 Presidential elections were held in Finland in 1988. They were the first elections held under the new system. Previously the public had elected an electoral college that in turn elected the President...	26	330 072 286 833	10,7% 9,6%	Kalevi Kivistö Liike 88

None of the party's own candidates were elected President, although Urho Kekkonen

Urho Kekkonen

Urho Kaleva Kekkonen , was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland and later as the eighth President of Finland . Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen...

was elected both times when SKDL seconded him.