The dissertation is concerned with the speeches of Vihtori Kosola (1884–1936), recruiter of jäger, strike breaker and activist. Kosola assumed the leadership of the Lapua Movement in 1929. His most significant speeches were delivered on the peasants’ march of 7 July 1930 and on the 15th anniversary of the war of independence on 16 May 1933. Kosola was a political speaker and the figurehead of the Patriotic people’s movement (IKL) founded in 1932. The Study focuses on Kosola’s speeches applying rhetorical-semantic concept analysis with regard to the changes occurring in the main concepts. Changes in the speeches are used to explore the concepts of democracy and application of the law in Finland in the 1930s. Analysis of the main concepts serves to reveal changes in the themes of the speeches and positions Kosola’s rhetoric as part of the activities and objectives of the movements he represented. The study comprises two levels. On the general level I scrutinize the rhetoric of the speeches and changes in their concepts, on the specific level I scrutinize the speeches in relation to Kosola’s personal network, as they are also an outcome of the actions of this network. Kosola did not write all his speeches himself; they were written by the activist Lieutenant-Colonel Artturi Vuorimaa, Pastor K. R. Kares and the popular scientist Lieutenant Kai Donner. In accordance with the theory of the British historian R. G. Collingwood, these speeches can be perceived as responses to questions emanating from society. Then, according to Quentin Skinner, they are a kind of hybrid combining several political discussions. Carl Schmitt, jurist and Kosola’s contemporary in Germany, determined modern politics to have originated from the exclusion of the enemy. Kosola in his speeches builds up an image of the enemy consisting of the Left Wing in general and Communism in particular. In the period 1932– 1933 Kosola’s speeches are an invective against all political parties, i.e. “party political power” and serve as tools bringing the Lapua Movement and the IKL to power, but in the period 1935–1936 they become more moderate. The image of the enemy is strengthened with a hatred of all things Russian and with anti- semitism. As part of the extreme Right Wing rhetoric Kosola equates the Russian Bolsheviks with the alleged endeavours of the Jews to gain world power. ...

Kosola, Vihtori Isänmaallinen kansanliike Lapuan liike Lapuan laki talonpoikaismarssi sinimustat modernisaatiovastaisuus antikonservatiivisuus The Lapua Movement political history ideas political rhetoric political history of ideas Neksusanalyysi 1920-luku 1930-luku aatehistoria poliiittinen historia retoris-semanttinen käsiteanalyysi henkilöverkostoanalyysi historiallis-kvalitatiivinen tutkimus itsenäisyysliikkeet oikeistoliikkeet puheet yleisö antikapitalismi uskonnollisuus isönmaallisuus Mäntsäslän kapina talonpoikaiskapinat kyyditykset ääriliikkeet jääkäriliike kysymys-vastaus-suhde IKL Etelä-Pohjanmaa