This study deals with the Finnish extreme right between the World Wars. A special attention
has been given to the ideology and procedures of the extreme right, because they have not been dealt with systematically in earlier research. But the study also considers such aspects of the extreme right as the historical roots going back to the 19th century, the personal traditions and social-political characteristics. The Finnish extreme right was at no stage uniform. Between the World Wars it became organized into several separate associations. They were ideologically combinations of both national and international currents of ideas of that period. Their ideologies consisted of a very early romantic and expansive nationalism, and the new rightist conservatism born after the Parliament Reform (1906). The latter developed into antiparlamentarism, which was later adopted by the extreme right organizations in independent Finland. Also the emphasis on religions, the national cultural mission, t
he significance of the national unity, the language and the idea of kinship were inherited. While Finland was becoming independent, the militarist expansive tendencies met. The latter was most purely represented by the Academic Karelia Society (AKS) and before that by the group Direction (Suunta). The Lapua Movement, which began in 1929, introduced even stronger anti-communism. It also adopted foreign ideals, such as admiring a strong leader. On the other hand, this idea also had an old Finnish basis, a strong monarchist tradition. After the dissolution of the Lapua Movement (1932) the People's Patriotic Movement (IKL) was founded. It was a political party, which adapted obious foreign ideals (corporatism, leadership principle, idea of national unity). The extreme right tended to cut into Finnish society as a whole, but its organizations were mainly occupied by the intellectuals, peasants and young scholars. The Academic Karelia Society was an association of university students, whereas the Lapua Movement also appealed to peasants and some representatives of the upper classes of society. The peasants, however, abandoned the movement quite early and the IKL was mostly a party of young intelligentsia. The manoeuvres of the extreme right ranged from subtle educational activity to political terror including an attempted coup d'état. The attitude of the extreme right organizations towards e.g. the neighbouring country Russia and the Soviet Union depended completely on their own values. They were only interested in those aspects of the Soviet state which were important for them.
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