Christ vs. Communism: Communism as a Religious Social Problem in Finland's Proto‐Fascist Lapua Movement in the 1930s

Koskelainen, Sami; Hjelm, Titus

doi:10.1111/johs.12130

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(11 reference statements)

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“…The movement aimed to extinguish communism with vast unparliamentary pressure, demanding that the government regulate legislation against ‘unpatriotic’ actions. The Lapua Movement became guilty of hundreds of kidnappings, assaults and vandalism targeted not only towards communists but also towards peace movements (Koskelainen & Hjelm, 2017: 768–769). In 1930, Arndt Pekurinen, the most well‐known conscientious objector in Finland, was assaulted by the Lapua Movement.…”

Section: Traditional Intellectuals: Revivalist Idolatry and True Chri...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Here is ‘true Christianity’”: Peace movements contesting hegemonic nationalism of the Lutheran Church in Finland 1919–1932

Ojajärvi

2022

Nations and Nationalism

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This article analyses how Finnish hegemonic nationalism was contested by peace movements in Finland from 1919 to 1932. First and foremost, Finnish peace movements contested hegemonic Lutheran‐patriotic discourses, which they perceived to have been maintained especially by the Lutheran Church of Finland. Thus, hegemonic Lutheran‐patriotic discourses were contested by peace movements through three church‐related discursive contexts: (1) biblical‐doctrinal interpretations, (2) Christian revivalism and (3) churches' peace ecumenism. Results of this article imply that contesting happened especially through religious discourses, which considered a nationalist state church idolatrous. Peace activists depicted themselves as true Christians and patriots, arguing that peace ecumenical cooperation with them and other churches enabled state churches to renounce hegemonic nationalism. Based on these results, I suggest that when hegemonic nationalism is intertwined strongly with Christianity and the state church, nationalism is challenged through questioning its alleged Christian basis.

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Section: Traditional Intellectuals: Revivalist Idolatry and True Chri...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Being close to the state, the Lutheran Church had a crucial role in establishing this kind of national identity in Finland. With the support gained from the Lutheran clergy, the identity was built further on the dualist logic of ‘Christ versus Communism’ during the 1920s (Koskelainen & Hjelm, 2017: 769).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Here is ‘true Christianity’”: Peace movements contesting hegemonic nationalism of the Lutheran Church in Finland 1919–1932

Ojajärvi

2022

Nations and Nationalism

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“…According to Vesa Vares, the Lapua Movement was unable to borrow from any foreign movement because it was extremely nationalist and populist. Moreover, its particular interpretation of nationalism emphasised the image of Finland as a Christian nation opposing anti-religious Bolshevism (Koskelainen and Hjelm 2017). The leader of the Lapua Movement was Vihtori Kosola, the self-styled 'Mussolini of the North'.…”

Section: The Finnish Civil War and The Lapua Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Marx, they claimed, had founded the socialist religion, whose god was Lenin. Therefore socialism, Marxism and communism became a heresy and the political enemy became a spiritual enemy (Koskelainen and Hjelm 2017). But, unlike Mussolini and Hitler, who tried to create a new secular religion, the Lapua Movement was strictly Christian, in particular Lutheran revivalist (Koskelainen and Hjelm 2017).…”

Section: The Finnish Civil War and The Lapua Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, his leadership was over by 1932 and he died in 1936 (Silvennoinen 2015). Kaarlo Reetrikki Kares, one of the Lutheran clergymen leaders of the movement, said that Kosola had been chosen by God to lead the Finnish nation and that he was directed by the voice of God (Koskelainen and Hjelm 2017). For all practical purposes, the Lapua Movement was concerned with direct action and in this way it was similar to the Italian squadrismo , which largely disappeared (or at least became covert) towards the mid-1920s.…”

Section: The Finnish Civil War and The Lapua Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘Mediterraneo baltico’: Italian Fascist propaganda in Finland (1933–9)

Ferrarini

2020

Mod. Italy

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This article focuses on Italian Fascist propaganda in Finland. Federico Finchelstein (2010) characterised fascism as a global-transnational doctrine with diverse reformulations, ramifications and permutations. Therefore, the Finnish case-study is useful in the analysis of Mussolini's twin struggle against Soviet Communism and the increasing Nazi threat in the Baltic in the 1930s and 1940s. This article will examine how Mussolini tried to keep in touch with Finnish fascists after Hitler's rise to power. Organisations and groups like the Lapua Movement and the Finnish Patriotic People's Movement were inspired by Italian Fascism and the success of the March on Rome encouraged their hope that they could take power in Finland. The ultimate failure of Finnish fascism has ensured the continued marginalisation of fascism as a research subject in the Finnish academic tradition. Yet, as Roger Griffin suggests, studies of peripheral and failed fascisms can also contribute important insights for understanding both the ‘centre’ of fascism, as well as modern nationalist extremist movements. Fascism as an international political phenomenon cannot be understood from rigidly national interpretative frameworks.

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The “secularization” and ethnicization of migration discourse: the Ingrian Finnish Right to Return in Finnish politics

Prindiville

Hjelm

2017

Ethnic and Racial Studies

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Finland's Right to Return policy for Ingrian Finns presented Russian and Estonian citizens that the Finnish government deemed to have an ancestral connection to Finland the legal means to resettle in Finland. The policy existed from 1990 to 2010, and was initially driven by Finnish President Mauno Koivisto, who spoke publicly of his belief that the Ingrian Finnish minority in Russia was Finnish because it was Lutheran rather than Orthodox. However, as the political discussion on the Ingrian Finns' identity and Right to Return continued into the 1990s and 2000s, Finnish politicians increasingly abandoned the view of a common Lutheran identity between Ingrian Finns and Finland, and shifted the discussion to language, ancestry and historical memory, which were used to both endorse and disendorse Ingrian Finns' Finnishness. We argue that the disappearance of religion from the Right to Return discourse was a strategic-if not necessarily conscious-choice that emphasized the more primordial aspects of Finnish identity (and the Ingrian Finns' lack of those), which in turn enable stricter restrictions and, ultimately, the discontinuation of the policy. In April 1990, Finland's then-President Mauno Koivisto sat down to a televised interview, part of which focused on his decision to instruct the Finnish Immigration Service to grant residence permits to Ingrian Finns as 'returnee' migrants. The Immigration Service defined returnee migrants as those who can prove 'Finnish ancestry or otherwise a close connection with Finland'. 1 Koivisto argued that Ingrian Finns met this qualification as the descendants of Finnish migrants to the historical province of Ingria, nowadays part of northwestern Russia and Estonia. Hence, '[a] person from the former Soviet Union can be granted a residence 1 Maahanmuuttovirasto, 'Returnees'. The text has been removed from the Maahanmuuttovirasto website, but is available from the authors on request.

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Christ vs. Communism: Communism as a Religious Social Problem in Finland's Proto‐Fascist Lapua Movement in the 1930s

Cited by 4 publications

References 10 publications

“Here is ‘true Christianity’”: Peace movements contesting hegemonic nationalism of the Lutheran Church in Finland 1919–1932

“Here is ‘true Christianity’”: Peace movements contesting hegemonic nationalism of the Lutheran Church in Finland 1919–1932

‘Mediterraneo baltico’: Italian Fascist propaganda in Finland (1933–9)

The “secularization” and ethnicization of migration discourse: the Ingrian Finnish Right to Return in Finnish politics

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