Browsing by Author "Turpeinen, Jaakko"

This Master's Thesis examines the anticommunism of Finland's moderate right-wing National Coalition Party (NCP) in the 1920s, in particular during the parliamentary election of 1929. The study aims to link the party's identity to anticommunism. How anticommunism affected the party's political and national identity, and how it was related to volatile domestic politics in 1929 as parliamentary democracy aroused discontent, the NCP itself was in crisis, and the communist revolution was widely feared in the Finnish society? By answering these questions I also intend to explain the content of anticommunism, and consider how the threat was constructed and conceptualised. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the concept of the Other as well as the study on enemy images. In addition to relevant literature on the Other, I have utilised prominent research literature, newspapers, publications for the election and unpublished archive sources. My method is qualitative; I aim to consider simultaneously the party's public image as well as hidden agenda. In order to achieve this, both published and unpublished material are evaluated. According to published material, it is evident that the NCP wanted to be known as strictly anticommunist. Communism was a pronounced Other for the party. Public image, however, did not necessarily go hand in hand with the genuine ideas about the threat of communism. Anticommunism and bolstered enemy images also served other purposes. The party wanted, for instance, to enhance the unity of its own adherents, and dissolve the other political difficulties present in spring and summer 1929. The threat of communism for independent Finland was grounded in many ways in the party's political discourse. Communism was considered to deteriorate Christian moral and decency; it was seen to increase social unrest, weaken parliamentary democracy and undermine Finland's national security. In addition, anticommunism was closely connected to the extreme forms of ideological russophobia. Constructed from these diverse constituents, the 'anticommunist discourse' of the NCP formed one of those foundations which determined the identity of the NCP during the 1920s, and the importance of which rose during the political and social troubles, escalating in 1929.