Communist Party of Finland
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The Communist Party of Finland (Finnish: Suomen kommunistinen puolue, Swedish: Finlands kommunistiska parti, abbreviated SKP) was a communist political party in Finland.
Early stages
In 1918 the "Reds" lost the Finnish Civil War resulting in the end of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. The Social Democratic Party of Finland had supported the losing side, and several of its leaders were refugees in the Soviet Union. Some of these refugees founded the Communist Party of Finland in Moscow.
SKP was suppressed in 1923 and again in 1930. After the Continuation War SKP dominated the Finnish People's Democratic League, which was founded in 1944 as an umbrella organization of the political left wing.
Cold War
The era of the Cold War was the "golden age" of Communists in Finland. Between 1944 and 1990 the support of SKP was in the range 15%-20%. Communists participated in several cabinets, but Finland never had a communist Prime Minister or President. It is believed that SKP received substantial financial support from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The youth wing of SKP was the Democratic Youth League of Finland (SDNL).
SKP and the Social Democrats tried to dominate the political left. The competition was very bitter in Trade Unions and other leftist organizations. The Communists lost ground gradually, and internal disputes weakened them. An orthodox minority faction (Taistoists, after their leader Taisto Sinisalo) often attacked the more Eurocommunist party leadership. In practice the party consisted of two parallel structure. In 1985-1986 a large number of Taistoists were expelled. They regrouped as Communist Party of Finland (Unity) (SKPy).
Collapse
The collapse of the Soviet Union led to ideological conflicts within the party, and bitter internal disputes plagued the party. The depression that started in 1989 resulted in financial bankruptcy the following year. The SKP never recovered. A majority of the party members, with other member organizations of People's Democratic League, formed the Left Alliance (Finland).
SKPy, originally the faction of the party expelled in 1985-1986, outlasted its parent and registered itself as the Communist Party of Finland in 1997 but has been unable to regain the former Communist Party's parliamentary representation. Its vote share in the elections of 2003 was 0.8%.
See also: Politics of Finland, History of Finland, Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti (Swedish Communist Party)Template:Euro-CP-stub
Template:European communist parties
nl:Finse Communistische Partij ru:Коммунистическая партия Финляндии fi:Suomen kommunistinen puolue sv:Finlands kommunistiska parti