The Finnish Party () was a

Fennoman The Fennoman movement or Fennomania was a Finnish nationalist movement in the 19th-century Grand Duchy of Finland, built on the work of the ''fennophile'' interests of the 18th and early-19th centuries. History After the Crimean War, Fennoman ...

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

political party in the autonomous

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

and independent

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Born out of Finland's language strife in the 1860s, the party sought to improve the position of the

Finnish language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic languages, Finnic language of the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official langu ...

in Finnish society.

Johan Vilhelm Snellman Johan Vilhelm Snellman (; 12 May 1806 – 4 July 1881) was an influential Fennoman philosopher and Finnish statesman, ennobled in 1866. He was one of the most important 'awakeners' or promoters of Finnish nationalism, alongside Elias Lönnr ...

, Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen, and Johan Richard Danielson-Kalmari were its ideological leaders. The party's chief organ was the Suometar newspaper, later Uusi Suometar, and its members were sometimes called Suometarians (''suomettarelaiset'').

History

The party started to form around a core of Fennoman intellectuals in the 1860s, but remained formally unorganized for decades. Improving the status of the Finnish language, especially furthering its use in education, was a central issue from the start. In the 1877–1878 sessions of the

Diet of Finland The Diet of Finland (Finnish language, Finnish ''Suomen maapäivät'', later ''valtiopäivät''; Swedish language, Swedish ''Finlands Lantdagar''), was the Diet (assembly), legislative assembly of the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1809 to 1906 ...

the party attained a leading role among the clergy and the peasantry, which it would hold till 1904. In the 1880s, a faction within the party took a critical view of Russia, eventually breaking away and founding the Young Finnish Party in 1894. The Finnish Party sought legitimacy in the eyes of the Russian authorities and saw cooperation with Russia as a way to enact its language policies. When

Russification Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy. Russification was at times ...

began in 1899, the Young Finns advocated passive resistance, whereas the Finnish Party, now often called the Old Finns (''vanhasuomalaiset''), supported appeasement. Although the party maintained that Finland's rights were being violated, it emphasized the importance of keeping official positions in Finnish hands and feared that resistance could lead to further loss of autonomy. Aside from the central language question, the party espoused conservative values and supported many social reforms, especially during Danielson-Kalmari's time as its ideological leader after Yrjö-Koskinen's death in 1903. On economic issues, the 1906 party program placed the party in the political centre, between the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

on the left and the Young Finns on the right. After the 1906 parliamentary reform, the party was consistently the biggest non-socialist party in parliamentary elections in 1907–1917 and the second biggest overall after the Social Democrats. However, it lost seats in every election, sliding down from 59 MPs in 1907 to 32 in 1917. After the Finnish independence in December 1917 and the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

of 1918, Russification was no longer an issue and the language question had lost a great deal of its importance in Finnish politics. The main issues holding the party together were now secondary to economic and constitutional issues. Although it had agreed to establishing a republican form of government before the war, the party leadership now switched to supporting

constitutional monarchy Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions. ...

. Party leaders saw in a monarchy a bulwark against socialism and thought that the election of a German prince as a monarch would guarantee Germany's military support, but the plan failed when the First World War ended in a German capitulation and the abolition of German Monarchy. In December 1918, the party's supporters divided into two new parties, with a majority going to the conservative, monarchist

National Coalition Party The National Coalition Party (NCP; , Kok; , Saml) is a liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland. It is the current governing political party of Finland. Founded in 1918, the ...

and a minority to the liberal, republican National Progressive Party.Hannu Salokorpi (1988): ''Pietarin tie - Suomalainen puolue ja suomettarelainen politiikka helmikuun manifestista 1899 Tarton rauhaan 1920''. Pages 349-351. Suomen Historiallinen Seura.

Prominent party figures

(1806-1881) * Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen (1830-1903) * Johan Richard Danielson-Kalmari (1853-1933) *

Lauri Ingman Lars (Lauri) Johannes Ingman (30 June 1868 – 25 October 1934) was a Finnish theologian, bishop and politician. He was born in Teuva. In 1906 he began to serve as the editor of '' Vartija'', a Christian magazine. From 1916 to 1930 he was the pr ...

(1868-1934) *

Juho Kusti Paasikivi Juho Kusti Paasikivi (, 27 November 1870 – 14 December 1956) was a Finnish politician who served as the seventh president of Finland from 1946 to 1956. Representing the Finnish Party until its dissolution in 1918 and then the National Coaliti ...

(1870-1956)

References

{{Authority control Finnish nationalism Defunct political parties in Finland Political parties disestablished in 1918 Political parties of the Russian Revolution Conservative parties in Finland