The State Police (, Valpo) was the security agency of Finland from 1937 to 1949. It was replaced by the

Finnish Security Intelligence Service The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (, ; , ), formerly the Finnish Security Police and Finnish Security Intelligence Service, is the Security agency, security and intelligence agency of Finland in charge of national security, such as Co ...

History

Etsivä keskuspoliisi

Valtiollinen poliisi has its roots in Osasto III ("Section III") which was formed in summer 1918 by the right wing (so called "whites") of the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...

. Its mission was to conduct military intelligence and to monitor the other side of the civil war, the so-called "reds." In the beginning of 1919 the passport section of the general staff which was responsible for internal intelligence was moved under the supervision of the internal ministry and the organizational changes were continued by forming Etsivä keskuspoliisi (EK), which translates directly to "Detecting central police". Etsivä keskuspoliisi was made permanent at the end of 1927, and in December 1937 its name was changed to Valtiollinen poliisi. Later famous politician and president of Finland

Urho Kekkonen Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (; 3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as Prime Minister ...

worked as

abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

and lawyer in EK.

Valpo I

Valpo II (Red Valpo)

Otto Brusiin was Valpo's director from 26 April 1945 to 10 January 1946 in which time many people were fired from Valpo and replaced with communists and other radical leftists. Many of these people used to be watched by Valpo. This era was commonly called as the "Red Valpo", more officially "Valpo II." After Brusiin, Valpo had many directors who served only short periods. The true director was considered to be the extra department head Aimo Aaltonen who was also the president of Suomen kommunistinen puolue (SKP) ("The

Communist Party of Finland The Communist Party of Finland (, SKP; ) was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944. The SKP was banned by the state from its founding and did not participate in any elec ...

"). He had to resign in 1947 for internal party reasons. His status was later confirmed in Ahlbäck's committee's hearings, and the investigation led to criminal charges against Brusiin and other personnel from Valpo for negligence of official duty. Valpo was decommissioned in 1948 and replaced with Suojelupoliisi which started its operation at the beginning of 1949 and had a considerably smaller staff. The archives of Etsivä keskuspoliisi and Valtiollinen poliisi are public up until 1948, and they are kept in the Finnish National archives.

References

{{Authority control Defunct Finnish intelligence agencies Defunct law enforcement agencies of Finland 1918 establishments in Finland