Vilho Veikko Päiviö Helanen (24 November 1899 – 8 June 1952) was a Finnish civil servant and politician. Helanen was born in

Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...

, and was a student as the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

, where he gained an MA in 1923 and completed his doctorate in 1940. Philip Rees, '' Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890'', 1990, p. 176 From 1924 to 1926 he edited the student paper ''

Ylioppilaslehti ''Ylioppilaslehti'' (Finnish language, Finnish: lit. "Student newspaper") is a Finland, Finnish student magazine founded in 1913. It is the largest student paper or magazine in Finland with a circulation of 35,000 copies. In addition to affairs r ...

'' and around this time joined the Academic Karelia Society. He served as chairman of the group from 1927 to 1928, from 1934 to 1935 and again from 1935 to 1944, helping to turn the Society against

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

. Helanen visited

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

in 1933 and was amazed at the high levels of popular support for the

far right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...

that he witnessed there, in contrast to Finland where it was a more marginal force. As a result, he was involved in the coup attempt of the Vaps Movement in Estonia in 1935. Helanen was a major inspiration for the Patriotic People's Movement and a close friend of Elias Simojoki, although he did not join the group and instead became a vocal supporter of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. He formed his own group, Rising Finland, in 1940 which, despite his earlier radicalism, became associated with the mainstream National Progressive Party. Helanen was one of the leaders of the Pro-German resistance movement in Finland.Lappalainen, Niilo: Aselevon jälkeen. WSOY, 1997. . p. 106 Rising to be head of the civil service during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Helanen was arrested in 1948 for continuing to collaborate with the Nazis after Finland switched sides. On 6 May 1950, he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to six years in prison.Rees, ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right'', p. 177 Helanen was pardoned on 3 March 1951. Following his release, he worked for Suomi-Filmi and also wrote a series of

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...

s. He died of a heart attack in the railway station at

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, West Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helanen, Vilho 1899 births 1956 deaths People from Oulu People from Oulu Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Patriotic People's Movement (Finland) politicians Finnish civil servants Writers from Northern Ostrobothnia Finnish expatriates in Estonia Finnish military personnel of World War II Finnish politicians convicted of crimes Finnish prisoners and detainees 20th-century Finnish novelists Finnish Nazis Nazis convicted of crimes Nazi politicians People of the Estonian War of Independence People of the Finnish Civil War (White side) People convicted of treason against Finland