Lapua Movement

The Lapua Movement, also Lappobewegung, (Finnish: Lapuanliike, schwed.: Lapporörelsen ) was a fascist people's movement in Finland, and existed from 1929 until 1932.

After the Great Depression formed as in many other European countries, also in Finland a fascist movement. The Lapua Movement constituted itself initially as a mass movement of political rights with latch function against communism and taught her entire political activity initially exclusively against the activities of the Finnish Communist Party, which at that time mainly in Finland was considered a " fifth column of Moscow". The movement had its roots in anti-communist circles within the government, business and science and in right-wing authoritarian Protect associations. She was for some time an influential force in the political landscape of Finland. The movement acted primarily as compliant Party and supported the choice Pehr Evind Svinhufvud to the Prime Minister, go on their own initiative, the restrictive laws against political activity of the left parties back, also she was the decisive force behind the constitutional amendment, which Finland by a parliamentary democracy transformed into a highly authoritarian presidential regime. Same time, the extra-parliamentary political activity of this party was characterized by violence against political opponents, ranging up to political murders to most of activists and members of leftist parties. The decline of the movement began in 1931 with internal conflicts between the moderate who saw largely achieved their goal through the exclusion of the Communists from the public and political life and the constitutional amendment and the radical on Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy -based forces whose aim a complete transformation of Finland into a fascist state was. Towards the end of 1931, the political mass base of the movement began to wane, so that they in 1932 had finally dissolve. Established in 1932, The Patriotic People's Movement (Finnish: Isänmaallinen Kansanliike ) functioned until its dissolution under pressure from the Soviet Union in 1944 as a successor party informally.