ABSTRACT
The Finnish Communist Party (SKP), relative to Finnish society, is one of the most significant in western Europe in its size, influence and role. The SKP is currently unique amongst communist parties in western Europe, having participated in seven Finnish governments since 1966. The SKP was founded with a revolutionary programme in Petrograd by the exiled majority of the leadership of the Finnish Social Democratic Party, defeated in the recent civil war of January to April 1918. The birth of the Communist Party, not only followed on from the 'White Terror' and concentration camps with which the civil war culminated, outlawing a generation of the Finnish radical left, but was also accompanied by the splitting of the worker's movement. The Turku and Uusimaa branches published resolutions declaring they were working in support of the Soviet communist party and approving its 'courageous defence of worker's internationalism'.
