Vihtori Kosola
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Iisakki Vihtori Kosola (July 10, 1884 – December 14, 1936) the leader of the Finnish right-wing radical Lapua Movement.
Kosola was born in Ylihärmä, Ostrobothnia. Next year the family's farmhouse burnt down and the family moved to Lapua. His first years were spent in farming and cattle-breeding.
Since autumn 1915 he was active recuiter of Finnish Jäger troops to Germany, illegal activity, and was incarcerated already in 1916. He was first imprisoned in Helsinki, later moved to Shpalernaya prison in St. Petersburg, where he spent next years along other Finnish activists. As he was released after the Russian Revolution, he eagerly took part in the Finnish Civil War against the "Reds" and the Russians. After the war he led the Lapua Protection Guards.
1920s he organized a strikebreakers organisation Vientirauha in Southern Ostrobothnia. When the anti-communist Lapua Movement was organized in 1929, Kosola made a speech in its first meeting in Lapua. As the Movement next year took more radical action, he was chosen as its leader. He took part of Mäntsälä Rebellion to change to course of Finnish politics, but after it failed, the Lapua Movement was banned and he was briefly imprisoned.
He was chosen as a president of its successor the Patriotic People's Movement, but as the Movement became more political, Kosola had less time to participate in its affairs in Helsinki.
In the 1930's, there was a common saying in Finland, "Heil Hitler, meil Kosola". This was a wordplay on the German national socialist slogan, "Heil Hitler"; in Finnish the phrase means, "They've got Hitler, we've got Kosola".
[edit] Works
[edit] References
- European Right: A Historical Profile edited by Hans Rogger and Eugen Weber, the "Finland" chapter by Marvin Rintala ISBN 1-299-09045-1 and ISBN 0-520-01080-9
- Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 edited by Philip Rees, 1991, ISBN 0-13-089301-3
- A biography from Eteläpohjalaisia elämänkertoja, 1963 [1] (Finnish)
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