Patriotic Popular Front | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Pekka Siitoin |
| Secretary-General | Seppo Lehtonen |
| Deputy Leader | Tapani Pohjola[1] |
| Deputy Secretary | Jari Hyvärinen[2] |
| Founded | 1976[3] |
| Banned | 1977 |
| Succeeded by | National Democratic Party |
| Newspaper | Pohjantähti |
| Membership | 100 |
| Ideology | Neo-Nazism |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Party flag | |
 | |
ThePatriotic Popular Front (Isänmaallinen Kansanrintama, IKR) was a short livedneo-Nazi party founded in Finland byPekka Siitoin.
FormerFrench Foreign Legion soldier Timo Pekkala organized firearm drills for the group. Members of the IKR were responsible for theKursiivi printing house arson.[4]
Tiedonantaja magazine claimed thatBoris Popper had acted as a financier of Siitoin and acquired weapons and ammunition from the military's warehouses for the use of Siitoin's groups.[5][4] A founding member of IKR, Tapio Saarni, son of a fish shipping tycoon funded the group.[6]
Siitoin maintained contacts with likemindedNational Renaissance Party ofJames Hartung Madole that likewise blended Satanism and Nazism andMatt Koehl'sAmerican Nazi Party that promotedEsoteric Hitlerism.[7][8] IKR published National Renaissance Party material in Finnish, and Siitoin appeared in NRP's publications.[9][10] IKR also maintained contacts with the KKK Grand WizardDavid Duke andJ. B. Stoner in the United States andFédération d'action nationale et européenne in France.[11][12] IKR also recruited Finns for thewar in Rhodesia in its magazine.[13] IKR also corresponded with theCEDADE that countedLeon Degrelle among its members.[14] IKR cooperated and withOrder of Flemish Militants that was led by half-FinnishBert Eriksson and that perpetrated multiple firebomb attacks against minorities.[7]
Siitoin also extended an invitation toWiking-Jugend to visit him, and Wiking-Jugend did hold a camp in Finland in 1976 and created controversy by plastering posters calling for the release ofRudolf Hess.[15]
After IKR members had sent multiple letter bombs to political enemies and held a parade in Nazi uniforms, authorities had had enough. IKR was banned in 1977 as contrary to the Paris Peace Treaty forbidding fascist organizations. However, Siitoin immediately founded a new party called theNational Democratic Party.[16][17][18]
The party operated its own printing house that published its magazine, Finnish translation of theProtocols of the Elders of Zion andholocaust denial books. According to a member list confiscated from Siitoin, the party had about 100 core members.[10] Peripherally involved people who were involved in the distribution of material was about 1600.[19]