 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Vihtori Kosola | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Iisakki Vihtori Kosola (1884-07-10)July 10, 1884 Ylihärmä, Finland |
| Died | (1936-12-14)December 14, 1936 (aged 52) Lapua, Finland |
| Occupations | Politician,farmer |
| Political party | Lapua Movement |
| Other political affiliations | Patriotic People's Movement |
| Spouse | Elin Olga Katariina Lahdensuo (married 1908–1936) |
Iisakki Vihtori Kosola (10 July 1884 – 14 December 1936) was aFinnish politician,activist and afarmer who served as the leader of the fascist[6] andanti-communist[7]Lapua Movement, and later as the leader of thePatriotic People's Movement political party inFinland.[8]
Kosola was born inYlihärmä,Southern Ostrobothnia to a peasant family. He was the eldest of eight children from his father's second marriage.[9] His family's farmhouse burnt down the next year, and the family moved toLapua, buying a house at Liuhtarinkylä.[10] His formative years were spent in farming and cattle-breeding following his father's death when Kosola was 17 years old.[9]
During theconscription strikes, Kosola began to become politically active, joining adebate society calledLazy Society in 1902.[9]
Kosola was an active recruiter ofFinnish Jäger troops to Germany from Autumn 1915, and was incarcerated in 1916. He was imprisoned in Helsinki, then at the Shpalernaya prison inSt. Petersburg among other Finnish activists. He was released after theRussian Revolution and eagerly took part in theFinnish Civil War against theRed Guards and the Russians. After the war Kosola led the LapuaWhite Guard. He also joined theAgrarian League.
In the 1920s he organizedVientirauha, a strikebreakers' organisation, in Southern Ostrobothnia. He made a speech at the first meeting of the anti-communist Lapua Movement as it was organized in 1929, and was chosen as its leader as the movement radicalized in the following year. He took part in the abortiveMäntsälä Rebellion of 1932 that ended with the dissolution and banning of the Lapua Movement and the brief imprisonment of Kosola.
Kosola was chosen as president of the Lapua Movement's successor, thePatriotic People's Movement (IKL), but as the Movement became more political, Kosola had less time to participate in its affairs in Helsinki. Kosola's political career ended in 1936, when he was deposed from IKL's leadership; he was considered more of a liability than an asset by IKL. Contemporary accounts describe Kosola after being freed from jail as a tired and sick man who drank alcohol to deal with the stress. He was also in excessive debt and his farm was subject to foreclosure and auction. He died of pneumonia in December 1936. Kosola's first son, Niilo, bought the farm and was eventually elected as an MP and briefly as a government minister. Kosola's second son, Pentti, was imprisoned for murdering a political opponent. Pentti fought in theWinter War (1939–40) as a fighter pilot, but was killed in action.[11]
Kosola's radical right-wing politics caused a common saying in the 1930s: "Heil Hitler, meil Kosola," accented Finnish for "They've got Hitler, we've got Kosola". Sometimes also a third stanza, "muil Mussolini" (the others have Mussolini) was added. Kosola had a sobriquetKosolini after his charismatic and vivid style of speech similar toBenito Mussolini. According to some contemporaries, he was always conceived of as afascistdictator of Finland.[12]
He died from pneumonia in December 1936.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
