Vol. XIII (2007), no 20 - The International Newsletter of Communist ...

The International Newletter of Communist Studies Online XIII (2007), no 20 137
newspapers in the area but the suppression of Finnish communism and the ban of Kansan
Tahto in 1930-45 gave the bourgeois newspaper in Oulu an advantage which Kansan Tahto was
not able to catch up. With the circulation between 13000 and 23000 it was, however, the
second largest newspaper in Northern Finland from the 1940s to the 1980s. The depression of
the early 1990s shook its economy very badly; it lost almost 75 per cent of its advertising
incomes and had to cut the amount of editors and days of publication which diminished its
circulation considerably.
Kansan Tahto has been an obedient organ of the movement it has belonged to. Its own ideas
were strongest in 1907-14 when Yrjö Mäkelin regarded co-operation with the bourgeois
parties for the defence of Finnish autonomy as possible while the leadership of the SDP in
Helsinki relied on the activities of the labour movement alone. The ideas of the communist
movement declared that the newspapers should be subordinated to the party. Though these
ideas were accepted by the SSTP, they were not applied to newspapers. Thus the editors and
the local associations behind Kansan Tahto decided who its editors were and what was to be
published in it. New communist doctrine could, however, achieve strong influence, and in the
end of the 1920s Kansan Tahto was very eager to propagate the ideas of a new revolutionary
period. It was, however, the general commitment to the communist movement which
contributed to the ban of the newspaper from summer 1930 to autumn 1945.
The same kind of strong commitment was evident as Kansan Tahto started to appear after
the long interval in 1945; it formulated its stance only after some person in the leading
position had made a statement of the issue. The commitment of the newspaper to the twopolar
world was also evident in 1945-56. The revelations of the 20 th congress of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union did not arouse any particular expressions in the paper.
This can be explained by the fact that many editors were socialised in the labour movement
in the late 1920s.
Kansan Tahto started a rebellion against the narrow-mindedness and orthodoxy of the
communist movement in October 1964. The actual starting point was the dismissal of Nikita
Khrushchev after which the newspaper started a new section for readers’ discussion unusual
in the labour newspapers at that time. All the other newspapers of the SKDL joined the
discussion which dealt with all kind of themes but also the character of the revolution in
Finland, the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the attitude to the social
democrats and possibilities of the co-operation between the parties of the labour movement.
The results of these discussions were reflected in the reformed programmes of the SKDL and
SKP. After 1969 the whole movement, however, returned to “the old truths”. Thus Kansan
Tahto, contrary to the leadership of the SKDL and SKP, did not strongly criticise the
occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and did not allow criticism of the Soviet Union on its
pages. In the internal disputes of the Finnish communist movement it, however, followed the
majority line, though it was not very enthusiastic about the deals made between the majority
and minority and considered them dangerous for the rules of the party.
During its hundred years Kansan Tahto has filled its promise to be the organ of the poor in
Northern Finland in a splendid way. In its first years the newspaper, however, tried to be a
"teacher" and did not accept the local forms of trade union organisation, that is various cooperatives
among the harbour workers. After the Civil War Kansan Tahto did not start to