Summary:

Aarni Virtanen, An Analysis of The Reception Of A Speech By Vihtori Kosola

In this article I analyse the reception of a politically pivotal speech by Vihtori Kosola which he delivered as an inauguration of the Assembly of The Lapua Patriotic People’s Movement on the 4nd of February, 1933. Kosola was the leader of this Ostrobothnian, extreme right-wing movement and he had previously taken part in the activist movement demanding independence to Finland. He was widely known as a peasant-fighter and strikebreaker, and had been held as a prisoner in Spalernaya, Russia. 

I analyse Kosola’s speech from the point of view of the relation between the center and the periphery. The center means the geographical and political power center and the periphery means a remote locality. I have divided also the sources accordingly. Kosola addressed his speech to the citizens of Finland and he spoke of the governmental policy of the Agrarian Party. He also touched the case of Mäntsälä revolt (1932) and its consequences. 

I have perused the press of the political parties of the center, right and left, and also some local press in order to gain insights into how the speech was received and commented on. The reception tells also of the relations of the political parties.

By applying R.G. Collingwood’s method of ‘question and answer’, Kosola’s speech can be interpreted as a nexus in which many different political debates meet. Kosola’s speech can be examined also as a move in the political game. I conclude that Kosola’s message reached the center but without receiving any positive response – the reception defined it as ‘peripheral’. The political parties had already concentrated their attention on general political issues. Kosola’s concept of “Fatherland” (isänmaa) was regarded as outdated and alien to true ‘finnishness’. In his rhetoric, Finnish “citizens” (kansalaiset) were not so much interested in the criticism of power politics of the Government and the Agrarian Party; they were interested in what ‘good’ Kosola could offer to them in their daily life.