Finnish People's Democratic League

Finnish People's Democratic League (in Finnish: Suomen Kansan Demokraattinen Liitto, SKDL, in Swedish: Demokratiska Förbundet för Finlands Folk, DFFF) was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party. It was founded in 1944 as the anti-communist laws in Finland were repealed, and lasted until 1990, when it merged into the newly formed Left Alliance. At its time, SKDL was one of the largest leftist parties in Western Europe, with its main member party, the Communist Party of Finland, being one of the largest communist parties west of the Iron Curtain. The SKDL enjoyed its greatest electoral success in the 1958 parliamentary election, when it gained a support of approximately 23 per cent and a representation of 50 MPs of 200 total, making it the largest party in the Eduskunta.

A person could be aligned to the SKDL through its basic organisations or as member of the "community members" which were the Communist Party of Finland (SKP), the Democratic League of Finnish Women (1944–1990), Academic Socialist Society (1944–1965), Suomen Toverikuntien Liitto (1946–1952), the Socialist Unity Party (SYP) (1946–1955), the Socialist Student League (1965–) and the Democratic Youth League of Finland (1967–1990). In addition to the community members, tens of different nationwide organizations were controlled by the SKDL members, see for example the People's Temperance League.

The supporters of the SKP constantly had a majority in the SKDL, thus it was regarded by many as a communist 'umbrella organisation'. The SKP members often attended two consecutive meetings to decide on the same issues. However, not even socialism was mentioned in the party programme until the late 1960s. The number of communist party members amongst the SKDL MPs constantly raised from 1945 on, even though many prominent left-wing socialists and former social democrats had joined the alliance in the 1940's.

One of the few organized non-SKP forces in SKDL was the Socialist Unity Party (SYP) which was founded mainly by former social democrats in 1946. The small and marginalized SYP left the SKDL in 1955 but most of the socialists inside the SKDL chose not to follow the decision made by the party chair Atos Wirtanen and they remained members of the SKDL through its basic organisations. In the early 1970's a Joint Committee of the SKDL Socialists was formed but it never developed an organisation and remained a loose coalition.

Chairmen

K. H. Wiik	1944
Cay Sundström	1944–1946
J. W. Keto	1946–1948
Kusti Kulo	1948–1967
Ele Alenius	1967–1979
Kalevi Kivistö	1979–1985
Esko Helle	1985–1988
Reijo Käkelä	1988–1990

General secretaries

Tyyne Tuominen	1944–1949
Yrjö Enne	1949–1952
Hertta Kuusinen	1952–1958
Yrjö Enne	1959–1961
Mauno Tamminen	1962–1965
Ele Alenius	1965–1967
Aimo Haapanen	1967–1977
Jorma Hentilä	1977–1984
Reijo Käkelä	1984–1988
Salme Kandolin	1988–

Elections

Parliamentary elections Year MPs Votes Share of votes 1945 49 398 618 23,47% 1948 38 375 538 19,98% 1951 43 391 134 21,58% 1954 43 433 251 21,57% 1958 50 450 220 23,16% 1962 47 506 829 22,02% 1966 41 502 374 21,20% 1970 36 420 556 16,58% 1972 37 438 757 17,02% 1975 40 519 483 18,89% 1979 35 518 045 17,90% 1983 27 400 930 13,46% 1987 16 270 433 9,39%				Local elections Year Councillors Votes Share of votes 1945 ca. 275 000 1947 2 005 ca. 314 000 20,4% 1950 2 517 ca. 340 000 23,0% 1953 2 546 ca. 406 000 23,1% 1956 2 272 ca. 354 000 21,2% 1960 2 409 ca. 431 900 22,0% 1964 2 417 470 550 21,9% 1968 1 770 382 882 16,9% 1972 1 731 437 130 17,5% 1976 2 050 494 920 18,5% 1980 1 835 456 177 16,6% 1984 1 482 354 582 13,1% 1988 1 209 270 532 10,29%

Presidential elections

Year	Electors	Votes	Share of votes	Candidate
1950	67	338 035	21,4%	Mauno Pekkala
1956	56	354 575	18,7%	Eino Kilpi
1962	63	451 750	20,5%	Paavo Aitio
1968	56	345 609	17,0%	seconded Urho Kekkonen of Centre
1978	56	445 098	18,2%	seconded Urho Kekkonen of Centre
1982	32	348 359	11,0%	Kalevi Kivistö
1988	26	330 072 286 833	10,7% 9,6%	Kalevi Kivistö Liike 88