Parliamentary election in Finland 1945

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Result (in%)

 %

30th

20th

10

0

25.1

23.5

21.4

15.0

7.9

5.2

1.9

SDP

SKDL

ML

COOK

RKP

ED

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 1939

 % p

 25th

 20th

 15th

 10

   5

   0

  -5

-10

-15

-14.7

+23.5

-1.5

+1.4

-1.7

+0.4

-5.3

SDP

SKDL

ML

COOK

RKP

ED

Otherwise.

Distribution of seats

      

A total of 200 seats

• SKDL : 49
• SDP : 50
• Otherwise: 10
• RKP : 14
• ML : 49
• KOK : 28

The parliamentary elections in Finland in 1945 took place on March 17 and 18, 1945. It was the election for the 18th Finnish parliament .

The People's Democratic Union (SKDL), an electoral organization set up by the Communist Party, became the second strongest force behind the Social Democrats when it first took part in the election. After converting the party in autumn 1946, it even formed the largest group in parliament. In addition, Mauno Pekkala, a member of the People's Democrats, albeit a non-communist, became Prime Minister, after which the previously independent Prime Minister Juho Kusti Paasikivi was elected President in March 1946.

Starting position

Since December 1, 1939, one day after the outbreak of the winter war between the Soviet Union and Finland, so-called “peace governments” were in office, supported by almost all parties in parliament. There were seven cabinets under six different prime ministers. Since November 17, 1944, the non-party Juho Kusti Paasikivi headed a government made up of the Social Democrats, the Land Association, the Swedish People's Party, the Progressive Party and the People's Democrats. The National Collection Party had previously left the coalition after the end of the Continuation War. In the spring of 1945 there was still fighting in the course of the Lapland War in northern Finland between German Wehrmacht troops and the troops of Finland and the Soviet Union, which were now fighting together on the basis of the armistice signed by Moscow on September 19, 1944 .

As a result of this armistice agreement, the nationalist patriotic people's movement was banned on September 23, 1944 , and in 1939 it was still able to gain 6.7% of the vote. For the first time in the history of Finland, the official communist party was allowed to run in the election. The SKP, which had previously been legalized, ran together with the Labor Party led by former Social Democratic Party member Mauno Pekkala and the Vaapa Sana group in the Democratic Union of the Finnish People (SKDL). A former SDP minister joined the SKDL in the last Paasikivi cabinet.

The voting age was lowered to 21 years. In order to enable refugees from Lapland to participate in the election, voting was also possible in Sweden.

Participating parties

9 different parties ran for election.

The following parties were already represented in parliament:

Political party		Alignment	Top candidate
	Social Democratic Party of Finland Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (SDP) Finlands Socialdemokratiska Parti	social democratic	Onni Hiltunen
	Landbund Maalaisliitto (ML) Agrarförbundet	social liberal	Viljami Kalliokoski
	National Collection Party Kansallinen Kokoomus (KOK) Samlingspartiet	conservative	KF Lehtonen
	Swedish People's Party Ruotsalainen Kansanpuolue (RKP) Svenska Folkpartiet (SFP)	liberal	Ralf Törngren
	National Progressive Party Kansallinen Edistyspuolue (ED) Framstegspartiet	liberal	Kalle Kauppi
	Small farmers' party Pienviljelijäin puolue	left-wing populist

Election result

The turnout was 74.9 percent, 8.3 percentage points above the turnout in the last parliamentary election in 1939.

The SKDL immediately became the second strongest force. With 49 seats, it won as many seats as the Landbund and only one seat less than the Social Democrats, who suffered considerable loss of votes due to the SKDL's first participation.

Result of the parliamentary election in Finland in 1945

Political party		be right			Seats
		number	%	+/-	number	+/-
	Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP)	425.948	25.08	−14.69	50	−35
	Democratic Union of the Finnish People (SKDL)	398,618	23.47	+23.47	49	+49
	Land Federation (ML)	362,662	21.35	−1.51	49	−7
	National Collection Party (KOK)	255.394	15.04	+1.46	28	+3
	Swedish People's Party (RKP)	134.106	7.90	−1.71	14th	−4
	National Progressive Party (ED)	87,868	5.17	+0.36	9	+3
	Small farmers party	20,061	1.18	−0.96	-	−2
	Swedish Left (RV)	8,192	0.48	+0.02	1	+1
	Radical People's Party (RadKP)	1,623	0.10	+0.10	-	-
	Others	3,904	0.23	+0.11	-	-
total		1,698,376	100.00		200
Valid votes		1,698,376	99.31
Invalid votes		11,875	0.69
voter turnout		1,710,251	74.87
Eligible voters		2,284,249	100.00
Source:

After the election

The election marked a major turning point in Finnish history. The beginning of the “Second Republic” is often seen in 1945, even if there was no revolution or major constitutional change. Juho Kusti Paasikivi was able to continue the government made up of Social Democrats, People's Democrats, Landbund, Progress Party and Swedish People's Party. The five parties took 171 seats out of a total of 200 seats in parliament. On March 9, 1946, Paasikivi was exceptionally elected President by Parliament. The new Prime Minister was Mauno Pekkala from the SKDL. The Progress Party resigned from the cabinet. In autumn 1946, Sylvi-Kyllikki Kilpi and Atos Wirtanen, two SDP members, joined the SKDL. As a result, the SKDL became the strongest force in parliament. Until the next elections in July 1948, Finland was ruled by a strongly left-wing government.

Overview of the cabinets:

30. Cabinet Paasikivi III - Juho Kusti Paasikivi (independent) - Government: Social Democrats, People's Democrats, Landbund, Finland-Sweden, Progress Party (April 17, 1945 to March 26, 1946)
31. Pekkala Cabinet - Mauno Pekkala (People's Democrats) - Government: Social Democrats, People's Democrats, Landbund, Finland-Sweden (March 26, 1946 to July 29, 1948)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Official result of the general election 1945 yle.fi (Finnish)
2. ↑ National election in Finland (1945-03-18) ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ParlGov (English) 

Web links

• History in Postage Stamps - Finnish Postage Stamps - Post War