At the beginning of his university administrative career, Hugo Suolahti also became interested in politics. Despite its short duration, Suolahti’s political career was highly significant.

Before Finnish independence, Suolahti had been a long time member of the conservative wing of the Young Finnish Party. In 1918 he became actively involved in politics. He participated in the founding of the newspaper Uusi Suomi, which should have become an organ of the monarchy. Instead it later became the main mouthpiece of the National Coalition party, remaining so until 1976. Suolahti belonged to the newspaper’s board of directors until the end of the 1920s.

Suolahti was involved in convening the founding meeting of the National Coalition Party, which was held on December 9, 1918 in what is now the Old Student House. Over 600 people attended the meeting, which chose Suolahti as party chairman. He held the position of chairman twice, first between 1918 and 1920 and then between 1925 and 1926.

At the party’s founding meeting, its first political manifesto was approved. A central part of the manifesto was a statement on Finland’s mode of government. Like its chairman, the party wanted Finland to become a monarchy. Five days after the meeting, Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, who was planned to be king of Finland, gave up the crown without ever visiting the country. The National Coalition Party was forced to reassess its position on Finland’s form of government, and the party was influential in the granting of strong powers to the President of Finland.

Suolahti was elected as a member of parliament for the southern constituency of the province of Häme in 1919. He was a member of the Grand Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee until he abandoned Parliament and active politics in 1921. The National Coalition Party nevertheless selected him as their presidential candidate in 1925. Suolahti gained the backing of 80 members of the Presidential Electoral College, but remained in third place. In the last round, his opponents were Lauri Kristian Relander and Risto Ryti. The former won the election, and the next year he appointed Suolahti chancellor of the University of Helsinki. Suolahti was a nationalistic politician. His most important political ideals were PanFennism and the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the sake of the fatherland. An example this can be seen in his criticism of the 1920 Treaty of Tartu, which Suolahti viewed as an abandonment of Finns’ East Karelian brothers. He nevertheless refused to subscribe to the ultra-right-wing PanFennism of the Academic Karelia Society’s younger generation, who he viewed as intolerant and unhistorical.

Sources:

• Vesa Vares & Anto Leikola, Suolahti, Hugo, National Biography online publication. Available for free on the Nelli portal. Accessed December 2, 2015
• Hugo Suolahti, Wikipedia, accessed December 2, 2015
• Kokoomuksen historia (‘The history of the National Coalition Party’). National Coalition Party online publication. Accessed December 5, 2015