Valtiollinen Poliisi

Valtiollinen poliisi (Valpo; literally "state police" or "governmental police") is the predecessor of the Finnish security police Suojelupoliisi.

History

Etsivä keskuspoliisi

Valtiollinen poliisi has its roots in Osasto III ("Section III") which was formed in summer 1918 by the right wing (so called "whites") of the Finnish Civil War. Its mission was to conduct military intelligence and to monitor the other side of the civil war, the so called "reds". In the beginning of the year 1919 the pass section of the general staff which was responsible for internal intelligence was moved under the supervision of the internal ministry and the organizational changes were continued by forming Etsivä keskuspoliisi (EK), which translates directly to "Searching central police". Etsivä keskuspoliisi was made permanent at the end of the year 1927 and in December 1937 its name was changed to Valtiollinen poliisi. Later famous politician and president of Finland Urho Kekkonen worked as abitur of jurisprudence and lawyer in EK. [ [http://www.genealogia.fi/genos/68/68_146.htm Pekka Nevalainen: Etsivän keskuspoliisin ja valtiollisen poliisin aineisto henkilöhistorian lähteenä] ]

Valpo II, the red Valpo

Otto Brusiin was Valpo's director from 26 April 1945 - 10 January 1946 in which time many people were fired from Valpo and replaced with communists and other radical leftists. Many of these people used to be watched by Valpo. This era was commonly called as the "Red valpo", more officially "Valpo II".

After Brusiin Valpo had many directors who served only short periods. The true director was considered to be the extra department head Aimo Aaltonen who was also the president of Suomen kommunistinen puolue (SKP) ("The Communist Party of Finland"). He had to resign in 1947 for internal party reasons. His status was later confirmed in Ahlbäck's committee's hearings and the investigation led to criminal charges against Brusiin and other personnel from Valpo for negligence of official duty. [Historiallinen aikakausikirja 3/1998, s.113-120]

Valpo was decided to be decommissioned in 1948 and was replaced with Suojelupoliisi which started its operation at the beginning of the year 1949 and had a considerably smaller staff. [ [http://www.poliisi.fi/poliisi/supo/home.nsf/pages/9F37CB71B9358D04C2256BE900432BDF Suojelupoliisin historia] ]

The archives of Etsivä keskuspoliisi and Valtiollinen poliisi are public up until year 1948 and they are kept on the Finnish National archives.

References