Isolation of the Left from the School System at the Turn of the 1960s
Abstract
This article examines the activities of the right-wing organization Suomalaisen Yhteiskunnan Tuki (SYT) and of the Security Police to superintend elementary school teacher training at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. The angst of the organizations was the eventual entrance of the Left, especially communists, as teachers in elementary school system. The research material consists of the minutes of meetings by SYT and the leaders of teacher schools. In addition, the study utilizes Security Police’s reports on possibly leftist teachers. The article will also demonstrate that these organizations also had cooperation. In these organizations the Communists were seen as a categorical threat – thus unfit to teacher posts. However, the concept of communism was in these contexts defined loosely, largely on the basis of traditional enemy images. The article hence fundamentally revives the previous research picture on the political characteristics of the Cold War Finnish school world. The main conclusion is that the above organizations seek to prevent the Left from accessing the teaching posts in elementary schools. However, such plans did not rely on law – and were both semi- and informal.
Keywords: Cold War; security police; teacher training; communism
