Post-war Years
It was in this phase that Karl-August Fagerholm was elected chairman of Finland's Social Democrats. Väinö Tanner was seen with the uttermost suspicion not only by Finnish Communists, but by many Social Democrats as well, and by the leadership in Sweden and, most importantly, by the Soviet Union. Tanner necessarily had to resign. For the third time, like in 1920 and 1930, Fagerholm's main task was to rehabilitate and consolidate the Social Democrats. This time, however, the accusations came from the left. Fagerholm appeared as the least enthusiastic of the leading advocates for the Continuation War, and could thus be elected as sort of a compromise candidate, accepted by both the Tanner-supporting majority and by the critics of the War, sympatisants of the Six and the so called "peace opposition" concentrated in the Swedophone part of the Labor Union and Social Democracy.
The Soviet victory in World War II had greatly improved the prestige of their supporters in Finland. When in 1946 the Communist Mauno Pekkala became after successful elections the Prime Minister for a coalition cabinet including also the Social Democrats, Fagerholm could concentrate on his role as party chairman, remaining outside the cabinet. It was Fagerholm's conviction that Communists could not be defeated with repressive methods, as had been tried since the Civil War. Communism was to be countered in free debate and free elections. The battle of the late 1940s was that in the trade unions, where boards and representatives were elected proportionally. The Social Democrats succeeded to fend off or reverse Communist takeovers more often than not.
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