Finnish People's Democratic League

(SKDL— Suomen kansan demokraattinen liitto), mass political organization of Finland. Founded on Oct. 29, 1944, by the Communist Party of Finland and left-wing Social Democrats.

In the area of foreign policy, the SKDL actively supports the strengthening of friendship and the development of comprehensive cooperation with the Soviet Union. In 1948 representatives of the SKDL took part in working out and signing the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Aid between the USSR and Finland. In domestic political life, the SKDL plays the role of a broad association of democratic forces—above all, the working class and toiling peasantry; it supports democracy and opposes the power of big capital. Along with individual members, the following have entered the SKDL as groups: the Communist Party of Finland, the Democratic Union of Women of Finland, and the Academic Socialist Society. The SKDL numbers about 150,000 members (1970). Representatives of the SKDL were part of the government of Finland from 1944 to 1948 and from 1966 to 1971. In the parliamentary elections of 1972, 37 SKDL candidates were elected to parliament (out of 200). The central organ of the SKDL (and the Communist Party of Finland) is the newspaper Kansan Uutiset.