Interest in Finnish communism has been high in recent years and seems to be, at least in part, a reflection of two facts. First, the Finnish party, like the Communist parties of Italy and France, has been able to poll at least 20 percent of the popular vote in parliamentary elections. Second, the father of Finnish communism, Otto Kuusinen, was from 1957 until his death in 1964 a member of the Secretariat and Presidium (Politburo) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The reader should, however, keep in mind that Finnish communism has a long and dramatic history dating back to the formation of the party in 1918. This history falls logically into three periods: 1918-30, when the party was in theory legal but in practice illegal; 1930-44, when the party was formally proscribed; and 1944 to the present, a period during which the party has been able to act in the open as a registered, legal organization.