The Academic Karelia Society (AKS) (Akateeminen Karjala-Seura) was a Finnish elitist nationalist organization aiming at the growth and improvement of newly independent Finland, founded by academics and students of the University of Finland in 1922. Its members retained influential positions in the academic life of the era. The Karelia Society was suppressed in 1944, in the aftermath of the Continuation War, that to a great extent had been planned and fought in accordance with AKS' agenda.
The Karelia Society's program was centered around their main demand: the aquisition of East Karelia from Soviet Russia.
AKS also organized aid to Finnic minorities in Soviet Russia and refugees from there. Domestically it was an emphatic proponent for a strengthened army and for strict restrictions against Socialists.
In the 1930s, the AKS was an ally of the ultra-right Patriotic People's Movement party. AKS also maintained close ties with a militant secret society called Vihan Veljet. Some authors claim that Vihan Veljet was actually a group inside the AKS, not a separate organization, but there is not much evidence in either way. The archives of AKS were hidden or destroyed in 1944.
Last updated: 08-23-2005 19:11:40