The Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP) is a social democratic party in Finland, founded in 1899. The party, originally named the "Finnish Labor Party", was closely associated with the labor movements of the early 20th century, and it remained a powerful extra-parliamentary organization until the introduction of universal suffrage in 1906 allowed for the SDP to increase its share of votes. In 1916, the SDP earned a majority of seats in parliament, only to lose this majority in the 1917 election; this led to the Finnish Civil War a year later. The SDP declared the creation of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic, and the Finnish Red Guards were formed to fight against White Finland. The Whites won the civil war against the Reds, and exiled SDP members formed the Communist Party of Finland while they were in exile in Moscow in 1918. These two parties would become rivals after the Communist Party was legalized in 1944 during World War II, as the two parties competed for control over the labor unions in the country. From 1982 to 2012, the SDP held the presidency, and it helped to create a welfare state in Finland.
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