Right-wing extremist group survival in Finland – a qualitative case analysis of the Nordic Resistance Movement and Soldiers of Odin

The survival of right-wing extremist groups is a relatively understudied topic despite its obvious relevance to preventive and countering measures, for example. In this paper we ask why some groups survive for decades while others disappear in less than a year. Updating previous knowledge on group survival (Suttmoeller et al. 2015; Freilich et al. 2009), we also ask in our analysis what survival actually means these days, when the RWE scene has arguably become more network-based, or, as some suggest, post-organizational, and social media makes sustaining at least some level of activism more cost-efficient than earlier. The paper analyses the historical trajectories of two seemingly very different Finnish organizations, the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) and the Soldiers of Odin (SOO), as examples of how and why groups survive, and also compares them with those Finnish groups that have failed to endure. The NRM is a traditional national socialist movement with a hierarchical organization structure, whereas SOO appears as a network of vigilante groups without a clear commitment to any particular ideology. Both groups, which have enjoyed notable longevity, , invested strongly into building group solidarity and have held links to right-wing extremist subcultures. Both the NRM and SOO have also been international organizations, making them relevant objects of study outside Finland as well. The NRM originated in Sweden and spread to Finland in 2008, whereas SOO was founded in Finland in 2015 but managed to build a wide international network and established chapters in more than 30 countries during 2016. The topic of group survival is explored through empirical observation of the scene in Finland and combined with insights from previous studies and examples alongside social movement theories and ethnography (Volk 2022). The main body of data consists of research material that the authors have gathered during the past seven years regarding RWE groups in Finland. The study is carried out as a contextualized and thematic qualitative analysis based on a framework of external and internal factors on group survival formulated by previous studies. Our findings suggest, in line with earlier research, that internal factors such as internal cohesion and group solidarity continue to play an important if not decisive role in group survival. Social media has also contributed to group survival in a substantial manner, although its overall decisiveness calls for further research. Freilich, Joshua, Steven Chermak, and David Caspi (2009): "Critical Events in the Life Trajectories of Domestic Extremist White Supremacist Groups." Criminology & Public Policy (August): 497-530. Suttmoeller, Michael, Steven Chermak & Joshua D. Freilich (2015): The Influence of External and Internal Correlates on the Organizational Death of Domestic Far-Right Extremist Groups, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38:9, 734-758. Volk, Sabine (2022): Explaining PEGIDA’s ‘strange survival’: an ethnographic approach to far-right protest rituals, Political Research Exchange, 4:1, 2136036, DOI: 10.1080/2474736X.2022.2136036