[14] The movement originated in November 1929, after Finnish communist youth paraded in the conservative and religious town of Lapua enraged pro-White Guard locals, who subsequently attacked the performers physically.

Many politicians and high-ranking military officers were initially sympathetic to the Lapua Movement, as anti-communism was the norm in the educated classes after the Civil War.

The [former's] aim is to enable someone—a Dictator-Jew or some small faction?—standing on the ruins of burnt-down homes and bloodstained churches, to exert tyrannical power at will in the name of the ‘proletariat’ while in fact solely pursuing his own interests.

The second spirit, by contrast, endeavors to preserve those values already created, and to build a new Finland based on godliness and the rule of law…There are only two kinds of people: the righteous and the godless.

After the events in Lapua, local politicians Kustaa Tiitu and Artturi Leinonen called a "national assembly" to the town to discuss the growing communist agitation.

[19] On April 4th seventy-two men publicly declared themselves responsible for the attack, but only the actual perpetrators and the main organizer, Yrjö Nikula, were charged.

After the judge called an intermission and people were leaving the courtroom, Työn Ääni employee and witness in the case, Eino Nieminen, was surrounded by supporters of the Movement, who accused him of being a "red officer".

[18] After the Vaasa riot, witnessing the Kyösti Kallio led government's inability to control the situation, the Movement reiterated their demands with regards to communist organizations and papers and declared June 15th as the deadline for fulfilling them.

Instead President Lauri Relander asked former Prime Minister P. E. Svinhufvud, whom the Finnish right wing greatly respected, to negotiate with the movement.

Svinhufvud convinced Kosola and the other leaders that there was a legal way to achieve their goals and aided them in formulating a plan to remove communists through parliamentary means.

Social Democrats were only willing to accept the law for a three year temporary period, which meant that the Act only received a simple majority and had to be voted on by the next parliament.

Most notable cases over this period were the abduction of Väinö Hakkila, a Social Democrat vice-chairman of parliament, and that of the municipal politician Onni Happonen, who was killed and confirmed to not actually be a communist.

The Movement's violent reputation was used to intimidate socialist voters to either abstain or to vote for right wing candidates, Social Democratic Party members were harassed on the campaign trail and hustings were interrupted, and guards were organized around polling stations.

The event escalated to an attempted coup d'état known as the Mäntsälä rebellion (Mäntsälän kapina), led by the former Chief of Staff of Finland's army, General Wallenius.

Many historians believe the main reason for the failure was poor planning: the event just escalated from actions of the local chapter and the national organization came aboard later.