Vihtori Kosola was born on July 10th 1884 in Ylihärmä, Finland. When he was two years old he and his family moved to Lapua. His father died when he was only 15 years old. After his father’s death he had to take care of the farm together with his brother Väinö. He worked hard with his farm and he wasn’t afraid to try new things. In 1909 he married Elin Lahdensuo. Beside the farm Kosola was interested in other things. He was a member of the local Youth organization and played in an orchestra. He was also the chairman of the farmer’s production organization in Lapua. Kosola’s life changed when the first world war started. He became an important person for the secret organization, whose goal was to recruit young men to go to Germany and get a military education. This organization got its centre on Kosola`s farm. Soon the Russian spies discovered his organization and sent him to prison in St: Petersburg in 1916. In 1917 he was released thanks to the Russian revolution. He took part of the Civil war in 1918 on the white side. He became one of the leaders on the white side.
After the war he was an activist in the white civil guard. He was one of the main agitators against communist activity in the region. When the so called Lapua- movement was founded in 1929, Kosola was elected leader of the organization. He was in charge of the March on Helsinki in the summer of 1930, which led to the banning of communism in Finland. As the leader of the movement Kosola obviously tried to take a moderate stand against lawlessness and brutal use of violence, but sometimes the situation got out of hands. During the attempted coup d’etat at Mäntsälä 1932 Kosola was one of the leaders, he was arrested , tried and sentenced to prison. After the Lapua- movement was forbidden, Kosola became the chairman of the newly founded IKL (patriotic peoples front). Kosola was a good speaker who was always willing to support the things he believed in. He wasn’t afraid of becoming criticized and had a very strong sense of justice. Kosola died on the 14th of December 1936 in Lapua.