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The Autocrats

television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ7714970 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Autocrats (Finnish: Itse valtiaat, stylized as Itse Valtiaat) is a Finnish animated political satire TV series, which takes the viewer behind the scenes of the early 2000s politics of Finland and aired between 2001 and 2008. The series was produced by Oy Filmiteollisuus Fine Ab and was made using 3D computer animation. The original idea for the series came from producer Olli Haikka. 233 episodes – comprising approximately 30 hours of footage – were aired.

Politicians who appeared in the series

Tarja Halonen

Pentti Arajärvi

Paavo Lipponen

Erkki Tuomioja

Antti Kalliomäki

Eero Heinäluoma

Presidents Mauno Koivisto and Martti Ahtisaari – appeared as an epilogue to every episode, sitting on a park bench.

Mauri Pekkarinen

Seppo Kääriäinen

Anneli Jäätteenmäki

Esko Aho

Matti Vanhanen

Tanja Karpela (Tanja Saarela)

Paavo Väyrynen

Sirkka-Liisa Anttila

Sauli Niinistö

Ben Zyskowicz

Suvi Lindén

Ville Itälä

Jyrki Katainen

Ilkka Kanerva

Suvi-Anne Siimes

Päivi Räsänen

Anni Sinnemäki

Episodes

(Original airdate)

The Autocrats pilot

Demo: Eskon lähtö (14.4.)

Spring 2001 (1st season)

1. Pääministerin mahtikäsky (14.4.)

2. Erkki vastaan Paavo (21.4.)

3. Saukko älä jännitä (28.4.)

4. Lex Niinistö (5.5.)

5.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Autocrats” as television series. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Autocrats, television and series.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2001, 2008—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Autocrats, television and series providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Autocrats”, the useful work is to connect “television series” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7714970. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2001 and 2008.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Autocrats”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Autocrats primary sources, The Autocrats archive and Autocrats research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Autocrats”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Autocrats” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.