journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

54
Tapani Paavonen
least nominally under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), were basically not
problematic. Thus Finland joined the International Monetary Fund and the International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development or World Bank in February 1948
and the GATT in 1949-50.
Soviet policy towards Finland passed through different phases which coincided
relatively closely with changes in the Soviet leadership. Up to the end of Joseph
Stalin's dictatorship the Soviet attitude was extremely suspicious of Finland developing
any relations with the West. The period of Nikita Khrushchev, on the contrary,
was characterised by a responsive attitude towards the Finnish aspirations, provided
that Finland consequently followed the friendship policy. Under Leonid
Brezhnev, again, the Soviet Union tightened its control on Finland. In the 1980s,
especially during perestroika, i.e. the reform policy under Mikhail Gorbachev, the
Soviet Union finally relaxed its control over Finland.
For about the first ten years after World War II, coinciding largely with Juho Kusti
Paasikivi's presidency (1946-56), the Finnish foreign-policy orientation can best be
characterised as an endeavour towards neutrality within a narrow manoeuvring room.
In the mid-1950s, however, Finland's international position eased considerably. As
previously mentioned, Finland joined the Nordic Council and, finally, the Soviet Union
also enabled Finland's membership in the UN. In early 1956 the Soviet Union abandoned,
prematurely, the Porkkala naval base. This change coincided with the beginning
of Urho Kekkonen's long-time presidency (1956-81). As the result of these changes,
from 1956 onwards the Finnish foreign-policy orientation has openly been called a
neutrality policy, known also as the Paasikivi-Kekkonen Line.
The self-made dependence on the Soviet Union as the result of seeking Soviet
support for the purposes of internal political struggles became crucial for Finland's
international positioning. President Kekkonen's practice, which found a large
number of followers was most notorious. Kekkonen was an agrarian politician who
based his post-war political career on the development of Soviet relations. As the
President of the Republic, Kekkonen closely linked Finland's foreign policy to the
Soviet Union's consent. He consulted the Soviet Union about every major decision.
This meant that, while the Finnish position towards cooperation with the West was
defined on a broad basis within corporatist structures representing all important interest
groups, decisive negotiations with Soviet representatives were conducted in a
narrow circle, between President Kekkonen and the respective Soviet leader as a
last resort. During his first term, i.e. 1956-62, Kekkonen's position was extremely
disputed but with the consolidation of his power position consent with the Soviet
Union became the generally recognised political wisdom of the Finnish statecraft.
An integral part of the good-neighbour relations was the flourishing Finnish-Soviet
trade, which was based on a bilateral basis until 1990. From 1945 to 1990 trade with the
Soviet Union covered in average sixteen per cent, sporadically even a quarter, of Finland's
total foreign trade. Such volumes would hardly have been possible without the
special political relationship between the two countries. For Finland, bilateral trade with
the Soviet Union formed an element of international protectionism, exempting the