urho kekkonen - finlandization, "to become like finland"




newspaper text: presidental game
kekkonen: oh no! they almost killed me with laughter

role of kekkonen

kekkonen weaponized foreign policy for domestic policy, he abused diplomatic relations of ussr for finland's domestic policy.

if you wanted to advance in a political career, you had to have good relations with kekkonen and ussr → political pleasing

finlandization

it means country that is formally independent, but still has to take superpower's views and intrests into account in their foreign and domestic policies → in context of finland-ussr relations, it ended in 1991 when ussr collapsed

consepts

moscow's card (moskovan kortti) - finnish politicians leaked sensitive information to soviet politicians in order to advance in their own political career.

kotiryssä (home russky) - finnish political parties and influencers kept close relations bureucrats, diplomats, businessmen and other important people of tehtaankatu, embassy of soviet union. they usually were soviet spies.

censorship - in finland, everybody was silent of topics that were awkward to soviets

political liturgy - everyone swore to friendship and good relations with ussr