Finland Since the Armistice

Abstract

A remarkable achievement lies behind fact that Finland is still a democratic country. No nation fought harder against Russians than did Finns, first when they fought alone against Russia in Winter War of 1939-40, then when they fought with German help in 1940-41; number of young Finns killed in those wars was over 85,000, a figure which represents 7.2 per cent of total active man-power. The terms of Armistice of September 1944 were crippling: few people imagined then that Finland would be able to survive in post-war years as an independent State with all her democratic institutions intact. The Armistice terms presented four great problems to Finland. The first was that of expelling Germans from her northern provinces. If Finns were to fail to do that unaided, they would have to have Russian help, which would mean Russian military occupation, no doubt permanent, of their country. The ensuing campaign against 200,000 German troops on Finnish soil was undertaken by a force of 40,000 Finns. It cost four thousand Finnish casualties and ravaging of Arctic Finland, where Germans destroyed bridges and railways, and burnt towns and villages, in their retreat. A more serious problem was set by territorial clauses of Armistice. The Russians annexed Petsamo province, thus cutting Finland off from access to Arctic waters, and Karelian province, thus depriving her of some of her best land, of her second city, Viipuri, and of Saimaa Canal which was necessary channel for bulk of her timber trade. The Russians forced Finland to lease to them Porkkala peninsula where they proposed to build a naval base. These territorial clauses made it impossible for Finland to defend herself against Russia in future; having lost Petsamo, she had no direct contact with American or British Fleet; having lost Karelia she had no defensible frontier; with lease of Porkkala she had to grant to Soviet Union the use of railways, waterways, roads and air routes necessary for transport of personnel and freight dispatched from Soviet Union to naval base at Porkkala-Udd, and ... unimpeded use of all forms of communication between Soviet Union and territory leased in that area. The Porkkala peninsula lies a few miles to West of Helsinki; Russians therefore have right to move troops through Finnish capital. The territorial clauses involved also a heavy economic loss. About 13 per cent of Finland's national wealth lay in ceded regions: they had