From Half-Adversary to Half-Ally: Finland in Soviet Policy, 1953-58

Abstract

The general course of the Cold War was not fundamentally altered by the seminal period from Stalin's death in 1953 to the second Berlin crisis in 1958, although important new elements were certainly introduced. The position of Finland, however, went through a profound change, and its background, stages, and results are the theme of this essay. After the Second World War, the Finns succeeded in reaching a basic understanding with the Soviet Union and, despite a couple of crises, the general picture has been 'peaceful coexistence' between the two states. Lately, however, a more nuanced picture has begun to emerge, in part because of the new research angle offered by the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in part due to access to Soviet Foreign Ministry and Communist Party archives, President Kekkonen's papers, and Finnish security police archives. Beneath the surface, Finno-Soviet relations appear anything but smooth, and Finland emerges, after all, as a peculiar kind of Cold War frontline state.