PAASIKIVI OF FINLAND
Fischer, Alfred Joachim
NEW LEADER EXCLUSIVE: Paasikivi of Finland By ALFRED JOACHIM FISCHER HELSINKI. SHORTLY BEFORE his re-election as President of Finland on February 15, 1950, Juho Paasikivi received me at...
...Despite his age, the President works hard and long, lie reads, besides the Finnish press, French, Swedish, Swiss and English newspapers...
...Such attacks draw only a wise and philosophical smile from the Finnish "King Solomon" whom Stalin once called his friend—"If we had met earlier, this war could have been averted," the Soviet leader told Paasikivi, alluding to the Finnish-Russiian war...
...SHORTLY BEFORE his re-election as President of Finland on February 15, 1950, Juho Paasikivi received me at his official residence in the former Czarist palace, an imposing white building close by the harbor, in Helsinki...
...No less realistic were Paasikivi's ancestors, peasants whose roots in the soil of Finland go back to the 16th centruy...
...On the other hand, he has managed to meet the most critical situation with a warm sense of humor...
...For example, it was generally assumed in Finland that the armistice agreement with Russia referred only to actual war criminals (Par...
...This brings us to the powerful position occupied by Finland's number one leader...
...as "senile...
...People speak of the "Paasikivi line" in Finnish politics, irrespective of whether a Mauno Pekkala or a Kail August Fagerholm is Prime Minister...
...Finland's trade with Russia and Eastern Europe has improved, though Britain remains her principal customer...
...Although Finland's "grand old man" will celebrate his eightieth birthday on November 27, he does not look his age, and speaks smilingly of his contemporaries and even of younger men...
...Between 1914 and 1934, except for certain political and diplomatic interludes, he was/Director - General of Kansalles Osaake Pankki, Finland's largest private bank...
...In the Czarist period anyone with ambition had to study Russian...
...Even his family life reflects similar trends: In 1897 he married Anna Matilda Forsman, a Finnish Swede, and for three years only Swedish was spoken in their home...
...WHEN I ASKED the head of the Finnish Liberal Rarty why his group had switched from opposition to Paasikivi in the previous election to support of him in this one, he replied: "Because Paasikivi and the continuation of his course are a political necessity...
...but if Stalin requires vassals who must prove their friendship by truckling to the internal communists, Paasikivi expresses stubborn opposition...
...PAASIKIVI STUDIED in Upsala and for a year at Leipzig University...
...He went to Moscow in 1939, shortly before the Winter War, and was said to have been more inclined to compromise than Tanner...
...Paasikivi was a passionate champion of Finnish liberty...
...As long as the Communists were sincere members of the coalition, the President collaborated with them...
...I am a realist," Paasikivi declares, "and shall never advocate anything but a policy of concrete possibilities...
...that he wanted a German king in 1918 when the Germans occupied the country...
...In 1901 he became an LLD...
...Internally, the Finnish Republic in no way differs from the neighboring Swedish monarchy...
...Paasikhy claims JJiat it is not difficult to answer these accusations...
...Paasikivi has never concealed his unwillingness to hold these men responsible (they have since been amnestied and have written and translated interesting books), but he maintains that he was obliged to fulfill the terms of the armistic agreement in the interest of a higher purpose—preservation of a Finnish freedom and democracy...
...his son, who was killed in the war, studied at the Military Academy in Stockholm...
...Under Paasikivi, Parliament exercises decisive powers, and freedom of speech, press, assembly and education are insured...
...As a senator...
...but before reaching maturity he changed his name to Paasikivi after the family estate, • • • PAASIKIVI'S unconcealed pride in his origins must not be misunderstood...
...He has always claimed both Finnish and Swedish as his native tongues...
...Kuusinen also charges him with being proWestern...
...A morally inferior man could easily turn the old Czarist palace into a stronghold of despotism, but under Paasikivi it has become a democratic rampart which arouses admiration in th...
...This explains how, in 1948, it was possible to prevent a coalition with Communists, and why a Social Democratic minority government has had (until lately) the support of three non-Socialist groups...
...A good singer and runner in his youth, he still leads an active social life and enjoys quiet talks with intimates...
...Paasikivi knows the Russians and their mentality as do few Finns...
...His chief interest, however, lies in literature, history and historical philosophy, and every night before bedtime he glances at the new publications in these fields...
...he visited Russia as early as 1891...
...As a conscious Scandinavian, Paasikivi has always had that Western outlook which Hertta Kuusinen acuses him of just having adopted...
...but this has never excluded a genuine desire on his part for friendly relations with Russia...
...The Foreign Minister is directly responsible to him, and not to the Premier...
...his daughter, Anniki, an architect, is regarded as his confidante...
...His native town symbolizes that realism, for Tampere, Finland's Manchester, is a center of industry without smoke and dirt but with wide parks instead...
...In 1920, he headed the Finnish delegation which negotiated the Treaty of Tarttu, and in 1940 a more delicate peace mission...
...As long as Moscow wants friends who fulfill their obligations faithfully, it may count on the old man in the Czarist palace...
...With the help of U. S. and Swedish credits, Finland has been able to settle her outstanding reparations payments, halved by the Soviet Union after the third reparation year...
...His grandfather adopted a Swedish name in accordance with the then prevalent trend, and Paasikivi was christened Johan Hellsten...
...and that his career was considerably elevated after the Finnish-Soviet war he had done little to prevent...
...In 1940-41 he was Finland's envoy to the Kremlin, after his recall from Stockholm, where he secured the diplomatic aid of Stalin's elegant Ambassador to Sweden, Alexandra Kollontay...
...Even today this forms the core of his foreign policy...
...His second wife, Alii Valve, is a prominent social worker...
...As a youth, he studied Russian and took a degree in the subject...
...Undoubtedly, for the West it Is a welcome sign...
...PAASIKIVI BECAME CHAIRMAN of the Conservative party in 1934 in order to prevent, he told me, its infiltration by a fascist group...
...But Paasikivi, characteristically, accepted the nomination for President only when attacks in the Russiian and Finnish Communist press had reached a dizzy pitch...
...Paasikivi's Scandinavian — rather than Finnish or Swedish—outlook, which is all the more politically necessary because of the isolation of the Baltic states, is sharply criticized by the extreme left...
...Paasikivi was never enthusiastic about the war with Russia, and hope . of peace therefore centered on him...
...He can dissolve Parliament and appoint or dismiss governments at will...
...It was not surprising that, as Mannerheim's successor, and after a term as Finland's first postwar Premier, he should be elected President in 1946...
...West and which so far Moscow has not tared seriously to assail...
...In Paasikivi's relations with Russia, his knowledge of the language came in very handy, as he confesses with u smile, because it eliminated (mis) interpreters, misunderstandings and mistrust...
...Stalin's Finnish agent, puts it—and officially (in Sweden's case, unofficially) joined the Atlantic Pact, the Communists began to equate Nordic cooperation with antiSoviet attitudes...
...He was persona grata with the Soviets for a long time, but the ex-banker whom Stalin preferred to the Socialist Vaino Tanner did not reach this state through cheap opportunism...
...Having the mind of an historian who see...
...Finland's Swedes acclaim Paasikivi as the foremost protector of their rights...
...after all, Field Marshall Gustav von Mannei - hcim served in the Czarist army without arousing resentment...
...things in wide perspective, of a scientist of distinction, and of an astute analyst whose verdict is always respected by friend and foe alike, Paasikivi retains that great moral authority of which the democracies stand in such great need...
...After Denmark, Norway and Sweden were "Marshallized" —as Hertta Kuusinen...
...He was also a senator in the Grand Duchy Finland, which was a semi-autonomous part of the Czarist Empire...
...He has actively fostered the Norden Society, which promotes interScandinavian cooperation...
...In negotiations with Molotov he stubbornly held to this thesis that what the Russians claimed were two separate wars (the Winter War of 1939-40 and the subsequent 1941-44 conflict) were in fact one undivided war...
...In most of his Parliamentary speeches he emphasizes Sweden's strong cultural influence on Finland...
...In 1918, as Prime Minister, he insisted on constitutional safeguards such as cultural equality, recognition of Swedish as the second national language, and autonomy for the Aaland Isles...
...The fact that Juho Paasikivi has been re-elected President of Finland attests to the democratic maturity of his people...
...Unlike the Scandinavian kings, the Finnish President is far more than a figurehead...
...They allege that he learned Russian as a means of achieving high rank in the Russian era...
...He hates disorder, and his desk is kept scrupulously tidy...
...Hertta Kuusinen and Vaino Tanner, notwithstanding their mutual hatred, both accuse Paasikivi of the same thing - -opportunism...
...He displays a lively interest in all phases of German life to this day, and discussed at length the historic need for German unity...
...Those elements who endanger Finland's existence by their constant anti-democratic agitation, are faced with a caustic and strong-voiced defender of Finnish rights in Paasikivi...
...Though his political orientation has fluctutated, he has never been a nationalist or chauvinist...
...At Paasikivi's suggestion, however, Parliament accepted on September 12, 1945, the Soviet view, namely, that those "responsible for the war" also had to include men like Tanner and Ryti...
...from 1903-14 he lectured in constitutional law at Helsinki University and simultaneously acted as DirectorGeneral of the Sta.te Bank...
...If the Soviet Union, instead of pursuing its attacks, should decide to resume friedly relations with the Finns, that might mall* a real contribution to world pcaotv...
...Today, unauthorized strikes aiming at the government's overthrow would hardly be possible...
...The infuential Literaturnaya Gazeta of Moscow recently stamped Paasikivi as a pro-Western Russophobe and a warmongering reactionary...
...when the secret police under Hertta Kuusinen's husband, Communist Interior Minister Yrjo Leino, threatened a repetition of the Czech coup, the President, at Parliament's request, agreed to Leino's dismissal, disbandment of his police organization, and the subsequent formation of the Fagerholm Cabinet...
...Paasikivi, the man, is a strong personality...
...THE FINNISH PRESIDENT has faced many thorny problems...
Vol. 33 • March 1950 • No. 12
