Report on Finland
HAMORI, L.
Report on Finland By L. Hamori Caught in Soviet squeeze, the Finns cannot strengthen their economy or form a stable majority government Stockholm The Finns breathed easier when the last...
...In the spring of 1953, the Social Democrats and Liberals demanded that the Government take concrete measures to recapture the lost Western markets...
...They were held in early March of this year—the first winter election in the history of this bleak northern land...
...This unleashed a storm of indignation from the Social Democrats and Liberals...
...Report on Finland By L. Hamori Caught in Soviet squeeze, the Finns cannot strengthen their economy or form a stable majority government Stockholm The Finns breathed easier when the last reparations shipment left Helsinki for the Soviet Union on September 9, 1952...
...The drop in tax revenues, however, forced the Government to reduce social assistance, family bonuses and unemployment benefits...
...At last, the Tuomioja Government tried to break the impasse by calling for new elections...
...None of the parties are willing to form a government with the Communists...
...Finally, however, the Government's position became untenable and it resigned in November 1953...
...The record turnout—more than 80 per cent of the eligible voters—showed the intensity of current political feeling in Finland...
...Among the commodities affected were wood and paper, Finland's most important—if not only—exports...
...Moreover, the Communists have no objection to a slump in living standards: on the old party principle of "the worse, the better," they hope in that way to capture the masses...
...At this critical juncture, the Soviet Union came forward with a trade offer which the Finns could not possibly turn down...
...Since the war, the Russians have made a practice of diligently scanning the Finnish press for the faintest trace of anti-Soviet comment which could be denounced as a violation of the Peace Treaty provision on "friendly relations" between the two countries...
...The Finnish Parliament now includes 51 Social Democrats, 53 Agrarians, 43 Communists (who go by the name of "People's Democrats"), and 49 assorted liberals and conservatives...
...When it proved impossible to unite a majority of Parliament behind a successor, a minority government was formed under President Tuomioja of the Finnish National Bank, who was given the ticklish task of preparing the new national budget...
...Prime Minister Kek-konen, a member of the Agrarian party, replied with a so-called "crisis program" which aimed at lowering the cost price of wood and paper products by granting tax benefits to producers...
...Everyone hoped that, with this great burden lifted from the economy after seven long years, Finland's living standards would at last approach those of the other three Scandinavian nations...
...But the elections solved nothing, for the parties returned with virtually the same mandates as before...
...At the same time, neither the Social Democrats nor the Agrarians alone can obtain a safe majority...
...Finland's national agony in the shadow of its mighty neighbor, which has already lasted for fifteen years, seems nowhere near its end...
...Finnish production costs are too high to compete in the world market, however, and the end of reparations payments left iron-and-steel plants without orders...
...In order to meet Russia's demand for partial payment of reparations in the form of railroad rolling stock, the Finns had been forced to expand their heavy industry...
...It soon became clear to many Finns that continued commercial dependence on the Soviet Union would eventually tie Finland both economically and politically to the Soviet bloc...
...There are still 60,000 unemployed, and the conflicts between the two leading parties, the Social Democrats and Agrarians, have become even more acute, if possible, since Kekkonen's downfall...
...However, Moscow paid in goods rather than foreign exchange, and the country's foreign-exchange reserves dropped so alarmingly that purchases of Western books and newspapers had to be curtailed...
...The resulting treaty made Russia Finland's Number 1 customer for the first time since that nation gained its independence...
...A new minority government, headed by Ralf Torngren of the small Swedish party, is now ruling...
...Thus, a unique situation prevailed for a time, with the votes of the Communist Deputies saving the anti-labor Kekkonen regime from being overthrown...
...Instead, symptoms of a severe economic crisis appeared...
...The Communists, interestingly enough, took no part in the bitter attacks on the Government...
...With the end of the Korean War, prices sagged on the world market...
...Prime Minister Kekkonen, who has always been a champion of "sincere friendship" with the Soviet Union, is one of the few Finnish non-Communists whom Moscow trusts...
...Increased British purchases of Finnish wood and paper somewhat improved the country's trade balance, and made further cuts in welfare expenditures unnecessary...
...Similar difficulties beset the iron-and-steel industry...
...Finland soon had 80,000 unemployed, a catastrophic number in a nation of only 4 million...
...The Soviet economic offensive, moreover, was accompanied by unremitting psychological warfare...
...But the basic economic and political crisis remained unsolved...
Vol. 37 • July 1954 • No. 30
