Word: finlandized
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Domestic politics in Finland has for years been based on two cardinal considerations: 1) that no Communists enter the Cabinet, and 2) that no Social Democrats become Premiers. The policies were well founded. In 1948, the last time that Communists were in the Cabinet, they tried to turn Finland into a Soviet satellite. As for the Social Democrats, the Russians developed a special loathing for them in the mid-50s and, as next-door neighbors, were able to bully the Finns into keeping them out of power. But last week, as a new four-party coalition government formally took office...
Parliament, jumped ahead of the Center (formerly Agrarian) Party and the Communists to become Finland's largest party. That raised the question: What would the Russians say about their old enemies? Just about everybody in Helsinki is convinced that what the Russians told Finnish President Urho K. Kekkonen was that the Social Democrats could form a Cabinet, but only if they included Finland's Red comrades...
Died. Vaino Tanner, 85, longtime leader of Finland's 100,000-member Social Democrats, an intense nationalist who for half a century steadfastly resisted Russia's interference in his country, so infuriating the Kremlin that in 1946 Stalin had him jailed and twelve years later Khrushchev insisted that Social Democrats be kept out of the government, an injustice remedied last month when the party swept back into power; after a long illness; in Helsinki...
...executive and five-time Premier, whose open courting of Soviet good will rankles many Finns, who remember two bitter wars against the Russians. But more important, the vote was an indication of the country's changing voting pattern: as more people leave farm and forest for jobs in Finland's burgeoning factories, they are switching to the urban-oriented Social Democrats, who rank as a middle-of-the-road party and promise to do something about inflation (up 4% last year) and better housing...
...objected to have stepped down from party leadership, and the new leader, Rafael Paasio, 63, emphasizes that his party wants good relations with Russia. President Kekkonen was clearly trying to keep everyone happy by calling on the Social Democrats to explore the possibility of forming a coalition government from Finland's seven parties, including the Communists...