Word: finlandized
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Peter the Great once called Viipuri the solid shutters of his window on Europe. When the shutters collapsed last week and Viipuri fell, the way to Helsinki, 140 miles away, lay open. Finland, by military judgment, was all but out of the war (see FOREIGN NEWS). The newspaper Suomen Sosialidemokraati said that "the whole nation hopes that the present abnormal situation can be eliminated . . . so that it can get back to peaceful ways...
TIME'S Stockholm Correspondent John Scott flew to Helsinki last week on his first visit since Finland's spring negotiations with Russia (TIME, April 24). He found the Russians still seeking a political solution that required the least military expenditure, the Finns still convinced that they had a bargaining position despite the Red Army's advance (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS). Cabled Scott...
...Russians want an independent Finland with a friendly government. Neither now nor later do they want to annex Finland. At this moment and because of the overwhelming military necessity to liquidate the Finnish front as quickly as possible, the Russians are willing to sign an armistice on approximately the March terms-with any Finnish government except the present anti-Soviet combination. But the Finns have not been able to form such a government...
...Finns would form a new government any minute now and please to remain close to the phone. As the Finns continued to fumble, the Swedes' embarrassment became more & more acute, for they are almost as anxious as the Russians are to get the matter settled. The Russians, watching Finland writhe, her defensive positions shattered, a large part of her army knocked out and her politicians still arguing about a new government, are inclined to ask: "What is this? A debating society...
...Russians' principal objective is Berlin. What they want to do in Finland is liquidate the war on this front, shorten their front by some 600 miles, free 30 to 50 divisions, drive the Germans from their North Cape positions (from which they are still seriously harassing Allied sea lanes), free their Baltic fleet to cut German communications to Norway and northern Finland. The Russians believe these aims can be achieved without the military occupation of Finland. But they believe that the present Finnish Government must...