Word: finnish
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Fortnight ago, Finnish President Urho K. Kekkonen barely escaped a crushing bear hug, won postponement of "military talks" with Moscow. Last week the price of the respite became clearer: a move to silence Finland's anti-öCommunists...
Still combining pleasantries with threats, Khrushchev turned from local farm conditions to international politics, met for luncheon near the booming Siberian industrial city of Novosibirsk with Finnish President Urho K. Kekkonen, who had traveled 2,380 miles by auto, train and jet to find out whether his country's delicate neutrality was about to be shattered...
Soviet pressure against Finland had mounted steadily since last month, when Moscow demanded joint military talks to meet the alleged threat of West German "aggression." As Tass reported the Siberian table talk, Khrushchev told the Finnish leader that, "before it is too late," the frontier of Finland and the Soviet Union must be fortified against the NATO partners West Germany, Denmark and Norway. "All-round cooperation between our two countries." continued Khrushchev, "requires firm confidence that Finland will abide tomorrow, as it does today, by its chosen foreign policy line"-strict neutrality based on friendship with Russia...
...Britain received the news grimly. Washington saw the "absurd" pretext of a German threat as the opening bid for stationing Soviet troops on Finnish soil while diverting attention from Soviet pressure on Berlin. Ultimately, Moscow might intend to whisk neutral Finland behind the Iron Curtain, lock the Baltic door behind her. The Swedes felt the same fears, and there was growing talk about reconsidering Sweden's historic neutrality. NATO member Norway, which shares a 390-mile frontier with Finland in the north, prepared to draw up new defense plans...
...morning of Nov. 30, 22 years ago, a Soviet land-sea-air offensive against Finland ended prolonged negotiations over Soviet demands for Finnish territory. Numerically overpowering Russian troops expected to overrun Finland in days, but heroic resistance by skillful, ski-equipped troops fought the enemy to a virtual standstill until the final collapse of the Finns 16 weeks later...