The Paasikivi Society is Finland's oldest foreign policy society, founded in 1958. [1]
Its original mission was to strengthen and stabilise Finland's official foreign policy among the nation at large. It also undertook the task of making Finland's foreign policy known abroad. [1]
On the Society's initiative, The Finnish Institute of International Affairs (Ulkopoliittinen instituutti) was established in 1961, and a journal, The Finnish Journal of Foreign Policy (Ulkopolitiikka-lehti), was established in 1961. [1] [2] [3]
The Society supported the Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine, Finland's official foreign policy. [1]
The Society has hosted foreign heads of state, ministers, and ambassadors as speakers. President George H.W. Bush, President Mary McAleese, President Lennart Meri, President Jorge Sampaio, President Askar Akajev, President Georgi Parvanov, President Svetozar Marovic, President Vaclav Klaus, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President Danilo Türk have delivered speeches for the Society. [1] [4] [5]
The members include Finnish ministers, MPs, MEPs, ambassadors, government officials, officers, researchers, journalists, authors, and business leaders. [1]
Former presidents of Finland Juho Paasikivi, Urho Kekkonen, Mauno Koivisto, and Martti Ahtisaari are honorary members of the society. Other honorary members are former prime minister Harri Holkeri and Matti Vanhanen. Former chairmen of the society are honory members as well. [1] [6]
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen, often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as prime minister, and held various other cabinet positions. He was the third and most recent president from the Agrarian League/Centre Party. Head of state for nearly 26 years, he dominated Finnish politics for 31 years overall. Holding a large amount of power, he won his later elections with little opposition and has often been classified as an autocrat.
Juho Kusti Paasikivi was a Finnish politician who served as the seventh president of Finland from 1946 to 1956. Representing the Finnish Party until its dissolution in 1918 and then the National Coalition Party, he previously served as senator, member of parliament, envoy to Stockholm (1936–1939) and Moscow (1940–1941), and Prime Minister of Finland. He also held several other positions of trust, and was an influential figure in Finnish economics and politics for over fifty years.
Väinö Alfred Tanner was a leading figure in the Social Democratic Party of Finland, and a pioneer and leader of the cooperative movement in Finland. He was Prime Minister of Finland in 1926–1927.
The Centre Party, officially the Centre Party of Finland, is an agrarian-centrist political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Centre Party is positioned in the centre of the political spectrum. It has been described as liberal, social-liberal, liberal-conservative, and conservative-liberal. The party’s leader is Antti Kaikkonen, who was elected in June 2024 to succeed former minister Annika Saarikko. As of June 2023, the party has been part of the parliamentary opposition.
Johannes Virolainen was a Finnish politician and who served as 30th Prime Minister of Finland, helped inhabitants of Karelia, opposed the use of alcohol and created Mandatory Swedish in Finnish basic schools.
The Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine was a foreign policy doctrine established by Finnish President Juho Kusti Paasikivi and continued by his successor Urho Kekkonen, aimed at Finland's survival as an independent sovereign, democratic country in the immediate proximity of the Soviet Union.
The Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance of 1948, also known as the YYA Treaty from the Finnish Ystävyys-, yhteistyö- ja avunantosopimus, was the basis for Finno–Soviet relations from 1948 to 1992. It was the main instrument in implementing the Finnish policy called Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine.
Karl-August Fagerholm was a Finnish politician. Fagerholm served as Speaker of Parliament and three times Prime Minister of Finland. Fagerholm became one of the leading politicians of the Social Democrats after the armistice in the Continuation War. As a Scandinavia-oriented Swedish-speaking Finn, he was believed to be more to the taste of the Soviet Union's leadership than his predecessor, Väinö Tanner. Fagerholm's postwar career was, however, marked by fierce opposition from both the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Finland. He narrowly lost the presidential election to Urho Kekkonen in 1956.
Sakari Severi Tuomioja was a Finnish politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Finland between 1953–1954 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs between 1951–1952 and as the Governor of the Bank of Finland between 1945–1955. He was also Finland's ambassador in London and Stockholm.
The Note Crisis was a political crisis in Soviet–Finnish relations in 1961. The Soviet Union sent Finland a diplomatic note on October 30, 1961, referring to the threat of war and West German militarization and proposing that Finland and the Soviet Union begin consultations on securing the defence of both countries, as provided for in the Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948. The note coincided with the detonation of the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear test in history, and followed close on the heels of the Berlin Crisis and Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Åke Henrik Gartz was a Finnish politician. He served as Minister of Trade and Industry in the J. K. Paasikivi II and III Cabinet from 1944 to 1946 and in the Kekkonen I and II Cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1950 to 1951.
Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1950, the first time the public had been involved in a presidential election since 1937 as three non-popular elections had taken place in 1940, 1943 and 1946. On 16 and 17 January the public elected presidential electors to an electoral college. They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Juho Kusti Paasikivi, who won on the first ballot. The turnout for the popular vote was 63.8%. President Paasikivi was at first reluctant to seek re-election, at least in regular presidential elections. He considered asking the Finnish Parliament to re-elect him through another emergency law. Former President Ståhlberg, who acted as his informal advisor, persuaded him to seek re-election through normal means when he bluntly told Paasikivi: "If the Finnish people would not bother to elect a President every six years, they truly would not deserve an independent and democratic republic." Paasikivi conducted a passive, "front-porch" style campaign, making few speeches. By contrast, the Agrarian presidential candidate, Urho Kekkonen, spoke in about 130 election meetings. The Communists claimed that Paasikivi had made mistakes in his foreign policy and had not truly pursued a peaceful and friendly foreign policy towards the Soviet Union. The Agrarians criticized Paasikivi more subtly and indirectly, referring to his advanced age, and speaking anecdotally about aged masters of farmhouses, who had not realized in time that they should have surrendered their houses' leadership to their sons. Kekkonen claimed that the incumbent Social Democratic minority government of Prime Minister K.A. Fagerholm had neglected the Finnish farmers and the unemployed. Kekkonen also championed a non-partisan democracy that would be neither a social democracy nor a people's democracy. The Communists hoped that their presidential candidate, former Prime Minister Mauno Pekkala, would draw votes away from the Social Democrats, because Pekkala was a former Social Democrat. The Agrarians lost over four per cent of their share of the vote compared to the 1948 parliamentary elections. This loss ensured Paasikivi's re-election. Otherwise Kekkonen could have been narrowly elected President - provided that all the Communist and People's Democratic presidential electors would also have voted for him.
Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1956. On 16 and 17 January the public elected presidential electors to an electoral college. They in turn elected the President.
Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1962. On 15 and 16 January the public elected presidential electors to an electoral college. They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Urho Kekkonen, who won on the first ballot. The turnout for the popular vote was 81.5%.
The Finland–Russia Society, formerly called the Finland – Soviet Union Society, is a Finnish registered association that promotes friendly relations between Finland and Russia. In 2014, it had circa 12,500 members. Since 2020, it has been chaired by Member of the Parliament Petri Honkonen.
Jorma Jaakko Vanamo was a Finnish diplomat. He served as Finland's ambassador to Warsaw (1958–1963), Moscow (1963–1967), Rome, Valletta and Nicosia (1970–1975) and Stockholm (1975–1980). He also served as Ambassador to Bucharest (1958–1960), Sofia (1958–1963), Kabul (1963–1966) and Ulan Bator (1963–1966).
Heikki Talvitie is a Finnish diplomat. He has served as Ambassador in Belgrade from 1984 to 1988, in Moscow from 1988 to 1992 and from Stockholm in 1996–2002. Talvitie has also been an EU Special Representative in the Caucasus and an OSCE Special Envoy in Georgia
The Independence Day Reception is an annual event organised by the President of Finland at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki on 6 December, Finland's Independence Day. Invitations are sent to all members of parliament and other representatives of the national and municipal governments, the ambassadors to Finland, representatives of NGOs, important business people, and people who distinguished themselves during the year in the arts, sports, sciences, and other fields.
The Night Frost Crisis or the Night Frost was a political crisis that occurred in Soviet–Finnish relations in the autumn of 1958. It arose from Soviet dissatisfaction with Finnish domestic policy and in particular with the composition of the third government to be formed under Prime Minister Karl-August Fagerholm. As a result of the crisis, the Soviet Union withdrew its ambassador from Helsinki and put pressure on the Finnish government to resign. The crisis was given its name by Nikita Khrushchev, who declared that relations between the countries had become subject to a "night frost".
Kaarlo Henrik Hillilä was a Finnish politician who served as the provincial governor of Lapland (1938–1947), head of the market town of Rovaniemi, minister of the interior (1944–1945), minister of supply (1945–1946), and director general of the Social Insurance Institution (1946–1954).