The Reconstruction of Post-war Finnish-Soviet Security Relations 1944–56

Abstract

The fundamental premise of Finnish security policy since the wars of 1941–4 has been that Soviet security interests in the north-west can be reconciled with the existence of an independent sovereign Finnish state. The issue of the political independence of Finland after the Second World War was brought up by the Western Allies already during the Teheran summit conference in December 1943. The views expressed at Teheran showed that the Allies had not considered Finland after summer 1941 simply as an Axis state. The United States in fact had not declared war on Finland. At the conference Stalin, by offering assurances that Finnish independence would be preserved in the final settlement between Allied and Axis powers, opened the door for a conditional negotiated peace between Finland and the Soviet Union. Under pressure in other quarters the Western powers approved the main features of the conditions for peace with Finland which Stalin presented at Teheran. This mutual understanding allowed Finland to remain largely outside the territorial controversies in Europe which were already discernible at the Yalta conference in February 1945, and which were to fuel the Cold War hostilities of the powers after the war.