Juho Kusti Paasikivi - Prime Minister and President

Prime Minister and President

In the summer of 1941, when the Continuation War had begun, he took up writing his memoirs. By 1943 he concluded that Germany was going to lose the war and that Finland was in great danger as well. However, his initial opposition against the pro-German politics of 1940-41 was too well known, and his first initiatives for peace negotiations were met with little support both from Field Marshal Mannerheim and from Risto Ryti, who now had become President.

Immediately after the war, Mannerheim appointed Paasikivi Prime Minister. For the first time in Finland a Communist, Yrjö Leino, was included in the Cabinet. Paasikivi's policies were realist, but radically different than those of the previous 25 years. His main effort was to prove that Finland would present no threat to the Soviet Union, and that both countries would gain from confident peaceful relations. He had to comply with many Soviet demands, including the War Crimes trial. When Mannerheim resigned, Parliament selected Paasikivi to succeed him as President of the Republic. Paasikivi was then aged seventy-five.

Paasikivi had thus come a long way from his earlier classical conservatism. He now was willing to co-operate regularly with the Social Democrats and, when necessary, even with the Communists, as long as they acted democratically. He only once accepted his party, the Conservatives, into the government as President - and even that government lasted only about six months and was considered more a caretaker or civil-servant government than a regular parliamentary government. He even appointed a Communist or a People's Democrat, Mauno Pekkala, as Prime Minister in 1946.

Paasikivi's political flexibility had its limits, however, and this was shown in the Communists' alleged coup attempt or coup plans in the spring of 1948. He ordered some units of the army and navy to Helsinki to defend the capital against a possible Communist attack. Any attempt at a takeover failed before it had even started and the Communists were defeated in the next parliamentary elections.

Most modern Finnish historians deny that most Communists wanted a violent coup, especially not without the Soviet support. Later in the spring, when the Parliament passed a non-confidence motion against the Communist Interior Minister Leino, because of controversy about the treatment of prisoners whom he had ordered to be deported to the Soviet Union (they were mostly Russian White emigrants), Paasikivi had to dismiss Leino who refused to resign at once. After the 1948 parliamentary elections, where the Communists dropped from the largest to the third largest party, Paasikivi refused to let them into the government - and the Communists remained in the opposition until 1966 (see, for example, Seppo Zetterberg et al., ed., "A Small Giant of the Finnish History" / Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen, Helsinki: Werner Söderström Publications Ltd., 2003).

As President, Paasikivi kept the foreign relations of Finland in the foreground, trying to ensure a stable peace and wider freedom of action. Paasikivi concluded that, all the fine rhetoric aside, Finland had to adapt to superpower politics and sign treaties with the Soviet Union to avoid a worse fate. Thus he managed to stabilize Finland's position. This "Paasikivi doctrine" was adhered to for decades, and was named Finlandization in the 1970s.

It should be noted that he was helped in his relations with the Soviet leaders by his ability to speak some Russian and so did not have to use interpreters all the time, like his successor Kekkonen did. Having studied in Russia as a young man, Paasikivi also knew the classic Russian literature and culture (see, for example, "The Diaries of J.K. Paasikivi", edited and published in Finland around 1985-86; Sakari Virkkunen, "The Finnish Presidents II"; "The Republic's Presidents 1940-1956" / Tasavallan presidentit 1940-1956, published in Finland in 1993-94; Tuomo Polvinen, "J.K. Paasikivi: The Statesman's Work of Life" / J.K. Paasikivi: Valtiomiehen elämäntyö, published in several volumes in Finland in the 1990s and 2000s).

Paasikivi stood for re-election in the Presidential election of 1950, where he won 171 out of the 300 electoral college votes. The priorities of his second term were centred largely on domestic politics, in contrast to his first term. Joseph Stalin's death made Paasikivi's job easier. As a lover of sports, and a former athlete and gymnast, Paasikivi had the pleasure, during his second term of office, of opening the 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki.

By the end of Paasikivi's second six-year term, Finland had gotten rid of the most urgent political problems resulting from the lost war. The Karelian refugees had been resettled, the war reparations had been paid, rationing had ended and in January 1956 the Soviet Union removed its troops from Porkkala marine base near Helsinki (see, for example, Zetterberg et al., eds., "A Small Giant of the Finnish History").

He did not actively seek re-election when his second term ended in 1956, ending his term on March 1, 1956, at the age of eighty-five.

More specifically, Paasikivi was willing to serve as President for about two more years if a great majority of politicians asked him to do so. He appeared as a dark horse presidential candidate on the second ballot of the electoral college on February 15, 1956, but was eliminated as the least popular candidate. His last-minute candidacy was based on a misunderstood message from some Conservatives which made him believe that enough Agrarians and Social Democrats would support him.

After his unsuccessful last-minute presidential candidacy, Paasikivi felt betrayed by those politicians who asked him to participate in the election. He even denied giving his consent to the presidential candidacy in a public statement (see, for example, Pekka Hyvärinen, "Finland's Man: Urho Kekkonen's Life" / Suomen mies: Urho Kekkosen elämä, published in Finland in 2000; Tuomo Polvinen, "J.K. Paasikivi: The Statesman's Work of Life", final volume - years 1948-1956). He died in December, having not yet finished his memoirs.