Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Finlandization=== {{Main|Sovietization|Finlandization}} [[File:1970 - Lenin.jpg|thumb|A manifestation of the Finlandization period: in April 1970, a Finnish stamp was issued in honor of the 100th anniversary of [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s birth and the Lenin Symposium held in [[Tampere]]. The stamp was the first Finnish stamp issued about a foreign person.]] Officially claiming to be [[Neutral country|neutral]], Finland lay in the [[Grey-zone (international relations)|grey zone]] between the Western countries and the Soviet Union. The [[Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948|YYA Treaty]] (Finno-Soviet Pact of ''Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance'')<ref>[http://countrystudies.us/finland/24.htm The Cold War and the Treaty of 1948] from the [[Library of Congress]] (the Country Studies)</ref> gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics, which was later used as the term "Finlandization" by the West German press, meaning "to become like Finland". This meant, among other things, the Soviet adaptation spread to the editors of [[mass media]], sparking strong forms of self-control, [[self-censorship]] (which included the banning of anti-Soviet books<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ekholm |first=Kai |date=2001 |title=Political Censorship in Finnish Libraries in 1944–1946 |journal=Libraries & Culture |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=51–57 |doi=10.1353/lac.2001.0008|s2cid=152952804 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/kirjasto/oppimiskeskus/verkkoaineisto/inf/makinen.pdf Mäkinen, Ilkka. 2001. The golden age of Finnish public libraries : institutional, structural and ideological background since the 1960s]. p. 131</ref>) and pro-Soviet attitudes. Most of the elite of media and politics shifted their attitudes to match the values that the Soviets were thought to favor and approve. Only after the ascent of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] to Soviet leadership in 1985 did mass media in Finland gradually begin to criticise the Soviet Union more. When the Soviet Union allowed non-communist governments to take power in Eastern Europe, Gorbachev suggested they could look to Finland as an example to follow.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Keller|first1=Bill|last2=Times|first2=Special To the New York|date=26 October 1989|title=Gorbachev, in Finland, Disavows Any Right of Regional Intervention (Published 1989)|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/26/world/gorbachev-in-finland-disavows-any-right-of-regional-intervention.html|access-date=16 March 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> For West German conservative politicians, especially the [[Bavaria]]n Prime Minister [[Franz Josef Strauss]], the case of Finlandization served as a warning, for example, about how a great power dictates its much smaller neighbor in its internal affairs and the neighbor's independence becomes formal. During the Cold War, Finlandization was seen not only in Bavaria but also in Western [[intelligence service]]s as a threat that completely free states had to be warned about in advance. To combat Finlandization, propaganda books and newspaper articles were published through CIA-funded research institutes and media companies, which denigrated Finnish neutrality policy and its pro-Soviet President [[Urho Kekkonen]];<ref name="rislakki">{{cite book|author=Jukka Rislakki|title=Erittäin salainen. Vakoilu Suomessa|date=1982|pages=440–454|publisher=LOVE KIRJAT|isbn=951-835-057-4|language=fi}}</ref> this was one factor in making room for the [[Cold War espionage|East-West espionage]] on Finnish soil between the two great powers.<ref name="rislakki"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/eastern-approaches/2011/12/01/secret-history|title=Finland and American intelligence – Secret history|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|date=1 December 2011|access-date=16 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9692396|title=Naisia, autoja ja piilopirttejä – Norjalainen vakoili CIA:n laskuun kylmän sodan Suomessa|first=Satu|last=Helin|publisher=[[YLE]]|date=2 July 2017|access-date=16 August 2020|language=fi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000005833479.html|title=Näin Neuvostoliitto vakoili Suomessa – Supo seurasi "Jakkea", joka johdatti uusille jäljille|first=Mika|last=Lehto|work=[[Ilta-Sanomat]]|date=19 September 2018|access-date=16 August 2020|language=fi}}</ref> However, Finland maintained [[capitalism]] unlike most other countries bordering the Soviet Union. Even though being a neighbor to the Soviet Union sometimes resulted in overcautious concern in foreign policy, Finland developed closer co-operation with the other [[Nordic countries]] and declared itself even more neutral in superpower politics, although in the later years, support for capitalism was even more widespread.<ref name="equity">[http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTRANETSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/Resources/finland.pdf Growth and Equity in Finland], World Bank</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page