THE LEGACY OF HISTORY:
AN UNLIKELY STORY OF SURVIVALEach country’s strategic choices are shaped not only by its geography and its geopolitical environment, but also by its historical experience. What has worked or failed in the past in terms of collective security and defence, or indeed its absence, informs future options. This also applies to Finland, even if its experience has been exceptional in many regards.
After the strategic offensive by the Red Army in June–July 1944 failed to break the Finnish defences, Stalin opted for a political solution to force Finland out of the war. The Armistice of September 1944 required the rapid demobilisation of the army of 550,000 men plus 200,000 women with a population of less than four million at the time. Finland was also required to open its airports and naval facilities to the Allied (exclusively Soviet) Forces and to drive 200 000 German troops from Northern Finland. With the presence of an Allied (essentially Soviet) Control Commission in the country and the leasing to the Soviet Union of the naval base of Porkkala, just 30 km west of Helsinki, Finland was at its weakest and most vulnerable. But with Stalin’s mind concentrated on securing victory and reaching Berlin, the option to launch a new attack in order to occupy Finland was no more.
The ratification of the Peace Treaty of Paris in September 1947 marked a turning point and saw the Control Commission leave. A Friendship Treaty (Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance) imposed on Finland in April 1948 defined the relationship with the Soviet Union for decades to come. Finland never considered the treaty to be a military pact. It did not establish a framework of permanent foreign policy consultations and narrowed the Finnish military obligations to repel an attack in cooperation with the Soviet Union “by Germany or powers allied to Germany through Finnish territory”. The treaty was renewed in 1955, as a precondition for the return of the Porkkala base, and several times thereafter. Only after becoming a Member of the United Nations in December 1955, and the evacuation of the Soviet base in January 1956, could Finland embark on pursuing a policy of neutrality. The preamble to the Friendship Treaty notes “Finland’s desire to remain outside the conflicting interests of the Great
