Finnish-Soviet Treaty of 1948

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The Finnish-Soviet Treaty of 1948 , officially Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance ( Finnish Ystävyys-, yhteistyö- yes avunantosopimus (YYA-sopimus) swedish Vänskaps-, samarbets- och biståndsavtalet (VSB-avtalet), Russian Договор о дружбе , сотрудничестве и взаимной помощи (ДСП-договор)) was an agreement between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1948, which formed the basis for the relationship between the two states from 1948 to 1992.

With the treaty signed on April 6, 1948, the Soviet Union intended to prevent an attack by Western forces on its territory through Finnish territory. The aim of the Finns was greater political independence from the Soviet Union. The treaty, the first versions of which were drafted by Mannerheim at the beginning of 1945 , secured the existence of a democratically constituted Finnish state relatively close to strategically important areas of the Soviet Union such as the Kola Peninsula and Leningrad, the old capital of Saint Petersburg .

The treaty obligated Finland to armed resistance against attacks by Germany or its allies on Finnish territory or against the Soviet Union via Finnish territory, whereby a potential attacker Germany was understood to represent the United States . (Germany was occupied at the time and had no armed forces .) Had the need arisen, Finland would have had to seek military support from the Soviet Union in this case. The treaty also took into account Finland's efforts to stay out of the clashes of the great powers and to be able to pursue the policy of a neutral state during the Cold War . The contract was extended by 20 years in each of the years 1955, 1970 and 1983 before its original ten-year term expired.

Due to the uncertain state of the Finnish-Soviet relations in the years after the Continuation War , Finland oriented itself to a strictly literal interpretation of the treaty and, like the member states of the Warsaw Pact, did not claim any funding from the Marshall Plan , which was the economic difficulties of the country Compared to other (Western) European states in the post-war period and also resulted in a greater economic dependence on the Soviet Union. As a result of the treaty, Finland had only very limited relations with Western forces, including military alliances such as NATO and the planned Scandinavian Defense Alliance . This also hoped to avoid political pressure from the Soviet Union to establish closer ties with the Warsaw Pact.

The Finnish-Soviet treaty is considered to be the cornerstone of Finnish President Paasikivi's foreign policy . Even under his successor in office, Kekkonen , this treaty was, as it were, the Paasikivi-Kekkonen line that was decisive for Finnish foreign policy, which as a neutral state took on an active role over time. The treaty also enabled the Soviet Union to exert a certain influence on Finnish domestic politics in the post-war period, which became proverbial under the term Finlandization . However, it is disputed to what extent Kekkonen used this treaty to expand his own influence and to limit his political opponents.

In addition to official policy, there was also a certain, albeit less well known, cooperation with the West. For example, the Social Democratic Party of Finland provided seismic data on Soviet nuclear weapons tests in return for financial support from the CIA . Eastern bloc states such as the GDR operated espionage networks in Finland, for example through the Ministry for State Security .

The Soviet Union had concluded similar agreements with many states that were not directly allied with it but were heavily dependent on its support. These included North Korea since 1961 , India since 1971 (Indo-Soviet Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation) and Vietnam since 1978. The first agreement of this kind had already been concluded in 1943 with Free France .

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