Risto Ryti

Risto Ryti in 1940 at the age of 51

Risto Heikki Ryti [ ˈristɔ ˈhɛi̯kːi ˈryti ] (born February 3, 1889 in Huittinen , † October 25, 1956 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish politician, director of Suomen Pankki , prime minister during the Winter War and president of Finland from 1940 to 1944. From his training ago he was a lawyer.

Postage stamp from 1941

In June 1944, Ryti signed the so-called Ryti-Ribbentrop Treaty with the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop . The treaty secured the arms aid and the grain deliveries from Germany during the Continuation War against the Soviet Union . In return, Ryti promised not to conclude a separate peace with the Soviet Union without Germany. After the Finns repelled the major attack by the Soviet Union with the help of the arms deliveries, President Ryti resigned on the pretext of health problems. From a legal point of view, it was not the Finnish state but Ryti who signed the contract as a private person, so he did not bind the new President Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim . This enabled Finland to conclude an armistice with the Soviet Union against Germany's will in September 1944.

In 1945, under Soviet pressure, a war guilt trial against Risto Ryti was initiated. Ryti was sentenced to ten years in prison, but was pardoned by President Juho Kusti Paasikivi in 1949 for health reasons .

Web links

Commons : Risto Ryti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tihonen, Seppo: The Finnish Presidency as an Institution ( Memento of July 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), 1999
• Literature by and about Risto Ryti in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Risto Ryti in the press kit 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Benjamin Fredrich: The special position of Finland during the Second World War . eKritik.de, accessed on January 28, 2015
• Risto Ryti in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)