In Helsinki last week, Soviet Ambassador Grigory Savenenkov entertained the Finnish cabinet at a showing of a Russian movie suggestively entitled Song of Siberia. That was merely one move in the week's kid-glove test of strength.
In another move, aging President, Juho K. Paasikivi had ousted Communist Interior Minister Yrjo Leino. Elections were coming and Finns who remembered Czechoslovakia did not want a Red running the police. To force the government's hand, the Communists called a general strike. Both sides could ponder the result: nearly 40% of the workers struck, but over 60% did not. Paasikivi patched things up by...