An indignant editorial in the Comintern newsorgan Pravda ("Truth") usually denotes the Soviet Government's extreme annoyance, one in the Government-owned paper Izvestia ("News") indicates growing impatience, an official protest demonstrates complete exasperation.
After almost a month of ineffectual grumbling, early this week the Kremlin got so mad at Finland that in the space of 24 hours the Pravda degree was reached and passed, the Izvestia stage was skipped and the white heat of the official protest had arrived.
Pravda's vituperation was based on a speech made by Finnish Premier Aimo Cajander in Helsinki in which the Premier advised Finns to plow their fields with their rifles to their shoulders. According to the Russians, the Premier also spoke kindly of how Tsars Alexander I and II had respected Finnish rights and compared the Soviet Union's aggressive policy unfavorably with the Tsars'.
Pravda's masters of invective foamed at the mouth. In an editorial labeled "Buffoon in the Post of Premier," Premier Cajander, head of the Government of a "friendly" State, became a "clown, crowing rooster, squirming grass-snake, marionette; small beast of prey without sharp teeth and strength but having a cunning lust." The 60-year-old Premier, a schoolteacher's son, a forestry expert and middle-of-the-road Progressive in politics, was accused of "standing on his head, talking upside down, smearing crocodile tears over his dirty face." If Premier Cajander did not watch out, Pravda hinted, he would find himself in the company of onetime President Ignacy Moscicki and onetime Foreign Minister Josef Beck of Poland.
Frontier Incident. This editorial was strongly reminiscent of a similar one directed at Poland's rulers and printed 48 hours before the Red Army marched into Eastern Poland in September. Reports from the Finnish-Russian frontier the next day were timed to give it further significance.
At 3:45 p.m., the Soviet Government announced, Finnish troops suddenly opened artillery fire on Soviet troops stationed near Mainil, on the Karelian Isthmus, where Finns have their strongest fortifications. Four Red Army soldiers were killed, nine wounded. That was all Soviet Premier-Foreign Commissar Viacheslav Molotov needed to call in Finnish Ambassador Baron Aarno Armas Yrjo-Koskinen and hand him a note.
Declaring that the border incident was a "provocational shelling," Comrade Molotov asserted that the "concentration of Finnish troops near Leningrad not only creates a menace to Leningrad, but is, in fact, a hostile act against the U.S.S.R. . .. Therefore, the Soviet Government.. . proposes that the Government of Finland withdraw its troops without delay 20 to 25 kilometers (twelve to 15 miles) farther from the border of the Karelian Isthmus, thus preventing the possibility of a repeated provocation. Accept, Mr. Minister, the assurance of my perfect respect. . . ."