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When Kekkonen finally took over as President, he added an intensely personal dimension to the policy. Making as many as four trips to Moscow a year, he went hiking, shooting and fishing with Soviet leaders, downing Volgas of vodka in the process, and invited them back to Helsinki for more of the same. One of his favorite tactics at home was to invite the Soviets for naked, sweaty talks in a roasting Finnish sauna.
After his initial presidential victory, Kekkonen's three re-elections were never seriously contested. Moscow even pressured the Finnish parliament into adding four extra years to Kekkonen's third six-year term as a price for allowing the country to work out a preferential trade agreement with the European Community. In 1980, Moscow awarded Kekkonen the Lenin Peace Prize for successfully arranging the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe that produced the 1975 Helsinki accords, which recognized Soviet domination in Eastern Europe.
In January, Finland's 300-member electoral college will choose Kekkonen's successor. The likely candidates include the popular Acting President, Mauno Koivisto, 57, Kekkonen's last Prime Minister, and ex-Foreign Minister Ahti Karjalainen, 58. The Soviet Union has expressed no preferences in the contest. There is no need to. Whoever is elected is expected to be bound by the precedents of Kekkonen and the harsh realities of geography, and thus follow a foreign policy line that will be approved in Moscow.