The Finns were first conquered by the Swedes in 1157. Peter the Great and Charles XII partitioned Finland and in 1809 Russia seized the entire country, which then became a grand duchy with a Parliament of its own and wide autonomous rights. In 1905 the Finns went on a national strike against the Tsar's usurpation of their rights, and unprecedentedly won. The Red Terror that came with the 1917 Russian Bolshevik revolution was bad enough: the White Guard Terror which followed was even worse. The Finns are therefore used to trouble.
Well aware that in the past few years their independence largely depended on the Germans protecting them from the Russians, and vice versa, when the Soviet Union began to attack the Finns last week they took it calmly. President Kyosti Kallio proclaimed a "state of siege." Foreign Minister Erkko observed: "Once and for all, I wish to say in all solemnity that Finland has not wanted war, has no desire to be a threat to anyone and has no desire to become the instrument of a third power." Then they got on with the war.
Late that night the Finnish Parliament met. Particular Finnish targets of Soviet abuse had been Premier Aimo Cajander,
Foreign Minister Erkko and Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, president of the National Defense Council. Premier Cajander's Government received a unanimous vote of confidence and then, to make way for possible negotiations with Russia, resigned. Appointed as the new Premier was 50-year-old President of the Bank of Finland Risto Ryti. New Foreign Minister was V. A. Tanner, who took part in the recent
Russo-Finnish negotiations at Moscow, and who can match most Soviet bigshots in proletarian experience. He once worked as a miner in the U. S. The Soviets were not so happy about Minister Tanner; the Soviet radio quickly called him one of the "madmen of Helsinki."
But if the Finns thought that by changing their Government thus they could persuade Dictator Stalin to call off his war they were mistaken. Scarcely had they relayed word through to Moscow that a new Government was ready to deal with the Kremlin than out of the clear blue appeared a brand new, ready-made Finnish "People's Government" with a resounding program and declaration.
According to the Soviet Union's version, the Government of the U.S.S.R. happened to hear about the new "People's Government of the Finnish Democratic Republic" over the radio, had its manifesto translated, was very much impressed by it and in a jiffy the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet recognized it.
The People's Government was formed at Terijoki, a little seaside village in Finland just across the Russian border which the Red Army had just captured. The chairman and Foreign Minister of the new "Government" was an old revolutionary named Otto Kuusinen, who had lived in Moscow for years. Tovarish Kuusinen, who immediately after being raised to his new station took on the foreign title of Gospodin (Mr.), was, in fact, a member of the executive committee of the Communist International. He left Finland 20 years ago during the White Guard Terror. How the new "Government" could radio from Terijoki was a mystery. The village has no sending set.