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In the shadow of Soviet guns, Finns must be discreet. Even so, many outspokenly deplore President Kekkonen's servile attitude to Moscow. Kekkonen's attempt to sell Scandinavia Moscow's plan for an atom-free zone in northern Europe was roundly snubbed by the other Nordic countries.
The vast (118,000 sq. mi.), rugged land is becoming industrialized. However, wood products still account for three-quarters of its exports, and the government has only recently awakened to the fact that the forests have been badly overexploited. Finland's wage-price spiral rises unchecked, largely because of welfare state benefits that are beyond its means. The Finns are such heavy topers that the government wraps every bottle of liquor in a temperance tract. More worrisome for a nation of only 4,500,000 is the legal abortion rate, which has doubled in ten years, and at 71.6 per 1,000 is one of Europe's highest. There are an estimated 20,000 illegal abortions yearly as well.
As they have rebuilt and restocked their own country, Finnish architects and designers have stamped it with a clean, distinctively Finnish elegance that makes Leningrad, less than an hour's flight away, look drab. To the delight of sauna-worshiping Finns, the sauna vogue has become international, providing Finland with a new export.
Denmark has a special charm, a blend of Baltic wit and North Sea sauce. And the pride of Danes stems from more than possession of Tuborg and Carlsberg beer, or of Europe's oldest royal house. "The Danes are superb salesmen of themselves," sniffs a Swede. "They play their little-mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen image to the hilt." Some 4,500,000 people live in the tidy land north of Schleswig-Holstein, and they wallow in hygge (pronounced HUG-ga), which simply means coziness. It is an indispensable word in Danish that reaches everyone, everywhere. People plan a hyggelig evening with friends; an old farmhouse can be hyggelig; one has a hyggelig time curled up in a chair with a book—free from worry and the trouble of thinking about annoying things.
Copenhagen is a swinging town with the gayest nightclubs in Scandinavia and an easy tolerance that leads Danish girls to say, "I'd rather have a Negro boy friend than a Swede any day." It also boasts the Berlingske Tidende, one of the great newspapers of Europe, and a Premier, Jens Otto Krag, who has not only outstanding skill but also one of Denmark's favorite actresses as a wife. Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens may be the world's finest pleasure park; there, most summer nights the fireworks splash the city with light, and a cannon booms the midnight signal.
In Denmark, the social services began at the end of the 19th century, but were pulled together in the Social Reform Act of 1933. Denmark's efficient farmers, who own 90% of their land, have largely financed refinements in the system that have left virtually nothing undone, short of nurses to tuck the pampered citizenry into bed at night. Fact is, even that service is available—from members of the Home Help Service, a new wrinkle which provides domestic help for sick housewives.