Editing Finlandization (section)

==Finnish perception==
[[File:1970 - Lenin.jpg|thumb|upright|In April 1970, a Finnish stamp was issued in honour of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin and the Lenin Symposium held that year in Tampere.]]

Finns have, and had, a wide variety of reactions to the term "Finlandization".<ref name="NYT2922">{{cite news |author1=Jason Horowitz |title=Finns Don't Wish 'Finlandization' on Ukraine (or Anyone) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/world/europe/finlandization-ukraine-russia-nato.html |access-date=February 10, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=February 9, 2022}}</ref> Some have perceived the term as blunt criticism,{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}} stemming from an inability to understand the practicalities of how a small nation needs to deal with an adjacent superpower without losing its [[sovereignty]]. These practicalities existed primarily because of the lingering effect of Russian rule in the time before the [[Finns]] first gained sovereignty; and because of the precarious power balance eastwards, springing from a geographically extended yet sparsely populated state with a traditionally imperialist superpower right across the border.

The reason Finland engaged in Finlandization was primarily [[Realpolitik]]: to survive. On the other hand, the threat of the Soviet Union was also used in Finland's domestic politics in a way that possibly deepened Finlandization (playing the so-called {{langx|fi|idänkortti|lit=east card|label=none}}). Finland made such a deal with [[Joseph Stalin]]'s government in the late 1940s, and it was largely respected by both parties—and to the gain of both parties—until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. While the Finnish political and intellectual elite mostly understood the term to refer more to the foreign policy problems of other countries, and meant mostly for domestic consumption in the speaker's own country, many ordinary Finns considered the term highly offensive.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} The Finnish political cartoonist [[Kari Suomalainen]] once explained Finlandization as "the art of bowing to the East without [[mooning]] the West".<ref name="standish18">{{cite news |last1=Standish |first1=Reid |title=The Meaning of a U.S.-Russia Summit in Helsinki |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/06/finland-helsinki-russia-trump-united-states-summit/564074/ |publisher=The Atlantic Monthly Group |date=28 June 2018}}</ref>

===Historical background===
Finland's foreign politics before this deal had been varied: independence from [[Imperial Russia]] with support of [[German Empire|Imperial Germany]] in 1917; participation in the [[Russian Civil War]] (without official declaration of war) alongside the [[Triple Entente]] 1918–1920; a non-ratified alliance with Poland in 1922; association with the neutralist and democratic Scandinavian countries in the 1930s ended by the 1939 [[Winter War]] against the Soviet Union, in which the Finns thwarted the Soviet attempt to conquer Finland, albeit with the cession of 9% of Finnish territory; and finally in 1940, a rapprochement with [[Nazi Germany]], the only power able and willing to help Finland against the expansionist Soviet Union, which led to Finland's [[Continuation War|re-entry into the Second World War]] in 1941.

===Paasikivi doctrine===
{{see also|Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine}}
[[File:Urho Kekkonen and Juho Kusti Paasikivi in Kultaranta, 1955.jpg|thumb|[[Urho Kekkonen]] and [[Juho Kusti Paasikivi]]]]
[[File:Ahti-Karjalainen-1980 (cropped).jpg|thumb|150px|[[Ahti Karjalainen]] was one of the influential figures in [[Politics of Finland|Finnish politics]] during the [[Cold War]] and especially for its good relations with the East]]

After the [[Paris Peace Treaties, 1947|Paris Peace Treaty]] of 1947, Finland succeeded in retaining democracy and [[parliamentarism]], despite the heavy political pressure on Finland's foreign and internal affairs by the Soviet Union. [[Foreign relations of Finland|Finland's foreign relations]] were guided by the doctrine formulated by [[Juho Kusti Paasikivi]], emphasising the necessity to maintain a good and trusting relationship with the Soviet Union.

Finland signed an [[Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948|Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance]] with the Soviet Union in April 1948, under which Finland was obliged to resist armed attacks by "Germany or its allies" against Finland, or against the Soviet Union through Finland, and, if necessary, ask for Soviet military aid to do so. At the same time, the agreement recognised Finland's desire to remain outside [[Great Power|great power]] conflicts, allowing the country to adopt a policy of [[neutral country|neutrality]] during the [[Cold War]].

As a consequence, Finland did not participate in the [[Marshall Plan]] and took neutral positions on Soviet overseas initiatives. By keeping very cool relations to NATO and western military powers in general, Finland could fend off Soviet pressure for affiliation to the Warsaw Pact.

===Self-censorship and excessive Soviet adaptation===

Only after the ascent of Mikhail Gorbachev to Soviet leadership in 1985 did mass media in Finland gradually begin to criticise the Soviet Union more. When the Soviet Union allowed non-communist governments to take power in Eastern Europe, Gorbachev suggested they could look to Finland as an example to follow.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Keller|first1=Bill|date=1989-10-26|title=Gorbachev, in Finland, Disavows Any Right of Regional Intervention (Published 1989)|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/26/world/gorbachev-in-finland-disavows-any-right-of-regional-intervention.html|access-date=2021-03-16|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

=== Censorship ===
Between 1944 and 1946, the Soviet part of the allied control commission demanded that Finnish public libraries should remove from circulation more than 1,700 books that were deemed anti-Soviet, and bookstores were given catalogs of banned books.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ekholm |first=Kai |year=2001 |title=Political Censorship in Finnish Libraries in 1944–1946 |journal=Libraries & Culture |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=51–57 |doi=10.1353/lac.2001.0008|s2cid=152952804 }}</ref><ref>Mäkinen, Ilkka (2001). [http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/kirjasto/oppimiskeskus/verkkoaineisto/inf/makinen.pdf "The golden age of Finnish public libraries: institutional, structural and ideological background since the 1960s"]. p. 131</ref> The [[Valtion elokuvatarkastamo|Finnish Board of Film Classification]] likewise banned films that it considered to be anti-Soviet.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} Banned films included ''[[One, Two, Three]]'' (1961), directed by [[Billy Wilder]]; ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)|The Manchurian Candidate]]'' (1962), directed by [[John Frankenheimer]]; ''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (film)|One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]'' (1970), by Finnish director [[Caspar Wrede]]; and ''[[Born American]]'' (1986), by Finnish director [[Renny Harlin]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}

The censorship never took the form of purging. Possession or use of anti-Soviet books was not banned, but the reprinting and distribution of such materials was prohibited. Especially in the realm of radio and television self-censorship, it was sometimes hard to tell whether the motivations were even political. For example, once a system of blacklisting recordings had been introduced, individual policy makers within the national broadcaster, [[Yle]]isradio, also utilized it to censor songs they deemed inappropriate for other reasons, such as some of those featuring sexual innuendo or references to alcohol.{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}}

=== End of Finlandization === 
{{See also|Finland–NATO relations}}

After the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991 and the end of the Cold War, the Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 was replaced by a new bilateral treaty between Finland and the [[Russia|Russian Federation]] on a more equal footing, ending the Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine. Finland joined the [[European Union]] in [[1995 enlargement of the European Union|1995]], adopting its [[Common Foreign and Security Policy]]. Since joining the [[Partnership for Peace]] program of NATO in 1994, there has been increasing cooperation with NATO, including interoperability and participation in NATO missions.

Despite these changes, Finland initially remained militarily non-aligned and attempted to retain good relations with Russia. However, the 2022 [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]] caused a dramatic increase of public and political support in Finland for full membership in NATO. The [[Finland–NATO relations#Application|application for membership]] was formally submitted on 18 May,<ref>{{cite web | url= https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12440949 | title= Valtioneuvosto ja presidentti viimeistelivät Nato-ratkaisun – ulkoministeri Haavisto allekirjoitti hakemuksen | date = 17 May 2022 | work = [[Yle]] | access-date = 18 May 2022 | language= fi}}</ref> and after all 30 NATO members ratified the application, Finland became the 31st member of NATO on 4 April 2023.<ref name="finland-and-nato">[https://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/finland-and-nato Finland and Nato]. Finnish Government 3 April 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2023.</ref> The notion of "end of Finlandization" has been applied both to the changing circumstances resulting from the end of the Cold War and to Finland's decision to join NATO.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Md Himel Rahman |title=THE DE-FINLANDIZATION OF FINLAND |url=https://fairbd.net/the-de-finlandization-of-finland/ |access-date=May 9, 2023 |work=Foreign Affairs Insights & Review |date=February 12, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=Bradley Reynolds |title=Finland's Long Road West |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/finlands-long-road-west |access-date=May 9, 2023 |work=The Wilson Center |date=April 6, 2023}}</ref>