Finns do not want “Finnishization” for Ukraine (or anyone)
Helsinki Central Library in Oodi, where students edited movie clips on free computers, women embroidered jackets with sewing machines and hipsters socialized in cafes, Matti Hjerppe, 69, looked across the snowy field of the Parliament building and told about the return of the spring house. the word finnish “makes me laugh.”
“It’s constantly coming,” he said. “The same things always happen,” referring to Russia’s desire to expand its influence to countries along the border.
In fact, the term (Finnlandisierung), originally coined by the Germans in the 1960s, last emerged in 2014, during the Russian invasion of Crimea, when the old Cold Soldiers suggested it as a possible solution even then. (“They should practice a position comparable to Finland” Henry Kissinger wrote At the Washington Post at the same time Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote “The Finnish model is ideal for Ukraine.”)
But the Finns said the model rewarded politicians who made Russian promises, ousted those who opposed Russian influence. and introduced to the country a number of Soviet secret officers who worked closely with the Finnish elite.
Hjerppe, a retired librarian, said the term also made him “a little scary,” explaining how during the Cold War self-censorship extended from the corridors of power to the family living room.
As a young man, Hjerppe recalled that he had negative feelings about Russia, but he kept them to himself. Many young people may have preferred English lessons over Russian and American jeans over Soviet standard issues, but open criticism of Russia, while not illegal, was taboo.
It was not until the occupation of Czechoslovakia in Russia in the 1960s, when his family was on holiday and he attended a summer camp, that Mr. Hjerppe realized that his father, who was visibly concerned, even though he was the Finnish government’s communist minister, shared similar feelings. “I realized my parents didn’t like the Soviet Union,” he said.