Russia takes issue with President Halonen's views on war

President echoes views previously expressed by Prime Minister Vanhanen

Tarja Halonen

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Russia has taken issue with a speech made by President Tarja Halonen during her recent visit to France, in which she took up the Continuation War fought between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1941 - 1944.
     
The issue came up when unnamed media representatives writing on the web site of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked what the ministry felt about the views expressed by Halonen, according to which the Continuation War as a separate war.
      According to those who posed the question, "that approach, mildly speaking, cannot but cause surprise" among people familiar with European history.
      In the view of the ministry, Halonen’s interpretation of history "has gained currency in Finland, particularly in the last decade", adding that "striving for respect of its past is natural for each country".
     
In the view of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the period of "mutual distrust between the Soviet Union and Finland, twice leading to war, brought incalculable suffering on the peoples of both nations. Today, 60 years later, reminiscences of this common pain should not disunite, but unite and orient us towards building constructive good-neighbourly relations."
      "Yet there are hardly any grounds to make all over the world corrections to history textbooks, erasing the mention that in the years of World War II Finland was among the allies of Hitler Germany, fought on its side and, accordingly, bears its share of responsibility for the war", the comment read.
      It concluded: "In order to make sure what the historical truth is, it's enough to open the preamble to the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, concluded with Finland by the Allied and Associated Powers. By the way, the Treaty contained a number of serious political provisions guaranteeing the restoration in postwar Finland of human rights and freedoms, the foundation of democratic society."
     
The views expressed by President Halonen on the nature of Finland’s conflict with the Soviet Union were in line with those made by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) last year.
      Speaking at the 60th anniversary of the battle of Ilomantsi on August 6th last year, Vanhanen said: "For us, the Winter War, the Continuation War, and the Lapland War were separate wars, but in the summer of 1944 the great powers saw these events in the north as merely a part of decisions of high-level politics."
      Vanhanen’s comments in the summer did not bring any reactions from Russia.
     
Political scientist and war historian Dr. Jukka Seppinen was surprised by the Russian reaction to President Halonen’s speech.
      He notes that at the conference in Teheran, Stalin himself had given his approval to the expression "separate war". Seppinen also pointed out that Finland negotiated a separate peace with the Soviet Union.
      On the Paris Peace Treaty, Seppinen observed that the expressions contained in the document are linked with the atmosphere that prevailed in the immediate aftermath of the war. He also said that the only reason why Finland cooperated with Germany during the war was to secure adequate military firepower.
      As Dr. Seppinen sees it, the interpretation of the Russian Foreign ministry is based on the old interpretation of events of the Soviet period.

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: This is what the President said

Links:
  Russian Foreign Ministry web site: Russian MFA Information and Press Department Commentary Regarding a Media Question Concerning Finnish President Tarja Halonen´s Interpretation of Character of World War II
  Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) on 1 March 2005

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