President Kekkonen may have made decision to donate Russians a cottage in military area

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Several persons with a summer home on the Helsinki island of Itä-Villinki reported to Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday that the controversial decision to build a cottage within a closed military area and to donate it to the Russians was made by none other than Urho Kekkonen, who was then President of Finland.
     
One of these persons was Finland's Ambassador to Chile Pekka J. Korvenheimo, whose late father Jorma Korvenheimo worked at the Ministry of Defence from 1955 to 1974.
      According to Pekka Korvenheimo, the controversial cottage was built either in 1957 or 1958. At that time, the Korvenheimos spent their summers on Itä-Villinki at a rental cottage which was located only around 100 metres away from the cottage used by the Russian military attaché.
      Pekka Korvenheimo was then a schoolboy aged 16 or 17.
      He said he remembers very well that the Finnish officers who had summer homes on Itä-Villinki were surprised by the fact that a military attaché of a foreign state was allowed to spend his holidays within the closed military area.
     
Korvenheimo recalled that when listening to his father's discussions with the officers in the neighbouring cottages, he got the impression that the permit to build the cottage for the Russians came from "the top", which meant President Kekkonen.
      "I know that my father would have known if the decision had been made in the Ministry of Defence. He belonged to the senior management of the ministry", noted Korvenheimo. However, no written document shedding light on the decision-maker has ever been found.
      Because of noisy parties in the eastern neighbour's cottage, the Korvenheimos soon moved to another summer cottage on Villinki.
      The Russian military attaché stationed in Helsinki was allowed for decades to keep a summer cottage within a closed military area on the island of Itä-Villinki, next to the Santahamina garrison island. The somewhat embarrassing matter only recently came to light in connection with ownership changes on the island (see linked articles).


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Russians received controversial Villinki cottage as a gift (6.10.2005)
  Russian military attaché had summer cottage within closed military area (5.10.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat