Finland Annuls Presidential Election Allow Kekkonen to Continue
URHO KEKKONEN, 85, IS DEAD
URHO KEKKONEN, 85, IS DEAD; FINNISH PRESIDENT FOR 25 YEARS
See the article in its original context from
August 31, 1986
,
Section 1 , Page
1Buy Reprints
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times's print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Urho K. Kekkonen, Finland's President for more than 25 years, until an incompacitating illness forced his retirement in 1981, died early today at his home in Helsinki. He was 85 years old.
Mr. Kekkonen, who was an adroit practitioner of a policy of neutrality and friendship with the neighboring Soviet Union, died at the seaside residence that he had occupied during his long presidency. The cause of death, it was announced in Helsinki, was a ''circulatory disorder in the brain.''
Upon his retirement on Oct. 27, 1981, because of arteriosclerosis, the Finnish Government decided to allow him to continue living in the President's residence for fear that moving him might aggravate his illness.
Led Nation's Emergence
During his presidency Mr. Kekkonen helped lead Finland's slow emergence from the long shadow of two military defeats by the Soviet Union to self-assured participation in international affairs.
He first took office in March 1956 after an uneasy period in which Finnish leaders dared not even mention ''neutrality'' for fear of provoking Moscow.
To Finland's postwar neutrality policy, developed during the administration of his predecessor, Juho Paasikivi, Mr. Kekkonen added an ability to convince Moscow that he could be trusted to guide Finnish affairs in a way that would pose no threat to the Soviet Union. Thus, with him at the helm, Finland was able to safeguard its trade with its major trading partners in the West by becoming an associate member of the British-led European Free Trade Association and by obtaining a special relationship with the European Economic Community. Two-Edged Sword
But the trust that Mr. Kekkonen enjoyed in Moscow also led to a shattering of presidential elections in Finland during his quarter of a century in office. With Moscow making clear at the end of each of his six-year terms that it wanted to see him continue in office, normal elections proved impossible in Finland until January 1982, when the current President, Mauno Koivisto, won a landslide victory.
Mr. Kekkonen was chosen in a normal election only once, in his first race in 1956, when he won by the narrowest of margins, an electoral-college vote of 151 to 149 on the third ballot. Another election battle appeared to be looming as his first six-year term drew to a close, but his opponent, Olavi Honka, a civil servant endorsed by five parties, withdrew in late 1961 ''in the national interest'' under the pressure of Soviet demands for military consultations, with Russians asking whether the attempt to defeat President Kekkonen was a move to change Finnish foreign policy. Elections Were a Formality
Thereafter, with no political party willing to chance Soviet displeasure by running a real candidate against him, formal elections with only nominal opposition candidates were held in 1962, 1968 and 1978, and the 1968 term was extended by act of Parliament to 10 years from six years. The special legislation was decided upon at a time when Finland was negotiating for its Common Market link and when, close presidential associates said, the Soviet Union was demanding absolute guarantees that Mr. Kekkonen would continue as President long enough to insure that the new association with a Western organization would bring about no change in Finnish foreign policy.
President Kekkonen, an imperious leader with a military bearing that made him look taller than his 5 feet 11 inches, achieved an almost unchallengeable political position during his long presidency and eventually won universal respect within Finland for his leadership. But to his regret he could never match the warm public acceptance achieved by his gruff predecessor, President Paasikivi, who was much beloved as a father figure.
The Kekkonen presidential era began as a stormy one, with the new President accompanied into office by a reputation as an often Machiavellian poltician achieved during a political career that included serving five times as Prime Minister. There was no controversy in Finland over the necessity of a neutrality policy, but there was plenty over his judgment on what had to be done to carry it out, and he was denounced by political foes as a cynical politician playing a dangerous game with the Soviet Union to remain in office and to keep his agrarian Center Party in a dominant position. No Headway With the Russians
Once discussing privately the problems he faced, he said that he sought in meetings with Soviet leaders to defend some of his political foes whose sidelining was demanded by Moscow on the ground that they were rigidly anti-Soviet. But, he said, he stopped when he saw that he was making no headway, and he subsequently called publicly for those Finnish figures to retire from center stage as a contribution to their fatherland.
Chief among them was Vaino Tanner, the Social Democratic leader whom the Soviet Union never forgave for his actions in the early days after Finland's 1917 declaration of independence, when he oriented the Finnish labor movement westward toward the Nordic lands instead of toward Moscow.
Emerging after World War II from the prison to which he had been sentenced as a war criminal at Soviet insistence because of his service in wartime Governments, Mr. Tanner was re-elected party leader in 1957. In 1958, with Social Democrats heading a coalition Government, a crisis developed with the Soviet Union, and thereafter they were kept on the political sidelines for eight years or until after Mr. Tanner and his associates had been retired.
Privately, Mr. Kekkonen said that independent Finland owed a huge debt to Mr. Tanner, but publicly he denounced the Social Democrat as a stubborn self-centered politician who had no regard for his country's best interests. Finland at the Mercy of Moscow
In numerous interviews, the President declared that Finland's freedom of action on the world stage depended directly on the degree of trust Finland enjoyed in Moscow. Pointing out that the Finnish Constitution charges the President with the conduct of foreign policy, he stressed that his interest was in keeping the freedom of maneuver at its widest.
He said that Finland could not proceed haphazardly on the assumption that everyone knew its foreign policy was one of neutrality and friendship with the Soviet Union. Finns, he said, could never take their foreign policy for granted but must rededicate themselves to it every day.
An important part of his presidency was spent in cultivating Soviet leaders, something he would do with frequent private trips to the Soviet Union for hunting and other pursuits as well as with official visits. During these trips and during the visits of Russians to Helsinki, where he would entertain them in the presidential sauna as well as at luncheons and dinners, there would be much talk of strengthening Soviet-Finnish relations. But he would also take the opportunity to remind the Russians of the difference between the Finnish and Soviet ways of life. Tart Exchange With Khrushchev
In September 1960, for example, when the Soviet leader, Nikita S. Khrushchev used a luncheon speech in Helsinki as an occasion to suggest that Finns put anti-Soviet politicians into their Government at their own peril, Mr. Kekkonen declared in turn:
''The leaders of the Soviet Union know that under all circumstances we defend our own system because we regard it best suited to us.''
Throughout his presidency, he was referred to in Government circles as Finland's ''trump card,'' to be played during touchy periods in relations with Moscow.
He seemed able to take risks, as in late 1960 when he went to Moscow to clear the way for Finland to become an associate member of the European Free Trade Association, he took off his shoe during a luncheon and, imitating Mr. Khrushchev's United Nations etiquette, pounded the table to attract the Soviet leader's attention.
Cool and self-assured though he would appear, his stomach would churn during some of his tensest missions. Returning from crisis talks in 1961 with Mr. Khrushchev in Novosibirsk, Mr. Kekkonen cleared his calendar and reportedly spent most of a week in bed. Kennedy Was 'Understanding'
While insuring Soviet acceptance of Finland's foreign policy, he also sought Western recognition of Finnish neutrality and in the early 1960's made a series of trips for that purpose, the principal one being to Washington in 1961. The acknowledgement he received from President Kennedy, who publicly expressed his ''understanding of why Finland is neutral,'' reflected State Department reluctance to ascribe neutrality to Finns but nevertheless was welcome as the first statement of its kind from the White House.
Toward the end of his tenure, Mr. Kekkonen was much pained by the concoction of the term ''Finlandization'' in Western Europe to describe a nation's drift under Soviet domination, and he and other Finnish officials sought through numerous speeches to argue that the name of Finland could properly be attached only to a policy of independence and neutrality.
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen was born Sept. 3, 1900, in Pielesvesi in central Finland. He was 17 years old when Finnish independence was declared. His 36th year turned out to be one of special achievement; during it he took his doctorate in law at Helsinki University, won election to Parliament and entered the Government as Minister of Justice. He served through the years in several ministries, and also was Speaker of Parliament.
He demonstrated his flexibility by becoming one of two members of Parliament to oppose accepting the Soviet terms for ending the Winter War of 1939-40 and then, before what was called the Continuation War of 1941-44 was over, by suggesting in a speech that postwar neutrality was Finland's only hope for national salvation. Lifelong Interest in Sports
While attending Helsinki University, he became the national high jump champion, and he maintained his interest in sports throughout his life, avidly skiing, jogging, hiking and camping.
He was a noted author, publishing books on politics and collections of speeches, weekly columns written during the wars and letters. He delighted in the latter part of his tenure in writing columns under a pseudonym in a national magazine in which he criticized the political moves of President Kekkonen.
His wife, Sylvi, whom he married in 1928, was also a writer, mainly of novellas and collections of aphorisms. She died in 1974. They had twin sons, Matti, who followed his father into Parliament and a later became an official in the Agriculture Ministry, and Taneli, who was a diplomat.
President Kekkonen read avidly and often said that one of his favorite books was ''Don Quixote,'' as it reminded him of his political career. But, he said, he was never sure whether he most resembled the knight of the woeful countenance or Sancho Panza.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/31/obituaries/urho-kekkonen-85-is-dead-finnish-president-for-25-years.html
0 Response to "Finland Annuls Presidential Election Allow Kekkonen to Continue"
Post a Comment