RUSSIAN VIEW OF FINLAND

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24152, 11 January 1944, Page 7

RUSSIAN VIEW OF FINLAND

Mistrust of Present Rulers

future now at stake r LONDON, Dec, 3. mug Red Army’s successes in the ■TJAnd the agreement reached durfie d *hP Moscow conference have stiing i fS interest in the vassal memmu a !vf Hitler’s camp whose defection berS ia it is held here, bring substanr°nv nearer the victorious end of the tialiy says the Moscow correspondent Times.” % Finnish question was recently ,-u u/ith by a commentator m the i etar” and in a series of articles ■ ,R «war and the Working Class.” These advanced the views that Finhad maintained consistently an Soviet attitude since the Russian Elution that her contribution to r/miany in the present war had been and that the Finnish attiud So far from being taken up in order to carry on a private wat with had suited the general pattern Hitler’s Scandinavian strategy, with °1 nans to strike at the allies in the North Atlantic and the Barents Sea. elements in Finland Jte desirous of expansion^in the rich timber-growing regions of Karelia and, raring a social revolution in their own land, they had, the. writers argued stimulated a chauvinism which ignored the guarantees given by Lenin and by Stalin personally when he visited Finland in November, 1917, that the Soviet Union wished to see an independent Finland in friendly relation with Russia.

Effect of Finland’s Participation It is felt here that the rulers of Finland to-day are keeping alive the spirit of resistance in that country by means of the Russian bogy, although, it is contended, it should be plain to all that the Soviet Union is fighting in defence of its 1941 frontiers: at a time when Russia is pledged to demand the unconditional surrender of # her enemies she can scarcely, it is said| be expected to offer terms to an ally of Hitler, whose participation in the war has greatly increased the sufferings of Leningrad, and which by giving accommodation to six German divisions is to-day maintaining the threat to the Murmansk railway. Russian sentiments towards Finland m complex. There is very deep scepticism about every person who is prominent in Finnish public affairs today. Finnish politicians, it is pointed out, have a habit of protesting their close alliance with Germany -when they visit the Reich and of denying it before their own people. It is felt that, above all, the present Finnish Government are now trying to shuffle off their war guilt. But the view is widely held here that since Mannerheim’s counter-revolution the Finnish people have had no opportunity of working out a national way of life in the freedom which which the Russian revolutionary leaders envisaged for them years ago. To that extent the Finnish people are seen as an oppressed people. There can be little doubt that a patriotic rising of the Finns against the Germans who occupy their land and against a Government who acquiesce in that occupation would go far towards a restoration of Russian confidence In the Finnish people. At the same time any further delay, causing the prolongation of the war. would undoubtedly deeply compromise the future of the country. Finland indeed may today be said to be standing before a decision which will determine her future as a national, independent entity. ___________