Finns evade Russian bear hug and look West

Press, 17 September 1987, Page 56

Finns evade Russian bear hug and look West

By

JAMES JELTER,

of Reuters

NZPA-Reuter Helsinki Lenin no longer gazes down on Communist Party faithfuls in the smoky Helsinki restaurant where he plotted the overthrow of Tsarist Russia.

His - portrait, in the former restaurant proudly nicknamed the Lenin Cabinet by Finnish Communists and frequented on numerous occasions by the Russian revolutionary leader between 1910 and 1917, gave way two years ago to the decor of a modern bar.

It is one of many telling signs that neutral Finland has turned its back on traditional ties to the neighbouring Soviet Union and is increasingly attuned to the ways of the West

A Finnish member of Parliament, Jom Donner, said Finland was economically and intellectually oriented towards the West

“The people know it, but the politicians won’t openly admit it for fear of offending the Soviets,” Donner, a film producer and columnist told Reuters.

“Finnish officials would never criticise the Soviet Union in the same way

the Soviet Union now criticises itself under this Gorbachev era of glasnost (openness). Self-imposed censorship still exists very strongly here. "But the attitudes of our people are basically antiSoviet We know them — perhaps too well,” he said. Finland’s Government is a four-party Coalition led by the Conservatives, who returned to power for the first time in 20 years after the march 1987 General Election. The other major Coalition partner is the Social Democrat party. The Communists won 13 per cent of the vote in the last national election, but their voter base is slowly declining and they are now divided into two rival groups — the Euro-Com-munists, who hold 14 on the Parliament’s 200 seats, and Stalinists, who hold four.

Vestiges of Russia’s 108year dominion over Finland — it was an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire from 1809 until it declared independence in 1917 — are still seen in Helsinki. The old Russian Orthodox cathedral stands watch above the harbour marketplace and Russian food is still served at some restaurants.

But business is' brisker at McDonalds, an outpost of the American fast-food culture where a new breed of dynamic young investors swap hot gossip on surging Helsinki share prices or options deals while gulping down chocolate milkshakes.

They have no monopoly on money talk. The stock exchange officials estimate 700,000 of Finland’s five million citizens now have a stake in the market, up sharply from 300,000 just four years ago, making Finland a world leader in terms of shareholders per capita.

“We undoubtedly have the most capitalistic economy in Scandinavia. State investments in Finnish industry are only about 15 per cent of the whole — half what they spend in Sweden or Norway,” said a Trade Ministry official. This negates many foreigners’ misconception that Finland’s economic policy is directed from Moscow, a belief forged by a Finnish-Soviet mutual assistance pact signed four years after Finland lost its 1941-44 war with Stalin’s Russia.

The pact included an agreement that Finnish exports to the Soviet Union must not exceed

the value of Soviet goods sent to Finland. A clearing house regulating this trade is still carefully monitored by Finland’s Trade Ministry.

While businessmen concede the agreement has helped stabilise the economy by ensuring a ready market just across the border, Finnish industry is actively seeking new sales outlets in the West.

“Obviously we must expand in the West There simply is not enough room to expand in the other direction,” said Thomas Nysten, president of. the Finnish paper Mills’ Association, one of the country’s biggest export groups. Exports to the Soviet Union have stagnated at about 19 per cent of Finland’s total foreign trade, while Western Europe and North America now buy about 70 per cent of Finland’s products. Another sign of Finland’s Westernisation lies in the classroom, where 90 per cent of its pupils now elect, to learn English as their first foreign language. Only two per cent study Russian. The figures have farmed some educators and politicians, who ask where Finland will recruit

Russian speakers needed for civil service or the diplomatic corps. The profusion of English is partly the result of British and American television programmes beamed via satellite from Britain to homes throughout Finland.

“Finns know the Southfork Ranch better than they know the town next door,” said Donner, referring to the American soap-opera series "Dallas.”

But much of the transformation of Finnish society reflects flush economic times.

With unemployment in check at about five per cent, real wages and the gross national product steadily growing, Finns are in the midst of an unprecedented boom — and consumer demand is high.

Fashion clothes and fancy cars are the accoutrements of a new generation with no recollection of Finland’s poor and turbulent past — and little regard for its historical role as a lonely buffer between East and West In the words of one young stockbroker: “We are coming out of our shell. We are becoming more international, don’t you .think?” , ,