At the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet Union asked Finland to rectify the border in Karelia and to grant military bases on the southern Finnish coast. To the refusal of November 30, 1939, the Soviets responded with the invasion of Finland which with ten divisions commanded by Mannerheim valiantly opposed the enemy troops, but on March 2, 1940 the strategic fortress of Viipuri (Vyborg) fell and the two warring nations accepted the mediation. of the Scandinavian States which led to the Peace of Moscow of 12 March 1940. As a consequence of these agreements a border line was established corresponding approximately to that established in 1721 with the Treaty of Nystad. The climate of heated discontent that arose in Finland in the period following the Peace of Moscow was accentuated by the presence in the country of approx. 400,000 refugees, most of them unemployed, coming from the territories ceded to the USSR. Political positions thus prevailed in Finland increasingly openly favorable to pursuing a policy of understanding with Germany in an anti-Soviet function and, when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, they had at their side a Finland eager for revenge that seemed at hand in the climate created by the lightning-fast German military successes. An element that played in favor of the Finnish forces was the commitment with which the Soviets had to fight on the German front, which led them to defeat the lines that faced the Finnish divisions. However, when the initial balance of the forces participating in the Second World War came to change and when the Soviet counterattack against the Germans took shape, Finland found itself increasingly isolated and subjected to increased military pressure.
While neutralist positions regained vigor and credibility within the country, an armistice was signed in Moscow in September 1944 which essentially confirmed the terms of the 1940 agreements. In addition, Finland was burdened with a debt of US $ 300 million in favor of the USSR. This treaty was the work of Mannerheim (who became president of the Republic in the same September 1944) and of Paasikivi, introduction to the declaration of war on Germany in March 1945. In this same month, new elections were held which saw the affirmation of the left forces and which facilitated the subsequent stages of detente with the USSR. In 1946 Paasikivi succeeded Mannerheim as President of the Republic and the following year Peace of Paris made no changes to the previous agreements between Finland and the USSR; in 1948 Stalin and Paasikivi concluded a pact of friendship, cooperation and assistance. The main fruit of Paasikivi’s policy was the return by the USSR, in 1955, of the territory of Porkkala, an area close to Helsinki ceded in 1947 for fifty years to the Soviets who gave it up before the deadline expired. In 1956, another neutralist politician succeeded Paasikivi: U. Kekkonen, confirmed at subsequent expiries (1962, 1968, 1974, 1978). In the 1960s Finland in foreign policy strengthened the foundations of its neutralism, while internally it came in 1966 to the formation of a social-democratic-led government with communist support. In 1973 Finland signed an agreement with the EEC similar to the one that linked it to COMECON. Visit clothesbliss.com for history of Finland.
Since 1975 the country has been ruled by coalitions, with or without the participation of the Communist Party. In 1981 Kekkonen resigned from the presidency of the Republic; new president became Mauno Koivisto in January 1982of the Social Democratic Party. After the split of the Communist Party (August 1985), divided since 1968 between a majority Eurocommunist current and a Stalinist minority, the elections of March 1987 marked the decline of its support and the defeat of the Social Democratic government. The Conservative Party received strong progress, thus returning to ministerial commitments after twenty-eight years, obtaining, for the first time since 1945, the leadership of the country. In the elections of February 1988, Koivisto was re-elected president of the Republic, with a large majority of votes, confirming his ability to guarantee freedom of internal and external choices to the country. In fact, despite having renewed in 1983 the pact of friendship, cooperation and assistance with the USSR of 1948, Council of Europe (May 1989). Following the legislative elections of March 1991, a coalition government was formed, not including any leftist party, led by M. Esko Aho, leader of the center party. In 1994 the first elections were held with direct nomination of the president, won by the social democrat Martti Ahtisaari.
The country joined the European Union on 1 January 1995. In the same year Paavo Lipponen, Social Democratic leader formed a new government that continued the austerity line already undertaken by the previous one, and regained popular support for the 1999 consultations. In the following year, she was elected for the first time to the post of head of state a woman, Tarja Halonen, also a member of the Social Democratic Party. In 2003, Anneli Jaatteenmaki of the Center Party was elected head of the executive, but soon after she was forced to resign following accusations for the methods used in the electoral campaign. She was succeeded by Matti Vanhanen, from the same side. In January 2006 the presidential elections took place, again won by T. Halonen. In March 2007 the legislative elections were held which assigned to KESK, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen’s centrist area party won with 23.1% of the votes, far exceeding the two other main formations of the country: the conservatives of the National Coalition with the, 22.3% and the Social Democratic Party with the 21.4%. In 2008, former president Martti Ahtisaari received the Nobel Peace Prize. In June 2010 Mari Kiviniemi, former leader of the Center Party, was elected head of the government. In the legislative elections of April 2011, the party of the outgoing premier lost support (15.8%), while the conservative party, the National Coalition, was the most voted (20.4%); followed by the Social Democratic Party (19.1%) and the ultra-right party, True Finns (19%). In January 2012, the former finance minister, the conservative Sauli Niinistö, he won the presidential elections with 62.7% of the votes, defeating the liberal Pekka Haavisto in the ballot. In April 2015, the political elections won by the Finnish Center Party with 49 seats; Juha Sipilä became prime minister. The 2019 elections were narrowly won by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), with 17.7% of the vote, while the Party of Finns came second with 17.4%. A grand coalition executive headed by Antti Rinne (SDP) and supported by 5 parties (excluding populists) took office in June. In December 2019 he was replaced by Sanna Marin, who at 35 became the youngest incumbent prime minister in the world and in the history of Finland.
