ABSTRACT
In the postwar period Soviet conceptions of neutrality may best be characterized by two principal metaphors, namely, "neutrality is a cover" and "neutrality is a road," the first one prevailing during the Cold War, the latter having its heyday in the years of Nikita Khrushchev. Neutrality issues were by no means given top priority on the Soviet foreign-policy agenda in 1989. In light of the crumbling of the Soviet East European empire, there really was nothing sensational about the Soviet recognition of Finnish neutrality. Neutrality was hardly attributed any value in and of itself. Since the fading away of the metaphor "neutrality is a road," no new concept has taken its place. According to the Soviet position in those years, the militarypolitical articles of the friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance treaty represented the principal foundation of Finland's foreign policy. By 1986, there was not a single scholar at the Moscow Institute of State and Law who specialized in neutrality issues.
