ABSTRACT
The Soviet Union with a virtual monopoly on negative sanctions that could potentially be directed against Finland was about to disappear and be replaced by a more fluid structure. In March 1992, the Finnish Parliament decided that Finland should apply for membership. Finland was induced by Boris Yeltsin’s recognition, at a moment when the Soviet view was difficult to identity. Influence to public opinion in an important foreign policy issue like the one at stake was nothing less than a revolution, given the elitist nature of Finnish foreign policy in the post-war era. In the summer of 1944, Finland managed to prevent the Soviet army from occupying Helsinki and to convince Moscow to settle for an armistice in September. Apart from “year zero,” 1944, when the armistice with the Soviet Union was concluded, the most important watershed in the history of the Finnish Republic may very well have been early September 1991.
