Juho Kusti Paasikivi is best known as the president of the Republic of Finland, but the presidency was just the tip of the iceberg, a vote of thanks and confidence for all the political work he had done over a long period.

The political charge probably got started in the Finnish-language school in Hämeenlinna, but by the time he was mixing in the University’s history circles he was well acquainted with the realities of political life. At the time Paasikivi enrolled in the University, the zealous Fennoman J.R. Danielson-Kalmari was professor of general history. It is not altogether clear how much they had to do with the history set, but bearing in mind both Danielson-Kalmari’s research interest and Paasikivi’s interests in Russia, there’s not a great deal of room for doubt. Moreover, both were active in the Hämäläis-osakunta, the student organization. It is no wonder that Paasikivi signed up to join the ranks of the Finnish Party.

In the first parliamentary elections in 1906, Paasikivi had assured his place at the political head of the party, which meant that he was chosen as member of parliament. Finnish political life was still finding its way, a situation not made any the easier by the policy practised in the Russian Grand Duchy. During the following years the dissolution of the Senate was commonplace, which also meant changes in Paasikivi’s job description from time to time.

In 1907 Paasikivi was chairman of the select agricultural affairs committee, but soon after he was appointed to head the finance committee when the senate under Leo Mechelin was dissolved. He was to remain in this position for just a year. With the end of the parliamentary session in 1913 Paasikivi left his parliamentary seat and gave up politics altogether.

The outbreak of the Great War in 1914 and internal strife in Russia changed Finland’s political situation once again. This meant Paasikivi was drawn ever more strongly back into politics. Perhaps owing to his knowledge of Russian history, his political experience and his appeasing disposition, Paasikivi was greatly trusted.

Negotiation rounds both in Russia and Scandinavia were already at this stage a matter of routine for Paasiivi. The trips concerned Finland’s status and Finnish-Russian relations. For a brief period in the years following the 1918 Finnish civil war Paasikivi was also government head and was a supporter of the idea of establishing a monarchy in Finland. As support for the idea waned with German defeat, Paasikivi was forced to retreat, and so once again he withdrew from political life.

It wasn’t until the 1930s that Paasikivi returned to daily politics, this time at the head of the rightwing National Coalition Party. In the early years of the Finnish eduskunta, or parliament, Paasikivi had collaborated with the left wing of the Finnish Party but, as with so many of his contemporaries, the civil war had changed his stance. As party chairman he made a clean break with the Isänmaallinen Kansanliike (Engl. Patriotic People’s Movement) and for his part hampered the activity of the far right. Paasikivi retired from the party chairman’s position in 1936, but still didn’t abandon politics altogether. He was persuaded to take up a diplomatic position, as Finnish Ambassador to Sweden.

During the war years 1939-45 Paasikivi once more headed East to negotiate. It was precisely these negotiations and his actions as Finnish ambassador in Moscow during the interim peace (i.e. between the end of the Winter War and the beginning of the Continuation War), that Paasikivi’s reputation rose, also in the estimation of the Soviet leadership. He was not regarded as a warmonger in the Soviet Union, unlike many other leading contemporaries in Finland. His standing in internal politics rose very high and ensured that he was chosen as successor to Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, as Finland’s seventh president in 1946.

• ”Paasikivi - puhelias pessimisti tunsi itänaapurin” (’Paasikivi – the garrulous pessimist knew the eastern neighbour’), Yle Historia (’Finnish Broadcasting Company history’) January 6, 2015

 

References:

• Tuomo Polvinen, ”Paasikivi, Juho Kusti (1870 - 1956)”.Finnish Dictionary of National Biography online. Accessed 24 April, 2015.
• ”Juho Kusti Paasikivi”. Helsingin Sanomat newspaper obituary.  Accessed April 24, 2015.
• Wikipedia, ”Juho Kusti Paasikivi”. Accessed April 24, 2015.