Finnish Democratic Republic Suomen kansanvaltainen tasavalta Demokratiska Republiken Finland | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1939–1940 | |||||||||
![Seal[1] of Finnish Democratic Republic](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSeal_of_the_Finnish_Democratic_Republic.svg) Seal[1] | |||||||||
 Anticipated territorial changes of the Finnish Democratic Republic, with areas to be ceded to the Soviet Union (red) and to the Finnish Democratic Republic (green). | |||||||||
| Status | Puppet state of theSoviet Union | ||||||||
| Capital | Helsinki(de jure) Terijoki(de facto) | ||||||||
| Government | One-partysocialist republic under aStalinisttotalitariandictatorship | ||||||||
| Chairman of the People's Government | |||||||||
• 1939–1940 | Otto Wille Kuusinen | ||||||||
| Historical era | World War II | ||||||||
• Established | 1 December 1939 | ||||||||
• Merged into theKarelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic | 12 March 1940 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Russia | ||||||||
TheFinnish Democratic Republic (Finnish:Suomen kansanvaltainen tasavalta orSuomen kansantasavalta,Swedish:Demokratiska Republiken Finland,Russian:Финляндская Демократическая Республика), also known as theTerijoki Government (Finnish:Terijoen hallitus), was a short-livedpuppet government of theSoviet Union in occupied Finnish territory from December 1939 to March 1940.[2]: 61
The Finnish Democratic Republic was established byJoseph Stalin upon the outbreak of theWinter War and headed byOtto Wille Kuusinen to governFinland after Soviet conquest.[3][2]: 58, 61 [4][5] The Finnish Democratic Republic was only recognised by the Soviet Union and nominally operated in Soviet-occupied areas ofFinnish Karelia from thede facto capital ofTerijoki. The Finnish Democratic Republic was portrayed by the Soviet Union as the official socialist government of Finland capable of restoring peace, but lost favor as the Soviets soughtrapprochement with theFinnish Government. The Finnish Democratic Republic was dissolved and merged into theKarelo-Finnish SSR upon the signing of theMoscow Peace Treaty.
The Finnish Democratic Republic was established on 1 December 1939 in the Finnish border town ofTerijoki (present-day Zelenogorsk,Saint Petersburg,Russia), a day after the beginning of theWinter War. Terijoki was the first town in Finland captured by theRed Army after the Soviet invasion, and the new government was seated there as itsde facto capital. The Finnish Democratic Republic regime was commonly known by the colloquial name the Terijoki Government (Finnish:Terijoen hallitus,Swedish:Terijokiregeringen), but officially the government was called the Finnish People's Government (Finnish:Suomen kansanhallitusSwedish:Finlands folkregering). In Finnishhistoriography, the government is also occasionally called the Kuusinen Government (Finnish:Kuusisen hallitusSwedish:Kuusinenregeringen).
Otto Wille Kuusinen was chosen as theprime minister andhead of government. Kuusinen'scabinet was made up of Soviet citizens and left-wing Finns who had fled toSoviet Russia after theFinnish Civil War.[6] A declaration delivered viaTASS on behalf of the Finnish Democratic Republic stated:
The People's Government in its present composition regards itself as a provisional government. Immediately upon arrival in Helsinki, capital of the country, it will be reorganised and its composition enlarged by the inclusion of representatives of the various parties and groups participating in the people's front of toilers. The final composition of the People's Government, its powers and actions, are to be sanctioned by a Diet elected on the basis of universal equal direct suffrage by secret ballot.[7]
Soviet foreign ministerVyacheslav Molotov spoke to the German ambassador to the Soviet Union on 30 November—a day before the proclamation of the Finnish Democratic Republic—saying, "This government will not be Soviet but a democratic republic. Nobody will set upsoviets there, but we hope that it will be a government that we can reach agreement with on safeguarding the security ofLeningrad."[8] Soviet leaflets dropped over Helsinki on the first day of the Winter War stated: "Finnish Comrades! We come to you not as conquerors, but as liberators of the Finnish people from the oppression of the capitalists and the landlords".[9][10]
The Soviet government entered intodiplomatic relations with the Finnish Democratic Republic's government immediately after its creation. On the first day of its existence, the Kuusinen regime agreed to lease theHanko Peninsula; to cede a slice of territory on theKarelian Isthmus; and to sell an island in theGulf of Finland, along with sections of theKalastajasaarento near theArctic Ocean to the Soviet Union.[6]
On 2 December 1939, Kuusinen and Molotov signed a mutual assistance agreement and a secret protocol inMoscow. The content of the agreement was very similar to what the Soviet foreign ministry had planned earlier in October 1939, though it never was presented to the Finnish government. According to the new agreement, the Soviet Union would cede a much larger area,Eastern Karelia, except for theMurmansk railroad, in exchange for the same territories that the Soviets had demanded inearlier negotiations from the Republic of Finland.[11]
An earlier draft of the Moscow agreement was signed ten days earlier atPetrozavodsk byAndrei Zhdanov for the USSR and Kuusinen for the Republic. The Molotov–Kuusinen agreement mentioned leasing the Hanko Peninsula, and determining the number of troops to be appointed in a separate agreement. Before the 1990s, historians could only speculate about its existence and content. In 1997, during a joint Finnish-Russian project, Russian professor Oleg Rzesevski discovered the protocol in theKremlin. The content is quite similar to protocols the Soviet Union signed withEstonia,Latvia andLithuania in September–October 1939.[12]
The Finnish Democratic Republic failed to gain support among Finnish workers as the Soviet Union had hoped. Instead, in the face of the invasion, Finnish society became strongly united in what is called the "Spirit of the Winter War". The Democratic Republic also failed to gain any international recognition aside from the Soviet Union itself,[6] although a number of prominent left-wing activists and writers such asJawaharlal Nehru,George Bernard Shaw,Martin Andersen Nexø andJohn Steinbeck voiced their support for the government.[13] InNazi Germany, state newspapers gave their support for the Democratic Republic because of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact.[13]
Joseph Stalin was well aware of the domestic political situation in Finland based on Soviet intelligence information, and thus did not anticipate that the establishment of the Democratic Republic would cause any revolutionary action or popular uprisings against the existing Finnish Government.[14]
The Kuusinen Government was officially recognised by the Soviet Union and the Sovietsatellite states of theMongolian People's Republic and theTuvan People's Republic.[15]
The Soviets had increasingly begun to seekrapprochement with the Finnish government during the course of the Winter War and the Kuusinen regime fell out of favor. Although the Soviets had captured two-thirds of theKarelian Isthmus, casualties were very high and the upcomingspring thaw threatened their offensive. Both sides were exhausted from the war, but the Soviets held the upper hand and successfully pressured the Finns into peace on Soviet terms. On 12 March 1940, theMoscow Peace Treaty was signed between Finland and the Soviet Union, ending hostilities the following morning. By the terms of the treaty, Finland ceded 9% of its territory to the Soviet Union, though the Soviets' attempt to conquer Finland had failed. Subsequently, the Finnish Democratic Republic became obsolete and merged with theKarelian ASSR within theRSFSR to form the newKarelo-Finnish SSR, aSoviet republic in its own right, after Finland had ceded the areas specified in the treaty to the Soviet Union.
| Minister | In office |
|---|---|
| Chairman of the People's Government andMinister of Foreign Affairs of Finland[16] Otto Wille Kuusinen | 1939.2.12 – 1940.12.3 |
| Assistant Chairman of the People's Government andMinister of Finance[16] Mauritz Rosenberg | 1939.2.12 – 1940.12.3 |
| Minister of Defense Akseli Anttila | 1939.2.12 – 1940.12.3 |
| Minister of Internal Affairs Tuure Lehén | 1939.2.12 – 1940.12.3 |
| Minister of Agriculture Armas Äikiä | 1939.2.12 – 1940.12.3 |
| Minister of Education Inkeri Lehtinen | 1939.2.12 – 1940.12.3 |
| Minister of Karelian Affairs Paavo Prokkonen | 1939.2.12 – 1940.12.3 |
{{isbn}}: ignored ISBN errors (link),952-9888-18-X,ISSN 0356-8199. (Document, issued by the Finnish Democratic Republic (Suomen kansanvaltainen tasavalta), published on theback cover of this book.)