President Urho Kekkonen of Finland and the KGB

Abstract

A major post-Cold War history debate in Finland has been over the role of President Urho Kekkonen and his relations with the Soviet Union, in particular with the Soviet foreign intelligence. No surprise to anybody, variance of interpretations has been wide, fuelled by scarcity of sources on the most sensitive aspects, by the unavoidable ambiguity of an issue like the intelligence, and even by political leanings. As things stand now, even a preliminary assessment of available evidence – viewed from a distance – might prove useful.