Introduction

Abstract

After the dust created by the post-war division of Europe had begun to settle many Western observers were surprised to find that a small North European state, which had fought two bitter and unsuccessful wars against the Soviet Union since 1939, and which possessed a long land frontier with this giant neighbour, had retained not merely its independence but its Western political and economic system. Soviet behaviour towards Finland after 1944 did not appear to conform with widespread views about Soviet motivations and objectives drawn from Soviet conduct elsewhere in Europe. In short, Soviet-Finnish relations were regarded as a special case, as anomalous, with few relevant parallels for other states bordering on the USSR.