Finland's Neutrality in Soviet Foreign Policy Perceptions

The article examines the evolution of the Soviet leadership's attitudes regarding Finland's desire to position itself as a neutral country. Finland's efforts to promote the idea of its neutrality became especially active after World War II. In this way the representatives of the Finnish political class tried to enhance their profile on the international arena and distance themselves from the military clauses of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual assistance signed by the USSR and Finland in 1948. Both in Moscow and Helsinki it was understood that neutrality can play the role of an important foreign policy instrument. The Finns tried to use this instrument to weaken Soviet influence on the country, to facilitate rapprochement with other Nordic countries and, ultimately, with the West as a whole. The Soviet leadership regarded these activities negatively. However, within the framework of general deconstruction of the foreign policy priorities' system created by Mikhail S. Gorbachev's predecessors, the Soviet side in 1989 finally and unconditionally recognized Finland's neutrality. After the collapse of the USSR the Soviet-Finnish Treaty of 1948 was substituted by another document, namely the Treaty on the Foundations of Relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Finland signed on January 20, 1992. During the elaboration of the new agreement the Russian side would have had no objection against recognizing Finland as a neutral state, but Helsinki, considering the transition from the bipolar system of international relations to the unipolar one, showed no interest to this.