Janne M. KorhonenThe Finnish Foreign Ministry was in a bind. The Soviets were clearly trying to make this a precedent for censorship of "video games", but controlling them was difficult due to outdated legislation, free trade agreements, and the ease of which they were copied.
And it would look bad in the West.
So the internal memo recommended trying to "hook" suitable Swedish and other Nordic politicians to drive a ban for the marketing and sale of similar "war games" in the whole of Nordics. (!!!)
And to ask the reviewer if the phrasing was his idea, or if it was from the game materials. (!!!)
The Soviet embassy was informed that prohibiting the sale of the game or punishing the reviewer were legally problematic.
About a week later, the Finnish ambassador in Moscow was handed a secret demarche demanding the government to put an end to expression of anti-Soviet opinions in Finnish media.
An attached memo included a long list of books, articles and other published material that discussed things embarrassing to the USSR, such as the occupation and Russification of #Estonia, the invasion of #Afghanistan, the state of the Red Army and the Terijoki puppet government of the Winter War.
Finnish Democratic Republic - ...
Finnish Democratic Republic - ...
And that despite requests, the Finnish government had not prohibited Raid over Moscow or its advertising.
The memo claimed that these "truth-twisting" publications were against the "spirit" of the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty and 1948 "Friendship," "Cooperation, and "Mutual" "Assistance" agreement.
Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 - ...
Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 - ...
(Which Finland had been forced to sign at gunpoint.)
An unofficial reply was given a week later in the response to the aforementioned inquiry by the Communist MP.
It stated that in this case, the government could only limit and prohibit the sale of products that harmed children's physical health.
Psychological impacts, such as on mental development, and influence on worldviews, were outside the scope of existing legislation.
However, the reply also noted that a new law about censorship of video and movie programming was being prepared, and that it would include video and computer games.
An official reply to the demarche was issued a few weeks later. The Minister of Foreign Affairs apologized the Soviet ambassador for occasional articles and other material in Finnish media that were negative towards the Soviet Union," but denied they were aimed at harming the "good relationship."
The Minister, Paavo Väyrynen, regretted that under peacetime legislation, the government could not curb such expressions. However, the Finnish government would try to influence the media by public statements. Väyrynen also proposed the Soviet embassy to directly address media through its "contacts."
The next year, the government did ban an "anti-Soviet" Finnish film "Born American" by one Renny Harlin - because it could do so under the legislation covering film and print media.
But in the end, the episode may have been a turning point in #finlandization.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Am...
Born American - Wikipedia
Born American - Wikipedia
First, the government did not find some extra-judicial loophole or indirect form of pressure to bow to Soviet demands.
Second, the public outcry over the "anti-Soviet" game caused it to be by far the best-selling computer game of 1985 in Finland. (It wasn't THAT great; I too played it.)
But it did illustrate very nicely how #finlandization worked.
It wasn't the Soviets directly who tried to curb Finnish freedoms.
Finns did that to gain advantage over their own political foes.
Here, too, the Soviets might have let things slide if the Communists hadn't raised a "moral panic."
It did not take long after the Second World War for opportunistic Finns to realize that the "Eastern Card" could be a very powerful blunt instrument in internal political struggles.
Tarring an opponent as a menace to "friendly foreign relations" (ie., risking #Finland) could and did end careers.
And being able to promote oneself as a proponent of "friendly relations" meant opportunities.
The semi-authoritarian president Urho Kekkonen remained in power for *25 years*, well beyond senility, because he promoted himself as the only reliable "guarantor of friendly relations."
It is CERTAIN that similar dynamics would arise in other cases of #finlandization.
Opportunists and those genuinely concerned would compete with each other to prove their loyalty and sabotage their rivals.
At the cost of increasing double-speak and loss of democratic freedoms.
THAT is why most Finns who know more what #finlandization was in practice are so much against it.
Yes, Finland survived. But not without paying a price. And then only barely, more due to luck than anything else.
Had the #ColdWar continued, Finnish #democracy might well have died out.
My main source for this thread was an excellent 2011 article by Tero Pasanen, accessible (only in Finnish, sadly) here:
www.pelitutkimus.fi/vuosikirja20...
pelitutkimus.fi/vuosikirja2011...
pelitutkimus.fi/vuosikirja2011...
Nix