War-responsibility Trials in Finland - Reactions To The Trial

Reactions To The Trial

Many Finns see the War Responsibility Trials as a kangaroo court set up for the Soviet Union in order to discredit the Finnish wartime leaders, since ex post facto law was against the Finnish Constitution.

Even worse in the public opinion was the fact that the Soviet leadership, which had conducted an aggressive war, the Winter War, just over a year before, were not indicted at all, making the whole process hypocritical victor's justice. This view was supported by Finnish historians, especially by former intelligence officer, professor Arvi Korhonen, who in 1961 constructed the so-called "Driftwood Theory" (Finnish: Ajopuuteoria), to explain how Finland was dragged into the war without any active involvement by the Finnish political leadership. This theory was however rejected already in the 1960s by research of Hans Petter Krosby from the USA and British Anthony F. Upton, although it was actively presented in Finnish non-socialist media for decades. The current consensus, that emerged in the 1980s was sewed up in 1988 by Mauno Jokipii's massive study, which sees the Finnish leadership actively collaborating with Nazi Germany in the preparation of Operation Barbarossa.

The conviction of Väinö Tanner didn't shatter the Social Democrats as Zhdanov had predicted; on the contrary, it made him a martyr and hardened the anti-communist stance in the party. Communist sympathizers were ousted from the Social Democrats and control of the labor unions was bitterly contested.

Even President Paasikivi complained to his aide that the convictions handed down in the Trials were one of the biggest stumbling blocks to improving relations between Finland and the Soviet Union.