Mauno Koivisto
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Mauno Koivisto * 25.11.1923 † 12.5.2017 Mauno henrik koivisto, Ph.D., who was ous working environment, this was not born in Turku on 25th November 1923 merely a thesis but also a record of his ob- and died in Helsinki on 12nd May 2017, servations and everyday experiences of was President of Finland for the period working life. 1982–1994, the ninth holder of this office. The most significant turning point in He was invited to honorary membership Maunu Koivisto’s life was his move to Hel- of the Finnish Academy of Science and sinki in 1957, to become general manager Letters in 1992. of the Workers’ Savings Bank. He had Having been born into a Christian work- joined the Social Democrats some time ing-class home in Turku, Koivisto found earlier, but it was in Helsinki during the that his education had to be limited in the 1960s that he became an active politician. first instance to the basic elementary One of his advantages was that he could school, to be followed at the age of 19 offer the party an opportunity to repair its years by conscription into the armed forc- relations with the then President of Fin- es and immediate dispatch to the front in land, Urho Kekkonen, with the Commu- the war against the Soviet Union. He fre- nists and with the Soviet Union. quently recalled his experiences of the war In the wake of the Social Democrats’ years, and recounted how he would often huge success in the 1966 parliamentary turn to the Bible for consolation in the dif- election, Koivisto became Minister of Fi- ficult days towards the end of the war. nance in the new government, and it was After the war Koivisto began to study at that time, too, that his exceptional pop- alongside his work, completing his stu- ularity with the general public began to dent matriculation examinations in 1949 emerge. People remembered such things and obtaining the degree of Candidate in as his appearances in television talk- Philosophy in 1953. At that point he was shows, which introduced the public to a seriously considering an academic career. new type of politician, who considered Three years later, in 1956, he submitted matters openly in front of his audience his doctoral thesis in sociology on Social and had a mischievous twinkle in his eye relations at the Port of Turku, the material all the time. The enigma was whether the for which was derived from his own previ- curl of hair that flopped down onto his AcAdemiA ScientiArum FennicA 2017 105 forehead from time to time was intention- integration of the Soviet Union, allowing al or not. Koivisto to move ahead boldly in autumn In the 1970s Mauno Koivisto was gov- 1990 to lay aside the Agreement of Friend- ernor-general of the Bank of Finland, until ship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance his nomination for a second spell as Prime between Finland and the Soviet Union in Minister in 1979, in spite of his somewhat autumn, together with certain restrictions strained relations with President Kek- imposed by the 1947 Peace Treaty of Par- konen. Finally, when Kekkonen tried to is. Although Koivisto did not believe that dismiss Koivisto’s cabinet in spring 1981 the Soviet Union would collapse entirely, something previously unheard-of hap- when this did happen in December 1991 pened: the Prime Minister refused to stand he took immediate action and declared his down on the grounds that he still enjoyed readiness to steer Finland towards mem- the confidence of Parliament. bership of the European Union. President Kekkonen’s declining health The geopolitical position of Finland be- and eventual resignation in autumn 1981 tween East and West increased the interest gave Koivisto the pole position in the of the leaders of the major powers in both 1982 presidential election, and in effect the country itself and its president, and what the people most wanted of him was President Koivisto was engaged in a long that he would exercise his powers in a dif- exchange of correspondence with George ferent manner from his predecessor. His H. W. Bush from autumn 1983 onwards, as popularity thus swept him to an over- also with Mikhail Gorbachev. The exist- whelming victory on that occasion and as- ence of confidential contacts in the latter sured him of a second term of office in the direction made it possible to exchange 1988 election. opinions on both the relations between As President of Finland, Mauno Koivis- the major world powers and the internal to set about demolishing the vast power situation within the Soviet Union. Koivisto structures that Kekkonen had built up and published the results of his decades of in- strengthening the parliamentary system. terest in the affairs of Russia in 2001, in a One of his measures was to restrict future book entitled Venäjän idea (“The Idea of presidents to two six-year terms of office. Russia”). This work did President Koivisto Koivisto’s own second term coincided much credit as a specialist in Russian his- with the end of the Cold War and the dis- tory and culture. Obituary by Seppo Hentilä Picture: Military Museum / Finnish Defence Forces 106 AcAdemiA ScientiArum FennicA 2017.