Book Review: ‘How Finland Survived Stalin’ by Kimmo Rentola
I have not posted on here for some weeks because research for my next book, on Russia and The West since the end of the Cold War, has been my priority. I have, though, done some journalism, a review of How Finland Survived Stalin (yale.edu). I have published the first two paragraphs below. You can read the whole article for free here, on the website of ‘History Today‘. If you don’t already subscribe, do consider a trial subscription: £5 for three issues.
Disclosure: I am a member of the magazine’s editorial advisory board.
DURING the Second World War, Anthony Eden reportedly had an illuminating conversation with Joseph Stalin. ‘Hitler is a genius’, Stalin told Eden, ‘but he does not know when to stop.’ ‘Does anyone know when to stop?’ Eden asked. Yes, said Stalin: ‘Me.’
One place where Stalin did indeed stop was Finland. In fact he stopped pursuing his original intentions for the nation on Russia’s western border three times: in the Winter War of 1939-40; in the closing days of the Second World War, as the map of Europe was being redrawn by the Allies; and again in the late 1940s when there were plans for a coup to install in Finland a communist government with close ties to Moscow. How did a small state like Finland manage to avoid Stalin’s predations where others did not? That is the question answered in Kimmo Rentola’s book, a detailed account of the challenges Finland faced in its relationship with the Soviet Union and of the ways that its leadership dealt with them.
Read the rest of the article from the link below
‘How Finland Survived Stalin’ by Kimmo Rentola review | History Today