February 15, 2007 (the date of publication in Russian)
Alexei Chichkin
THE GREAT SUOMI APPETITE
Raising territorial claims against Russia becomes a political fashion in Finland
As Radio Helsinki recently reported, ProKarelia and Great Suomi, two Finnish public organizations, enjoying support from lawyers, historians and ethnographers, continue promoting recognition of today's Russia-Finland borders – particularly, in the Finnish Bay and the Sub-Arctic, – as illegitimate. In early February, the documents, substantiating these claims, were conveyed to the Parliament of Finland, which accepted them for contemplation despite – reportedly – "unofficial" protests from the Russian Embassy in Helsinki and Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Radio Helsinki also reports that the Government of Finland, and particularly the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Regional Policy – the key executive departments – don't object of reanimation of the "Great Suomi" claims against the Russian Federation, which surfaced in public already in 2001.
The mentioned "substantiating" documents allege that territories encompassing the Karelian Peninsula (with the ancient Russian town of Vyborg), the major part of the Ladoga Lake's basin, the utmost north-west of today's Russian republic of Karelia, as well as the sub-Arctic district of Pechenga with the adjacent non-freezing port at the Barents Sea, were "alienated" by Moscow, for the first time, after the "USSR aggression against Finland in 1939-1940".
Thus, the "know-how" of the apologists of the "Finnish Reconquista" is based on the assumption that the referred annexation was allegedly an element of the 1939 agreements between Russia and the Nazi Germany. Therefore, as the USSR and the Russian Federation have recognized illegitimacy of those agreements, the original Russia-Finland borders, they say, should be re-established.
Starting the relevant propagandist campaign, the "Great Finns", on the one hand, instigate similar claims from Poland, Romania and Baltic states not only to Russia but also to other CIS states; on the other hand, they provoke controversy over the construction of the North European Gas Pipeline, or North Stream, the route of which starts precisely in the section of the Finnish Gulf declared a debated territory. Meanwhile, from the south of this sector, the sea territory of Estonia lies. Estonia is opposed to construction of North Stream on the official level.
The juridical substantiation of those claims towards Russia is supervised by Kari Silvennoinen, a prominent Finnish lawyer. On June 29, 2006, Mrs. Silvennoinen already conveyed a legal suit to the Russian Government. This document concerns a number of real estates in the north-west of today's Karelia, legally owned by citizens of Finland. This document was recently directed also to the EU's Human Right Court in Strasbourg. It is noteworthy that Mrs. Silvennoinen is an official consultant of Finland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2005.
Meanwhile, a map of the territory of Suomi with the abovementioned territories (which Finland agreed to yield to the USSR officially in March 1940) is regularly exhibited in a number of Finnish towns in early March of every year. The day of March 12, when the peace treaty between USSR and Finland was signed, is supposed to declare "the Day of Unity of Finland and the Finnish People", an analogue of the "Day of Northern Lands" in Japan. ProKarelia and Great Suomi, along with four nationalist parties, have collected over one half of necessary signatures for this purpose.
In should be added that seven representatives of the mentioned organizations were elected to the Parliament of Finland already several years ago, three of them selected to the Foreign Policy Commission. These MPs are engaged in fuelling up international pressure upon the Russian Federation, demanding that Finland is provided a permanent and free transit to the Arctic coast across the territory around Pechenga – the settlement, established by the Pomors (the aboriginal Russian population of today’s Arkhangelsk Region) and by Orthodox missionaries as far back as in the XIV century.
Readers' comments
Tigger_AK February 23, 2007
Why not to demand from Finland... Finland itself? We could declare all the stuff Lenin made "mistakes of the young age" of Soviet power--
Dimonuch February 23, 2007
Why, there’s quite a lot of demanders around. A dead donkey wouldn't find enough extremities for all of them--
Osado February 23, 2007
Why not demand return of Alaska?
Absolut February 23, 2007
One score for Alaska
Alaska February 23, 2007
I'm ready to be Alaska's Governor!
Fatal_error February 23, 2007
A part of California is also ours! By the way, according to the agreement on the sale of California to the US, the money is still unpaid. So, we have all the rights to demand California's return.
Number of shows: 1173
ENG 
