Juho Kusti Paasikivi

Paasikivi was born Johan Gustaf Hellsten in 1870 at the smoke sauna of the Kulma-Seppälä house in the Huljala village of Koski Hl (today Hämeenkoski) in Päijänne Tavastia in Southern Finland, to Tamperean travelling merchant August Hellsten and his wife, Karolina Wilhelmina, née Selin. Hellsten's parents lived in Tampere, but the son was born on their business trip to the Lahti market. After returning home, Hellsten was officially entered in Tampere's church books.[5] Hellsten's mother died when he was four, and his father died in debt when Hellsten was 14. Hellsten's half-sister Karolina died soon after. Upon his father's death, Hellsten's aunt, Kaisa Hagman, assumed responsibility for his raising. Hellsten Finnicized his name to Juho Kusti Paasikivi in 1885.[6] His surname literally means "flagstone" in both languages.

The young Paasikivi was an enthusiastic athlete and gymnast. His father had recognized his son's academic talent and enrolled him at a top elementary school in Hämeenlinna following brief attendance at Hollola. Paasikivi exhibited an early appetite for reading, and was the best pupil in his class.[7] He entered the University of Helsinki in 1890, graduating in May 1892 with a Bachelor's degree in Russian language and literature,[8] a course of studies that proved useful in later life. The following winter, Paasikivi changed his major to law, earning a Master of Laws degree and eventually, in 1902, his Doctor of Law. During his schooling, Paasikivi supported himself by working variously as a teacher, lecturer, court bailiff, and lawyer in private practice in Lahti. It was also during his university studies, around 1894, that Paasikivi first became involved in the Fennoman movement, assuming leadership roles in its student organization.[9]

Family of J. K. Paasikivi in 1906. From left to right: Paasikivi's first wife Anna (née Forsman), their children Juhani, Annikki, Vellamo, Varma, and Paasikivi himself.

On 1 June 1897 Paasikivi married Swedish-born Anna Matilda Forsman (1869–1931). Together they had four children, Annikki (1898–1950), Wellamo (1900–1966), Juhani (1901–1942), and Varma (1903–1941). Upon earning his doctorate in law in 1901, Paasikivi took on an associate professorship of Administrative Law at Helsinki University from 1902 to 1903.[10]

Paasikivi left this post to become Director-in-Chief of Treasury of the Grand Duchy of Finland, a position he retained until 1914. For practically all of his adult life, Paasikivi moved in the inner circles of Finland's politics. He supported greater autonomy and an independent Cabinet (Senate) for Finland, and resisted Russia's panslavic intentions to make Russian the only official language everywhere in the Russian Empire. He belonged, however, to the more complying Finnish Party, opposing radical and potentially counter-productive steps which could be perceived as aggressive by the Russians. Paasikivi served as a Finnish Party member of Parliament 1907–1909 and 1910–1913. He served as a member of the Senate 1908–1909, as head of the finance division.

President Paasikivi (right), his wife Alli Paasikivi (middle) and C. G. E. Mannerheim (left) in 1946

Immediately after the war, Mannerheim appointed Paasikivi prime minister. For the first time in Finland a Communist, Yrjö Leino, was included in the cabinet. Paasikivi's policies were those of a realist, radically different from those of the previous 25 years.

Paasikivi sought to understand why Moscow had ordered the invasion of Finland in 1939. His conclusions were that interwar Finnish portrayals of the Soviet Union were heedlessly Russophobic, and that the Soviet attack was legitimate, strategic, and defensive rather than ideological or expansionist. Consequently, he ensured that negative references to the Soviet Union were expunged from school textbooks and that books containing "hostile" representations of the Soviet Union were removed from public libraries.[12]

Paasikivi had to comply with many Soviet demands, including the war crimes trial. His main effort was to prove that Finland would present no threat to the Soviet Union, and that both countries would gain from confident peaceful relations.

When Mannerheim resigned, Parliament selected Paasikivi to succeed him as President of the Republic. Paasikivi was then age 75.

Paasikivi had thus come a long way from his earlier classical conservatism. He now was willing to co-operate regularly with the Social Democrats and when necessary, even with the Communists, as long as they acted democratically. As president, he only once accepted his party, the Conservatives, into the government; and even that government lasted only about six months and was considered more a caretaker or civil-servant government than a regular parliamentary government. Paasikivi even appointed a communist, People's Democrat Mauno Pekkala, as prime minister in 1946.

Paasikivi's political flexibility had its limits; this was shown at the time of the communists' alleged coup attempt or coup plans in spring 1948. He ordered some units of the army and navy to Helsinki to defend the capital against a possible communist attack. Any attempted takeover failed before it had even started, and the communists were defeated in the next parliamentary elections.[13]

Most modern Finnish historians deny that most communists wanted a violent coup, especially not without Soviet support. Later in the spring when the Finnish parliament passed a no-confidence motion against Communist Interior Minister Leino because of controversy over Leino's treatment of some mostly White Russian emigrant prisoners whom he had ordered deported to the Soviet Union, Paasikivi had to dismiss Leino when he refused to resign at once. After the 1948 parliamentary elections, when the communists dropped from the largest to the third largest party, Paasikivi refused to let them into the government; and the communists remained in opposition until 1966.[14]

As President, Paasikivi kept the foreign relations of Finland in the foreground, trying to ensure a stable peace and wider freedom of action for Finland. Paasikivi concluded that, all the fine rhetoric aside, Finland had to adapt to superpower politics and sign treaties with the Soviet Union to avoid a worse fate. Thus he managed to stabilize Finland's position. This "Paasikivi doctrine" was adhered to for decades, and was named Finlandization in the 1970s.

Paasikivi's ability to speak some Russian helped his relations with the Soviet leaders; he did not have to use interpreters all the time, as his successor Kekkonen did. Having studied in Russia as a young man, Paasikivi also knew classic Russian literature and Russian culture.[15]

J.K. Paasikivi and chairman of the Supreme Soviet Kliment Voroshilov in Moscow

Urho Kekkonen and J. K. Paasikivi in Kultaranta, 1955

Paasikivi stood for re-election in the presidential election of 1950, and he won 171 out of the 300 electoral college votes. The priorities of his second term were centred largely on domestic politics, in contrast to his first term. Joseph Stalin's death made Paasikivi's job easier.

As a lover of sports, and a former athlete and gymnast, Paasikivi had the great pleasure, during his second term of office, of opening the 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki. On the eve of the Summer Olympics, it was only appropriate for the cultured statesman to hold a speech in a world language, English. However, English was not Paasikivi’s strong language, as French had long been the predominant language of diplomacy. Still, Paasikivi wanted to extend his greetings to foreign guests arriving in Helsinki. The President's speech was as follows:

It gives me great pleasure to address a message of greeting to the young people of the world as they prepare for the fifteenth Olympic Games which are, once again, to be celebrated in a spirit worthy of the ideals of Baron de Coubertin.

This happy cooperation between young people of all countries will serve the great call of concord and peace among the nations of the world.

I am particularly pleased to be sending you this advance greeting because, as a young man, I was myself an enthusiastic gymnast and athlete. And I have retained throughout my life a deep interest in athletics and sports of all kinds.

I am convinced that the Finnish people, loving sport as they do, will spare no effort to make the 1952 Olympic Games a complete success.[16]

By the end of Paasikivi's six-year second term, Finland had rid itself of the most urgent political problems resulting from the war. The Karelian refugees had been resettled, the war reparations had been paid, rationing had ended, and in January 1956 the Soviet Union removed its troops from the Porkkala naval base near Helsinki.[14]

Juho Kusti Paasikivi's funeral parade on 14 December 1956

Paasikivi did not actively seek re-election from his second term ending 1 March 1956, when he was age 85. However, Paasikivi was willing to serve as president for about two more years if a great majority of politicians asked him to do so. He appeared as a dark horse presidential candidate on the second ballot of the electoral college on 15 February 1956, but was eliminated as the least popular candidate. His last-minute candidacy was based on a misunderstood message from some conservatives which made him believe that enough Agrarians and Social Democrats would support him.

After his unsuccessful last-minute presidential candidacy, Paasikivi felt betrayed by those politicians who asked him to participate in the election. He even denied giving his consent to the presidential candidacy in a public statement.[17] He died in December, having not yet finished his memoirs.

•  Finland : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose (1946)[19]
•  Finland : Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose (1922)[19]
•  Finland : Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland[19]
•  Finland : Grand Cross of the Order of the Cross of Liberty with Swords (9 October 1950)[20]

•  Iceland : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Falcon (24 April 1954)[21]
•  Sweden : Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim
•  Sweden : Order of the Polar Star
•  Norway : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St. Olav (27 November 1950)[22]
•  Denmark : Knight of the Order of the Elephant
•  Soviet Union : Order of Lenin
•  Russia : Order of St. Anna
•  Prussia : Iron Cross
•  France : Legion of Honour
•  Poland : Order of St Stanislas