I just don't understand why Ukraine cannot accept Finland model of accommodating Russian concern for security. While at the same time Finland is free, democratic, and wealthy nation
After the
of 1947, Finland succeeded in retaining
and
, despite the heavy political pressure on Finland's foreign and internal affairs by the Soviet Union.
were guided by the doctrine formulated by , emphasising the necessity to maintain a good and trusting relationship with the Soviet Union.
Finland signed an with the Soviet Union in April 1948, under which Finland was obliged to resist armed attacks by "Germany or its allies" against Finland, or against the Soviet Union through Finland, and, if necessary, ask for Soviet military aid to do so. At the same time, the agreement recognised Finland's desire to remain outside conflicts, allowing the country to adopt a policy of during the .
As a consequence, Finland did not participate in the
and took neutral positions on Soviet overseas initiatives. By keeping very cool relations to
and western military powers in general, Finland could fend off Soviet pressure for affiliation to the
.
there are 2 reasons. The first is obvious. Russia is much weaker today than Soviet Union was in 1947.
The second requires, for those brought up under a communist regime, a look at hard history that is not to orthodox communist liking,
The basis of the second is both Finland and ukraine was part of czarist Russian empire before the October revolution. However there the similarity in their experience with the Russians ended,
Even though the Fins were not fellow Slavs, they nonetheless were a privileged minority under czarist Russian rule, because the fins supplied a disproportionate number of military officers, technocrats and bureaucrats to the czarist regime.
More importantly, Finland gained her independence with the fall of the czarist regime, and was able to retain her independence. So Finland was outside the Soviet Union during Stalin’s collectivization, so ordinary fins did not suffer the privation collectivization brought to much of USSR in 1920s and 1930s.
the only major bad experience the Fins had with the Russians were the result of the winter war in 1939-1940, and the continuation war in 1941-1945. The memory of these were bitter, but not nearly as bitter as, for example, chinese memory of the Japanese invasion of 1937-1945.
contrast that with Ukrainian experience with the russians. Ukranians were under Russian domination, both czarist Russia and the Soviet Union, for much longer. When czarist Russians took ukraine they immediately dispossessed much of Ukrainian nobility, so both the Ukrainian aristocracy and intelligentsia were hostile to Russia to start with. Ukrainian peasantry, paradoxically did relatively week compared to Russian peasantry, and a much higher percentage owned their own land,
although ukraine also briefly gained her independent]cd with the fall of the czarist regime, the independence was crushed by Lenin’s Bolsheviks very quickly. ukraine returned to russian rule under the Soviet Union. During the Stalin era, Ukrainian peasantry, which had a high percentage of private land ownership, bitterly resisted Stalin’s collectivization efforts. Stalin ruthlessly in crushing this resistance By confiscating the harvests by force and leaving Ukrainian land owning peasantry to starve, As a result, perhaps 25% of ukrainian peasantry starved to death. Ukrainian memory of this was bitter indeed. Equal to or or more bitter than Chinese memory of the Nanjing massacre and the Japanese “three-all” policy.
This bitter legacy is something communists do not admit because the degree of brutality the stalin commited against the UkrainIan’s would seem to discredit communism, but it is true.
this is perhaps the main underlying reason why the Ukrainians are vastly more hostile to accommodation with Russia than the Fins.
