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From: fbaube@NOTE.NSF.GOV (Fred Baube)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: UUCP to Russia
Message-ID: <8710260912.aa15754@note.nsf.gov>
Date: Mon, 26-Oct-87 09:27:09 EST
Article-I.D.: note.8710260912.aa15754
Posted: Mon Oct 26 09:27:09 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Oct-87 03:35:47 EST
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>>As I understand it, Finland has something less of a knee-jerk "Commies!
>>Shoot Now!" mentality than elements of the US government --- with rail
>>links, for example, it presumably has a rather more normal "this is my
>>neighbour" policy than the xenophobes might prefer.

>A perusal of your favorite European history book will reveal that during
>its existence Finland has fought something like 40 wars with Russia and
>lost every one.  Their "this is my neighbour" policy, or rather their
>"disinclination to offend my neighbour lest I get my a** kicked yet again"
>policy, is understandable, but not enviable.

Someone check me on this, but my impression is that Finland is
about the only country the Soviets gave a more than fair shake
to.  The Soviets invaded Finland in the thirties, and the Finns
made monkeys out of them.  For whatever reason, after the war the
Soviets were not as punitive as they could have been regarding
territory claims.  The Soviets kept the Petsamo peninsula, so
that they now have a border with Norway, kept Vyborg (orig.
Viipuri, which I read is now a ghost town), and kept a ring of
land around Lake Ladoga, so as to reduce the threat from the
Finnish navy :-).  They could have taken more, but perhaps
figured there's no point in humiliating a rebellious province
(their Taiwan ?) that served as a window to the West.