of its independence; in other words, the question of security. Fear of Soviet Russia dictated the solution. At the beginning of the era of independence there had been forces in Finland demanding the country join counter-revolutionary groups to overthrow bolshevism, a demand the government had firmly rejected. Even later, Finland did not turn to any anti-Soviet policies but rather condemned the ardent, nationalistic youth who in the 1920s and 30s dreamed of a Greater Finland. But since these dreams had received exaggerated attention in Russia, and since Finland with mistrust studied the aims of world communism, there was tension between the two countries; in Finland it made for a feeling of uneasiness and helplessness which, when the world situation became even more critical, led to an awakening of a desire to defend the country and to a great steeling of the will. Finland's independence was to be assured at no matter what the cost by its defenses, which were not aimed against anyone but were aimed for the preservation of Finland. Since the issue of strengthening defenses was put on this basis, the Social Democrats also approved.

When the patriotism and favorable reaction to defense of the Social Democrats was noted by the bourgeois, the suspicions they had entertained against the workers began to disappear. This clearing of the atmosphere and uniting of forces fostered the weakening of anti-democratic forces at the end of the 1930s and the strengthening of bourgeois-social democratic cooperation in the government from 1937 onward. When Soviet Russia signed its pact with Nazi Germany on the eve of the second world war, in August 1939, and then on the basis of that pact made its demands on the Baltic countries and somewhat later on Finland, the temper of the country was intensified. The people of Finland felt they were being driven into a hurricane. Instinctively they realized that the only possibility of saving themselves was through national unity, and if disaster was to come - so it was decided - that disaster would be faced side by side, each supporting the other to the very end.

So rapid and surprising had been these major world political developments that not even communist circles had been able to initiate action to undermine this sense of unity. In those circles, the Soviet pact with Nazi Germany, the partition of Poland which followed and the subsequent demands made on the Baltic countries, upset their constantly repeated belief that Soviet Russia was the mainstay of world peace. When Finland was attacked by Soviet forces in 1939, no action was taken by communist circles in Finland such as had obviously been counted upon by Russia, which

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