Editing Juho Kusti Paasikivi (section)

===Political evolution===
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.

====Dealing with communists====
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.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.poweroffreedombook.com/preview_PoF.pdf |year=2009 |last=Laar |first=M. |title=The Power of Freedom. Central and Eastern Europe after 1945 |access-date=2012-04-05 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111025246/http://www.poweroffreedombook.com/preview_PoF.pdf |archive-date=2013-11-11 |publisher=Centre for European Studies |page=41 }}</ref>

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.<ref name="Zetterberg" >{{Cite book  |editor=Seppo Zetterberg |display-editors=et al.   |trans-title=A Small Giant of the Finnish History  |title=Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen |publisher=Werner Söderström Publishing  |location=Helsinki|language=fi|year=2003}}</ref>