Editing Urho Kekkonen (section)

===President of Finland===
====Overview====
[[File:Kekkonen valtiovierailulla Yhdysvalloissa.jpg|thumb|right|Urho Kekkonen (left), [[Sylvi Kekkonen]] (second right), [[John F. Kennedy]], and [[Jacqueline Kennedy]] in 1961 in [[Washington Dulles International Airport]] ]]
[[File:Tito-Kekkonen-1964.jpg|thumb|right|190px|Kekkonen receiving Yugoslav leader [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]] in [[Helsinki]], 1964]]
During Kekkonen's term, the balance of power between the [[Finnish Government]] and the President tilted heavily towards the President. In principle and formally, parliamentarism was followed with governments nominated by a parliamentary majority. However, Kekkonen-era cabinets were often in bitter internal disagreement and alliances formed broke down easily. New cabinets often tried to reverse their predecessors' policies.<ref>Hägglund, Gustaf (2006). ''Leijona ja kyyhky''. Helsingissä: [[Otava (publisher)|Otava]]. {{ISBN|978-951-1-21161-7}}</ref> Kekkonen used his power extensively to nominate ministers and to compel the legislature's acceptance of new cabinets. Publicly and with impunity, he also used the [[Old boy network (Finland)|old boy network]] to bypass the government and communicate directly with high officials. Only when Kekkonen's term ended did governments remain stable throughout the entire period between elections.

Nevertheless, during Kekkonen's presidency, a few parties were represented in most governments — mainly the Centrists, Social Democrats, and Swedish People's Party — while the People's Democrats and Communists were often in government from 1966 onwards.<ref>"What Where When 1994 – The Citizen's Yearbook" / Mitä Missä Milloin 1994 – Kansalaisen vuosikirja, published in Helsinki by Otava Publications Ltd. in 1993;  "The Republic's President 1956–1982", published in Finland in 1993–94.</ref>

Throughout his time as president, Kekkonen did his best to keep political adversaries in check. The Centre Party's rival National Coalition Party was kept in opposition for 20 years despite good election performances. The [[Finnish Rural Party|Rural Party]] (which had broken away from the Centre Party) was treated similarly. On a few occasions, parliament was dissolved for no other reason than that its political composition did not please Kekkonen. Despite his career in the Centre Party, his relation to the party was often difficult. There was a so-called ''K-linja'' ("K policy", named after Urho Kekkonen, [[Ahti Karjalainen]] and [[Arvo Korsimo]]), which promoted friendly relations and [[bilateral trade]] with the Soviet Union. Kekkonen consolidated his power within the party by placing supporters of the ''K-linja'' in leading roles. Various Centre Party members to whose prominence Kekkonen objected often found themselves sidelined, as Kekkonen negotiated directly with the lower level. Chairman of the Centre Party, [[Johannes Virolainen]], was threatened by Kekkonen with the dissolution of parliament when Kekkonen wanted to nominate SDP's Sorsa instead of Virolainen as Prime Minister.<ref>"[http://suomenhistoriaa.blogspot.com/2010/11/sorsan-virolaisen-hallitus.html Sorsan Virolaisen Hallitus]", November 2010.</ref> Kekkonen's so-called "Mill Letters" were a continuous stream of directives to high officials, politicians, and journalists. Yet Kekkonen by no means always used coercive measures. Some prominent politicians, most notably [[Tuure Junnila]] ([[National Coalition Party|NCP]]) and [[Veikko Vennamo]] ([[Finnish Rural Party|Rural Party]]), were able to brand themselves as "anti-Kekkonen" without automatically suffering his displeasure as a consequence.

====First term (1956–62)====
[[File:JFKWHP-KN-C19113.jpg|thumb|left|Kekkonen's visit to the United States in 1961 and first time in the [[White House]]. Left: Urho Kekkonen, [[Sylvi Kekkonen]], [[Jacqueline Kennedy]], and [[John F. Kennedy]].]]
[[File:Kekkonen ja Khrushchev.jpeg|thumb|right|Soviet leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]] attended Kekkonen's 60th birthday party in [[Presidential Palace, Helsinki]]. The party continued until 5&nbsp;a.m. at the [[Tamminiemi]] residence.]]
In the [[1956 Finnish presidential election|presidential election of 1956]], Kekkonen defeated the Social Democrat [[Karl-August Fagerholm]] 151–149 in the electoral college vote. The campaign was notably vicious, with many personal attacks against several candidates, especially Kekkonen. The tabloid gossip newspaper ''Sensaatio-Uutiset'' ("Sensational News") accused Kekkonen of fistfighting, excessive drinking and extramarital affairs. The drinking and womanizing charges were partly true.  At times, during evening parties with his friends, Kekkonen got drunk, and he had at least two longtime mistresses.<ref name=r1>Seppo Zetterberg et al. (eds.) (2003) ''The Small Giant of the Finnish History''. Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen, Helsinki, Werner Söderström Publishing Ltd.</ref><ref>Pekka Hyvärinen (2000) ''The Man of Finland: Urho Kekkonen's Life''. Suomen mies.  Urho Kekkosen elämä, Helsinki: Werner Söderström Publications Ltd.</ref>

As president, Kekkonen continued the neutrality policy of [[Juho Kusti Paasikivi|President Paasikivi]], which came to be known as the [[Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine|Paasikivi–Kekkonen line]]. From the beginning, he ruled with the assumption that he alone was acceptable to the Soviet Union as Finnish President. Evidence from defectors like [[Oleg Gordievsky]] and files from the Soviet archives show that keeping Kekkonen in power was indeed the main objective of the Soviet Union in its relations with Finland.{{citation needed|date=April 2011}}

In August 1958, [[Karl-August Fagerholm's third cabinet]], a coalition government led by the [[Social Democratic Party (Finland)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP) and including Kekkonen's party [[Agrarian League (Finland)|Agrarian League]], was formed. The Communist front [[SKDL]] was left out. This irritated the Soviet Union because of the inclusion of ministers from SDP's anti-Communist wing, namely [[Väinö Leskinen]] and [[Olavi Lindblom]]. They were seen by the Soviet Union as puppets of the anti-Communist SDP chair [[Väinö Tanner]], who had been convicted in the [[War-responsibility trials in Finland|war-responsibility trials]].<ref name="Varjus2019">Varjus, Seppo. ''Näin valta otetaan ja pidetään.'' In YYA-Suomi – suomettumisen vuodet, Iltasanomat, Sanoma Media Finland 2019, pp. 14–17.</ref> Kekkonen had warned against this but was ignored by SDP. The [[Night Frost Crisis]], as coined by [[Nikita Khrushchev]], led to Soviet pressure against Finland in economic matters. Kekkonen sided with the Soviet Union, working behind the scenes against the cabinet; Fagerholm's cabinet consequently resigned in December 1958. The [[Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Finland)|Finnish Foreign Ministry]] ignored United States offers for help as promised by Ambassador [[John D. Hickerson]] in November 1958.<ref>see Country-studies.com, U.S. Embassy in Finland website, [[U.S. State Department]] website</ref> The crisis was resolved by Kekkonen in January 1959, when he privately travelled to Moscow to negotiate with Khrushchev and [[Andrei Gromyko]]. The crisis established Kekkonen as having the extra-constitutional authority to determine which parties may participate in government, effectively restricting the free parliamentary formation of governing coalitions for many years ahead.

[[File:Urho ja sylvi kekkonen.jpg|thumb|right|President Kekkonen and his wife Sylvi in Mälkiä, [[Lappeenranta]], in 1961]]
The second time the Soviets helped Kekkonen was in the [[Note Crisis]] in 1961. The most widely held view of the [[Note Crisis]] is that the Soviet Union acted to ensure Kekkonen's reelection. Whether Kekkonen himself had organized the incident and to what extent remains debated. Several parties competing against Kekkonen had formed an alliance, ''Honka-liitto'', to promote [[Chancellor of Justice (Finland)|Chancellor of Justice]] [[Olavi Honka]], a non-partisan candidate, in the 1962 presidential elections.<ref name="Varjus2019" /> Kekkonen had planned to foil the ''Honka-liitto'' by calling an early parliamentary election and thus forcing his opponents to campaign against each other and together simultaneously. However, in October 1961, the Soviet Union sent a [[diplomatic note]] proposing military "consultations" as provided by the [[Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948|Finno-Soviet Treaty]]. As a result, Honka dropped his candidacy, leaving Kekkonen with a clear majority (199 of 300 electors) in the 1962 elections. In addition to support from his own party, Kekkonen received the backing of the [[Swedish People's Party (Finland)|Swedish People's Party]] and the [[Liberals (Finland)|Finnish People's Party]], a small classical liberal party. Furthermore, the conservative National Coalition Party quietly supported Kekkonen, although they had no official presidential candidate after Honka's withdrawal.<ref name="r1" /> Following the Note Crisis, genuine opposition to Kekkonen disappeared, and he acquired an exceptionally strong—later even autocratic—status as the political leader of Finland.

Kekkonen's policies, especially towards the [[USSR]], were criticised within his own party by [[Veikko Vennamo]], who broke off his Centre Party affiliation when Kekkonen was elected president in 1956. In 1959, Vennamo founded the [[Finnish Rural Party]], the forerunner of the nationalist [[True Finns]].

====Second term (1962–68)====
[[File:Kekkonen aseellinen.jpg|thumb|right|Kekkonen hunting with a rifle in [[Zavidovo]], [[Soviet Union]], in 1965]]
[[File:Tage Erlander and Urho Kekkonen 1967.jpg|thumb|right|Kekkonen with the Prime Minister of Sweden [[Tage Erlander]] in a rowing boat in [[Harpsund]], Sweden, in 1967]]
In the 1960s Kekkonen was responsible for a number of foreign-policy initiatives, including the [[Nordic countries|Nordic]] [[nuclear-free zone]] proposal, a border agreement with Norway, and a 1969 Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The purpose of these initiatives was to avoid the enforcement of the military articles in the Finno-Soviet Treaty which called for military co-operation with the Soviet Union. Kekkonen thereby hoped to strengthen Finland's moves toward a policy of neutrality. Following the invasion of [[Czechoslovakia]] in 1968, pressure for neutrality increased. Kekkonen informed the Soviet Union in 1970 that if it was no longer prepared to recognise Finland's neutrality, he would not continue as president, nor would the Finno-Soviet Treaty be extended.

====Third term (1968–78)====
Kekkonen was re-elected for a third term in 1968. That year, he was supported by five political parties: the Centre Party, the [[Social Democratic Party of Finland|Social Democrats]], the [[Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders]] (a short-lived SDP faction), the [[Finnish People's Democratic League]] (a communist front), and the Swedish People's Party. He received 201 votes in the electoral college, whereas the [[National Coalition Party (Finland)|National Coalition party]]'s candidate finished second with 66 votes. Vennamo came third with 33 votes. Although Kekkonen was re-elected with two-thirds of the vote, he was so displeased with his opponents and their behaviour that he publicly refused to stand for the presidency again. Vennamo's bold and constant criticisms of his presidency and policies especially infuriated Kekkonen, who labelled him a "cheat" and "demagogue".<ref>see "Urho Kekkonen's Diaries 2:  1963–1968" / Urho Kekkosen päiväkirjat 2: 1963–1968, and "Urho Kekkonen's Diaries 3:  1969–1974" / Urho Kekkosen päiväkirjat 3:  1969–1974, edited by Juhani Suomi and published in Finland around 2002–2004; Johannes Virolainen, "The Last Electoral Term", 1991; Pekka Hyvärinen, "Finland's Man:  Urho Kekkonen's Life" / Suomen mies – Urho Kekkosen elämä, Helsinki:  Werner Söderström Publications Ltd., 2000).</ref>

Initially, Kekkonen had intended to retire at the end of this term, and the Centre Party already began to prepare for his succession by [[Ahti Karjalainen]]. However, Kekkonen began to see Karjalainen as a rival instead, and eventually rejected the idea.

====Term extension (1973)====
{{Infobox legislation
| short_title    = Exceptive law
| legislature    = [[Parliament of Finland]]
| long_title     = Act extending the current term of office of the President of the Republic
| citation       = Säädöskokoelma 232/1973
| signed_by      = Prime Minister [[Kalevi Sorsa]] in the absence of the President of the Republic
| bill_citation  = [https://www.eduskunta.fi/FI/vaski/sivut/trip.aspx?triptype=ValtiopaivaAsiat&docid=he+247/1972 HE 247/1972]
| 3rd_reading    = 18 January 1973
| 3rd_reading_for = 170
| 3rd_reading_against = 28
| 3rd_reading_abstention = 1
| 3rd_reading_absent =
| 3rd_reading_presentnotvoting =
| passed         = <!-- For jurisdictions without numbered readings only. -->
| passed_for     = <!-- For jurisdictions without numbered readings only. -->
| passed_against = <!-- For jurisdictions without numbered readings only. -->
| passed_abstention = <!-- For jurisdictions without numbered readings only. -->
| passed_absent  = <!-- For jurisdictions without numbered readings only. -->
| passed_presentnotvoting = <!-- For jurisdictions without numbered readings only. -->
| related_legislation = [[Constitution of Finland]]
| status         = expired
}}

[[File:ETYK-Finland-delegation-1975.jpg|thumb|left|[[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe|Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe]] (OSCE) was held in 1975, Helsinki. President Urho Kekkonen (right).]]

On 18 January 1973, the Finnish Parliament extended Kekkonen's presidential term by four years with a [[Derogation|Derogation law]] (an ad hoc law made as an exception to the constitution).<ref name="World Book">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[World Book Encyclopedia|The World Book Year Book 1974]] |title=Chronology 1973 |year=1974 |publisher=[[Field Enterprises]] Educational Corporation |location=Chicago |isbn=0-7166-0474-4 |lccn=62-4818 |page=8 }}</ref> By this time, Kekkonen had secured the backing of most political parties, but the major right-wing [[National Coalition Party]], which Kekkonen had opposed, was still skeptical and stood in the way of the required 5/6 majority. Concurrently, Finland was negotiating a [[free-trade agreement]] with the [[European Community|EEC]], a deal that was seen as vital by Finnish industry, as the United Kingdom, an important buyer of Finnish exports, had left the [[European Free Trade Association]] to become a member of the EEC. Kekkonen implied that only he personally could satisfy the Soviet Union that the deal would not threaten Soviet interests. The tactic secured National Coalition support for the term extension.<ref>Johannes Virolainen, "The Last Electoral Term"</ref>[[File:FIN-500m-1975-anv.jpg|thumb|left|Mk.500 banknote featuring Kekkonen, issued 1975]] The elimination of any significant opposition and competition meant he became Finland's ''de facto'' political autocrat. His power reached its zenith in 1975 when he dissolved parliament and hosted the [[Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe]] (CSCE) in Helsinki with the assistance of a caretaker government.

====Fourth term (1978–82)====
After nine political parties supported Kekkonen's candidacy in the [[1978 Finnish presidential election|1978 presidential election]], including the Social Democratic, Centre and National Coalition parties, no serious rivals remained. He humiliated his opponents by not appearing in televised presidential debates and went on to win 259 out of the 300 electoral college votes, with his nearest rival, [[Raino Westerholm]] of the [[Christian Democrats (Finland)|Christian Union]], receiving only 25.<ref>see Juhani Suomi, "The Ski Trail Being Snowed In:  Urho Kekkonen 1976–1981" / Umpeutuva latu – Urho Kekkonen 1976–1981, Helsinki:  Otava Publications Ltd., 2000.</ref>
[[File:President Gerald R. Ford and President Urho Kekkonen of Finland Examining a Medal Kekkonen Presented to Ford in the Oval Office - NARA - 12007050.jpg|thumb|right|[[Gerald Ford|Gerald R. Ford]] and Urho Kekkonen in the Oval Office in 1976]]
According to Finnish historians and political journalists, there were at least three reasons why Kekkonen clung on to the Presidency. First, he did not believe that any of his successor candidates would manage Finland's Soviet foreign policy well enough. Second, until at least the summer of 1978, he considered there was room for improvement in Finnish-Soviet relations and that his experience was vital to the process. This is exemplified by the use of his diplomatic skills to reject the Soviet Defence Minister [[Dmitriy Ustinov]]'s offer to arrange a joined [[Soviet Armed Forces|Soviet]]-[[Finnish Defence Forces|Finnish]] [[military exercise]].

Third, he believed that by working for as long as possible he would remain healthy and live longer.<ref name="hyvärinen">Pekka Hyvärinen, "Finland's Man"; Juhani Suomi, "A Ski Trail Being Snowed In"</ref> Kekkonen's most severe critics, such as [[Veikko Vennamo]], claimed that he remained President so long mainly because he and his closest associates were power-hungry.<ref>Veikko Vennamo, "As a Prisoner of the Kekkonen Dictatorship" / Kekkos-diktatuurin vankina, published in Finland in 1989).</ref> In 1980 Kekkonen was awarded the [[Lenin Peace Prize]].