alternatehistory.com

SOURCES FROM THE FINNISH NATIONAL ARCHIVAL SYSTEM

Vol I.


The Second Paasikivi Cabinet

Prime Minister: Juho Kusti Paasikivi (National Coalition Party)

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Väinö Voionmaa (Social Democratic Party)

Minister of Justice: Oskari Lehtonen (National Coalition Party)

Minister of the Interior: Mauno Pekkala (Social Democratic Party)

Second Minister of the Interior: Urho Kekkonen (Agrarian League)

Minister of Defence: Arvi Oksala (National Coalition Party)

Minister of Finance: Risto Ryti (Progress Party)

Minister of Education: Uuno Hannula (Agrarian League)

Minister of Agriculture: Viljami Kalliokoski (Agrarian League)

Second Minister of Agriculture: Juho Koivisto (Agrarian League)

Minister of Transport and Public Works: Väinö Salovaara (Social Democratic Party)

Minister of Trade and Industry: Pekka Heikkinen (Agrarian League)

Minister of Social Affairs: Karl-August Fagerholm (Social Democratic Party)

Second Minister of Social Affairs: Oskari Reinikainen (Social Democratic Party)

Minister of Supply: Rainer von Fieandt (unaffiliated)[1]

Minister without portfolio: Ernst von Born (Swedish People's Party)[2]


Comments:

"President Kyösti Kallio bestowed the responsibility to put together a new Finnish cabinet to J.K. Paasikivi on August 18th, 1939, three days after he had regained consciousness following his stroke and accident in early August. According to extant sources, Kallio arrived to Paasikivi as his first choice after conferring with remaining members of the Cajander cabinet, with the leadership of the major parliamentary parties, and with the chairman of the Defence Council, C.G.E. Mannerheim. In retrospect we can say that Mannerheim's opinion probably had a lot of weight. Per Kallio's own diary notes from August 16th, the wounded Field Marshal counselled the president (via telephone) to choose a "reliable old hand" who could keep his head cool in difficult circumstances. The recent demands by the Soviet Union, and the deterioration of the political situation in Europe were also significant matters in terms of the president's decision...

...While the name of the Prime Minister found its way to the press already on the 22nd, the entire composition of the Second Paasikivi Cabinet would only be made public in the afternoon of August 23rd...

...The Paasikivi cabinet was made of ministers from most parties in the Eduskunta. The cabinet was in significant ways based on the previous Cajander cabinet, with eight of its ministers having portfolios also in the new cabinet. The biggest change was replacing positions previously held by the Progress Party with the National Coalition Party ministers in the cabinet coalition, a change that raised some bitterness among the Progressives, especially in the wake of Cajander's death. The NCP's Oskari Lehtonen replaced the unaffiliated professional Rautavaara as the Minister of Justice, and the party's Arvi Oksala took Niukkanen's now vacant spot as the Minister of Defence. The Progress Party's Eljas Erkko, for a handful of days the Acting Prime Minister of Finland, relinquished his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs to the SDP's Väinö Voionmaa. The bargain that finally pacified the Progressives, to an extent, was Väinö Tanner's personal decision to relinquish his position as Minister of Finance to the Progress Party's rising star, Risto Ryti, until then the Governor of the Bank of Finland...

..In the new cabinet, the position of the Agrarians weakened somewhat. Not only did the party lose Defence, but Urho Kekkonen also lost his position as the Minister of the Interior, due to his campaign against the nationalist right having hurt his political standing. The Ministry of the Interior was taken over by SDP's Mauno Pekkala. In the interest of continuity, though, Kekkonen was kept on as the Second Minister of the Interior. Another sop to the Agrarian leadership was bumping Pekka Heikkinen to the Minister of Trade and Industry to replace SDP's Voionmaa, while Viljami Kalliokoski took Heikkinen's position as the Minister of Agriculture...

...All in all, the new cabinet included five Social Democrats, five Agrarians, three National Coalition ministers, one Progressive, one member of the Swedish People's Party and, in time, one unaffiliated professional minister. Only the right-wing Patriotic People's Movement was excluded from the coalition several foreign papers called a "true popular front" in the days after it was first announced..."

(Comment excerpts from Juuso Kiveliö: Ojasta allikkoon: Cajanderin hallitus ja elokuun kriisi uudessa tarkastelussa [3], Uusin Suomi Kustannusosakeyhtiö, Helsinki, 2006.)

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Notes:

[1] The Ministry of Supply (Kansanhuoltoministeriö, Folkförsörjningsministeriet) would be founded in early September 1939 "to secure the well-being of the population, and to safeguard the economic affairs and the material defence preparedness" of Finland.

[2] The addition of von Born, the chairman of the Swedish People's Party, as a minister without portfolio was a concession towards the SPP in the interest of national unity.

[3] ”Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire: A new look into the Cajander cabinet and the August Crisis”.

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To Be Continued