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Twenty-one: Urho
Twenty-one: Urho
The man opened his eyes to see a young, pretty nurse bent over him on his left hand side.
”Oh”, the woman said. Her eyes were blue and her lips a deep red. The man couldn't help but notice that she was particularly well-endowed in the chest area.
”You're awake”, the young woman told him, ”don't be alarmed but you are still being operated on....”
Feeling a foreboding, the man looked to his right, and sure enough, he could see a man dressed as a surgeon hovering there next to his right foot. It was not easy to see the man, though, as bright lights were pointing at his face.
”Mister Kekkonen”, the nurse said, ”we needed to amputate both of your legs to save your life...”
Suddenly horrified, the man looked at his feet again, and only now saw that his both feet were indeed just stumps, entirely cut off below his knees. For some reason, he could not feel any pain, though.
The doctor's surgical outfit was heavily spattered with blood.
A cold feeling went through the man.
This isn't right at all.
”You are being very brave”, the nurse said and gave the man a smile that was a tad too wide for his liking under the circumstances. The woman actually winked at him, too.
The doctor turned his face towards him.
”The shrapnel damages are more extensive than we thought, minister. I need to remove your genitals as well”, he said, pulling on a surgical glove.
...What?
”Nurse. The cleaver.”
The young, buxom woman bent over him again and handed the doctor the shining steel cleaver.
And then Urho Kekkonen woke up. Icy waves went through him as he reached out to feel his legs.
Both were still there. And he was in his own bed, not in a hospital. On his right leg he could feel the dressing covering his wound, but that was it.
Just to make sure, the man checked his crotch, too.
Thank God it was just a dream. Urho Kekkonen's thought returned to it several times during the day, and the verdict of his waking mind was that the dream had been caused by his unconscious speculating on what could have well happened to him, based on what actually had transpired with Mannerheim, and then all the stress he was feeling at the moment, giving its own spin to the horror.
I need to remove your genitals.
In the morning, the first order of business for Urho Kekkonen, now the Second Minister of the Interior, was to attend a meeting of the Finnish cabinet. It was naturally chaired by the curmudgeonly new Prime Minister. After just a handful of these meetings by the new cabinet, Kekkonen could actually already feel some grudging respect for the late Aimo Cajander. Say what you will about the man who had died in Hannila, the previous Prime Minister had at least been a good chairman for his cabinet. He was able to listen to the ministers, and reconcile different points of view in a positive, contemplative atmosphere. Paasikivi was a man of a different school of thought. He came to the meetings with his mind already made up, and ”irascible” was his standard frame of mind. To Kekkonen, Paasikivi's general attitude to life brought to mind nothing as much as a mountain troll that had just woken up and emerged to the surface from his cave.
The man Paasikivi was now being irascible to was Arvi Oksala, the recently-appointed Minister of Defence from his own party.
”...And tell the dunderheads to watch where they are going, and control their ships, would you? They do have steering wheels, what, and maps and compasses and whatnot, paid from the damned state budget.”
The context of the outburst was a Soviet protest concerning a near-accident between the Finnish coastal ship Väinämöinen and a Soviet-flagged freighter, the Metallist, just off the Finnish coast. This had happened just yesterday as the Finnish Coastal Fleet had taken to the sea to move from the capital area to the Sea of Åland, to take up its pre-planned positions there to conduct neutrality patrols now that there were Baltic Sea nations at war against each other.[1] During this operation, the Väinämöinen had in the darkness of the night met with the Soviet freighter on a sealane just off the island of Kökar and, according to the Soviets, nearly caused a fatal accident.
Navy Command had not yet weighed in on the issue – probably they were just now poring over a report from the ship's captain, Urho thought.
After Oksala had sheepishly promised Paasikivi to get answers from the Navy, it was the Foreign Minister's turn. Voionmaa had just returned from Stockholm in the morning. He had taken a work visit to Stockholm, to pay his respects to Prime Minister Hansson for the death of Per Edvin Sköld, and to discuss the Finnish and Swedish position towards matters relating to the outbreak of war with both Hansson and the Swedish Foreign Minister, Rickard Sandler. Voionmaa had also briefly met with Sweden's new Minister of Defence, Gerhard Strindlund, unlike his predecessor a member of the Swedish Agrarians.
Both the Finnish and the Swedish governments had already proclaimed themselves neutral in the recent days, and now both nations agreed that there would also need to be a joint Nordic meeting to weigh in on the issue of neutrality. Voionmaa told the assembled cabinet that Hansson had suggested that the meeting would take place in Stockholm beginning on September 15th, and that he had provisionally agreed with the suggestion.
In the matter of a potential joint defence of the Åland Islands, something that had been discussed with Sweden at depth in the recent two years, Voionmaa informed the cabinet that according to Sandler, the Swedish government would not submit a new proposal about Swedish participation. According to Sandler, the cabinet did not believe that the Riksdag would accept to such a proposal ”at this time”. Also emergency measures to protect the safety of the islands in the absense of a fortification plan were ruled out by the Swedish. Sandler and Hansson had told Voionmaa that Sweden had not officially abandoned the plans for a joint defence in Åland,[2] but that they would need to wait for ”a change in the parliamentary situation” in Sweden. And besides, Voionmaa had been told, now the fortification of the Ålands was not as pressing a matter, either, as the Germans and the Soviets had come to an accommodation: there was less threat of a Soviet-German race to take over the islands than there had been before.
Voionmaa's own analysis about his Swedish trip was that there was clear scepticism towards Finland in Sweden. The death of Sköld, and the nature of the accident that had led to it, had led to doubts towards Finland as a partner in defence matters. Voionmaa had even overheard a disparaging comment about the state of the Finnish military at a reception, not meant for his ears perhaps, but indicative of Swedish views at the moment none the less, he thought.
Urho Kekkonen could not blame the Swedish for being sceptical about the readiness of the Finnish military. After all, so was Mannerheim. It was by now common knowledge that a few days ago the still bedridden Field Marshal has summoned to his presence a young staff officer from the Ministry of Defence, Captain Halsti, and given the man a personal commission under the Defence Council to look into the deficiencies and problems of the preparedness and defensive plans of the military. Now, Halsti, a smart man who was just writing a book about Finnish defence was probably as good a man as any for this job, Urho thought. But then in his opinion it was not good for the state of mind of the political and military leadership in Helsinki to consider the impications this little commission had about what Mannerheim was thinking at the moment.
Voionmaa also reported that Yrjö-Koskinen, the Finnish ambassador to Moscow, had sent a positive report about a discussion with Molotov, where the Soviet Foreign Minister had taken a very positive stand towards improving trade relations between Finland and the USSR. Even the German ambassador, von Blücher, had just yesterday approached Voionmaa about the matter of improving Finno-Soviet relations, which certainly was a sign of a sea change in international politics.
When Voionmaa had said his piece, the discussion drifted towards the need for setting up a new government ministry – the Ministry of Supply. This effort was now spearheaded by Heikkinen, the Agrarian Minister of Trade and Industry. To hear the man, the recent loss of crops in Eastern Finland due to the Sylvi Storm further underlined the need to secure the Finnish food supply in the conditions of international crisis in the Baltic Sea. Paasikivi had already agreed with the need for the new ministry, was ready to support its founding in parliament, and now asked for suggestions for the short list for the first Minister of Supply.
After the cabinet meeting was concluded, Urho Kekkonen was in dire need of a lunch. He had opted for a restaurant in the very vicinity of the Government Palace. The doctor had recommended that he should use a crutch while his leg was still healing. Urho had decided against it, for reasons of appearances as well as pride (though he would not have admitted as much) and so he found walking any longer distances somewhat difficult at the moment.
In a secluded corner of the restaurant, the Second Minister of the Interior met an old friend. The Director of the State Police was already there, sitting down and sipping from a glass of mineral water.
”Urho, you really need to take a load off those feet”, Paavo Säippä said when he saw the man approach the table.
Urho Kekkonen gave him a smile that was predominately made of a wince.
The previous Minister of the Interior had taken an immediate suspicion towards the new Minister of the Interior, Mauno Pekkala. What he had seen of the Social Democrat in the first common cabinet meetings had only served to confirm his less than positive view of the man. Simply put, Urho was not sure that Pekkala would have the ability and resources to be an effective government minister in the circumstances of a major international crisis. As it was, there had already been a large far-left demonstration on the Hakaniemi square against militarism (namely, Finnish militarism) two days ago, and Urho had his suspicions that the event had been put together by men who were just puppets to people pulling their strings from beyond the Republic's eastern border. Pekkala, though, had barely mentioned the demonstration in the meeting today.
And this is why Urho Kekkonen was meeting with Säippä today. He chose to approach the issue only after the two men had finished their main course of pot roast, mashed potatoes and pickles. What Urho Kekkonen suggested to Säippä was to put together a new, confidential task force to look into such foreign-directed activity that was a potential threat to the government and legal order of the Republic.
Säippä was quick to catch his meaning.
”You mean we would keep it a secret from the Minister of the Interior, too?”, he asked quietly after checking that there was nobody in earshot, holding aloft his dessert spoon.
Urho nodded.
”In practical terms, yes. We won't tell him unless he asks about it directly. It is well within your rights to operate the State Police the way you see fit, and you don't have to tell the Minister of every bloody detail of what you are doing to safeguard the Finnish state's security. Should he learn of the task force himself, well, then you can pin it all on me. As much I understand my new posting as a second minister, it is in my purview to make sure that practical matters do run smoothly when the first minister is looking after the major policies and broad strokes, as it were.”
”Uhhuh”, Säippä just said, putting a spoonful of strawberry cake into his mouth.
On his way back to the ministry, Urho checked the headlines of the afternoon papers that were about the continuing fortification effort in the Karelian isthmus, mostly by enthusiastic volunteers, and then about the German advance into Poland.
POLISH RESISTANCE IN THE CORRIDOR HAS ENDED.
KRAKOW AND LODZ IN DANGER.
There appeared to be some headlines about the plans for rationing, too. In this morning's Helsingin Sanomat, there had already been a cartoon about people making lines at shops to hoard coffee and sugar, among other things. Those goods would be the first ones to go under rationing.
When Urho finally reached his office at the ministry, now slightly smaller and more modest than before, he needed to take a pill to do something to the pain in his leg. He made a mental note to call his doctor and ask for stronger painkillers. It would not do that the pain would cloud his judgement, not in these circumstances and in a time like this.
Sitting heavily into his chair and then looking at the pile of papers in his inbox, Urho again thought of the dream that had awoken him that morning. As much as he could by now appreciate the dark humour of the thing, a chill still went through him to think about it.
I need to remove your genitals.
Jesus bloody Christ.
….
Notes:
[1] The first stage of the operation took place on September 3rd and included the armored coastal ships Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen, the gunboats Uusimaa, Karjala and Turunmaa, and five guard motor boats.
[2] These plans had been discussed especially during the summer and fall of 1938, and again in the summer of 1939. In early June 1939 the plans had been put into ice, in part due to Soviet official criticism towards them.
...
To Be Continued
Twenty-one: Urho
The man opened his eyes to see a young, pretty nurse bent over him on his left hand side.
”Oh”, the woman said. Her eyes were blue and her lips a deep red. The man couldn't help but notice that she was particularly well-endowed in the chest area.
”You're awake”, the young woman told him, ”don't be alarmed but you are still being operated on....”
Feeling a foreboding, the man looked to his right, and sure enough, he could see a man dressed as a surgeon hovering there next to his right foot. It was not easy to see the man, though, as bright lights were pointing at his face.
”Mister Kekkonen”, the nurse said, ”we needed to amputate both of your legs to save your life...”
Suddenly horrified, the man looked at his feet again, and only now saw that his both feet were indeed just stumps, entirely cut off below his knees. For some reason, he could not feel any pain, though.
The doctor's surgical outfit was heavily spattered with blood.
A cold feeling went through the man.
This isn't right at all.
”You are being very brave”, the nurse said and gave the man a smile that was a tad too wide for his liking under the circumstances. The woman actually winked at him, too.
The doctor turned his face towards him.
”The shrapnel damages are more extensive than we thought, minister. I need to remove your genitals as well”, he said, pulling on a surgical glove.
...What?
”Nurse. The cleaver.”
The young, buxom woman bent over him again and handed the doctor the shining steel cleaver.
And then Urho Kekkonen woke up. Icy waves went through him as he reached out to feel his legs.
Both were still there. And he was in his own bed, not in a hospital. On his right leg he could feel the dressing covering his wound, but that was it.
Just to make sure, the man checked his crotch, too.
Thank God it was just a dream. Urho Kekkonen's thought returned to it several times during the day, and the verdict of his waking mind was that the dream had been caused by his unconscious speculating on what could have well happened to him, based on what actually had transpired with Mannerheim, and then all the stress he was feeling at the moment, giving its own spin to the horror.
I need to remove your genitals.
In the morning, the first order of business for Urho Kekkonen, now the Second Minister of the Interior, was to attend a meeting of the Finnish cabinet. It was naturally chaired by the curmudgeonly new Prime Minister. After just a handful of these meetings by the new cabinet, Kekkonen could actually already feel some grudging respect for the late Aimo Cajander. Say what you will about the man who had died in Hannila, the previous Prime Minister had at least been a good chairman for his cabinet. He was able to listen to the ministers, and reconcile different points of view in a positive, contemplative atmosphere. Paasikivi was a man of a different school of thought. He came to the meetings with his mind already made up, and ”irascible” was his standard frame of mind. To Kekkonen, Paasikivi's general attitude to life brought to mind nothing as much as a mountain troll that had just woken up and emerged to the surface from his cave.
The man Paasikivi was now being irascible to was Arvi Oksala, the recently-appointed Minister of Defence from his own party.
”...And tell the dunderheads to watch where they are going, and control their ships, would you? They do have steering wheels, what, and maps and compasses and whatnot, paid from the damned state budget.”
The context of the outburst was a Soviet protest concerning a near-accident between the Finnish coastal ship Väinämöinen and a Soviet-flagged freighter, the Metallist, just off the Finnish coast. This had happened just yesterday as the Finnish Coastal Fleet had taken to the sea to move from the capital area to the Sea of Åland, to take up its pre-planned positions there to conduct neutrality patrols now that there were Baltic Sea nations at war against each other.[1] During this operation, the Väinämöinen had in the darkness of the night met with the Soviet freighter on a sealane just off the island of Kökar and, according to the Soviets, nearly caused a fatal accident.
Navy Command had not yet weighed in on the issue – probably they were just now poring over a report from the ship's captain, Urho thought.
After Oksala had sheepishly promised Paasikivi to get answers from the Navy, it was the Foreign Minister's turn. Voionmaa had just returned from Stockholm in the morning. He had taken a work visit to Stockholm, to pay his respects to Prime Minister Hansson for the death of Per Edvin Sköld, and to discuss the Finnish and Swedish position towards matters relating to the outbreak of war with both Hansson and the Swedish Foreign Minister, Rickard Sandler. Voionmaa had also briefly met with Sweden's new Minister of Defence, Gerhard Strindlund, unlike his predecessor a member of the Swedish Agrarians.
Both the Finnish and the Swedish governments had already proclaimed themselves neutral in the recent days, and now both nations agreed that there would also need to be a joint Nordic meeting to weigh in on the issue of neutrality. Voionmaa told the assembled cabinet that Hansson had suggested that the meeting would take place in Stockholm beginning on September 15th, and that he had provisionally agreed with the suggestion.
In the matter of a potential joint defence of the Åland Islands, something that had been discussed with Sweden at depth in the recent two years, Voionmaa informed the cabinet that according to Sandler, the Swedish government would not submit a new proposal about Swedish participation. According to Sandler, the cabinet did not believe that the Riksdag would accept to such a proposal ”at this time”. Also emergency measures to protect the safety of the islands in the absense of a fortification plan were ruled out by the Swedish. Sandler and Hansson had told Voionmaa that Sweden had not officially abandoned the plans for a joint defence in Åland,[2] but that they would need to wait for ”a change in the parliamentary situation” in Sweden. And besides, Voionmaa had been told, now the fortification of the Ålands was not as pressing a matter, either, as the Germans and the Soviets had come to an accommodation: there was less threat of a Soviet-German race to take over the islands than there had been before.
Voionmaa's own analysis about his Swedish trip was that there was clear scepticism towards Finland in Sweden. The death of Sköld, and the nature of the accident that had led to it, had led to doubts towards Finland as a partner in defence matters. Voionmaa had even overheard a disparaging comment about the state of the Finnish military at a reception, not meant for his ears perhaps, but indicative of Swedish views at the moment none the less, he thought.
Urho Kekkonen could not blame the Swedish for being sceptical about the readiness of the Finnish military. After all, so was Mannerheim. It was by now common knowledge that a few days ago the still bedridden Field Marshal has summoned to his presence a young staff officer from the Ministry of Defence, Captain Halsti, and given the man a personal commission under the Defence Council to look into the deficiencies and problems of the preparedness and defensive plans of the military. Now, Halsti, a smart man who was just writing a book about Finnish defence was probably as good a man as any for this job, Urho thought. But then in his opinion it was not good for the state of mind of the political and military leadership in Helsinki to consider the impications this little commission had about what Mannerheim was thinking at the moment.
Voionmaa also reported that Yrjö-Koskinen, the Finnish ambassador to Moscow, had sent a positive report about a discussion with Molotov, where the Soviet Foreign Minister had taken a very positive stand towards improving trade relations between Finland and the USSR. Even the German ambassador, von Blücher, had just yesterday approached Voionmaa about the matter of improving Finno-Soviet relations, which certainly was a sign of a sea change in international politics.
When Voionmaa had said his piece, the discussion drifted towards the need for setting up a new government ministry – the Ministry of Supply. This effort was now spearheaded by Heikkinen, the Agrarian Minister of Trade and Industry. To hear the man, the recent loss of crops in Eastern Finland due to the Sylvi Storm further underlined the need to secure the Finnish food supply in the conditions of international crisis in the Baltic Sea. Paasikivi had already agreed with the need for the new ministry, was ready to support its founding in parliament, and now asked for suggestions for the short list for the first Minister of Supply.
After the cabinet meeting was concluded, Urho Kekkonen was in dire need of a lunch. He had opted for a restaurant in the very vicinity of the Government Palace. The doctor had recommended that he should use a crutch while his leg was still healing. Urho had decided against it, for reasons of appearances as well as pride (though he would not have admitted as much) and so he found walking any longer distances somewhat difficult at the moment.
In a secluded corner of the restaurant, the Second Minister of the Interior met an old friend. The Director of the State Police was already there, sitting down and sipping from a glass of mineral water.
”Urho, you really need to take a load off those feet”, Paavo Säippä said when he saw the man approach the table.
Urho Kekkonen gave him a smile that was predominately made of a wince.
The previous Minister of the Interior had taken an immediate suspicion towards the new Minister of the Interior, Mauno Pekkala. What he had seen of the Social Democrat in the first common cabinet meetings had only served to confirm his less than positive view of the man. Simply put, Urho was not sure that Pekkala would have the ability and resources to be an effective government minister in the circumstances of a major international crisis. As it was, there had already been a large far-left demonstration on the Hakaniemi square against militarism (namely, Finnish militarism) two days ago, and Urho had his suspicions that the event had been put together by men who were just puppets to people pulling their strings from beyond the Republic's eastern border. Pekkala, though, had barely mentioned the demonstration in the meeting today.
And this is why Urho Kekkonen was meeting with Säippä today. He chose to approach the issue only after the two men had finished their main course of pot roast, mashed potatoes and pickles. What Urho Kekkonen suggested to Säippä was to put together a new, confidential task force to look into such foreign-directed activity that was a potential threat to the government and legal order of the Republic.
Säippä was quick to catch his meaning.
”You mean we would keep it a secret from the Minister of the Interior, too?”, he asked quietly after checking that there was nobody in earshot, holding aloft his dessert spoon.
Urho nodded.
”In practical terms, yes. We won't tell him unless he asks about it directly. It is well within your rights to operate the State Police the way you see fit, and you don't have to tell the Minister of every bloody detail of what you are doing to safeguard the Finnish state's security. Should he learn of the task force himself, well, then you can pin it all on me. As much I understand my new posting as a second minister, it is in my purview to make sure that practical matters do run smoothly when the first minister is looking after the major policies and broad strokes, as it were.”
”Uhhuh”, Säippä just said, putting a spoonful of strawberry cake into his mouth.
On his way back to the ministry, Urho checked the headlines of the afternoon papers that were about the continuing fortification effort in the Karelian isthmus, mostly by enthusiastic volunteers, and then about the German advance into Poland.
POLISH RESISTANCE IN THE CORRIDOR HAS ENDED.
KRAKOW AND LODZ IN DANGER.
There appeared to be some headlines about the plans for rationing, too. In this morning's Helsingin Sanomat, there had already been a cartoon about people making lines at shops to hoard coffee and sugar, among other things. Those goods would be the first ones to go under rationing.
When Urho finally reached his office at the ministry, now slightly smaller and more modest than before, he needed to take a pill to do something to the pain in his leg. He made a mental note to call his doctor and ask for stronger painkillers. It would not do that the pain would cloud his judgement, not in these circumstances and in a time like this.
Sitting heavily into his chair and then looking at the pile of papers in his inbox, Urho again thought of the dream that had awoken him that morning. As much as he could by now appreciate the dark humour of the thing, a chill still went through him to think about it.
I need to remove your genitals.
Jesus bloody Christ.
….
View attachment 387883
"Offensive action on the 'food front' was showing suspicious signs of escalation yesterday, as in the morning also in Helsinki there were queues in front of grocery stores all the way to the street.."
A Helsingin Sanomat editorial cartoon, September 4th 1939.
..."Offensive action on the 'food front' was showing suspicious signs of escalation yesterday, as in the morning also in Helsinki there were queues in front of grocery stores all the way to the street.."
A Helsingin Sanomat editorial cartoon, September 4th 1939.
Notes:
[1] The first stage of the operation took place on September 3rd and included the armored coastal ships Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen, the gunboats Uusimaa, Karjala and Turunmaa, and five guard motor boats.
[2] These plans had been discussed especially during the summer and fall of 1938, and again in the summer of 1939. In early June 1939 the plans had been put into ice, in part due to Soviet official criticism towards them.
...
To Be Continued
- DrakonFin
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