One of the interesting 1990's revelations about the late Finnish president Urho Kekkonen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urho_Kekkonen was his repeated attempts via secret diplomacy to get the USSR to return at least part of Karelia to Finland. I first read about it here:
"Through the new *rezident*, Kekkonen first tried to promote ideas developed during the Khrushchev era, such as the exchange of Finnish recognition of the German Democratic Republic for the return of the city of Vyborg (in Finnish, Viipuri) with surroundings, lost in the Second World War.57 Initially, the KGB man was eager, but the new ideological climate in Moscow did not turn out to be favourable. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, Kekkonen dropped the idea." https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10224/4054/kekkonen_and_kgb2008.pdf?sequence=1
There is further discussion in David Arter, *Scandianavian Politics Today,* p. 283:
"Evidence of his [Kekkonen's] autocratic style can be gained from the way in June 1968 Kekkonen (unsuccessfully) proposed to Leonid Brezhnev changes in the national frontier – the concession of part of Lapland in return for the re-acquisition of the Viipuri area in 'conceded Karelia' and Finnish recognition of the two Germanys- not in his capacity as head of state but as a 'private citizen'. As Juhani Suomi has noted, it was not even mentioned in Kekkonen's detailed sixteen-page report on the trip and was certainly not known to the prime minister at that time, Mauno Koivisto..." https://books.google.com/books?id=5f_VCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA283
Wikipedia's article on the "Karelian question" states:
"President Urho Kekkonen also tried to reacquire the territory, especially when the Soviet Union returned the peninsula of Porkkala to Finland in 1956.[3] There was, however, no significant public controversy about the case, because Kekkonen wanted to keep it quiet.[4] The last time Kekkonen tried to raise it was in 1972, but he had no success, and public discussion died out in the 1970s.[5]..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_question
Kekkonen was certainly one of the Kremlin's favorite bourgeois statesmen, but it is hard for me to see the USSR giving Finland Vyborg back for anything he could reasonably promise in return. (Though Vladimir Zhirinovsky of all people has advocated returning Vyborg to Finland! http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland...zhirinovsky-why-would-we-take-dependants.html)
Does anyone see any way it could happen?
"Through the new *rezident*, Kekkonen first tried to promote ideas developed during the Khrushchev era, such as the exchange of Finnish recognition of the German Democratic Republic for the return of the city of Vyborg (in Finnish, Viipuri) with surroundings, lost in the Second World War.57 Initially, the KGB man was eager, but the new ideological climate in Moscow did not turn out to be favourable. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, Kekkonen dropped the idea." https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10224/4054/kekkonen_and_kgb2008.pdf?sequence=1
There is further discussion in David Arter, *Scandianavian Politics Today,* p. 283:
"Evidence of his [Kekkonen's] autocratic style can be gained from the way in June 1968 Kekkonen (unsuccessfully) proposed to Leonid Brezhnev changes in the national frontier – the concession of part of Lapland in return for the re-acquisition of the Viipuri area in 'conceded Karelia' and Finnish recognition of the two Germanys- not in his capacity as head of state but as a 'private citizen'. As Juhani Suomi has noted, it was not even mentioned in Kekkonen's detailed sixteen-page report on the trip and was certainly not known to the prime minister at that time, Mauno Koivisto..." https://books.google.com/books?id=5f_VCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA283
Wikipedia's article on the "Karelian question" states:
"President Urho Kekkonen also tried to reacquire the territory, especially when the Soviet Union returned the peninsula of Porkkala to Finland in 1956.[3] There was, however, no significant public controversy about the case, because Kekkonen wanted to keep it quiet.[4] The last time Kekkonen tried to raise it was in 1972, but he had no success, and public discussion died out in the 1970s.[5]..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_question
Kekkonen was certainly one of the Kremlin's favorite bourgeois statesmen, but it is hard for me to see the USSR giving Finland Vyborg back for anything he could reasonably promise in return. (Though Vladimir Zhirinovsky of all people has advocated returning Vyborg to Finland! http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland...zhirinovsky-why-would-we-take-dependants.html)
Does anyone see any way it could happen?