{"id":1410,"date":"2017-11-22T20:23:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T18:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-talvisota.digiasites.com\/?page_id=1410"},"modified":"2018-01-19T12:25:22","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T10:25:22","slug":"the-league-of-nations-expelled-the-soviet-union","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/en\/politics-of-the-winter-war\/the-league-of-nations-expelled-the-soviet-union\/","title":{"rendered":"The League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parliament convened in the evening of 30 November<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parliament convened for an extraordinary session in the evening of 30 November. It was scheduled to start at 6pm. For safety reasons, the session was held at the Vallila Community Hall, rather than Parliament House. Changing the session\u2019s location is likely one of the reasons why the starting time was postponed by two hours. The session started at 8pm with 163 members of Parliament present.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, minister for foreign affairs and minister of defence presented the Finnish government\u2019s report in the first closed plenary session of the evening. Parliament\u2019s next plenary session started at 9:10pm the same evening. During this session, the government was given a vote of confidence from Parliament.<\/p>\n

Parliament relocated to Kauhajoki on a train that departed at 3am on 1 December<\/strong><\/p>\n

The members of Parliament were notified of the president\u2019s decision off the record after the sessions. According to the decision, Parliament\u2019s operations would be relocated outside the capital. The members of Parliament were promised that the location would be disclosed to them later. The members of Parliament and Parliament officials were to arrive early at the Helsinki Central Railway Station, from where an additional train would depart to Parliament\u2019s new gathering place at 3am. Two members of Parliament opposed the relocation of Parliament from Helsinki. The train departed for Kauhajoki at 3am. Some of the members of Parliament were still unaware of the train\u2019s destination.<\/p>\n

Cajander\u2019s government disbanded despite being given a vote of confidence from Parliament<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a government meeting held after the parliamentary sessions, Prime Minister Cajander stated that the government\u2019s operations had gotten to a point \u2018from which another government would possibly be better equipped to move forwards, and it would therefore be appropriate to leave our seats for the president to fill\u2019. V\u00e4in\u00f6 Tanner, the minister of finance and chairman of the Social Democratic Party, supported the prime minister\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

The prime minister submitted the government\u2019s resignation to President Kallio that night at the Krogius Villa in Kuusisaari, to where the president had relocated. The prime minister was\u00a0accompanied by Minister of Agriculture Pekka Heikkinen from the Agrarian League and Minister without Portfolio Ernst von Born from the Swedish People’s Party of Finland.<\/p>\n

Risto Ryti became prime minister of the new government, which was appointed on 1 December<\/strong><\/p>\n

Risto Ryti, the governor of the Bank of Finland, became the prime minister of the new government, which was appointed at 5pm on 1 December. Ryti, who was a member of the National Progressive Party, returned to politics reluctantly. He was pressured to take on the position, particularly by Foreign Minister V\u00e4in\u00f6 Tanner of the outgoing government. The Finnish envoy to Stockholm, J. K. Paasikivi, entered the government as a minister without portfolio. He was a member of the National Coalition Party and had previously served as chairman of the party, in addition to holding other positions.<\/p>\n

The Soviet Union formed Kuusinen\u2019s government in Terijoki (Zelenogorsk) on 1 December<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United States made its mediation offer on 1 December. The Soviet Union rejected the offer, citing its good relationship with the Finnish People\u2019s Government. The government in question was a government headed by Otto Ville Kuusinen that the Soviet Union had formed in Terijoki. The Soviet Union signed a treaty of mutual assistance and friendship with Kuusinen\u2019s government in Moscow on 2 December. According to an announcement made by Moscow the same day, the Karelian people [the population of Soviet Karelia] would now join their kin in Finland and establish a joint nation state.<\/p>\n

The first action taken by the new Finnish government had been to try and restart negotiations with the Soviet government. This was now impossible after the Soviet Union\u2019s declaration that it only recognised Kuusinen\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

Sweden rejected the proposal for its participation in defending the \u00c5land Islands<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Rickard Sandler was forced to resign after the start of the Winter War because of his sympathies for Finland. During the war, his wife worked actively to evacuate Finnish children to Sweden. Sandler (on the left) visiting Kaarlo Hillil\u00e4, the governor of the Province of Lapland, in Rovaniemi on 1 October 1940. SA-kuva.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Finnish government\u2019s Foreign Affairs Committee decided to request for Sweden\u2019s assistance in defending the \u00c5land Islands. The two countries had signed an in-principle agreement regarding joint defence in Stockholm in January 1939. In order for the agreement to come into effect, the defence preparations for the \u00c5land Islands had to first be approved by the League of Nations. The Soviet Union stopped the matter from being addressed in the League of Nations.<\/p>\n

During the meeting, Tanner placed a call to Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson of Sweden, who was the chairman of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Hansson rejected Tanner\u2019s request. Sweden would not take part in a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. Swedish Foreign Minister Rickard Sandler, who was sympathetic to Finland\u2019s situation, left his post on 3 December when the Swedish government changed. Sweden\u2019s new, broader coalition government, headed by Hansson, appointed Christian G\u00fcnther, the country\u2019s envoy to Oslo, as the new minister for foreign affairs.<\/p>\n

Finland had been notified of Sweden\u2019s stance of non-belligerence in the war before it started<\/strong><\/p>\n

Swedish Prime Minister Hansson had already sent a letter to Tanner, who chaired the Social Democratic Party of Finland, during the negotiations in Moscow in answer to Tanner\u2019s inquiry about Sweden\u2019s stance on a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. Hansson made it clear that Sweden would not participate in such a war. Nevertheless, the Finns continued to hold on to the hope that Sweden would change its stance when things came to a head. Sweden\u2019s stance did not change. It would not become a belligerent in the war by sending active troops to Finland. Sweden provided assistance and sent volunteers to Finland.<\/p>\n

The Finnish government turned to the League of Nations<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a meeting on 2 December, the Finnish government decided to turn to the League of Nations. One of the reasons provided for this by Tanner and Paasikivi was that the League of Nations could act as a mediator between the Soviet Union and Finland or at least encourage other countries to assist Finland.<\/p>\n

Rudolf Holsti, the Finnish envoy to Tallinn, and Minister Holma, the Finnish envoy to Paris, were chosen on 8 December as Finland\u2019s representatives for the General Assembly of the League of Nations. Lieutenant Colonel Alad\u00e1r Paasonen was also appointed to the delegation. Among other things, Holsti had served as the Finnish minister for foreign affairs before Erkko.<\/p>\n

The Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations on 14 December<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to instructions provided by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, the delegation had to comply with the Scandinavian stance. Accordingly, Finland would not support the expulsion of the Soviet Union from the League of Nations. However, the delegation was authorised by Foreign Minister Tanner to act at its own discretion in voting situations, \u2018as bad connections made it difficult to send advice from home for voting situations\u2019.<\/p>\n

The League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation on 14 December. The expulsion was supported by seven of the Council\u2019s members, including France and the United Kingdom. Finland, which had recently been chosen to become a member of the Council, abstained from voting together with China, Greece and Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n

Ari Raunio<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parliament convened in the evening of 30 November Parliament convened for an extraordinary session in the evening of 30 November. It was scheduled to start at 6pm. For safety reasons, the session was held at the Vallila Community Hall, rather than Parliament House. Changing the session\u2019s location is likely one of the reasons why the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":695,"parent":1404,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"custom-templates\/child-level.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1410","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2346,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1410\/revisions\/2346"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}