Page 415 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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controlled. People could not be sure whether they got their card-rations.
Finland started the return back to normal conditions by organizing parliamentary elections
in March 1945. The Communists got 49 seats out of 200 in these elections. When the out-
come of the elections was clear, many asked: “Is Finland pushed towards Socialism?” 13
The contemporary mind recalls that the attempts to change the Finnish political system
th
started immediately after the signing of the Moscow interim peace treaty on 4 September
1944. The plan did not succeed and the Communist party was tamed by taking it into the
government till the next parliamentary elections in 1948 and by preventing it from gaining
the command over the labour union movement.
The uncertainty was increased by the fact that the Security Police fell into the hands of
Communists. Additionally, a feeling of lost war, gave rise to a “no-matter-how” style
14
which blurred the boundaries between criminal habits and honesty.
The year 1945 saw the top of criminal homicides and violence. The nerves of many men
were strained. it caused scraps and violence was common at public entertainments. the dis-
appointments, anxiety and even fear in women and children were tangible. The distortion
calmed down and at the end of the decade homicides were fewer than before the wars.
The years 1945-1956 were years of reconstruction. New buildings were raised; the old
ones were renewed if there was money and material, and farmers cleared new fields. The re-
placing of Finns went on without serious social difficulties. The evacuees and veterans were
able to get their feet under their own table already before the end of the 1940’s.
Finland halved the value of its money and the notes were concretely cut in two pieces on
the last day of 1945. The left half was valid for payment for 1.5 months and people could
change the right half for a receipt over a forced loan. The measure only applied private
persons and it made them angry: they felt that the forced loan was robbery exercised by the
government.
After a decade, Finland was on the road to being a modern industrialized and urbanized
country. People moved after jobs from the countryside to built-up areas and their way of liv-
ing changed. The rise in the standard of living led to the removal the last ration cards in spring
1954. All essential goods could be bought in the shops. It was the end of the black-market.
The customers had the freedom of choice for the first time since more than a decade.
In Finland peace didn’t cause the kind of disorder, as it did in many other countries on the
losing side, nor the collapse of the system or political upheaval and there was not any resistance
movement in the country. In the late 1950’s the immediate post-war period and the impacts of
the wars were well over, people believed. In 1955 the Soviet Union announced that it would
give up its bases in foreign countries and broke off the occupation of Austria. The final return
to normal peace time in Finland began in 1956, when the Soviet Union handed back Porkkala.
When leaving one of the Russian officers said: “We are now leaving the last base which the
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Soviet Union has on foreign soil. The others should do the same, if they don’t want war” .

13 Jussila 1990, p. 9-24.
14 Hietanen 1992, p. 160–164.
15 Haataja 1992, s. 18 and 71; Suomi silloin ennen s. 605–608 and Paasikivi 2/1986, p. 526–527 (1001–
1002).