Стр. 21 - V

Упрощенная HTML-версия

Author : Yu. Piskulov
Editor of the Mezhdunarodnaia ekonomika journal, Professor, Russian Foreign Trade Academy, Doctor
of Science (Economics)
THIS WAS THE TITLE of the collection of doc-
uments and materials related to the Final Act of the
Conference on Security and Co-operation in Eu-
rope (CSCE) (Helsinki 1975) published in Moscow
in 1980. The conference was initiated by the Soviet
Union and Finland and attended by 35 European
states as well as the United States and Canada. The
West-Russia confrontation of our days and the
Ukrainian developments added significance to this
unprecedented event in the history of the West-
West relationship and rekindled an interest in it
among the political, business and academic communities all over the world.
We should admit that at times of crisis, the heads of state who combined patriotism and social
justice with authoritarian style of governance achieved the most impressive results.
In 1980, in an interview to Pravda Leonid Brezhnev pointed out that "in the context of the
steadily worsening international situation the consequence of what was done in Helsinki is
steadily increasing, not diminishing.. .. There is no road back from Helsinki. The Final Act very
much like the UN Charter means that our civilization ascended new, higher levels.... The day the
Final Act was signed could have become the Day of Europe."
DESPITE the authoritarian aspect of trade and political relations between the two countries,
cooperation rested on the advantages offered by the international division of labor, good-neigh-
borly relations and mutual economic complementarity. The dynamic and multi-dimensional na-
ture of the relationships based on the principles of peaceful coexistence allows us to describe
the Soviet-Finnish trade and economic relations as a pattern of the relationships between the
East and the West. The tone of these constructive friendly relations was set up at the highest
political level.
The present author who was actively involved in what was going on at that time has repeatedly
pointed out that none of the state figures of Finland of the latter half of the twentieth century
had done more for his country's independence, development and high international rating than
Urho Kekkonen. Today, in the present context of East-West relationships, Finland would have
profited from his enthusiasm and "drive."
One cannot but regret that Finland of 2015, as distinct from Finland of the 1970s, the leader of
economic and political relations between the East and the West, prefers to keep "low profile"
and, in an effort to follow in the footsteps of Brussels bureaucrats, tends to be "holier than the
Pope."
http://interaffairs.ru
Along the Road Laid in Helsinki