"Arise, Finland!"

The Finns were first conquered by the Swedes in 1157. Peter the Great and Charles XII partitioned Finland and in 1809 Russia seized the entire country, which then became a grand duchy with a Parliament of its own and wide autonomous rights. In 1905 the Finns went on a national strike against the Tsar's usurpation of their rights, and unprecedentedly won. The Red Terror that came with the 1917 Russian Bolshevik revolution was bad enough: the White Guard Terror which followed was even worse. The Finns are therefore used to trouble.

Well aware that in the past few years their independence largely depended on the Germans protecting them from the Russians, and vice versa, when the Soviet Union began to attack the Finns last week they took it calmly. President Kyosti Kallio proclaimed a "state of siege." Foreign Minister Erkko observed: "Once and for all, I wish to say in all solemnity that Finland has not wanted war, has no desire to be a threat to anyone and has no desire to become the instrument of a third power." Then they got on with the war.

Late that night the Finnish Parliament met. Particular Finnish targets of Soviet abuse had been Premier Aimo Cajander,

Foreign Minister Erkko and Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, president of the National Defense Council. Premier Cajander's Government received a unanimous vote of confidence and then, to make way for possible negotiations with Russia, resigned. Appointed as the new Premier was 50-year-old President of the Bank of Finland Risto Ryti. New Foreign Minister was V. A. Tanner, who took part in the recent

Russo-Finnish negotiations at Moscow, and who can match most Soviet bigshots in proletarian experience. He once worked as a miner in the U. S. The Soviets were not so happy about Minister Tanner; the Soviet radio quickly called him one of the "madmen of Helsinki."

But if the Finns thought that by changing their Government thus they could persuade Dictator Stalin to call off his war they were mistaken. Scarcely had they relayed word through to Moscow that a new Government was ready to deal with the Kremlin than out of the clear blue appeared a brand new, ready-made Finnish "People's Government" with a resounding program and declaration.

According to the Soviet Union's version, the Government of the U.S.S.R. happened to hear about the new "People's Government of the Finnish Democratic Republic" over the radio, had its manifesto translated, was very much impressed by it and in a jiffy the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet recognized it.

The People's Government was formed at Terijoki, a little seaside village in Finland just across the Russian border which the Red Army had just captured. The chairman and Foreign Minister of the new "Government" was an old revolutionary named Otto Kuusinen, who had lived in Moscow for years. Tovarish Kuusinen, who immediately after being raised to his new station took on the foreign title of Gospodin (Mr.), was, in fact, a member of the executive committee of the Communist International. He left Finland 20 years ago during the White Guard Terror. How the new "Government" could radio from Terijoki was a mystery. The village has no sending set.

The "People's Government's" declaration read a stern lesson to the Helsinki Government, outlined an ambitious program and called upon all Finns to "chase these hangmen" from Finland.

"By the will of the people, indignant at the criminal policy of the contemptible Government of Cajander, Erkko and Tanner, a new Government of our country--the People's Provisional Government--was formed today in Eastern Finland," begins the declaration.

"This Government hereby calls the entire Finnish people to a determined struggle for the overthrow of the tyranny of hangmen and war provocateurs. The reactionary, avid plutocracy which in 1918, aided by the troops of foreign imperialists, drowned democratic freedom of the Finnish toiling people in a sea of blood, transformed our country into a White-Guard hell for toilers.

"Having sold the interests of the country's independence, the plutocratic rulers of Finland, jointly with all kinds of imperialist enemies of the Finnish and Soviet peoples, ceaselessly hatched plans of anti-Soviet war provocations and finally plunged our country into the furnace of war against the Socialist Soviet Union--the great friend of the Finnish people."

The "People's Government" invited the Red Army to join it in a struggle against the Government at Helsinki and announced the formation of the First Finnish Army Corps which, it was said, will be "accorded the honor of bringing the banner of Finland's democratic republic into the capital and hoisting it on the roof of the Presidential Palace to the joy of the working people and to the awe of the enemies of the people." A warning was given, however, that the new Finland would not be a Soviet State, "because the Soviet regime cannot be established by the efforts of the Government alone without the consent of the whole people, in particular the peasantry." As for an internal program:

1) "Creation of the People's Army of Finland."

2) "The institution of State control over large private banks and large industrial enterprises and the realization of measures assisting medium and petty enterprises."

3) "The realization of measures for the complete elimination of unemployment."

4) "Reduction of the working day to eight hours, provision for a two-weeks' summer vacation for workers and reduction of house rents for workers and employes."

5) "Confiscation of lands belonging to big landowners, without touching the lands and properties of peasants, and transfer of the confiscated land to peasants having no land or possessing small allotments."

6) "Exemption of peasants from the payment of tax arrears."

7) "State assistance in every form for the improvement of economies for the poor peasants, in the first place by alloting to them additional land, pastures and when possible also forests for their domestic needs, from lands confiscated from large landowners."

8) "Democratization of State organization, administration and courts."

9) "Enhancement of State subsidies for cultural needs and reorganization of schools, to insure the possibility of attendance at schools to children of workers and other needy people; also solicitude of every form for the development of public education, science, literature and the arts in a progressive spirit.

"Arise, long-suffering, toiling people of Finland! Arise to the courageous fight against the tyranny of your oppressors and hangmen! Arise, all citizens to whom the future of our country is dear! Let us throw down the black pack of reaction from the shoulders of our people! Let us clear the road for the progress, welfare and culture of the people, for the realization of the age-old national aspirations of our people. Let triumph the cause of the workers, peasants and working intelligentsia of Finland.

"Under the banner of a free and independent democratic Republic of Finland, onward to victories!"

Later, Gospodin Kuusinen and Premier-Foreign Commissar Molotov initiated in Moscow a "mutual assistance" treaty between the two Governments which, it was significantly said, will be formally signed later in Helsinki. The Soviet Union, having cut off all communication with the now unrecognized Finnish Government, paid little heed to appeals delivered through third parties. As it began to appear more & more that the Finns would have to fight it out, Premier Ryti stout-heartedly declared: "We will not consent to bargain away our independence. . . . We will fight alone and we expect to win."

Early this week Finland made the last desperate gesture of a hard-pressed Government. It appealed to the League of Nations to intercede. Professing bewilderment, Soviet Russia informed the League of Nations that she regarded Finland's appeal as "unfounded," declaring that she was maintaining "peaceful relations" with the "People's Government" of Finland.

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