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Pravda, 26 November 1939:

A Buffoon Holding the Post of Prime Minister
(ШУТ ГОРОХОВЫЙ НА ПОСТУ ПРЕМЬЕРА)

The Finnish Cabinet is afraid to step out in front of its own Parliament. Instead, Prime Minister Cajander willingly made a spectacle of himself at a concert on November 23rd. As the music played, the Prime Minister jokingly spoke. His Finnish bourgeoisie need to be entertained due to their present depressed condition. Cajander entertained to the best of his ability. He displayed his outstanding talents as a clown.

Cajander transformed the concert stage into an arena of circus buffoonery. Like a clown he performed somersaults with everything he said being upside-down. He stood on his head and walked on his hands.

He started his performance by dragging onto the arena portraits of the Russian czars and making deep bows in front of them. He did this with a serious attitude showing the affection of a born flunkey.

He spoke about the "policies, sympathetic to Finland, pursued by Alexander I and Alexander II, which were endorsed by the entire population of Finland."

After this Tom Fool stood on his head and threatened with his feet the Soviet Union, who he alleged is menacing the independence of Finland. A truly majestic pose!

It is well known that the Russian czars Alexanders and Nicholases stifled every attempt of the Finnish people to win their independence. The czarist policy of oppression, violence and suppression, only received "endorsement" of the reactionary venal Finnish bourgeoisie. These Cajanders served the Russian czars as loyal flunkeys and court clowns.

When czarism collapsed under the blows of the people, the bourgeois Provisional Government, which seized power, refused to give Finland independence. For this independence the Bolsheviks Lenin and Stalin struggled, beside the Finnish people. From Soviet power, Finland received her independence which the Finnish bourgeoisie has always traded in and are now trading in on the imperialist bazaar.

Such are the facts. Cajander imagines that when he makes his somersaults,the world turns over with him. Stupid illusion! Tom Fool makes somersaults, but the facts stand firmly on their feet.

All of this is a miserable gam played only to avoid answering the question which the people of Finland are putting point blank to their entangled government of intriguers:

- Why did Latvia, Esthonia and Lithuania conclude with the Soviet government agreements which guarantee their independence, peace and quiet labor, while the Finnish government disrupted negotiations and keeps the people in a state of alarm?

"Here you can not get away with mere juping. Cajander does cartwheels, gives himself airs, shouts cock-a-doodle-do - and, all of the sudden sobs. He grieves, groans, rends his clothing and rains circus powder onto his own head, like ashes, not on himself, but on the heads of ministers of Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Cajander sobs:

- "These three viable Baltic nations, with brilliant futures ahead, are suddenly reduced from independent countries to countries which are more or less dependent on the Soviet Union. On us, the Finns, this made a depressing impression...". [this passage lacks in the Daily Worker translation..]

Cajander mourns for the statesmen of Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They, don't you see, have proved to be not very farsighted. It is he who is farsighted, the Tom Fool at the post Premier. He sees far ahead, this politician of the school of far-sighted Beck and far-sighted Moscicki. Let him learn, how these Polish Tom Fools, who have lost their jobs forever, feel.

Soon apparently, Cajander will be able to become convinced in practise that it is not the puppets of the Finnish government who are far-sighted, but the present leaders of Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who concluded mutual assistance pacts with the U.S.S.R.

ANd yet, the Cajanders continue to avoid answering the questions which the Finnish people are asking with ever growing insistence.

- Why you, Cajanders, disrupt the negotiations with the U.S.S.R.? It was not this that the people demanded of you. But who then demanded disruption of the negotiations?

The Prime Minister of Finland wriggles like a grass snake. He whimpers as he wipes the tears from his dirty face: ------------------------------------------------

- "Since it was difficult to find a common ground in the negotiations, they have been temporarily interrupted. This is regrettable, because Finland sincerely wants to maintain good relations to all her neighbors ..."

Cajander "regrets"! Cajander wrecked the negotiations "temporarily"! Cajander sheds tears of sorrow ...

Crocodile tears, it is said, are the most deceitful, most heinous and most disgusting tears in the world. But even more viler and deceitful are the tears shed by a buffoon imitating a crocodile. It is a variety of a reptile, but without sharp teeth, without power, but having the guile and lust of a small beast.

Nothing helps the Cajanders to escape the question set forth in an ever growing serious tone by the people of Finland, now drawn by provocateurs into a dirty and dangerous intrigue:

- Why you, Cajanders, wrecked the negotiations? You should be aligned with the people of Finland, who really wants friendship with the Soviet people. Who are you aligned with, whose will are you obeying and whose instructions are you carrying out?

And restlessly, cowardly, with aside wandering eyes this buffoon, holding the post of the Prime Minister, swears and makes oaths:

- Finland has not needed or received instructions from other countries. God knows none! May even my eyes burst, not a one received!

Clown's oaths, clown's vows. A receipt of execution of "instructions from other countries" is already published. It is included in the approving comments of imperialistic British newspapers on Cajander's address. "Daily Herald" taps his Finnish buffoon amicably on the shoulder: You have done your best, brother!

If after this, is it any wonder that Cajander does not find "common ground" with the Soviet government! The buffoon turns somersaults on the "common ground" of warmongering imperialism, the jazz orchestra rattles, pipes squeal, and ringmaster's whip clashes.

How long is this political buffoonery expected to go on?

One must hope that not for long. One must hope, that the people of Finland do not let marionettes, like Cajander, steer the Finnish ship of state farther ahead on the same wrecked route that Beck and Moscicki took.
This translation of the original article in Pravda, November 26, 1939, is mainly based on the Finnish translation, published in the book "Tie talvisotaan" (The Road to the Winter War) by Bror Laurla. Saarijärvi, Finland 1978.

The same article was read (in Finnish) in a slightly different form on the Finnish language transmission of Radio Moscow on the same day at 5 o'clock P.M. The transmission was recorded by the Finnish National Broadcasting Company - Suomen Yleisradio.

"Tiltu". The Soviet version of "Axis Sally" or female version of "Lord Haw-Haw". This transmission, relayed from Moscow on July 14, 1941, was sent on the same frequency as Finnish domestic services. The announcer (in Finnish): "Citizens of Finland. German fascist brought you hunger and a new insane war against the Soviet Union. Rise to arms against German fascism and its hirelings Ryti and Mannerheim, who are the real culprits in the sufferings of the Finnish people." (MP3)
The sign-on tune of a Finnish language transmission of the Central Broadcasting Authority of the Soviet Union in the 70's (MP3). Dimitrii Pokrass, the composer of the tune, Moscow in May (1937), made also music for the song Suomi (Finland) - the beauty (1939), an invitation to the Finns to open the gates to the attacking Red Army.

The address (referred by this article) by Prime Minister A. K. Cajander in Helsinki November 23, 1939, concerning the territorial demands by the Soviet Union and Finland's willingness to negotiate all kinds of solutions without surrendering Finland's vital interests.
  • The Soviet air forces dropped bombs on Helsinki, Viipuri and other cities and the Red Army crossed the border on November 30, 1939, without any declaration of war. The Soviets had unilaterally abrogated the non-aggression pact a couple of days earlier. Claims about Finnish artillery shelling a border village - incidentally afternoon on the same day when the article was published - were given as a pretext for this. The Political Administration of the Red Army explains to their propagandists reasons to repel the threat caused by Finnish "swineheads". The League of Nations examined, on the Finnish initiative, the measures of Soviet and Finnish governments in the light of its own charter, as well as international and bilateral treaties, and conluded that Soviet Union had lost its membership on Dec. 14, 1939. Pravda's comment on this.

  • The Polish President Ignacy Mościcki (1867-1946) and Foreign Minister Józef Beck (1894-1944) in Wikipedia.

  • The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact and the Secret Additional Protocol.

  • Roosevelt's statement on Dec. 1, 1939.

  • von Weiszäcker's (State Secretary in the German Foreign Office) telegram to German Missions Abroad, Dec. 2, 1939.

  • Contemporary and later commentaries on Russo-Finnish Wars.

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