Finland’s diplomat in Moscow on the eve of war
On the evening of 26 November 1939, he received Molotov’s protest over Mainila and immediately sought the facts from Helsinki.
Aarno Yrjö-Koskinen was a Finnish jurist and diplomat who shaped the foreign ministry’s political work and external negotiations. As envoy in Moscow, he stood at the front line of diplomacy in November 1939, receiving Molotov’s protest over the Mainila shelling and delivering Finland’s replies before the Winter War. He also helped conclude Finland’s non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, yet the effort to contain the security conflict through negotiation did not prevent war.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1908Philosophy degree
- 1913Law degree
- 1920Legation secretary in Paris
- 1924Chief of the Political Division
- 1931Foreign Minister; envoy in Moscow
- 1932Signed the Soviet–Finnish Non-Aggression Pact
- 1939Handled the diplomatic exchanges over Mainila
- 1940Head of the Finnish mission in Ankara
Related historical events
Envoy in Moscow and the Mainila shelling
Yrjö-Koskinen served as Finland's envoy in Moscow from 1 January 1931 to 8 April 1940.
On 26 November 1939 the Soviet foreign commissar Vyacheslav Molotov sent him a note claiming that at 15:45 that day seven artillery shots from the Finnish side had struck Soviet territory, killing three soldiers and one non-commissioned officer and wounding seven soldiers and two officers. The note called the concentration of Finnish troops a threat to Leningrad and a hostile act against the Soviet Union, and demanded that the Finnish government immediately withdraw its units on the Karelian Isthmus 20 to 26 km back from the border.
Finland's government ordered an immediate investigation, which concluded that gunfire had been heard on the Finnish side but could not have been fired from Finnish territory. The next day Yrjö-Koskinen delivered Finland's reply to Molotov. According to the reply, the open field of Mainila village, the site of the explosions, lay only about 800 m beyond the border, and from the seven shots heard the guns had been about 1.5 to 2 km southeast of the impact site. The reply stated that no Finnish artillery was positioned near enough to the border to fire across into the Soviet Union; it offered to discuss moving both sides' troops back from the border and proposed that border representatives of the two countries investigate the incident jointly under the 1928 agreement on border commissioners.
On 28 November Molotov sent another note saying Finland's reply reflected deep hostility toward the Soviet Union and charging that Finland wished to keep Leningrad under threat. The Soviet Union then unilaterally abrogated the non-aggression pact, and four days later, on 30 November, the Winter War began with the Soviet invasion of Finland. The record holds that the shelling was a provocation staged by the Soviet Union itself, with the firing position north of the border.