Eljas Erkko
Eljas Erkko
Finnish foreign minister who dismissed Stalin's demands as a bluff and overruled Mannerheim's counsel to compromise
"Forget that the Soviet Union is a great power": Erkko's instruction to Paasikivi before the 1939 Moscow negotiations.
A press baron who built Helsingin Sanomat into the Nordics' largest daily, Erkko became foreign minister in December 1938 and seized full control of the Soviet negotiations. An unyielding hardliner, he instructed Paasikivi departing for Moscow to "forget that the Soviet Union is a great power," dismissed Stalin's territorial demands as a bluff, and overruled Marshal Mannerheim's advice to compromise. With the Erkko-owned Helsingin Sanomat steering public opinion against concessions, the talks collapsed; after the Winter War began, Paasikivi called it "Erkko's war."
Career timeline
- 1918White Guard officer, Finnish Civil War
- 1919–1927Foreign Ministry postings in Paris, Tallinn, London
- 1927–1938Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat; CEO, Sanoma Oy
- 1932Minister without portfolio, Deputy Interior Minister (Sunila II)
- 1933–1936MP, National Progressive Party
- 1938–1939Minister of Foreign Affairs (Cajander III)
- 1939–1940Chargé d'affaires, Stockholm
- 1945–1965CEO and Chairman, Sanoma Oy