INCREASING SOVIET POTENTIAL FOR UNDERMINING FINNISH STABILITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79R00890A000100070030-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2000
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: August 4, 1953
• Content Type: OUTLINE

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Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP79R0089OA000100070030-6
4 August 1953
Increasing Soviet Potential for Undermining Finnish Stability:
1. Soviet capabilities for disrupting Finland's economic
and political stability have seriously increased,
A. Finnish economic situation has deteriorated.
B. USSR has become principal market for Finnish
exports.
II. Finland's economic deterioration due to two basic factors.
A. The world market for Finland's traditional
exports of wood products has been sagging.
B. High production costs have made it difficult
for Finnish products to compete in Western
markets,
III. Finland has been forced to increase markedly its trade
with the Soviet bloc.
A 'A,,Finnish exports to bloc expected to reach 34
percent in 1953 compared to 23 percent in 1952.
872044
..... -_...__ '-?mow.
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 B. Finnish exports to the bloc only 16 percent
between 1947-1951.
IV. The USSR could exploit its favorable economic position
to create a crisis.
A. It could threaten to cancel its trade agree-
ments.
B. It might refuse to accept Finnish goods or to
make agreed deliveries.
Any solution to this problem is complicated by several
factors:
A. Finland is committed to maintain approximately
its 1953 trade with the orbit through 1955.
B. The delicate balance of Soviet-Finnish relations
militates against any remedial steps by the
United States,
C. Finland's political parties cannot agree on any
practical solution.
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VI. An American inter-agency working group has failed to
devise a program for halting Finland's growing economic
dependence on the Soviet Bloc.
A. The group particularly studied the possibility
of increasing US purchases of Finnish products.
B. It concluded that this approach could not pos-
sibly yield results commensurate with the size
and seriousness of the problem.
C. US purchase of all Finnish exports to the orbit
currently totalling $200 million is unfeasible
because of Finnish sensitivity to its powerful
neighbor.
VII. Loss of Finland to the USSR through economic absorption
would shock US public and adversely affect Western posi-
tion in Scandinavia.
Approved For Release 2002/, '-?9, - JOA000100070030-6