Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a shock to Finnish political leaders in February 2022. Finland, a neutral country sharing a long border with Russia, had stayed outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for more than 70 years but had to accept the cold realities overnight. Finland joined NATO on 4 April 2023 after one of the shortest accession processes in the history of the alliance.

Juho Ovaska has written a timely book based on his dissertation, Käänne: Suomen irtiotto Kremlistä Eurooppaan, discussing Finland's foreign policy and decision-making structures during the final decade of the USSR. Ovaska draws on the archives of President Mauno Koivisto (1982–1994) which were declassified recently. Koivisto, a leftist Social Democrat by conviction, was a war veteran who had made a successful career as a banker and as a technocratic politician but never as a member of the Finnish parliament.

In January 1982 Koivisto was...

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