On Tiptoe

"Do you really think it's so much better?" asked Finns when TIME'S Jack Fleischer returned to Helsinki for the first time in two years. He did.

The city's wartime grey is now covered with bright paint glistening in the long northern sun. Bombed buildings have been repaired. A dozen fine apartment buildings have shot up in one Helsinki district since the armistice of Sept. 19, 1944. There are new cottages and barns along nearby country roads.

Consumer goods are scarce, but Stockmann's, the big department store whose shelves were empty two years ago, now has fine pottery, glassware, furniture, Finnish handicraft. Fats and meat are rare, but the Finnish calory level is higher than most of Europe's; eggs, potatoes and vegetables are off the ration list. A smartly dressed woman in Helsinki is marked as a visiting Swede from the neighboring land of plenty, for clothes are still scarce (one pair of stockings each year for women, one suit and one shirt for each man every 16 months, new shoes only for industrial workers). But on the whole things are definitely better.

Good Propagandist. Finns cannot quite account for Russia's relatively lenient treatment. "Russia is mostly interested in getting the reparations from us," some say, "and therefore is letting us alone." Others proudly think that Russians fear to risk a long struggle with a people so passionately devoted to liberty. Another favorite explanation: "the Kremlin considers its present policy toward Finland good propaganda, especially for the Scandinavian countries." Many call their land "Russia's model protectorate."

Whatever the reason, Finland today has a degree of freedom unknown in other nations defeated by Russia. Finland's Reds and the Agrarian Party's "Greens" work together in Finland's left-of-center Government. Each of the three major parties --the Communist-dominated Democratic People's Union, the Social Democrats and the Agrarians--holds about one-quarter of the Diet's 200 seats.

Only three Cabinet ministers are Communist Party members. Of these the dominant figure is Yrjoe Leino, Minister of the Interior. His wife--pretty Hertta Kuusinen--is leader of the Democratic People's Union in the Diet, and daughter of the President of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic which incorporated southeastern Finland after the 1939-40 war.

Little Slips. One of the few signs of Russian interference in Finland today is a mild press censorship administered by Leino, who informs newspapers ("by little slips of paper," as one editor put it) what subjects are taboo. The principal forbidden subject is criticism of Russia.

Even irreconcilable Finnish anti-Communists do not criticize Yrjoe and Hertta Leino. Said one big businessman: "If all the Communists were like them, we wouldn't worry so much. The trouble is that when the right time comes they'll probably be replaced by the real radicals."

Whether or not that time ever comes and Russia openly takes over the political reins in Finland, it is certain the Finnish economy is becoming more & more integrated with her big neighbor's to the east. Only one-third of Russia's reparations bill can be paid in wood products, although more than 80% of Finland's prewar exports came from her forests. A third of reparations must be paid in machines and tools, and most of the remainder in ships.

This means that Finland must build up her metal and engineering industry--for which she will have trouble finding any future customer, except Russia, after reparations are fully paid. At present, at least a tenth of Finland's national income goes for reparations, which will run for six more years.

Meanwhile the Finns are resigned to keeping on "friendly" terms with Russia, building up their export trade, following a Red-Green domestic policy that has not yet resulted in large-scale nationalization of industry or redistribution of land. The Finns are moving slowly and quietly, like a man tiptoeing for fear he'll wake a rough-&-ready neighbor.

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