Urho Kekkonen

Urho Kekkonen
Kekkonen in 1975
8th President of Finland
In office 1 March 1956 – 27 January 1982
Prime Minister	See list Karl-August Fagerholm Vieno Sukselainen Rainer von Fieandt Reino Kuuskoski Martti Miettunen Ahti Karjalainen Johannes Virolainen Rafael Paasio Mauno Koivisto Teuvo Aura Kalevi Sorsa Keijo Liinamaa
Preceded by	Juho Kusti Paasikivi
Succeeded by	Mauno Koivisto
Prime Minister of Finland
In office 20 October 1954 – 3 March 1956
President	Juho Kusti Paasikivi
Preceded by	Ralf Törngren
Succeeded by	Karl-August Fagerholm
In office 17 March 1950 – 17 November 1953
President	Juho Kusti Paasikivi
Preceded by	Karl-August Fagerholm
Succeeded by	Sakari Tuomioja
Personal details
Born	(1900-09-03)3 September 1900 Pielavesi, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire
Died	31 August 1986(1986-08-31) (aged 85) Helsinki, Finland
Resting place	Hietaniemi Cemetery
Political party	Agrarian League (1933–1965) Centre Party (1965–1982)
Spouse	Sylvi Kekkonen ​ ​ (m. 1926; died 1974)​
Children	Matti, Taneli
Residence	Tamminiemi
Alma mater	University of Helsinki
Occupation	Lawyer police officer journalist politician
Signature
Nickname(s)	UKK, Urkki

Urho Kaleva Kekkonen^[a] (3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as prime minister (1950–1953, 1954–1956), and held various other cabinet positions.^[1] He was the third and most recent president from the Agrarian League/Centre Party. Head of state for nearly 26 years, he dominated Finnish politics for 31 years overall. Holding a large amount of power, he won his later elections with little opposition and has often been classified as an autocrat.^[2]

As president, Kekkonen continued the "active neutrality" policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi that came to be known as the Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine, under which ostensibly Finland was to retain its independence while maintaining good relations and extensive trade with members of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Critical commentators referred to this policy of appeasement pejoratively as Finlandization. He hosted the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe in Helsinki in 1975 and was considered a potential candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize that year. He is credited by Finnish historians for his foreign and trade policies, which allowed Finland's market economy to keep pace with Western Europe even with the Soviet Union as a neighbor, and for Finland to gradually take part in the European integration process.^[3] On the other hand, his perceived hunger for power, his divide-and-rule attitude in domestic politics and the lack of genuine political opposition, especially during the latter part of his presidency, significantly weakened Finnish democracy during his presidency.^[3] After Kekkonen's presidency, the reform of the Constitution of Finland was initiated by his successors to increase the power of the Parliament and the prime minister at the expense of the president.

Kekkonen was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1936 until his rise to the presidency. Either prior, during or between his premierships, he served as minister of justice (1936–37, 1944–46, 1951), minister of the interior (1937–39, 1950–51), speaker of the Finnish Parliament (1948–50) and minister of foreign affairs (1952–53, 1954). In addition to his extensive political career, he was a lawyer by education, a policeman and athlete in his youth, a veteran of the Finnish Civil War, and an enthusiastic writer. During World War II, his anonymous reports on the war and foreign politics received a large audience in the Suomen Kuvalehti magazine.^[3] Even during his presidency, he wrote humorous, informal columns (causerie) for the same magazine, edited by his long-time friend Ilmari Turja,^[4] under several pseudonyms.

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