63 Facts About Urho Kekkonen

Urho Kekkonen served as prime minister, and held various other cabinet positions.

Urho Kekkonen 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.

Urho Kekkonen 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.

Urho Kekkonen was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1936 until his rise to the presidency.

Urho Kekkonen himself thought it possible that the family might instead originate from Western Finland, for example from Tavastia, where there have been place names connected to their surname from as early as the 15th century.

Twelve generations of Urho Kekkonen's ancestors were peasants from eastern Finland.

The paternal side of Urho Kekkonen's family practised slash-and-burn agriculture and the maternal side stayed on their own site.

Emilia Pylvanainen herded cattle there, on the shores of the Haahkala lands, where Juho Urho Kekkonen worked with other loggers.

The couple moved to Otava, where Juho Urho Kekkonen got a job at the Koivusaha sawmill of Halla Oy.

Urho Kekkonen was later appointed the head of forestry work and caretaker of the logging business.

The couple moved to Pielavesi along with the working grounds, where Juho Urho Kekkonen bought a smoke hut which he later repaired and expanded into a proper house.

Urho Kekkonen built a chimney in the house shortly before the birth of his first son Urho.

The family lived in Lepikon torppa for six years and Urho Kekkonen's sister Siiri was born in 1904.

The son of Juho Kekkonen and Emilia Pylvanainen, Urho Kekkonen was born at Lepikon Torppa, a small cabin located in Pielavesi, in the Savo region of Finland, and spent his childhood in Kainuu.

Urho Kekkonen's father was originally a farm-hand and forestry worker who rose to become a forestry manager and stock agent at Halla Ltd.

Urho Kekkonen later admitted to having killed a man in battle, but wrote in his memoirs that he was randomly selected by his company commander to follow a squad escorting ten prisoners, where the squad turned out to be a firing squad, and then to give the actual order to aim and fire.

Urho Kekkonen had to complete further military service after the war, which he did in a car battalion from 1919 to 1920, finishing as a sergeant.

In independent Finland, Urho Kekkonen first worked as a journalist in Kajaani then moved to Helsinki in 1921 to study law.

Matti Urho Kekkonen served as a Centre Party member of Parliament from 1958 to 1969, and Taneli Urho Kekkonen worked as an ambassador in Belgrade, Athens, Rome, Malta, Warsaw and Tel Aviv.

Urho Kekkonen had a reputation as a heavy-handed, violent interrogator during his years in the security police.

Urho Kekkonen eventually had to resign from the EK after criticising his superiors.

In 1927 Urho Kekkonen became a lawyer and worked for the Association of Rural Municipalities until 1932.

Urho Kekkonen was an athlete whose greatest achievement was to become the Finnish high jump champion in 1924 with a jump of 1.85 metres.

Urho Kekkonen joined the Academic Karelia Society, an organisation favouring Finland's annexation of East Karelia, but resigned from it in 1932 along with over 100 other moderate members because of the organisation's support for the 1932 far-right Mantsala rebellion.

Urho Kekkonen chaired Suomalaisuuden Liitto, another nationalist organisation, from 1930 to 1932.

Urho Kekkonen published articles in its magazine, Suomalainen Suomi, which was later renamed as Kanava.

Urho Kekkonen spent long periods of time in late-Weimar-era Germany between 1931 and 1933 while working on his dissertation and there witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Urho Kekkonen successfully stood for parliament a second time in 1936 whereupon he became Justice Minister, serving from 1936 to 1937.

Urho Kekkonen was Minister of the Interior from 1937 to 1939.

Urho Kekkonen was not a member of the cabinets during the Winter War or the Continuation War.

Urho Kekkonen conducted a vigorous campaign against incumbent President Juho Kusti Paasikivi to finish third in the first and only ballot, receiving 62 votes in the electoral college, while Paasikivi was reelected with 171.

Urho Kekkonen used his power extensively to nominate ministers and to compel the legislature's acceptance of new cabinets.

Only when Urho Kekkonen's term ended did governments remain stable throughout the entire period between elections.

Urho Kekkonen consolidated his power within the party by placing supporters of the K-linja in leading roles.

Various Centre Party members to whose prominence Urho Kekkonen objected often found themselves sidelined, as Urho Kekkonen negotiated directly with the lower level.

At times, during evening parties with his friends, Urho Kekkonen got drunk, and he had at least two longtime mistresses.

Urho Kekkonen had warned against this but was ignored by SDP.

Urho Kekkonen sided with the Soviet Union, working behind the scenes against the cabinet; Fagerholm's cabinet consequently resigned in December 1958.

The second time the Soviets helped Urho Kekkonen was in the Note Crisis in 1961.

Whether Urho Kekkonen himself had organized the incident and to what extent remains debated.

Several parties competing against Urho Kekkonen had formed an alliance, Honka-liitto, to promote Chancellor of Justice Olavi Honka, a non-partisan candidate, in the 1962 presidential elections.

Urho Kekkonen had planned to foil the Honka-liitto by calling an early parliamentary election and thus forcing his opponents to campaign against each other and together simultaneously.

Urho Kekkonen thereby hoped to strengthen Finland's moves toward a policy of neutrality.

Urho Kekkonen informed the Soviet Union in 1970 that if it was no longer prepared to recognise Finland's neutrality, he would not continue as president, nor would the Finno-Soviet Treaty be extended.

Urho Kekkonen received 201 votes in the electoral college, whereas the National Coalition party's candidate finished second with 66 votes.

Vennamo's bold and constant criticisms of his presidency and policies especially infuriated Urho Kekkonen, who labelled him a "cheat" and "demagogue".

However, Urho Kekkonen began to see Karjalainen as a rival instead, and eventually rejected the idea.

Urho Kekkonen implied that only he personally could satisfy the Soviet Union that the deal would not threaten Soviet interests.

Urho Kekkonen's power reached its zenith in 1975 when he dissolved parliament and hosted the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe in Helsinki with the assistance of a caretaker government.

From December 1980 onwards, Urho Kekkonen suffered from an undisclosed disease that appeared to affect his brain functions, sometimes leading to delusional thoughts.

Urho Kekkonen had begun to suffer occasional brief memory lapses as early as the autumn of 1972; they became more frequent during the late 1970s.

Around the same time, Urho Kekkonen's eyesight deteriorated so much that for his last few years in office, all of his official papers had to be typed in block letters.

Urho Kekkonen had suffered from a failing sense of balance since the mid-1970s and from enlargement of his prostate gland since 1974.

Urho Kekkonen was subject to occasional violent headaches and suffered from diabetes from the autumn of 1979.

Urho Kekkonen went on medical leave on 10 September, before finally resigning due to ill health on 26 October 1981.

Urho Kekkonen died at Tamminiemi on August 31,1986, three days before his 86th birthday, and was buried with full honours.

Urho Kekkonen's heirs restricted access to his diaries and later an "authorised" biography by Juhani Suomi was commissioned, the author subsequently defending the interpretation of the history therein and denigrating most other interpretations.

Some of Urho Kekkonen's actions remain controversial in modern Finland, and disputes continue about how to interpret many of his policies and actions.

Urho Kekkonen often used what was termed the "Moscow card" when his authority was threatened, but he was not the only Finnish politician with close relations to Soviet representatives.

Urho Kekkonen's term saw a period of high sustained economic growth and increasing integration with the West.

Urho Kekkonen negotiated entrance into EFTA and thus was an early beginner for Finnish participation in European integration, which later culminated in full membership in the EU and the euro.

Urho Kekkonen remained highly popular during his term, even though such a profile approached that of a cult of personality towards the end of his term.

Urho Kekkonen is still popular among many of his contemporaries, particularly in his own Centre Party.