A Biographical Study of Johannes Virolainen and Transnational Politics of the Cold War

A Finnish Friend and Foe of the Soviet Union

Abstract

This article explores how a systematic study of a person’s life can be revealing of larger political processes, for instance the dynamics between states and political actors during the Cold War period. The biographical method utilised in this article – the study of Finnish long-term politician Johannes Virolainen’s archive – enables the discerning of illogical and contradictory features in the behaviour of the Soviet Union. The article highlights multipolar-multilevel interactions of the Cold War: 1) how the Soviet Union could not ignore medium level political actors from small states, such as Virolainen, and 2) how the balance between Cold War blocs in Europe was truly a conundrum for the Soviet Union, which created interesting scopes of action for political actors.