FINLAND: Political Paavo

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Chewing a fat, four-inch stogie, Finland's most popular "war criminal" stepped out the gate of Helsinki's Sornas Prison last week into the welcoming arms of his wife, eight children and eleven grandchildren. White-haired, 68-year-old Vaino Tanner, condemned by a Communist-run tribunal for advocating war with Russia in 1941, had been granted remission of half his 5½-year sentence. "I am sure I am the best living advertisement for Finnish prisons," smiled the old man. "I have gained 15 pounds in weight and feel fitter than ever."

Tanner spent eight hours of each prison day writing four volumes of memoirs and several translations, including Harold Laski's Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time and Wendell Berge's Cartels: Challenge to a Free World. His earnings from royalties were between $10,000 and $37,000. After his daily stint, the onetime Foreign Minister would spend an hour or two playing the Italian bowling game boccie with nine fellow prisoners, all former cabinet ministers. "We all became champions at the game," says Tanner.

Finland's Socialist government did not go out of its way to make the old Socialist leader's prison term uncomfortable. He got paper and writing material from his home, also any extra food he wished. "But I had to cut down smoking," Tanner sighed to reporters. "I used to smoke five feet a day [15 four-inch panatelas]; in prison I had to be content with only five four-inchers daily." Once a week the prisoner held a conference in his cell with Socialist colleagues in the government.

Helsinki's non-Communist press last week welcomed back "the Paavo Nurmi of Finnish politics." Red newspapers damned the release of Tanner (whom they called "worse than Laval and Quisling"), and threatened "dire consequences." With a cautious eye on the Kremlin, bull-necked Premier Karl August Fagerholm, Tanner's most ardent disciple, did not immediately invite the old fire-eater back into the government. Tanner declared that he would retire to his farm near Helsinki, "to write books and raise forests." Before he left Helsinki, he had one more political pronouncement. "I am proud of the Socialist Party's fight for democratic principles," the old man thundered. "The Finnish Communists must be placed where they belong. Right at the back of the stalls."