Alkuinnostuksesta pettymykseen : Suomen suhteet Romaniaan 1920–1923

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p>Finland’s relations with Romania between 1920 and 1923 consisted of initial enthusiasm, goodwill, aspirations, many kinds of plans, and personal efforts. On the other hand, indifference, scarcity of resources and recurring disappointments were also included in them. It seems that the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at first, saw the establishment of relations with Romania as important, especially from the point of view of security policy. In practice, however, Finland was not prepared to invest sufficiently in the development of relations. With regard to Finland, it can be estimated that the image of Romania and Romanians had a significant impact on relations. Envoy Tanner’s activities and reports clearly show that things developed rapidly in the negative direction. When he arrived in Romania in the summer of 1920, Tanner initially described very positively the friendly reception he had received from Romanians. Soon, in the autumn of the same year, Tanner’s attitude began to change when he came into a mental clash with local conditions and customs. Envoy Tanner could not accept that things happened differently than in his own home country and in the academic world where he originally came from before his short career at the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Tanner himself found his actions as a series of disappointments and suffering. Therefore, it is no wonder that after a couple of years he became seriously ill and temporarily disabled. Tanner thought he had done everything he could, but the reasons for the failure were elsewhere. In his view, the guilty parties were the Romanians who did not follow the “Finnish rules of the game”. In one part, responsibility fell on the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had left Tanner without support to fight in a hopeless situation — as he saw it.</p></div>