Toivo Mikael Kivimäki

Toivo Mikael Kivimäki
Prime Minister of Finland
In office December 14, 1932 – October 7, 1936
President	Pehr Evind Svinhufvud
Preceded by	Juho Sunila
Succeeded by	Kyösti Kallio
Personal details
Born	5 June 1886 Tarvasjoki, Finland
Died	6 May 1968 (aged 81)
Political party	National Progressive Party

Toivo Mikael Kivimäki (5 June 1886 – 6 May 1968), J.D., was head of the department of civil law at Helsinki University 1931–1956, Prime Minister of Finland 1932–1936, and Finland's ambassador to Berlin 1940–1944.^[1]

In 1946, Kivimäki together with half-a-dozen other leading politicians were put on "war-responsibility trials" executed under pressure from the Allied victors in World War II. Kivimäki was sentenced to five years in prison after being found responsible for the Continuation War. After Finland signed the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, and the Finno–Soviet Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, 1948, the international situation was deemed somewhat stabilized, and Kivimäki was pardoned. He returned to his career in academia.

As with all politicians connected with the Continuation War, Kivimäki was for decades seen in a somewhat critical light. During the era of finlandization, many prominent Finns expressed themselves cautiously on such subjects in order not to disturb sensitive Allied victors of the war; a cautiousness that without doubt influenced Finland's post-war generation's understanding and views.

• As Prime Minister, Kivimäki headed Finland's (until 1987) most long-lived cabinet, aiming at stabilizing the turbulent politics in Finland after the semi-fascist Mäntsälä Rebellion had been put down.
• He achieved the reversal of Finland's foreign policy into a neutralist pro-Scandinavian stance, and a Swedish rapprochement, that may well have been prepared for in the most initiated circles, but that in the contemporary tense phase of the language strife in Finland was not at all easy to explain to the public opinion.
• As an ambassador to the Third Reich, Kivimäki was in a position to observe the anti-Semitic nature of the Nazi regime and the disappearance of German Jews to concentration camps. Kivimäki succeeded in reversing Nazi Germany's anti-Finnish stance, obtaining support and favours but at the price of Finland having to form an alliance with Hitler. Finland avoided formal treaties with Nazi Germany up until the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement, which was signed after the fall of Viipuri in June 1944.

Several individuals and factors were critical for the Winter War and the Continuation War. Kivimäki without any doubt occupies a prominent position among pro-Axis Finnish leaders.

References

1. "Ministerikortisto". Valtioneuvosto.