Quote Originally Posted by Adrian II View Post
Finnish industrialization really took off only after WWII, isnt that right? That healthy growth certainly wasn't due to the Soviets, I suppose .. American self-censorship wasn't enforced from the outside, Finnish self-censorship was. And it was enforced by the Soviets, who had a special agency in their press department in Tehtaankatu to take care of it. The result was biased coverage or lack of coverage (and public debate as well) of for instance Alexander Solzhenitsyn's travails and exile, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or events in the Baltic States.

As for the ´profits secured by Saakashvili´, they are non-existent. But that is no reason for us to want to deliver Georgia into Russian hands and have it finlandized. That is the point of this thread. Is finlandization a form of genuine neutrality? No. Is it a good solution? No again.
Finland was an example of how a small country makes minor concessions (like some control over the press but it would be foolish to say that this does not exist in the West, too; in Finalnd it was slightly heavier but it did the trick as we see nowadays) in order to a keep its vital national interests. Plus,no, you are wrong: Finland case was nothing but a neutrality agreed by both the USA and USSR. Contrary to the common understanding, being neutral sometimes requires a price for that to be paid. The Finns made a good deal. I wonder are you aware how Finland solve the German question (recognising the East and West Germany), what was their role in the Helsinki Conference, how it slowly but surely persuaded the Soviet Union of its own understanding of the peace treaties?

Just like most of the Eastern European countries. Most of these countries did not have very developed industry and it is not surprisng that the same happened in Finland (Russian between 1814 and 1917)