Koivisto emerged a key figure among the Social Democrats in the late 1960s and helped raise the party’s popularity in Finland, which had been dominated by the former president Kekkonen’s agrarian Center Party in the post-World War II era. Koivisto joined the Social Democratic Party and completed his education, graduating with a philosophy degree and a doctorate in sociology in 1956. At 16, he was a volunteer on the home front in the bitter 1939-40 Winter War against the Soviets during World War II. He also fought in the Continuation War in 1941-44, when Finnish troops battled the Russians beside Nazi Germany.Īfter the war, Mr. ![]() Koivisto was a rare breed among Finnish heads of state because of his war experience.Īt the age of 16, he was a volunteer on the home front in the bitter 1939-40 Winter War against the Soviets. In 1992, he initiated the country’s application to join the European Community - the precursor of the European Union - and eventually led Finland to join the EU in 1995 after overwhelming support for membership in a referendum.īorn into a religious family in 1923, Mr. He unilaterally declared two treaties as null and void - the 1947 Paris Treaty, which placed restrictions on the Finnish military, and the 1948 Finnish-Soviet pact on mutual assistance, which hindered Finland’s integration with European security structures. Mauno Koivisto, Finland’s last president during the Cold War, who led the Nordic nation out of the shadow of its huge eastern neighbor, the Soviet Union, and into the European Union, died May. Koivisto started to steer Finland out of international isolation. MARKKU ULANDER/AFP/Getty Images/File 2004Īhead of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the fall of 1991, Mr. ![]() Koivisto served as president of Finland from 1982 to 1994.
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