Home Russian

A "kotiryssä" (literally "Home Russian") is a Soviet or Russian contact person of a politician, bureaucrat, businessman or other important person in Finland. The dozens of KGB officers working out of the Tehtaankatu embassy of the Soviet Union is now well documented.^[1] The public did not know about the system until the book Tamminiemen pesänjakajat was published in 1981.^[2] The kotiryssä system was closely related to Finlandization.

Examples

Viktor Vladimirov - KGB officer for elite Finnish politicians, including Urho Kekkonen.^[1]^[3]^[4]
Felix Karasev - KGB officer who arrived in April 1985 to replace Vladimirov.^[5]
Vladimir Stepanov - KGB officer and later Soviet Ambassador to Finland.^[6]
Sergei Ivanov - KGB officer for six years in Finland in the 1980s, following alleged deportation from the UK. He worked directly under Karasev. Later a top member of the Russian government.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Who remembers 2nd Secretary Ivanov? The Russian First Deputy Prime Minister spent six years in Helsinki in the 1980s Helsingin Sanomat 1.4.2007
^ Political Cultures in Urho Kekkonen’s Finland and János Kádár’s Hungary Heino Nyyssönen
^ Russian diplomat in Helsinki served as head of KGB assassination section Helsingin Sanomat 11.9.2009
^ UKK tiesi Vladimirovin murhataustan Iltasanomat 31.08.2009
^ Mauno Koivisto: Witness to history: the memoirs of Mauno Koisvisto president of Finland p. 13
^ Vladimir Stepanov: KGB man and friend of Kekkonen

Home Russian

Examples

References

See also