Through Rose or Blue and White Glasses? Decades of News about the Soviet Union in the Finnish Press

Abstract

The Finnish public discussion culture has often been criticized of being unanimous and consensual. In different times political journalism has treated foreign and home affairs as well as economic policy with care. In the present article, attention is paid to Finnish foreign reporting about the Soviet Union during the last decades of its existence. The empirical material used consists of media texts on major events during the Soviet era as well as interviews with key editors-in-chief at the time. The objective is to describe and analyze the ways in which critical reporting was carried out in different Finnish newspapers and the reasons behind this.