Urho Kaleva Kekkonen

Urho Kaleva Kekkonen , 1900-1986, president of Finland (1956-81). The leading spokesman of the Center party (known as the Agrarian party until 1965), he held various cabinet posts from 1936 and was prime minister from 1950 to 1956. He succeeded Juho Paasikivi as president in 1956. He was reelected in 1962 and 1968, and in 1973 the Finnish parliament voted to extend his term, which was to expire in 1974, until 1978, when he was elected to his final term as president. He resigned for health reasons in 1981. Throughout his career, Kekkonen succeeded in maintaining friendly neutrality with the USSR.

Kekkonen, Urho Kaleva (b. 3 Sept. 1900, d. 31 Aug. 1986). President of Finland 1956–81 Born in Pielavesi, he studied law at Helsinki University and in 1936 entered the Eduskunta (Parliament) for the Agrarian Party. He was Minister of Justice (1936–7), Minister of the Interior (1937–9), and four times Prime Minister in the period 1950–6. As President, he maintained a careful balance between good relationships with the West, and particularly with his Scandinavian neighbours, on the one hand, and the Soviet Union on the other. His efforts to reduce the polarization caused by the Cold War were crowned with success at the Helsinki Conference (1973–5). Owing to his domestic popularity, his tenure was extended by special legislation, but he was forced to resign in 1981 because of ill health.