Porkkala

Porkkala is a peninsula in the Gulf of Finland located at Kirkkonummi in Southern Finland.

The peninsula had great strategical value, as coastal artillery based there would be able to reach more than halfway across the Gulf of Finland. If the same power would also control the Estonian coast, on opposite side of the gulf, it would then be able to block naval access from Saint Petersburg to the Baltic Sea. Saint Petersburg in turn is one of very few ice free ports belonging to Russia. Porkkala is furthermore located only 30 kilometers from Helsinki, the Finnish capital, and a foreign power based there would be able to exert significant pressure on the Finnish government.

During the Cold War the Soviet Union secured the rights of lease to naval base at Porkkala, in accordance with the armistice agreement that ended the Continuation War, between Finland and the Soviets, in 1944. A large area centering around the peninsula, including land from the municipalities of Kirkkonummi, Siuntio and Ingå and almost the entire area of Degerby, was leased to the USSR.

Despite the fact that the Soviet lease for Porkkala ran for 50 years it was terminated in 1955 and control was handed back to Finland. This might be attributed to process of Finlandization, to technological progress making coastal artillery obsolete, but the de-stalinisation of the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev, and the fact that Sweden had not opted to become a member of NATO, were also important contributing factors.

At present, the Porkkala area has one of the main naval bases of Finland, located in Upinniemi near to Porkkala proper.

See also

• Finlandization
• Cold War
• Hanko, Finland used as Soviet naval base in 1940-41

External link

• Details about Hanko and Porkkala leased bases, maps