90 years ago - the ministries were given their names
The third Cabinet of Independent Finland was nominated on 27 November 1918. On the same occasion, senators and offices became ministers and ministries. Senator Otto Stenroth was succeeded by Carl Enckell, the first man to lead the government agency as a Foreign Minister.
Paasikivi's Senate succeeded by Ingman's Council of State
In November 1918, the fall of the German Empire forced Finland to take a new direction in her foreign policy. Dreams of having a King got cast away. Regent Svinhufvud who had leaned on Germany made way for Mannerheim, and on 27 November 1918 Lauri Ingman was appointed Speaker of the Senate, a post formerly occupied by Paasikivi. He was the first man in Finnish history to bear the title of Prime Minister. The Senate, senators and offices were replaced by a Council of State with ministers and ministries. a link to the Decree.
Asetus Senaatin ja sen toimituskuntien nimen muuttamisesta (in Finnish, PDF 96 kB)
Decree on the change of the name of the Senate and its Offices (unofficial translation, PDF 8 kB)
Carl Enckell - a skilled professional nominated as Foreign Minister
Senator Stenroth was succeeded by Carl Enckell, a skilled professional in foreign policy, experienced by Finnish standards. He had spent the last days of 1917 in St. Petersburg mandated to seek Russia's recognition for Finland's independence. In the months that followed, Enckell was involved in coordinating duties related to foreign policy when serving as the foreign affairs expert of the Senate. For example, the requests addressed to foreign States for recognizing Finland's independence were forged by him. In January 1918, Enckell was appointed Finland's diplomatic envoy in St. Petersburg. In the summer, he acted as Speaker of the Finnish delegation in the peace negotiations between Finland and Russia in Berlin.
Having served as Foreign Minister for almost six months, Enckell was engaged in negotiating on the status on Åland in the League of Nations, putting breaks on the endeavours of the most enthusiastic pro-East Karelia activists and calming down commitment to border state policy. Later in the 1920s, Enckell served as the Finnish Ambassador in Paris and, twice as Foreign Minister. In 1927, he entered business life. It was after the war in 1944 that Enckell was assigned to the direction of the Ministry for the fourth time. Enckell served as Foreign Minister under Mannerheim and Paasikivi up until 1950.
Ministry of Strange Affairs
In the year 1918, Great Britain had its Foreign Office and Germany its Auswärtiges Amt. The UDs, or Utrikesdepartement and Utenriksdepartement were in charge of foreign policy in Sweden and Norway. In Finland, the agency to succeed the Foreign Affairs Office adopted a name similar in form to that of the Italian Ministero degli Affari Esteri or the French Ministère des Affaires étrangères. According to a Ministry legend, the French name for the Finnish Foreign Affairs Ministry was mistakenly printed on documents and forms as Ministère des Affaires étranges - Ministry of Strange Affairs. Jukka Nevakivi who wrote the history of the first decades of the Foreign Ministry tells the story from the point of view of how members of Parliament saw the Ministry. Indeed, to say the least, during the years after Finland had become independent ordinary members of Parliament found many of the affairs dealt with by the Foreign Ministry strange enough. It imports to say, however, that no documents have been found in the archives with "Affaires étranges" proudly printed on top.
Text: Head of Information Service Jyrki Paloposki, Ministry for Foreign Affairs
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The Ministry for Foreign Affairs marks the 90th anniversary year of its establishment in 2008. During the jubilee year, the Ministry will present its history and treasures from its archives, among others in a series of articles.
In this series Ministry has earlier published the articles:
- The beginnings of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs during the year of foundation 1918 (Jyrki Paloposki, MFA) 8/1/2008
- The Finnish flag (Jussi Pekkarinen, MFA) 6/5/2008
- Establishment of a mission and appointment of an envoy (Jussi Pekkarinen, MFA) 5/7/2008
- Åland - To Finland or to Sweden? (Jussi Pekkarinen, MFA) 3/19/2008
- Negotiating solo - Councillor of State Edvard Hjelt and Finland's first treaty with a foreign State (Antti Vuojolainen, MFA) 3/10/2008
- Vying foreign services (Jussi Pekkarinen, MFA) 2/1/2008
- Finland's independence is recognised by European states - vivat, floreat,crescat (Jyrki Paloposki, MFA) 1/11/2008
- New Year’s Eve at Smolna, St. Petersburg – Recognition of Finland’s independence on 31 December 1917 (Jyrki Paloposki, MFA) 12/27/2007
- Declaration of independence raised Finland “among free and independent nations” (Jyrki Paloposki, MFA) 12/5/2007
All the articles can be read on the website MFA 90.