Finlandization
noun · first attested 1960s
West German commentators coined a word out of Finland's name that Finns have resented ever since.
The condition in which a small state keeps its independence and internal system by deferring to a powerful neighbor on foreign policy.
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1960s
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Finland
- In English
Finlandization
The English word translates German Finnlandisierung, used in West German debate of the 1960s and 1970s about how a country could stay outside the Soviet bloc only by taking Moscow's line abroad, as Finland did after 1944. Finnish writers have long objected to it as a slur on a policy that kept the country democratic. It returned to wide circulation after 2014, and again after 2022, as a label for proposed settlements in Ukraine.