Resumen de Per una storia delle relazioni italo-finlandesi, 1919-1935
Immediately after the First World War, despite Italy’s victorious exit from this conflict, the opinion in Finland was that the country was just an average power, with little political prestige, compared to the most important European powers. This belief was due to the fact that there were very few Italians present in Finland and to the widespread anti-Italian propaganda. During the 1920’s, the pioneering aviation enterprises of the Regia Marina and of the Regia Aeronautica facilitated commercial contacts, and there followed an increasing appreciation of the Italian military and industrial products. The arrival of fascism with widespread propaganda about what it had achieved facilitated a real political exportation, which was welcomed in the ultra-nationalist humus deeply rooted in the Finnish society. Exchanges of military missions combined with the curiosity and the attraction surrounding fascism and Mussolini, guaranteed the consolidation of Italian prestige. The birth of the Lapua movement with its developments represented the best illustration of how Italian facts and events had influenced the Finnish ones. When Attilio Tamaro was sent to Helsinki (1929-1935), a golden period began, with increasing cultural and political initiatives that ended with the Finnish choice to apply sanctions (November 1935) during the second Italian-Abyssian conflict.
