KaarleNordenstreng. Encyclopedia of Television Vol. 4, Fitzroy Dearborn & Francis Group, 2004, pp

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1 The popular Finnish joke from the 1990s has it that the Soviet Union collapsed because of the Finnish television. Of course, it is a joke and every person, who voices it, understands clearly that the collapse of the Soviet Union was an endpoint, which had social, institutional,and economic reasons and wasnot caused by the Finnish television. However, this joke is remarkable, because it reveals a precedent of long cultural battle between Finnish television broadcasters on the one side and the Estonian Communist officials under the leadershipof thecentral Committee of the CPSU on the other. The joke itself comes from the confusion, caused by Karl Vaino s interview to German media in Karl Vainopresided over the Communist Party of Estonia as the First Secretary from 1978 to He was assigned by thehardliners in the Kremlin to stop the Estonians from watching the Finnish television, but had neither the idea what kind of force he was dealing with, nor the solution to the problem. Vaino repeatedly reported to Moscow that he is ready to do whatever was required to block the Finnish broadcasting over the territory of the Soviet Union,he just needed to know exactly what was required. The most creative scenarios, whichwere earnestly discussed by the party leadership, included building some kind of metal divider in the Gulf of Finland to block the signals coming from Espoo. In the end, Vaino was replaced by VainoVäljas and retired to Moscow (where he still lives) and when, during his only interview in 1993, he was asked, what pushed Estonia to secede the Soviet Union first and become an independent state (the event that marked the start of dissolution of the Soviet Union), Vaino s answer was: the Finnish television. Apparently, from his point of view, it indeed was the case, and the German interviewers gave this idea a serious thought, which became asubject of jokesin both Finland and Estonia. The mutual cultural influence of Finland and Soviet Estonia over each other during the Cold War era offers a showcase of dichotomy between the East and the West in the history of the 20 th century. It was a unique juncture not only because of its significant political impact during the last decades of Soviet regime, but also because of the unstoppable mass media effect, which is similar to the Internet boom that came later. There were other places in the Eastern bloc where citizens encountered the Western media, but listening to West German radio to the east side of the Wallwas a risky and clandestine affair, whereas the signal of the Finnish television was clearly and reliably received in the Northern Estonia, watching of the television was mass scale and virtually unrestricted. The Estonian Communist officials were helpless about it, while in the other places of the Eastern bloc the Western media were effectively suppressed. In the early history of Finnish television, the situation was back to front. Since the late 1940s, Finnish technology enthusiasts have been experimenting with the new medium almost

2 like early Internet users in the 1990s. The media space of television was not even supposed to be controlled and no one regarded it as a mass media. The first regular television transmission received in Finland came from the Soviet Union, extended to the Estonian capital of Tallinn in 1954, just 40 miles south of Finland s capital Helsinki, across the Baltic Sea. Thesignal coming from Leningrad transmitter reached Finnish communities over the border in the southeastern part of the country. This happened at a time when Soviet technologies were significantly more advanced and the spillover signal encouraged the Finns to buy receivers and adapt antennas to the standards used in the Soviet Union. Since the state-dominated public-service broadcasting corporation YLE(the Finnish Broadcasting Company) wascommitted to an ambitious and globally pioneering project to extend FM radio network coverage over the wide but sparsely populated country, it was reluctant to fully embrace the new technology and so the establishment of national television in Finland was still in its infancy 1. The television enthusiasts spearheaded by the radio laboratory of the Helsinki University of Technology (Teknillinenkorkeakoulu HUT) were frustrated by the slow action of YLE, and as with the introduction of radio in the 1920s, private initiatives served as catalysts to mobilize the public sector. A private and commercial television station, run by the Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion (Tekniikanedistämissäätiö TES) with connections to the HUT, started experimental transmissions in 1956, YLE began regular television broadcasts the following year, but since it did not utilize the channel fully, another commercial companymainos-tv (MTV)started renting broadcasting time on YLE s channel the same year. In 1960, and there were about 92,500 television license holders, 21 per 1000 inhabitants. About a half oftelevision license holders lived in the Helsinki area.there were no administrative barriers to the broadcasting, because Finland did not impose state monopoly on it, and potential broadcasters were only required to be licensed. Since private stations usually were amateur equipped, they could be viewed only on short distances, but, even so, television spread rapidly.already by the end of the year 1962, television broadcasts were available to 90 percent of the population and over the half of the geographical area of the country. By the end of 1964, only northernmost Lapland remained outside of the television coverage area. 2 The factor that stimulated the official introduction of television in Finland was the concern about the political impact of televisionreported by the NATO diplomats in Helsinki, because Finnish television environment was shaped mostly by programmesproduced in socialist 1 KaarleNordenstreng. Encyclopedia of Television Vol. 4, Fitzroy Dearborn & Francis Group, 2004, pp KaarleNordenstreng. Encyclopedia of Television Vol. 4, Fitzroy Dearborn & Francis Group, 2004, pp

3 countries (e.g. children s programmes, popular music, feature films etc.) and, of course, promoted socialist cultures 3. After the Second World War, Finland, as a country that had fought on the side of the Axis powers, pursued political neutrality and strove for a place in between the Western and Eastern blocs. While this was the official course, social and cultural links with the West were always more prominent.and as the prospects of an expanding Soviet television in Finland began to galvanize politicians in the West, the Soviet «threat» in Finland (almost like the German «threat» in Denmark some years earlier) became an argument skillfully used by the technology lobby to push hesitant decision makersto enter the television era. 4 At first, the Parliament-controlled management of YLEannouncedits intentionto suppress the Soviet television by means of technology and, thus, compel thepublic to switch to Finnish radio broadcasting, but technology specialists from HUTfound a way to explain to the Parliament the crassitude and uselessness of this approachto mass mediaand it was rejected. Instead of such shortsighted «political» decision, a series of surprisingly competent pragmatic steps was carried out. Independent TV pioneers, who continued transmissions in Helsinki and extended them to the next largest cities of Tampere and Turku, effectively creating a parallel private network, further strengthened commercial television in Finland. And when YLE television started longdistancebroadcasting from Helsinki, less equipped independentstations, were doomed to lose the competition to the growing YLE-MTV conglomerate. 5 In 1965, these stations were sold to YLE,programmes from socialist countries were smoothly replaced with other content managed by YLE-MTV, and Soviet technology standards - with American ones. Buying private stations led to the establishment of the second channel, since one was not enough for all the absorbed television content, and due to the external pressure to outdo the socialist televisionfinnish television provided broader choice of programmes than other Nordic countries, who had only single channel because of state monopoly. MTV bought many series and movies from the United States to replace socialistic content, and so,the competition with the television from the Eastern bloc facilitated YLE-MTV grow. By 1970s, the second channel with its studios and personnel located in Tampere had a full profile of programming, including documentary and drama productions of its own. Its mission was to reach the provinces, which 3 Ellen Mickiewicz, Split Signals: Television and Politics in the Soviet Union, Oxford University Press, KaarleNordenstreng. Encyclopedia of Television Vol. 4, Fitzroy Dearborn & Francis Group, 2004, pp Mari Pajala, East and West on the Finnish screen: Early Transnational Television in Finland,Journal of European Television History and Culture Vol. 3, 5, 2014

4 was achieved soon with the help of a rapidly growing transmitter network. 6 The impact of Soviet television in Finland was all over and done with. After that, the roles were reversed. In 1971, YLE built a new TV-mast in Espoo that accidentlycarried the Finnish broadcast to Northern Estonia. Since the Finnish television was already hardened in battle with the Soviet content and had an impressive choice of programmes, there is no surprise that it became a part of everyday television consumption in Soviet Estonia. Finnish television attracted larger audiences than the programming of Soviet Central Television from Moscow. The estimates of the number of viewers and the popularity of Finnish broadcasts during the Soviet period vary, but they all agree that almost every Estonian seems to have been involved in a smallact of disobedience by watching the Finnish television. Because of this mass character, people were not afraid of administrative restrictions, which were largely ignored. Any technologicalrestrictions were useless either, the official ban on rooftop antennae only prompted local engineers to construct little hand-held antennae for indoor use and micro-chips, which converted Estonian TVs to the Finnish broadcasting standards. Eventually, there was a wholethriving industry in adapters and illicit antennae that allowed Soviet-made TVs in Tallinn to receive signals from Espoo. 7 The Soviet authorities were not as stupid as the documentary «Disko ja tuumasõda» (Disco and Atomic War) 8,directed by JaakKilmi and KiurAarma in 2009,portraits them. They tried to make programmes that were even more attractive and overdo the Finnish television, but they fought a losing battle, and are strongly derided up till now, especially their entertainment content. The fact that Estonia, unlike East Germany and East European countries, was always a cultural backwater from the Russian point of view and at best a reluctant component of the Soviet Union also made a contribution. Furthermore, Finnish and Estonian are closely related languages understood by almost no one else. The signal of the Finnish television also reached the Soviet Karelia (Vyborg) region, but it was not popular in the border area as well as among the Russian minority in Estonia because of language barrier. When the Estonians started to watch episodes of American TV-series «Dallas», there was nothing the Soviet authorities could do about the influence of the Finnish television,they just had no matching content in proper language, and so had to focus on technology solution. Music programmes about disco dancing and «Star Wars» were also big hits, but «Dallas» became a national mania. Television tourism, travelling to the North coast to watch Finnish television became a common practice. If the signal 6 Heidi Keinonen, Early Commercial Television in Finland, Media History, 18, 2, 2012, Annika Lepp, MerviPantti, Window to the West: Memories of watching Finnish television in Estonia during the Soviet period, Journal of European Television History and Culture Vol. 1, 3, Disco and Atomic War ('Disko ja tuumasõda') done by JaakKilmi and KiurAarma, 2009

5 could not be received at home, people had to go to places that had reception of Finnish TV signal. Thosewho could not gorelied on friends and relatives from the North to relay the latest plot twists by mail 9. That kind of everyday involvement with«hostile» medium on a mass scalefomentedthe feeling of not belonging to the Soviet Union and repulsion to the socialist culture.therewith, there was a mass habit of silent resistance incited by the act of watching Finnish television, which evinced as anopen non-violent protest during numerous public demonstrations in the Baltic States from 1987 to 1991 known as the Singing Revolution. It started in June 1987, when over 10,000 Estonians, who participated the Lauluväljak (the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds), discovered the Soviet Special Forces«Alpha» convoysmoving during the nighttime to Tallinn. As a sign of protest, participants of the Festival spontaneously joined hands along the road and began to sing Estonian patriotic and national songs mostly forbidden by the Soviet regime. Estonia's Baltic neighbours Lithuania and Latvia soon had followed suit. On the 23rd of August 1989, two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands along a 600km stretch of road between Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius and sang in national languages 10. This public manifestation against Soviet rule was powerful enough to name it arevolution and it ended up with Estonia s declaration of independence on the 20th August 1991, few hours later the August Coup broke out in Moscow. Latvia proclaimed independence the next day after Estonia. One more day later, Iceland was the first state to recognisethe restoration of the independence of the Republic Estonia, another two days later, the USSR recognised it, too 11. By December 1991 the Soviet Unionhad been dissolved. Though this would have happen with or withoutfinnish television, even if this spillover TV reinforced Estonian national identity and strong willingness for independence, it was not the cause of those events. The showcase of this mutual interaction of televisions is a competition of mass media effects. In the 1950s, television was almost a dreamlike technology that Finland could not afford, the Soviet television was ahead of the time; in the 1960s, the Soviet television was still innovative, Finland could not compete on its own and had to turn to US for help in terms of both the content and the technology. A florescence of Soviet television occurred against mass media effect of audience habit, and in the 1970s, when television became a part of 9 Annika Lepp, MerviPantti, Window to the West: Memories of watching Finnish television in Estonia during the Soviet period, Journal of European Television History and Culture Vol. 1, 3, Beissinger, Mark R. "The Intersection of Ethnic Nationalism and People Power Tactics in the Baltic States, " in in Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non violent Action from Gandhi to the Present. eds. Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Lieven, Anatol. The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Path to Independence. YaleUniversityPress, NewHaven

6 everyday consumption, the Soviet television lost the ground and by the 1980s, it fell far behind, because of one-side interaction with audience, while the Finnish television flourished.since the Soviet Union was a global superpower, its media always relied on technology solutions, which succeed as long as themedia wasinnovative. After it enters mainstream and become mass media, it works in a different way and requires, foremost, interplay with the audience and authentic feedback from it. Soviet regime never allowed this kind of interaction with the population, and so could not handle mass media effect of audience habit, while far less equipped Finland was good at it.