Page:Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin - Two Years of Foreign Policy (1920).pdf/22

 Finnish authorities at the Aland Islands, which were then under German occupation. On March 27 we addressed to the German Government a sharp protest against this arrest. In Finland, in the meantime, the most brutal reaction was raging, cruel punishments were used against Russian citizens, Russian Red Cross vessels were seized and our representative in Helsingfors, Kovanko, was arrested. On May 9 the Finnish White guard Government offered to let comrade Kamenev return to Russia if in exchange we would extradite the Finnish comrades Menner and Tokoy. During the same period Finnish troops made an attempt to seize by force fort Ino, which forms a part of the fortification system of Kronstadt and which is necessary for the defense of the approaches to Petrograd. In a note dated May 8 Germany demanded that we surrender Ino to Finland. This question was taken up among others in the notes that we exchanged with Germany about the end of May and the beginning of June, with the object of adjusting the critical situation between us and Germany. In the negotiations following we agreed under pressure from Germany to cede to Finland the Western part of the Murman region, in exchange for which we were to retain fort Ino, and Finland was to turn over to us the Raivola district and the Government of Viborg. At last, on June 13, as a result of our persistent demands for comrade Kamenev's release, Germany made a formal proposal to gain his release from Finland on condition that we release Finns who were under arrest, and on June 17 we gave our consent to this proposal. But the official consent of Germany did not mean that Finland would put it into effect. Only on July 29 did we come to an agreement with Finland through the mediation of the German representative Ritzler in Moscow, for a reciprocal exchange of prisoners and for the return, first of all, of comrades Kamenev and some others who were detained with him. On August 3 a Russo-Finnish conference opened in Berlin. The Finnish representatives at the