The literary highlight of 2026 so far has been the successful launch of The Finnish Front Line: Kekkonen, Kennedy and Khrushchev’s Cold War Showdown, the English language adaptation of Kansalainen Kekkonen (Citizen Kekkonen), my historical biography of Urho Kekkonen, Finland’s eighth president.
This tome, my fourth about Finland or Finnish history and latest entry in my Finnish bibliography, focuses on the greatest crisis in Finnish postwar history, the 1961 Note Crisis, The Finnish Front Line serves as my statement on Suomi.
It’s not my swan song—I still have one more in the works, In The Shadow of the Peace, the sequel to The Battle of Finland, my noted history of the Talvisota, the Winter War—though I expect it will be last one about Finnish history or politics. It’s time for me to write about my first Fenno-obsession, Finnish culture, too. (Stay tuned…)
The Finnish Front Line has been the focus of two wonderful events sponsored by two of my favorite institutions and firmest backers in each of my hometowns, Riga, my adopted hometown, and New York, my actual hometown. In Riga, I was honored to give a reading from hosted by my friend, Ambassador Anne Saloranta, and her fantastic deputy, Eero Vuori in January, at the historic Finnish Embassy there. That was super.
Then in June the book was the focus of a reading/discussion at Scandinavia House, thanks to the good offices of my friend, Lori Fredriksen, the editor of Scandinavian Review, and head of public relations for the American Scandinavian Foundation, and Ambassador Jarmo Sareva, the brilliant Finnish Consul General in New York.
That was lovely too. And packed, as you can see from the pix: every seat was taken.
There is a cool video of the event here The Finnish Front Line | With Gordon F. Sander & Consul General of Finland Jarmo Sareva
Jarmo’s description of the event, which also contains a moving testament to my Finnish “career,” says it all. (23) Post | LinkedIn
If all goes well, the transatlantic tour for FFL will culminate with two additional stateside reading/discussions in the fall, at the svelte Finnish Embassy in Washington, and Cornell, under the auspices of the Cornell History Department, where my historiographical journey began many moons and forty odd sorties to terra magica ago.
Something to look forward to. Stay tuned.
Kiitos kiitos!
