Urho Kekkonen

Urho Kaleva Kekkonen was born on September 3, 1900, in a smoke cabin in Pielavesi, Savo. A national champion high jumper in his youth, he completed a doctorate in law and served five terms as Prime Minister before winning the presidency in 1956.

Governing for twenty-six consecutive years, Kekkonen deftly preserved Finland's parliamentary democracy and Western market economy while maintaining stable, cordial relations with the neighboring Soviet superpower under the bilateral Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance. His crowning international achievement was hosting the 1975 Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), where thirty-five heads of state signed the historic Helsinki Accords, establishing European human rights standards.