In retrospect, surely that seems foolish. The Soviet union was effectively renting the country to the Finnish people. The Nazi political dream failed rapidly, a

In retrospect, surely that seems foolish. The Soviet union was effectively renting the country to the Finnish people. The Nazi political dream failed rapidly, and the Finns were granted an otherwise-unlikely generation of prosperity without the failing Soviets' noose around their necks. There was no practical way for them to align themselves with anyone but the Nazis or the Soviets, so whether you like what the political class became in that context or not, it's not as though the people had a choice between liberal democracy and state socialism, and picked the latter. That people with uncertain, unpleasant lives were taken in by Soviet propaganda is no surprise. Some people still believe the things they learned from Soviet propagandists to this day.