HS Helsinki | The Soviet Union gave Finland a strange gift in 1955 – It was avoided in Helsinki until the pressure from the east became too great

Helsinki On the wall of the university’s building in the so-called Topelia block, located at Unioninkatu 38, there is a plaque with a long and solemn sentence:

“This treatment facility was built by the Finnish state for the use of the cobalt cannon donated by the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the fund of the President of the Republic, JK Paasikivi.”

HS found out what the miracle cobalt cannon is and what the donation was about.

Let’s get back first until 1955. President of the Republic JK Paasikivi (1870-1956) turned 85 at that time.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) congratulated Paasikivi by presenting him with a radiation cannon containing radioactive cobalt.

At that time, the cobalt cannon was used to tame cancer with external radiation therapy.

Khrushchev’s donation also included cobalt beads and needles for internal radiation therapy.

Cobble stone handed over the gifts he received to Sädehoitoklinika. The radiation therapy clinic was located at Unioninkatu 38 at that time. After the donation, an additional building was built in the area, where the cobalt cannon was placed.

At the radiotherapy clinic, however, the cobalt cannon made with Soviet technology was viewed with reservations.

“The cobalt cannon was apparently not put into use immediately. Nikita Khrushchev made a state visit to Finland in 1957 and he announced that he wanted to see the cannon he had donated during the visit. As you know, the cannon was installed at the last minute before the visit”, a senior physicist at the Husi Cancer Center who is familiar with the historical stages of radiation therapy Mikko Tenhunen tells.

In 1962, the radiation therapy clinic moved to the Meilahti hospital area. The Soviet-made cobalt cannon also moved to Meilahti, where the device was used until the end of the 1960s. After that, the cobalt cannon was apparently returned to the Soviet Union.

in the 1970s The Soviet Union once again supplied Finland with cobalt cannons.

“In the clearing trade between Finland and the Soviet Union, Finland exported goods to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union delivered goods to Finland in return. The Soviet Union had difficulty finding goods to import to Finland, and a batch of cobalt cannons was delivered to Finland. They were in use in several hospitals around Finland for a few years.”

Later, the use of cobalt cannons was abandoned. Nowadays, external radiation therapy is given with a linear accelerator.

Unioninkatu 38 The buildings used by Helsinki University Central Hospital were transferred to the university in the mid-1990s. They were corrected for use by the history and culture subjects of the Faculty of Humanities.

The block was named Topelia Zacharias Topelius (1818-1898) according to