The World - News from Sept. 8, 1986
Urho Kekkonen, president of Finland from 1956 to 1981, was buried as delegations from 40 nations paid their respects. Police estimated that 100,000 people lined the two-mile route from Helsinki’s Lutheran Cathedral to the national cemetery. Kekkonen died Aug. 31 at age 85 after a long illness. President Mauno Koivisto eulogized him as champion of Finland’s neutrality, devoted to building trusting relations with neighboring countries, especially the Soviet Union. However, no high-ranking Soviet was present at the funeral.
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