It is not an exaggeration to say that three decades ago the geopolitical and economic tectonic plates were rapidly shifting in Europe and elsewhere in the world. The disintegration of the Soviet bloc had begun in 1989, and more and more countries were abandoning the centrally planned economic model. The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989.
However, exactly thirty years ago the Soviet Union still existed. Economic relations between the Soviet Union and Finland were based on a barter trade arrangement: every year the value of goods exported from Finland to the Soviet Union was supposed to match the value of goods imported from the Soviet Union to Finland – more or less.