witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler. This alerted him to far-right radicalism and apparently led him to publish Demokratian itsepuolustus (Self-Defense of Democracy), a political pamphlet warning about the danger, in 1934. In 1933 he joined the Agrarian League (later renamed the Centre Party), became a civil servant at the Ministry of Agriculture and made his first unsuccessful attempt at getting elected to the Finnish Parliament. Kekkonen successfully stood for parliament a second time in 1936 whereupon he became Justice Minister, serving from 1936 to 1937. During his term, he enacted the "Tricks of Kekkonen" (Kekkosen konstit), an attempt to ban the right-wing, radical Patriotic People's Movement (Isänmaallinen Kansanliike, IKL). In the end, this effort was found illegal and halted by the Supreme Court. Kekkonen was also Minister of the Interior from 1937 to 1939. He was not a member of the cabinets during the Winter War or the Continuation War. In March 1940, in a meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Finnish Parliament, he voted against the Moscow peace treaty. During the Continuation War, Kekkonen served as director of the Karelian Evacuees' Welfare Centre from 1940 to 1943 and as the Ministry of Finance's commissioner for coordination from 1943 to 1945, tasked with rationalising public administration. By that time, he had become one of the leading politicians within the so-called Peace opposition which advocated withdrawing from the war, having concluded that Germany, and consequently Finland, would lose. In 1944, he again became Minister of Justice, serving until 1946, and had to deal with the war-responsibility trials. Kekkonen was a Deputy Speaker of the Parliament 1946–1947, and was Speaker from 1948 to 1950. In the 1950 Presidential election, Kekkonen was the candidate of the Finnish Agrarian Party. He conducted a vigorous campaign against incumbent President Juho Kusti Paasikivi to finish third in the first and only ballot, receiving 62 votes in the electoral college, while Paasikivi was reelected with 171. After the election, Paasikivi appointed Kekkonen Prime Minister where in all his five cabinets, he emphasised the need to maintain friendly relations with the Soviet Union. Known for his authoritarian personality, he was ousted in 1953 but returned as Prime Minister from 1954 to 1956. Kekkonen also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for periods in 1952–1953 and 1954, concurrent with his prime ministership. President of Finland Overview During Kekkonen's term, the balance of power between the