We’ve all experienced it. Sitting, sweating with a bunch of strangers – and you often end up chatting to the people around you with an almost intimate honesty, sharing your deepest thoughts and concerns.
In Finland, saunas are held in high regard. Finnish traditions dictate that we should approach a sauna like we would a church – and hold it in the same sense of reverence, peace and mutual respect.
As a result, these conditions have combined to create an atmosphere in which politicians and diplomats can use the intimate, respectful environment of the sauna to build trust and negotiate difficult issues and deals.
Saunas in Finnish diplomacy – and their role in the Cold War
Saunas have become a key part of Finnish culture and diplomacy. In fact, Urho Kekkonen – president of Finland for 26 years – was a major advocate of sauna diplomacy, famously using it as a negotiation tool with the Soviet Union, navigating neutrality during politically difficult times with leaders such as Nikita Khrushchev in a relaxed setting.
In 1957, Nikolai Bulganin, premier of the USSR, and Nikita Khrushchev, first secretary of the Communist Party, visited Kekkenon in Helsinki and were invited to visit the sauna in the presidential residence. Bulganin declined, but Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union from 1955 until 1964, got stuck in – to the dismay of the Politburo, who weren’t happy to hear the news. Khrushchev was supposedly taken to task for this, criticised by his colleagues for taking a naked sauna with the Finnish president, believing it to be indecent.
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It supposedly took place again in 1960, when – by this time Soviet premier – Khrushchev visited Helsinki to celebrate Kekkonen’s 60th birthday. They spent the night in a wooden sauna, and by 5am, Krushchev had agreed to support Finland’s wish to connect with the West – one of the greatest examples of sauna diplomacy at work.
Khrushchev wasn't the only Soviet leader to get involved in sauna culture. In 1978, Soviet defence minister Dmitri Ustinov visited Finland, in the hope of pulling Finland (at this point, a neutral nation) into a closer military alliance with the USSR. Kekkonen showed him to the sauna. While they were getting sweaty, the negotiations took place. Kekkonen suggested other ways of cultivating friendship between the two nations – without getting into a formal alliance. It clearly worked, as there were no efforts from the Soviets to force the Finns into an alliance thereafter.
Sauna culture is such an institution in Finland that it was named on the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020. As authorised by the state, sauna tradition is now safeguarded to highlight its importance as part of customs and wellbeing.
Why are we so honest in saunas?
It helps that there are no distractions, phones or interruptions. There is no background music or other stimulation. No-one has headphones in or has anything to look at or be enveloped in. There is no work to be done and no chores to be completed. For a finite period of time, you are stripped of your clothing and status symbols, and are sat alongside others who are also stripped of these things.
In Finland and other parts of Europe, they strip off even further – trading in swimsuits for sauna-ing in the nude. Saunas are a great equaliser, somehow. It’s just a room of humans sitting alongside one another, which encourages a lowering of emotional walls and boundaries.
What’s more, there’s an element of physical discomfort. When our core temperatures are raised, we become physically vulnerable – and are therefore more likely to connect with those around us.
But we are also relaxed. The heat will increase blood flow and relax the body, creating a sense of ‘relaxed alertness’. So our stress levels are reduced and we are more tuned into our bodies, the perfect conditions for great conversation to emerge.
The absence of noise means that we self-police more. We are less likely to raise our voices and be confrontational if there are no external noises to drown us out. Therefore, we tend to use hushed tones or quieter voices in a sauna, which generally creates calmer, more intimate conversation.
Want to try a sauna? Check out our round-up of the best outdoor saunas in the UK.
Why are saunas such successful diplomatic tools for Finnish politicans?
Traditional Finnish saunas are overwhelmingly nude. It might, therefore, seem surprising that professional and political conversations take place in such a space. But paradoxically, this aids conversation, taking that emotional vulnerability to a new level and removing clothing entirely frees the space up to strip away hierarchy and encourage openness. As the nudity is entirely non-sexual, it reinforces trust rather than discomfort.
In 2023, NATO installed a sauna at its headquarters in Brussels. This was a welcoming gesture to mark Finland’s entry into the alliance, serving as part of Finnish sauna diplomacy.
“It’s the atmosphere,” said Jyrki Katainen, a former prime minister of Finland and the country’s one-time European Commissioner told Politico. “When people are in there, they are equal. You never argue in the sauna, the atmosphere is relaxed. You never raise your voice, never insult, never argue. It’s understandable that people would find a common tone in this kind of environment.”
Top image: Finns take a dip in an unfrozen hole of water after a sauna session in Vaasa, as air temperature is -17°C and water is +1°C (credit: OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images)
