The general strike in 1956, led by the SAK, further damaged the public perception of economic stability, and did little to alleviate the unemployment rate at the time.

[7] Following intermediate negotiations, the task of forming a new government fell upon then-Speaker of the Parliament Karl-August Fagerholm, a compromise candidate within the SDP who had previously served twice as Prime Minister in 1948 and 1956-1957 and did not have particularly strong ties to the Tanner-Leskinen wing of the party.

Both Lindblom and Leskinen had been members of the asevelisosialistit, a right-wing anti-communist social democratic faction within the SDP during the Winter and Continuation Wars that was discredited by the Soviet Union and ultimately banned as a fascist group under the Moscow Armistice.

Soviet ambassador to Finland Viktor Lebedev had himself taken an active role in the formation of the new government by acting as a middleman between the Kremlin and various Finnish politicians, especially Kekkonen, to convey the suggestions and requests of Moscow in regards to the new cabinet's composition.

However, after the government had been fully formed and appointed, the Soviet Union noticed that the right-wing of the SDP, represented by Lindblom and Leskinen, had been given ministerial positions even after Lebedev had informed the politicians that this would be looked down upon.

Despite this decision being made during the Kuuskoski Cabinet, Foreign Minister Virolainen received the brunt of the blame, and the Fagerholm government was even denounced in Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.