Ralph Enckell

Ralph Enckell received the Special Envoy and Plenipotentiary title in 1957 and was honored as Honorary Professor of Political Science at the University of Turku in 1970.

When the Vietnam War was widely criticized by the Swedish Minister of Education, later Prime Minister Olof Palme condemned the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Enckell categorically characterized the difference between the neutrality policy of Sweden and Finland: ”Finland seeks to manage its relations both east and west as well, Sweden as badly.” Enckell's words burst into Palme's ears in time, and he was deeply frustrated with his mind.

In addition to his mother tongue Swedish, Enckell perfectly controlled Finnish, English, French and Russian.

His language skills were largely already canceled by the childhood home: his father, Carl Enckell, was a Swedish-speaking diplomat and English-born mother Lucy Marie Frieda Agathe Margareta Ponsonby-Lyons.

In 2013, when one hundred years after the birth of Ralph Enckell, a biography of Markku Reimaa was published by the Magician of the Diplomacy.