Detectives had begun surveillance on him after the fugitive communist activist Antti Järvinen had visited Leino in Lövkulla in early 1926.

Some days before the delegation's departure to Moscow, Leino met with the Chief of Defence, General Aarne Sihvo, and presented him with concerns about extreme right-wing and left-wing demonstrations that suggested a coup.

[5] Parliament had adopted a motion of non confidece of Leino with connection to his illegal handing over of nineteen Finnish citizens and Nansen passport holders to the Soviet Union in 1945.

Leino had started a manuscript several years earlier but the book was finished with the help of publisher Tammi, Untamo Utrio, and editor, Kalevi Sorsa (who became later prime minister of Finland).

The manuscript was prepared in secret – even most of the staff of the publishing company were kept in ignorance – but the project was revealed by Leino because of an indiscretion just before the planned publication.

A book intended for public consumption hit a sore point as Finnish-Soviet relations had reached an extremely sensitive stage.

The paper claimed that the book had been ghost-written by the renegade ex-communist Arvo Tuominen, who, however, had been completely unaware of the project.

Deputy director of Tammi Jarl Hellemann later argued that the fuss about the book was completely disproportionate to its substance, describing the incident as the first instance of Finnish self-censorship motivated by concerns about relations with the Soviet Union (see Finlandization).

Their daughter Lieko Tuuli Zachovalová (née Leino) (1927–2017) gained fame as radio journalist living in Czechoslovakia.

[10] Leino died on 28 June 1961, almost entirely forgotten, marked by an ever-worsening problem of alcoholism and a paranoid fear of assassination attempts by the Communists.