History of Finland

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The land area that now makes up Finland was settled immediately after the Ice Age, beginning from around 8500 BC. Finland was part of Kingdom of Sweden from the 13th century to 1809 when it was ceded to Russia and became the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1917 Finland declared independence. A civil war ensued between the socialist "Reds" and conservative "Whites" of which the latter gained the upper hand. During the Second World War Finland fought twice against the Soviet Union and had to cede most of Karelia to the U.S.S.R but remained an independent democracy. During the Cold War Finland's politics were influenced by the Soviet Union (see: YYA Treaty and finlandization) but the country never became a satellite state. Finland joined the European Union in 1995.

Contents

[edit] Prehistory

This article is part of the
Scandinavia series
Geography
The Viking Age
Political entities
History
Other

[edit] Paleolithic

If confirmed, the oldest archeological site in Finland would be Susiluola (Wolf cave) in Kristinestad, Ostrobothnia. Excavations are underway and if the so far presented estimates hold true, it would be the only pre-glacial (Neanderthal) site so far found in the Nordic countries and some 130 000 years old [1].

[edit] Mesolithic

The earliest traces of modern humans are known from ca. 8500BCE and are post-glacial. The people were first probably seasonal hunter-gatherers. Their items are known as the Suomusjärvi culture and the Kunda culture. Among the finds is the net of Antrea, one of the oldest fishing nets ever excavated (calibrated carbon dating: ca. 8300BCE).

[edit] Neolithic

Around 5300 BCE pottery entered Finland. The earliest representatives belong to the Comb Ceramic Cultures, known for their distinctive decorating patterns. This marks the beginning of the neolithic for Finland, although the subsistence was still based on hunting and fishing. Extensive networks of exchange existed across Finland and Northeastern Europe during 5th millennium BCE. For example flint from Scandinavia and Valdai Hills, amber from Scandinavia and the Baltic region and slates from Scandinavia and Lake Onega found their way into Finnish archeological sites and asbestos and soap stone from e.g. Saimaa spread outside of Finland. Rock paintings, apparently related to shamanistic and totemistic belief systems, have been found especially in Eastern Finland, e.g. Astuvansalmi.

It is now widely believed that an early Uralic language that later differentiated into the proto-languages giving rise to both the Sami languages and Finnish etc. was already spoken in Finland at this time[2], if not before.

From 3200 BCE onwards either immigrants or a strong cultural influence from south of the Gulf of Finland settled in south-western Finland. This culture was a part of the European Battle Axe cultures, which have often been associated with the movement of Indo-European speakers. The Battle-Axe or Cord Ceramic culture seems to have practiced agriculture and animal husbandry outside of Finland but the earliest confirmed traces of agriculture in Finland date later[3], approximately to the 2nd millennium BCE. Further inland the societies retained their hunting-gathering lifestyles. Finnic languages got an Indo-European influx both from a pre-baltic pre-Germanic era and from early Baltic languages (and vice versa) approximately in the period 3500-1000 BC, which has been postulated to have initiated the differentiation between the Sami languages and Baltic-Finnic languages.

The Battle axe and the Comb Ceramic cultures merged giving rise to the Kiukainen culture which existed between 2300BCE and 1500BCE featuring fundamentally a comb ceramic tradition with cord ceramic characteristics.

[edit] Bronze Age

The Bronze Age began some time after 1500 BCE. The coastal regions of Finland were a part of the Nordic Bronze Culture, whereas in the inland regions the influences came from the bronze-using cultures of Northern Russia.

[edit] Iron Age

Earliest findings of imported iron blades and local iron working appears in 500 BCE.

During the 1st century AD trade and exchange with Scandinavia increased and some Roman artifacts from this period have been found. During the first millennium CE, the population groups of Finland probably exchanged their products (mostly furs) with Germanic and Baltic speaking traders. Influences came from the west, south and east. The society was stratified: the existence of richly furnished burials, usually with weapons, suggests that a chiefly elite existed from the 3rd century CE onwards. Hillforts spread over southern Finland. However, there is no evidence of state-formation. The Finnish society seems to have remained on a relatively decentralized level the whole Iron Age. Some trading places can be found.

During the Terminal Iron Age, 12th and 13th centuries, the Finns can be discerned into different groups: (proper-)Finns, Tavastians and Karelians. Most of the area of modern Finland was still inhabited by a nomadic hunter-gatherer population speaking Sami languages. The Åland Islands were settled first by Finns and then by rest Scandinavians[citation needed].

[edit] The Middle Ages

Contact between Sweden and what is now Finland was remarkable even during pre-Christian times — the Vikings were known to Finns both due to their participation in commerce and plundering. However, there is no evidence of Scandinavian settlement in Finland during the Viking Age, with the exception of the Åland Islands.

According to the archaeological finds, Christianity gained a foothold in Finland during the 11th century AD. According to the very few written documents that have survived, the church in Finland was still in its early development in the 12th century. Later medieval legends describe Swedish attempts to conquer and Christianize Finland sometime in the mid-1150s. In the early 13th century, the missionary bishop Thomas apparently managed to bring some stability and order. At the same time, there were several secular powers who aimed to bring the Finns under their rule. These included the young Swedish kingdom, Denmark, the Republic of Novgorod in Northwestern Russia and probably the German crusading orders as well.[1] Finns had their own chiefs, but most probably no central authority. Russian chronicles however indicate ability to raise armies large enough to challenge Novgorod in the vicinity of Finland.

The name "Finland" signified only the southwestern province that has been known as "Finland Proper" since the 18th century. The concept of a Finnish "country" in the modern sense developed only slowly during the period of the 15th–18th centuries. This development was chiefly promoted by the unifying effect of the Catholic Church that considered the populated parts of present-day Finland to be one episcopal see and took it for granted that the Christians of that see would consider themselves as kinsmen.

It was apparently the Swedish regent, Birger Jarl, who managed to stabilize the Swedish rule in Finland after the so-called Second Swedish Crusade, most often dated to 1249. Novgorod gained the rule in Karelia, the region immediately east of Finland, with a population still today closely related to the Finns in a linguistic and ethnic sense. Thus, the border between Catholic and Orthodox Christendom came to lie at the eastern border of Finland.

During the 13th century Finland was integrated in medieval European civilization. The Dominican order arrived in Finland around 1249 and came to exercise huge influence there. In the early 14th century, the first documents of Finnish students at Sorbonne appear. In the south-western part of the country, an urban settlement evolved in Turku. Turku was one of the biggest towns in the Kingdom of Sweden, and its population included German merchants and craftsmen. Otherwise the degree of urbanization was very low in medieval Finland. Southern Finland and the long coastal zone of the Bothnian Gulf had a sparse farming settlement, organized as parishes and castellanies. In the other parts of the country a small population of Sami hunters, fishermen and small-scale farmers lived. These were exploited by the Finnish and Karelian tax collectors. During the 12th and 13th centuries, great numbers of Swedish settlers moved to the southern and north-western coasts of Finland, to the Åland Islands and to the archipelago between Turku and the Åland Islands: in these regions, the Swedish language is widely spoken even today. Swedish came to be the language of the high-status people in many other parts of Finland as well.

During the 13th century, the bishopric of Turku was established, sometimes identified as the medieval counterpart to Finland of our days, since there were no other sees in Finland. The cathedral of Turku was the center of the cult of Saint Henry, and naturally the cultural center of the bishopric. The bishop had the ecclesiastical authority over much of today's Finland and was usually the most powerful man there. Bishops were often Finns, whereas the commanders in the castles were more often Scandinavian or German noblemen. In 1362, representatives from Finland were called to participate in the elections of king for Sweden; and this year is often held to signify the incorporation of what would become Finland into the kingdom of Sweden. Similarly to the Scandinavian part of the kingdom, a gentry or (lower) nobility consisted of magnates and yeomen who could afford armament for a man and a horse. These were concentrated in the southern part of Finland.

The strong fortress of Viipuri (Swedish: Viborg) guarded the eastern border of Finland. Sweden and Novgorod signed the Treaty of Nöteborg (Pähkinäsaari in Finnish) in 1323, but that would not last long. For example, in 1348 the Swedish king Magnus Eriksson staged a failed crusade against the Orthodox "heretics", managing only to alienate his supporters and finally losing his crown. The bones of contention between Sweden and Novgorod were the northern coast-line of the Bothnian Gulf and the wilderness regions of Savo in Eastern Finland. Novgorod considered these as hunting and fishing grounds of its Karelian subjects, protesting against the slow infiltration of Catholic settlers from the West. Occasional raids and clashes between Swedes and Novgorodians occurred during the late 14th and 15th centuries, but for most of the time an uneasy peace prevailed. There existed internal tensions as well. During the 1380s a civil war in the Scandinavian part of Sweden brought unrest to Finland, too. The victor of this struggle was Queen Margaret I of Denmark, who brought the three Scandinavian kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark and Norway under her rule (the "Kalmar Union") in 1389. The next 130 years or so were characterized by attempts of different Swedish factions to break out of the Union. Finland was sometimes involved in these struggles, but in general the 15th century seem to have been a relatively prosperous time, characterized by population growth and economic development. Towards the end of the century, however, the situation on the eastern border was becoming more tense. The Principality of Moscow conquered Novgorod, preparing the way for a unified Russian nation-state, and soon tensions arose with Sweden. In 1495–1497, a brutal war was fought. The fortress-town of Viipuri (Swedish: Viborg, Russian: Vyborg) stood against a Russian siege: according to a contemporary legend, it was saved by a miracle.

[edit] The 16th century

In 1521 the Kalmar Union finally collapsed and Gustav Vasa became the King of Sweden. During his rule, the Swedish church was reformed (1527). The state administration underwent extensive reforms and development too, giving it a much stronger grip on the life of local communities - and ability to collect higher taxes. Following the policies of the Reformation, in 1551 Mikael Agricola, bishop of Turku, published his translation of the New Testament into the Finnish language.

In 1550 Helsinki was founded by Gustav Vasa under the name of Helsingfors, but remained little more than a fishing village for more than two centuries.

King Gustav Vasa died in 1560 and his crown was passed to his three sons in separate turns. King Erik XIV started an era of expansion when the Swedish crown took the city of Tallinn in Estonia under its protection in 1561. The Livonian War was the beginning of an extremely warlike era which lasted for 160 years. In the first phase, Sweden fought for the lordship of Estonia and Latvia against Denmark, Poland and Russia. The common people of Finland suffered because of drafts, high taxes, and abuse by military personnel. This resulted in the Cudgel War of 1596-7, a desperate peasant rebellion, which was suppressed brutally and bloodily. A peace treaty (Treaty of Teusina) with Russia in 1595 moved the border of Finland further to the east and north following roughly nowadays borders.

An important part of the 16th century history of Finland was growth of the area settled by the farming population. The crown encouraged farmers from the province of Savonia to settle the vast wilderness regions in Middle Finland. This was done, and the original Sami population often had to leave. Some of the wilderness settled was traditional hunting and fishing territory of Karelian hunters. During the 1580´s, this resulted in a bloody guerrilla warfare between the Finnish settlers and Karelians in some regions, especially in Ostrobothnia.

[edit] The 17th century - the Swedish Empire

Map of Finland from 1662.
Map of Finland from 1662.

In 1611 - 1632 Sweden was ruled by King Gustavus Adolphus, whose military reforms transformed the Swedish army from a peasant militia into an efficient fighting machine, possibly the best in Europe. The conquest of Livonia was now completed, and some territories were taken from internally divided Russia in the Treaty of Stolbova. In 1630, the Swedish (and Finnish) armies marched into Central Europe, as Sweden had decided to take part in the great struggle between Protestant and Catholic forces in Germany, known as the Thirty Years' War. The Finnish light cavalry, known as the Hakkapeliitat, spread fear among the Catholic troops in Germany who were used to more orderly warfare (and, maybe, less brutal treatment of prisoners and civilians).

After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Sweden was ranked among the great European powers (the Swedish Empire). During the war, several important reforms had been made in Finland:

  • 1637–40 and 1648–54 Count Per Brahe functioned as general governor of Finland. Many important reforms were made and many towns were founded. His period of administration is generally considered very beneficial to the development of Finland.
  • 1640 Finland's first university, the Academy of Åbo, was founded in Turku at the proposal of Count Per Brahe by Queen Christina of Sweden. This is said to be the only European university founded by a female.
  • 1642 The whole Bible was finally published in Finnish.

However, the high taxation, continuing wars and the cold climate (the Little Ice Age) made the Imperial era of Sweden rather gloomy times for Finnish peasants. In 1655–1660, a new series of bitter wars was fought, taking Finnish soldiers to the battle-fields of Livonia, Poland and Denmark. In 1676, the political system of Sweden was transformed into an absolute monarchy.

In Middle and Eastern Finland, great amounts of tar were produced for export. European nations needed this material for the maintenance of their fleets. According to some theories, the spirit of early capitalism in the tar-producing province of Ostrobothnia may have been the reason for the witch-hunt wave that happened in this region during the late 17th century. The people were developing more expectations and plans for the future, and when these were not realized, they were quick to blame witches - according to a belief system the Lutheran church had imported from Germany.

The Empire had a colony in the New World in the modern-day Delaware-Pennsylvania area between 1638–1654. At least half of the immigrants were of Finnish origin.

In the religious sense, the 17th century was an era of very strict Lutheran orthodoxy. In 1608, the law of Moses was declared the law of the land, in addition to secular legislation. Every subject of the realm was required to confess the Lutheran faith and the church attendance was mandatory. Eccleastialistical penalties were widely used.[2] The rigorous requirements of orthodoxy were revealed in the dismissal of the Bishop of Turku, Johan Terserus, who wrote a cathecism which was decreed heretical in 1664 by the teologists of Academy of Åbo.[3] On the other hand, the Lutheran requirement of the individual study of Bible prompted the first attempts at wide-scale education. The church required from each person a degree of literacy sufficient to read the basic texts of the Lutheran faith. Although the requirements could be fulfilled by learning the texts by heart, also the skill of reading became known among the population.[4]

In 1697–99, a famine caused by climate killed approximately 30 % of the Finnish population. Soon afterwards, another war determining Finland's fate began (the Great Northern War of 1700–21).

[edit] The 18th century - the Age of Enlightenment

During the Great Northern War (1700–1721), Finland was occupied by the Russians, and the south-eastern part, including the important town of Vyborg, was annexed to Russia after the Treaty of Nystad. The border with Russia came to lie roughly where it returned to after World War II. Sweden's status as a European great power was gone, and Russia was now the leading might of the North. The absolute monarchy was finished in Sweden. During this Age of Liberty, the Parliament ruled the country, and the two parties of Hats and Caps struggled for control leaving the lesser Court party, i.e. parliamentarians with close connections to the royal court, with little to no influence. The Caps wanted to have a peaceful relationship with Russia and were supported by many Finns, while other Finns longed for revenge and supported the Hats.

Finland by this time was not a populous land. By the mid-18th century, the population was less than 470 000 according to official statistics (based on (Lutheran) church records, so a few Orthodox Christian parishes in Northern Karelia are not included). However the population grew rapidly, and doubled before the turn of the century. 90% of the population are typically classified as "peasants", most being free taxed yeomen. Society was divided in the four Estates: peasants (free taxed yeomen), the clergy, nobility and burghers. A minority, mostly cottagers, were estateless, and had no political representation. Forty-five percent of the male population were enfranchised with full political representation in the legislature — although clerics, nobles and townsfolk had their own chambers in the parliament, boosting their political influence and excluding the peasantry on matters of foreign policy.

The mid-18th century was a relatively good time, partly because life was now more peaceful. However, during the Lesser Wrath (1741–1742), Finland was again occupied by the Russians after the government, during a period of Hat party dominance, had made a botched attempt to reconquer the lost provinces. Instead the result of the Treaty of Åbo was that the Russian border was moved further to the west. During this time, Russian propaganda hinted at the possibility of creating a separate Finnish kingdom.

Both the ascending Russian Empire and pre-revolutionary France aspired to have Sweden as a client state. Parliamentarians and others with influence were susceptible to taking bribes which they did their best to increase. The integrity and the credibility of the political system waned, and in 1771 the young and charismatic king Gustav III staged a coup-d'état, abolished parliamentarism and reinstated royal power in Sweden — more or less with the support of the parliament. In 1788, he started a new war against Russia. Despite a couple of victorious battles, the war was fruitless, managing only to bring disturbance to the economic life of Finland. The popularity of King Gustav III waned considerably. During the war, a group of officers made the famous Anjala declaration demanding peace negotiations and calling of Riksdag (Parliament). An interesting sideline to this process was the conspiracy of some Finnish officers, who attempted to create an independent Finnish state with Russian support. After an initial shock, Gustav III crushed this opposition. In 1789, the new constitution of Sweden strengthened the royal power further, as well as improving the status of the peasantry. However, the continuing war had to be finished without conquests - and many Swedes now considered the king as a tyrant.

With the interruption of the war 1788–1790, the last decades of the 18th century had been an era of development in Finland. New things were changing even the everyday life, such as starting of potato farming after the 1750s. New scientific and technical inventions were seen. The first hot air balloon in Finland (and in the whole Swedish kingdom) was made in Oulu (Uleåborg) in 1784, only a year after it was invented in France. Trade increased and the peasantry was growing more affluent and self-conscious. The Age of Enlightenment's climate of broadened debate in the society on issues of politics, religion and morals would in due time highlight the problem that the overwhelming majority of Finns spoke only Finnish, but the cascade of newspapers, belles-lettres and political leaflets was almost exclusively in Swedish — when not in French.

The two Russian occupations had been harsh and were not easily forgotten. These occupations were a seed of a feeling of separateness and otherness, that in a narrow circle of scholars and intellectuals at the university in Turku was forming a sense of a separate Finnish identity representing the eastern part of the realm. The shining influence of the Russian imperial capital Saint Petersburg was also much stronger in southern Finland than in other parts of Sweden, and contacts across the new border dispersed the worst fears for the fate of the educated and trading classes under a Russian régime. At the turn of the century, the Swedish-speaking educated classes of officers, clerics and civil servants were mentally well prepared for a shift of allegiance to the strong Russian Empire.

King Gustav III was assassinated in 1792, and his son Gustav IV Adolf assumed the crown after a period of regency. The new king was not a particularly talented ruler; at least not talented enough to steer his kingdom through the dangerous era of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars.

Meanwhile, the Finnish areas belonging to Russia after the peace treaties in 1721 and 1743 (not including Ingria), called the "Old Finland" were initially governed with the old Swedish laws (not uncommon practice in the expanding Russian Empire in the 18th century). However, gradually the rulers of Russia granted large estates of land to their non-Finnish favorites, ignoring the traditional landownership and peasant freedom laws of Old Finland. There were even cases where the noblemen punished peasants corporally, for example by flogging. The overall situation caused decline in the economy and morale in Old Finland, worsened since 1797 when the area was forced to send men to the Imperial Army. The construction of military installations in the area brought thousands of non-Finnish people to the region. In 1812, after the Russian conquest of Finland, "Old Finland" was rejoined to the rest of the country but the landownership question remained a serious problem until the 1870s.

[edit] Russian Grand Duchy

Main article: Grand Duchy of Finland

During the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, Finland was again conquered by the armies of Tsar Alexander I. The four Estates of occupied Finland were assembled at the Diet of Porvoo on March 29, 1809 to pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia. Following the Swedish defeat in the war and the signing of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on September 17, 1809, Finland remained an autonomous Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire until the end of 1917, with Karelia ( "Old Finland") handed back to Finland in 1812. During the years of Russian rule the degree of autonomy varied. Periods of censorship and political prosecution occurred, particularly in the two last decades of Russian control, but the Finnish peasantry remained free (unlike their Russian counterparts) as the old Swedish law remained effective (including the relevant parts from Gustav III's Constitution of 1772). The old four-chamber Diet was re-activated in the 1860s agreeing to supplementary new legislation concerning internal affairs. Industrialisation begun during the 19th century from forestry to industry, mining and machinery and laid the foundation of Finland's current day prosperity, even though agriculture employed a relatively large part of the population until the post-WWII era.

[edit] Nationalism

Main article: Finland's language strife

Particularly following Finland's incorporation into the Swedish central administration during the 16th and 17th centuries, Swedish had been the dominant language in administration and education. Before that, in medieval semi-anarchy, German, Latin and Swedish were important languages beside native-spoken Finnish. Finnish recovered its predominance after a 19th-century resurgence of Finnish Nationalism, and Russian controllers working to separate Finns from Sweden and to ensure the Finns' loyalty.

The publication in 1835 of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, a collection of traditional myths and legends which is the folklore of the Karelian people (the Finnic Russian Orthodox people who inhabit the Lake Ladoga-region of eastern Finland and present-day NW Russia), first stirred the nationalism that later led to Finland's independence from Russia. The Finnish national awakening in the mid-nineteenth century was the result of members of the Swedish-speaking upper classes deliberately choosing to promote Finnish culture and language as a means of nation building, i.e. to establish a feeling of unity between all people in Finland including (and not of least importance) between the ruling elite and the ruled peasantry.

In 1863, Finnish gained a position in administration, and 1892 Finnish finally became an equal official language and gained a status comparable to that of Swedish. Within a generation Finnish clearly dominated in government and society.

[edit] Russification

Main article: Russification of Finland

[edit] Democratic change

In 1906, as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the associated Finnish general strike of 1905, the old four-chamber Diet was replaced by a unicameral Parliament of Finland (the "Eduskunta"). For the first time in the world, universal suffrage and eligibility was implemented: Finnish women were the first in the world to gain full eligibility, and membership of an estate, land ownership or inherited titles were no longer required. However, on the local level things were different, as in the municipal elections the number of votes was tied to amount of tax paid. Thus, rich people could cast a number of votes, while the poor perhaps none at all. The municipal voting system was changed to universal suffrage in 1917 when the Parliament got left-wing majority.

[edit] Independence and Civil War

Main articles: Finland's declaration of independence and Finnish Civil War

In the aftermath of the February Revolution in Russia, Finland received a new Senate, a coalition-Cabinet with the same power structure as the Finnish Parliament. Based on the general election in 1916, the Social Democrats had a small majority, and the Social Democrat Oskari Tokoi became Prime Minister. The new Senate was willing to cooperate with the provisional government of Russia, but no agreement was reached. The Finns' view was basically that the personal union with Russia was finished after the Tsar was dethroned – although the Finns had de facto recognized the provisional government as the Tsar's successor by accepting its authority to appoint a new Governor General and Senate. They expected the Tsar's authority to be transferred to Finland's Parliament, which the provisional government of Russia refused, suggesting instead that the question should be settled by the Russian Constituent Assembly. For the Finnish Social Democrats it seemed as though the Russian Bourgeoisie was an obstacle on Finland's road to independence as well as on the Proletariat's road to justice. The non-Socialists in Tokoi's Senate were however more confident. They, and most of the non-Socialists in the Parliament, rejected the Social Democrats' proposal on Parliamentarism (the so-called "Power Act") as being too far-reaching and provocative. The act restricted Russia's influence on domestic Finnish matters, but didn't touch the Russian government's power on matters of defence and foreign affairs. For the Russian Provisional government this was however far too radical. As the Parliament had exceeded its authority, it was dissolved.

The minority of the Parliament, and of the Senate, were content. New elections promised a chance to gain majority, which they were convinced would improve the chances to reach an understanding with Russia. The non-Socialists were also inclined to cooperate with the Russian Provisional government because they feared the Socialists' power would grow, resulting in radical reforms, such as equal suffrage in municipal elections, or a land reform. The majority had, of course, the squarely opposite opinion. They didn't accept the Provisional government's right to dissolve the Parliament.

The Social Democrats held on to the Power Act and opposed the publication of the decree of dissolution of the Parliament, whereas the non-Socialists voted for publishing it. The disagreement over the Power Act led to the Social Democrats leaving the Senate. When the Parliament met again after the summer recess in August 1917, only the groups supporting the Power Act were present. Russian troops took possession of the chamber, the Parliament was dissolved, and new elections were carried out. The result was a (small) bourgeois majority and a purely non-Socialist Senate. The abolishment of the Power Act, and the cooperation between Finnish bourgeois forces and oppressive Russia provoked great bitterness among the Socialists, and dozens of politically motivated terror assaults, including murders.

[edit] Successful independence

The October Revolution turned Finnish politics upside down. Now the new non-Socialist majority of the Parliament felt a great urge for total independence, and the Socialists came gradually to view Russia as an example to follow. On November 15, 1917, the Bolsheviks declared a general right of self-determination, including the right of complete secession, "for the Peoples of Russia". On the same day the Finnish Parliament issued a declaration by which it assumed, pro tempore, all powers of the Sovereign in Finland.

Worried by the development in Russia, and Finland, the non-Socialist Senate proposed for the parliament to declare Finland's independence, which was agreed on in the parliament on December 6, 1917. On December 18 (December 31 N. S. ) the Soviet government issued a Decree, recognizing Finland's independence, and on December 22 (January 4, 1918 N. S.) it was approved by the highest Soviet executive body - VTsIK. Germany and the Scandinavian countries followed without delay.

From January to May 1918, Finland experienced the brief but bitter Finnish Civil War that colored domestic politics and the foreign relations of Finland for many years. On the one side there were the "white" civil guards, who fought for the bourgeioisie. On the other side fought the Red Guards, which consisted of workers and tenant farmers. The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic had been proclaimed. The defeat of the Red Guards was achieved with support from Imperial Germany; and only Germany's defeat in World War I saved Finland from becoming a German satellite state. Had the Red Guards won, Finland would have eventually become a part of the emerging communist state. The neighbor-country Sweden was in the midst of her own process of democratization, with socialists in government for the first time. For many decades, Finns on both sides remained bitter over Sweden's reluctance to become involved in the Civil War.

During the Civil War, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between the Central Powers and Bolshevist Russia, stating regarding Finland:

Germany and Austria-Hungary propose to determine the future status of these territories in agreement with their population.
Finland and the Åland Islands will immediately be cleared of Russian troops and the Russian Red Guard, and the Finnish ports of the Russian fleet and of the Russian naval forces. So long as the ice prevents the transfer of warships into Russian ports, only limited forces will remain on board the warships. Russia is to put an end to all agitation or propaganda against the Government or the public institutions of Finland.
The fortresses built on the Åland Islands are to be removed as soon as possible. As regards the permanent non-fortification of these islands as well as their further treatment in respect to military technical navigation matters, a special agreement is to be concluded between Germany, Finland, Russia, and Sweden; there exists an understanding to the effect that, upon Germany's desire, still other countries bordering upon the Baltic Sea would be consulted in this matter.

[edit] Finland in the inter-war era

Despite the Declaration of Independence calling Finland a Republic, after the civil war the parliament, cleared of its Social Democrat members, and with a narrow majority voted to establish the Kingdom of Finland. Frederick Charles of Hesse, a German prince, was elected King, putatively with the name Väinö I of Finland, with Pehr Evind Svinhufvud and General Mannerheim serving as Regents. However, Germany's defeat in World War I meant that the idea was abandoned. Finland instead became a republic, with Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg elected as its first President in 1919.

The new republic faced a dispute over the Åland Islands, which were overwhelmingly Swedish-speaking and sought retrocession to Sweden. However, as Finland was not willing to cede the islands, they were offered an autonomous status. Nevertheless, the residents did not approve the offer, and the dispute over the islands was submitted to the League of Nations. The League decided that Finland should retain sovereignty over the Åland Islands, but they should be made an autonomous province. Thus Finland was under an obligation to ensure the residents of the Åland Islands a right to maintain the Swedish language, as well as their own culture and local traditions. At the same time, an international treaty was concluded on the neutral status of Åland, under which it was prohibited to place military headquarters or forces on the islands.

Directly after the Civil War there were many incidents along the border between Finland and Soviet Russia, such as the Aunus expedition and the Pork mutiny. Relations with the Soviets were improved after the Treaty of Tartu in 1920, in which Finland gained Petsamo, but gave up claims on East Karelia.

After four attempts at instituting prohibition of alcohol during the Grand Duchy period, all rejected by the Czar, independent Finland enacted prohibition on June 1, 1919. It lasted until April 5, 1932, at 10:00 a.m., having many indisputably negative effects on Finns' drinking habits and on Finnish crime rates during its tenure.[5][6]

Nationalist sentiment remaining from the Civil War developed into the proto-Fascist Lapua Movement in 1929. Initially the movement gained widespread support among anti-Communist Finns, but following a failed coup attempt in 1932 it was banned and its leaders imprisoned.

The Soviet Union started to tighten its policy against Finland in 1930s, limiting the navigation of Finnish merchant ships between Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland and blocking it totally in 1937.

[edit] Finland in World War II

Main article: Military history of Finland during World War II

During World War II, Finland fought the Soviet Union twice: she defended herself against the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939-1940, resulting in the loss of Finnish Karelia, and again in the Continuation War of 1941-1944 (with considerable support from Nazi Germany resulting in a swift invasion of neighboring areas of the Soviet Union), leading also to the loss of Finland's only ice-free winter harbour Petsamo. The Continuation War was, in accordance with the armistice conditions, immediately followed by the Lapland War of 1944-1945, when Finland fought the Germans to force them to withdraw from northern Finland back into Norway (then under German occupation).

Finland managed to maintain its independence and democratic constitution, contrary to most other countries proximate to the Soviet Union, and suffered comparably limited losses in terms of civilian lives and property, but was punished harsher than other German cobelligerents and allies, having to pay enormous reparations and resettle an eighth of its population after having lost an eighth of the territory including its industrial heartland and the second city Vyborg (Finnish: Viipuri, Swedish: Viborg).

Anti-Communist sentiments had, following the Civil War, been even more pronounced in Finland than in most other West European societies. The propaganda war between Bolshevist Russia/the Soviet Union and her western border state neighbours had been harsh and intense. The Finns were also better informed of the Great Purge than more distant nations.

Hence, at the eve of the World War, the Finns had very concrete fears for their survival as a people — let alone as a nation state. The Finns perceived the defence against the Communist Soviet Union as literally a fight of life or death; And during the Winter War, this perception was also shared by the spectator nations in the West. Finland's support from, and coordination with, Nazi Germany starting during the winter of 1940/41 made other countries considerably less sympathetic to the Finns' plight; particularly since the Continuation War led to a Finnish invasion of the Soviet Union designed not only to recover the lost territory but additionally to answer irredentist pan-Finnicist dreams of a Greater Finland by incorporating East Karelia whose inhabitants were culturally kindred although religiously Russian Orthodox. The United Kingdom even declared war on Finland, strikingly delivered at Finland's Independence Day 1941.

During and inbetween the wars, approximately 80,000 children were evacuated abroad. 5% went to Norway, 10% to Denmark, and the rest to Sweden. Most of them were sent back by 1948, but 15-20% remained abroad. In retrospect, the separation from their parents, siblings and language, and then later again a repeat of the separation, this time from their foster homes, has proved to be an often forgotten tragedy.

For information about Jews in Finland during WWII, see this link.

[edit] Post-war era

Finland retained a democratic constitution and free economic structure during the Cold War era. Treaties signed in 1947 and 1948 with the Soviet Union included obligations and restraints on Finland, as well as territorial concessions. Both treaties have been abrogated by Finland since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, while leaving the borders untouched. Even though being a neighbour to the mighty Soviet Union sometimes resulted in overly cautious concern in foreign policy ("Finlandization"), Finland developed closer co-operation with the other Nordic countries and declared itself neutral in superpower politics.

See also Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance

In 1952, Finland and the countries of the Nordic Council entered into a passport union, allowing their citizens to cross borders without passports and soon also to apply for jobs and claim social security benefits in the other countries. Many from Finland used this opportunity to secure better paying jobs in Sweden in the 1950s and 1960s, dominating Sweden's first wave of post-war labour immigrants. Although Finnish wages and standard of living could not compete with wealthy Sweden until the 1980s, the Finnish economy rose remarkably from the ashes of World War II, resulting in the buildup of another Nordic-style welfare state.

Despite the passport union with Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland Finland could not join the Nordic Council until 1955 because of Soviet fears that Finland might become too close to the West. At that time the Soviet Union saw the Nordic Council as part of NATO of which Denmark and Norway were members. That same year Finland joined the United Nations, though it had already been associated with a number of UN specialized organisations. The first Finnish ambassador to the UN was G.A. Gripenberg (1956-1959), followed by Ralph Enckell (1959-1965), Max Jakobson (1965-1972), Aarno Karhilo (1972-1977), Ilkka Pastinen (1977-1983), Keijo Korhonen (1983-1988), Klaus Törnudd (1988-1991), Wilhelm Breitenstein (1991-1998) and Marjatta Rasi (since 1998). In 1972 Max Jakobson was even a candidate for Secretary-General of the UN.

In another remarkable event of 1955, the Soviet Union decided to return the Porkkala peninsula to Finland, which had been rented to the Soviet Union in 1948 for 50 years as a military base, a situation which somewhat endangered Finnish sovereignty and neutrality.

Finland became an associate member of the European Free Trade Association in 1961 and a full member in 1986. A trade agreement with the EEC was complemented by another with the Soviet Bloc. The first Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), which lead to the creation of the OSCE, was held in Finland in 1972-1973. The CSCE was widely considered in Finland as a possible means of reducing tensions of the Cold War, and a personal triumph for President Urho Kekkonen.

The post-war period was a time of rapid economic growth and increasing social and political stability for Finland. The five decades after the Second World War saw Finland turn from a war-ravaged agrarian society into one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, with a sophisticated market economy and high standard of living.

[edit] Recent history

At the beginning of the 1990s the Finnish economy fell into a severe depression. The depression was caused by an overheated economy after liberalization in the 1980s, the disappearance of a major trade partner almost overnight when the Soviet Union dissolved and poor economic policy combined with an economic downturn in Western trade partners. The most severe consequence of the depression was mass unemployment (17%). In the latter half of the 1990s the economy recovered strongly, led by the success of Nokia in the telecommunications market. However, unemployment has not yet recovered to its pre-depression level.

Although Finland initially preferred entering into the European Economic Area treaty, the prospect of membership in the EC/EU became an increasengly preferred alternative after Sweden had submitted its membership application in 1991 and the Soviet Union was dissolved at the end of the year. Finland submitted its own application to the EC in March 1992. The process of accession was completed on January 1, 1995, when Finland joined the European Union along with Austria and Sweden. Before the parliamentary decision to join the EU, a consultative referendum was held on April 16, 1994 in which 56.9% of the votes were in favour of joining. Leading Finland into the EU is held as the main achievement of the Agrarian-Conservative government of Esko Aho then in power.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ See article Prehistoric Finnish wars.
  2. ^ Forsius, A. Puujalka ja jalkapuu. Cited 14-12-2006. In Finnish
  3. ^ Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto. Kielletyt kirjat. Cited 14-12-2006. In Finnish
  4. ^ Suomen historia: kirkon historia Cited 14-12-2006. In Finnish
  5. ^ Vihreä liitto. Päihdepoliittinen ohjelma 2003 Retrieved 2-26-2007. (Finnish)
  6. ^ Municipality of Taivassalo. Salakuljetusta saaristossa Retrieved 2-26-2007. (Finnish)
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