Finland

Finland is a country in the north of Europe that borders on Sweden and Norway to the west, and Russia to the east. Its southern border is a narrow stretch of the Baltic Sea, across which lies Estonia.

Fast Facts

1. Capital: Helsinki
2. Government: Democratic, Parliamentary Republic
3. Population: Roughly 5 million
4. Currency: Euro
5. Official Languages: Finnish, Swedish

History

Finland was traditionally a part of Sweden until 1809, when it was conquered by Czarist Russia. During the Russian Revolution, in 1917, it declared independence as a parliamentary republic. A period of internal and external struggles followed, including the Winter War against the Soviet Union in 1939, such that during World War II, Finland was alone among the Scandinavian countries in siding with Germany, as protection against Soviet invasion. Ever since, it has pursued a fairly strict neutrality in geopolitical matters except for the Cold War, in which it was strongly torn between pro- and anti-Soviet influences.

Culture and Geography

Finland has two official languages: Finnish (a non-Indo-European language related to Estonian and Hungarian), and Swedish. A significant minority language is Saami, spoken by the indigenous, nomadic tribes in the north of the country. Finland is heavily forested and has thousands of lakes and islands carved from its terrain by ancient glaciers. It is warmed indirectly by the Gulf Stream, and despite its short summers (and extremes of seasonal day-length) its climate is relatively mild except for the arctic and sub-arctic north. Finland's population is roughly 5 million. It was one of the last territories in Europe to be Christianized, and formerly followed a unique mythos whose tales were later collected in the book, The Kalevala, which is considered the Finnish national epic.

Countries of Scandinavia

• Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden

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