Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Finland covers an area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 sq mi) and has a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish, of which 84.9 percent and 5.1 percent of the population speak the first as their mother tongue. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to boreal in the north. The land cover is predominantly boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.
Finland was first settled around 9000 BC after the last Ice Age. During the Stone Age, various cultures emerged, distinguished by different styles of ceramics. The Bronze Age and Iron Ages were marked by contacts with other cultures in Fennoscandia and the Baltic region. From the late 13th century, Finland became part of the Swedish Empire as a result of the Northern Crusades. In 1809, as a result of the Finnish War, Finland was captured from Sweden and became a Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous state ruled by the Russian Empire. During this period, Finnish art flourished and the idea of full independence began to take hold. In 1906, Finland became the first European state to grant universal suffrage, and the first in the world to give all adult citizens the right to run for public office. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Finland declared its full independence. In 1918 the young nation was divided by the Finnish Civil War. During World War II, Finland fought against the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War, and later against Nazi Germany in the Lapland War. As a result, it lost parts of its territory but retained its independence. (Full article...)
Hilja Elisabet Riipinen (30 October 1883 – 18 January 1966, née Miklin, later Metsäpolku) was a Finnish politician involved with the nationalist and anti-communist Lapua Movement and Patriotic People's Movement (IKL). She was a member of parliament between 1930 and 1939, first elected from the electoral list of the National Coalition Party, but she defected to the Patriotic People's Movement after it was formed as a political party in 1933.
Being uncompromising in her general address, one of the most vehemently anti-communist IKL parliamentarians and her support for radical elements in the movement proved troublesome for her relations outside of the party. This earned her the nickname Hurja-Hilja, or "Wild Hilja". (Full article...)You are invited to participate in Finland WikiProject, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about Finland.
The background of the Winter War covers the period before the outbreak of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union (1939–1940), which stretches from the Finnish Declaration of Independence in 1917 to the Soviet-Finnish negotiations in 1938–1939.
Before its independence, Finland had been an autonomous grand duchy within Imperial Russia. During the ensuing Finnish Civil War, the Red Guards, supported by the Russian Bolsheviks, were defeated. Fearful of Soviet designs, in the 1920s and the 1930s, the Finns were constantly attempting to align themselves with Scandinavian neutrality, particularly regarding to Sweden. Furthermore, the Finns engaged in secret military co-operation with Estonia in the 1930s. (Full article...)Northern Europe
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