The Finland Portal
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 a total area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 sq mi), including a land area of 303,815 square kilometres (117,304 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; 84.9 percent of the population speak the first as their mother tongue and 5.1 percent the latter. 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 Sweden as a result of the Northern Crusades. In 1809, as a result of the Finnish War, Finland was captured from Sweden and became an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire. During this period, Finnish art flourished and the independence movement began to take hold. Finland became the first territory in Europe to grant universal suffrage in 1906, 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 independence. A civil war was fought in Finland the following year, with the Whites emerging victorious. Finland's status as a republic was confirmed in 1919. 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...)
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Teuvo ("Ted") Tapio Ahti (born 1934) is a Finnish botanist and lichenologist. He has had a long career at the University of Helsinki that started in 1963, and then following his retirement in 1997, at the Botanical Museum of the Finnish Museum of Natural History. Known as a specialist of the lichen family Cladoniaceae, Ahti has published more than 280 scientific publications. A Festschrift was dedicated to him in 1994, and in 2000 he was awarded the prestigious Acharius Medal for lifetime contributions to lichenology. (Full article...)
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Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that records of transgender people in Finland stretch back to the 19th century?
- ... that the Finnish 7th Division was formed in 1940 by renumbering another unit to make it appear to the Soviets that it had been replaced with fresh troops?
- ... that a song about an esports team went viral in Finland?
- ... that Charlotte Haining was an International Jury Member for the selection of Finland's 2020 Eurovision Song Contest entry?
- ... that the 1972 Finnish film The Sheep Eaters gathered more than a million viewers opposite the 1975 Ice Hockey World Championships match between Finland and the Soviet Union?
- ... that Turku remained the largest city in Finland after three quarters of it burned down?
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More did you know -
- ...that the prototypes for the WW II German U-boat fleet (Type II pictured) were designed by a Dutch company and built in Finland at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard?
- ...that while repelling Soviet advances across the frozen Lake Suvanto, Finland managed to capture 12 anti-tank guns, 140 machine guns, 200 light machine guns and 1500 rifles in the Battle of Kelja in 1939?
- ...that Major Carl Mothander, the leader of Swedish volunteers in the Estonian War of Independence, later wrote books on Estonian politics that were banned in Finland?
- ...that the Korpela movement was a short-lived cult during the 1930s in Northern Sweden and Finland whose controversial sexual rituals eventually led to the arrest of 60 followers?
- ...that in 1745, Daniel Juslenius, a Finnish Fennoman, finished the first formal Finnish dictionary?
Mikkeli (Finnish: [ˈmikːeli]; Swedish: S:t Michel; Latin: Michaelia; Russian: Mikhel) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of South Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Mikkeli is approximately Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ""., while the sub-region has a population of approximately 68,000. It is the th most populous municipality in Finland, and the 19th most populous urban area in the country.
Mikkeli is located on the shores of Lake Saimaa. Mikkeli is currently located in the South Savo region. However, historically, the city was part of the Mikkeli Province until 1997 and then the Eastern Finland Province from 1997 to 2009. Mikkeli covers an area of 3,229.57 square kilometres (1,246.94 sq mi), of which 424.7 km2 (164.0 sq mi) is water. Mikkeli is one of the largest towns in the South Savo region and one of the concentrations in the region's hospital districts, along with Savonlinna. (Full article...)
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In the news
- 9 September 2024 –
- Finnish-Canadian sportswear mogul Peter Nygård is sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexual assault. (CBC News)
- 14 August 2024 – Organized crime in Sweden
- Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland form an international police hub in Stockholm to prevent escalating Swedish gang activity and criminal networks from spreading to other Nordic countries. (Reuters)
- 26 July 2024 – Finland–Russia relations
- Finland reports that a Russian Navy Baltic Sea fleet vessel trespassed on Finnish territorial waters in the eastern Gulf of Finland. (Reuters)
- 12 July 2024 – Finland–Russia relations, Russian emigration during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The Parliament of Finland passes a law allowing border guards to restrict trafficked asylum seekers from crossing the Finland–Russia border. (CNN)
- 22 May 2024 – Russia–NATO relations
- The Russian Ministry of Defence proposes to unilaterally adjust Russia's maritime border in the Baltic Sea, prompting comments of concern made by Baltic members of NATO, including Finland and Lithuania. The Ministry of Defense later retracts the proposal. (Reuters) (BBC News)
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- ^ "Finland's preliminary population figure was 5,625,011 at the end of August 2024". Population structure. Statistics Finland. 2024-09-24. ISSN 1797-5395. Retrieved 2024-09-25.