Finland is a Nordic country surrounded by Sweden, Norway to the west, Russia to the east, and, of course, the younger sister Estonia to the south.
Despite what people usually assume, Finland isn’t considered Scandinavian due to its distinct geographical, historic, linguistic, and cultural differences.
Finland is a relatively young country, as it has only been an independent nation for a bit over 100 years. However, Finnish identity and culture were shaped long before its independence. Prior to 1809, Finland was part of Sweden, and the Swedish language was the main spoken language. The effects of that can still be seen today, with the Swedish language still being the second official language of Finland.
After a war between Sweden and Russia, Finland became an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire. After which, the movement for an independent Finland would slowly get started. In 1812, the capital of the state was changed from Turku to Helsinki. The Finnish national movement started to gain steam in 1835, when the Kalevala poem based on Finnish folklore was created by Elias Lönnrot. The Finnish national identity and language then started to take shape and grow before Russia, later in 1899, started to fight back against the movement. Russia’s action in preventing Finnish separatism is often known as “Russification”, and it tried to bring the state more in line with Russia. Despite Russia’s efforts, Finland gained independence on December 6th, 1917.
The independence of Finland then created a new set of problems with two sides fighting a civil war, with the “Reds” fighting for socialism and the “Whites” fighting against it. In the end, the “Whites” ended victorious, and Finland would stay independent. An independent Finland later faced a new problem when the world was at war for the second time in 1939 and the Soviet Union, looking to expand, started an invasion of Finland to bring the country into the Union. Two wars would then follow: the winter war and the continuation war. After the wars, Finland kept its independence, however, losing a part of its eastern territory.
While the road has been bumpy, Finland has managed to succeed and create many innovations and cultural works. Finnish people have a long and varied history that has shaped the culture drastically into unique lifestyles and a culture that has become known and loved worldwide.