Modern Finland and the story since the end of World War II

Brief background

Finland was a province and then a grand duchy under Sweden from the 12th to the 19th centuries and an autonomous grand duchy of Russia after 1809. On December 6th, 1917, Parliament (the Eduskunta) proclaimed Finland an independent republic. During World War II, it was able to successfully defend its freedom and resist invasions by the Soviet Union - albeit with some loss of territory. The nation retained its independence after World War II but had to cede considerable amounts of territory and pay huge war reparations to the Soviet Union. In the subsequent half century, the Finns made a remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy; per capita income is now on par with Western Europe. Finland joined the European Union on January 1st, 1995. As a member of the European Union, Finland was the only Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation in January 1999 and began using Euro cash in 2002.

Finland shares borders with Sweden, Norway and Russia. Most people speak Finnish but about 6% of the population speaks Swedish. English is also widely spoken in Finland and is very common in the business world; some international Finnish companies even use it as their house language.

Land area total: 338,145 sq km (about the size of Kansas and Nebraska)
land: 304,473 sq km
water: 33,672 sq km (over 60,000 lakes)

Population: 5.2 million, 17 inhabitants per square kilometre

67% live in towns or urban areas, 33% in rural areas

Principal cities: Helsinki (560,000), Espoo (221,000), Tampere (199,000), Vantaa (182,000), Turku (174,000) and Oulu (124,000). About one million people live in the Helsinki metropolitan area.

Finland has a highly industrialized, largely free-market economy, with per capita output roughly that of the UK, France, Germany, and Italy. Its key economic sector is manufacturing - principally the wood, metals, engineering, telecommunications, and electronics industries. Major Exports: Electronic and electrical products, pulp and paper, machinery and equipment, metal products, transport vehicles, timber and wood, chemicals.

Early postwar years and Soviet influence

After World War 2, the 1944 armistice with Russia was confirmed with a peace treaty signed in Paris in 1947. Finland was saddled with a debt to the Soviet Union of 300 million dollars as well as the loss of the Karelian Isthmus, their northern port Petsamo, their second largest city Viipuri (now Viborg) and loss of access to Lake Ladoga. Russia was also given a 50 year lease on the Porkkala region. With the loss of Karelia, more than 420,000 Finns picked up their belongings and moved west across the new border between Finland and Russia. Not only did Finland have to pay a huge war reparations debt to Russia, but it also had to come up with housing, jobs, and social support for the new influx of refugees from Soviet territory. This was a huge financial burden on a country whose economy depended on timber, agriculture, and some mining. Russia reduced the war debt by 74 million in 1948 and Finland paid the balance of the war reparations and completed payments in 1952. Porkkala was returned to Finland in 1956. The heavy war debt forced Finland to become more industrialized with a greater export of finished goods rather than just raw materials.

Over 420,000 refugees left their homes in Karelia after the war.

Statue of Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim on Mannerheimintie (Mannerheim Street) in Helsinki

Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, Finland's greatest military commander, received officer training both in Finland and in Russia. In the Second World War, Mannerheim was Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish army. He was equally adept as a politician as he was on the battlefield but as architect of Finnish victories during the Winter War and Continuation War, he helped preserve Finland as a free nation. After the war, he was elected President of the Republic (1944-46).

There were many communists in the early postwar Finnish government holding a large number of parliament seats and high level cabinet posts. Even the prime minister position was held by a communist. But, after a few short years, the communist’s power in the Finnish government began to wane and the Social Democrats and Agrarian Union dominated politics in Finland.

The Soviet Union, and Finland’s largest trading partner, exerted influence on Finnish politics throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, even forcing the withdrawal of a candidate for president in 1962. The president at this time was Urho Kekkonen who was first elected in 1956 and would stay in office until 1981. During this long period, Finland’s economy and politics remained tied to the Soviet Union although the Finnish Communist party gradually lost influence. This was a period called “Finlandization” that saw pro-soviet attitudes and downplayed Finnish nationalism, even to the point of ignoring the Finnish successes against Russia in the Winter War and not publicly discussing the injustice of the Soviet attack against Finland in 1939.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused a severe recession in Finland (as it did for other countries dependent on trade with the USSR) and forced Finland to reorient its trade towards the west. It also forced Finland’s companies and industry to become more competitive with the rest of Europe and the U.S. Finland joined the European Union in 1995. Tarja Halonen was elected the first woman president of Finland in 2000.

Finland's military in the postwar years

With the armistice with Russia signed in 1944, Finland was forced to dismantle its military. The limit on the army was 34,000 men. The navy limit was 4,500 men and the total tonnage of all ships together could not exceed 10,000 tons. The air force was limited to 60 fighter planes and 3,000 men. All submarines and bomber aircraft were to be scrapped.

For more than 30 years after the war, Finland was heavily dependent on the Soviet Union for trade in military hardware. The first modern jet fighters (mig21s) came from Russia in the mid 1960’s, starting in 1963. Tanks and cannons also came from Russia and the obsolete Finnish hardware was slowly phased out. During the Cold War years, Finland had an unofficial rule that 1/3 of their equipment came from the west, 1/3 from the east, and 1/3 was manufactured at home. The Finnish Valmet factory produced superb assault rifles and machine guns for the army and still continues to be an important supplier for the Finnish armed forces and also exports military hardware around the world.

Today, Finland, while not a member of NATO, does mostly adhere to the same standards of training and equipment found in other NATO countries in Europe. The country has recently added to it’s air force with a purchase of FA/18 Hornets from the U.S. and is building the infrastructure to support more aircraft on the ground.

Finland recently purchased F/A18 Hornets for the Air Force

(pic courtesy of Boeing Media)

Military service is compulsory for Finnish men and conscription (the draft) lasts between 180 – 362 days depending on whether the recruit is training for regular army duties or is training for officer or special duties. Finland follows strict neutrality but does have a peacekeeping force that has distinguished itself in the Sinai, Cyprus, Golan Heights, Lebanon, and the former Yugoslavia. Finland also co-operates with NATO in the Partnership for Peace program which has improved the ability of Finnish troops to cooperate internationally in peacekeeping and search and rescue operations.

Education

Finland has some of the highest standards of literacy in the world. Finnish children grow up learning not only Finnish but several languages with English, German and French being most popular but other European languages like Spanish and Italian are also gaining in popularity. If you are an English speaking traveler, it is quite easy to find someone who can help you in the large department stores, hotels, and restaurants of Finland’s largest cities. Go to a club in Helsinki at night and you can hear English being spoken between Finns and foreigners alike.

In a short period of time, Finland has grown from a mostly agrarian society to a country that now finds its economy fueled by technology and communications. In order to compete against Asia, Europe and the west for jobs and market, Finland puts incredible energy and money into schools and education. Schools, including universities, are free for all Finns. School meals are free for all students.

Unemployment, as of July 2005, is at 8% in Finland, but education and training will allow Finnish companies to grow and pioneer new areas for jobs. Higher education will provide the manpower to compete in research and development keeping Finland at the forefront in a technology driven society.

The Capitol of Finland

Downtown Helsinki has a very effective public tram service.

The capital and largest city is Helsinki, a port city which was founded in 1550. Located in the far south of the country on the shore of the Gulf of Finland (and only 55 miles across the Gulf from Tallin, Estonia), it is the northernmost national capital on the European continent. With a population of slightly more than half a million (and about 1.2 million for the metropolitan area as a whole), Helsinki is a small and attractive city. It is widely appreciated for its outstanding architecture, abundance of parks and excellent transportation system (including a subway a growing tramway network).

Helsinki enjoys relatively congestion-free roads. Traffic jams are rare, perhaps because so many locals use the efficient city transportation system, Helsingen Kaupungin Liikennelaitos (HKL). HKL runs buses, metro trains, trams, local trains and a ferry to Suomenlinna. Timetables and a route map are available free of charge from HKL offices.

Famous Finns who made an impact on Finland and the world in the postwar years

Composer Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957) is undoubtedly one of the greatest national heroes in Finland. His orchestral work Finlandia (1900) captures the Finnish landscape and mentality in the fight against Russian oppression. The Sibelius Academy is the only music university in Finland and one of the biggest in Europe.

Linus Torvalds, who originated (and still maintains) Linux, the free computer operating system which is taking the world by storm and is showing increasing signs of revolutionizing the computer industry. Linux is a high performance, yet completely free, Unix-like computer operating system that is suitable for use on a wide range of computers and other products. The operating system provides the support for Apache web server which, in turn, hosts almost 65% of the world's websites.

Alvar Aalto is one of Finland's most famous architects whose contributions incorporate light and nature into the designs of his buildings and plans. After the war, he put a good deal of effort into the development of prefabricated housing and into master planning, such as the Seinäjoki and Rovaniemi city centres. He designed the student dormitory at MIT in Massachusetts, the Finlandia Hall Congress Wing, and the House of Culture in Helsinki. The head office for the National Pensions Institute (1948), the Otaniemi master plan for Helsinki University of Technology (1949), Säynätsalo Town Hall (1949), the Rautatalo office building (1951) and the present University of Jyväskylä (1951) are some of his early postwar designs.

Helsinki Train Station

(picture from

http://www.eliel-saarinen.com)

Eliel and Eero Saarinen - Finnish architects who made a contribution to American architecture

Along with 2 architect friends and partners (Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren), Eliel Saarinen (1873 - 1950) designed the Finnish pavilion at the World Fair in Paris in 1900. He went on to design the Finnish National Museum in Helsinki and the Railway Stations in Helsinki and Viipuri. He came in second in the Chicago Tribune Tower competition in 1922 and moved to the U.S. in 1923. In 1925, he developed the Cranbrook Educational Center at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Besides his buildings, his furniture designs are famous and are still being manufactured and sold today.

Eliel's son, Eero was an architect who designed many famous American buildings. Eero Saarinen was one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial masters of 20th-century architecture. Although his career was cut short by death at age 51 in 1961, Eero Saarinen was one of the most celebrated architects of his time, both at home and abroad.

In the postwar decades of what has been called “the American Century,” Eero Saarinen helped create the international image of the United States with his designs for some of the most potent symbolic expressions of American identity such as St. Louis Gateway Arch (1948-64), General Motors Technical Center (1948-56), Detroit and TWA Terminal (1956-62) at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. (Taken from the website: http://www.eerosaarinen.net/ )

Aker Finnyards is amongst world leading designers and builders of cruise vessels and ferries as well as other technically complex vessels.

Finnish Industry and Communications take massive leap forward

International studies in the 1990s (IMD and WEF) have indicated that Finland is one of the world's most competitive countries. The main reasons are science and technology as well as the high level of education and rapid internationalization.

The Finnish electronics and electrotechnics industry has had dramatic growth in the past decade with many Finnish companies leading the world in information technology products. Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Polar Electro is the world's leading manufacturer of heart rate monitors and peripherials. Finland has more mobile phones per capita than any other nation in the world. It is second only to the U.S. in internet connections per capita.

The internal structural change in machinery and electronics industry exports occurred quickly in the 1980 and '90s. The electronics industry's output multiplied seven-fold in the 1990s, thanks to growth in telecommunications equipment exports. Nokia became Finland's most important company, with a full one-quarter share of the country's total exports. The electrical and electronics industry's share of Finland's total exports has already reached 30 per cent. There are three almost equally important exports sectors in the Finnish economy: electronics and electrotechnical goods account for about 27.5% of exports, metal and engineering products account for about 27.1% and forest industry products account for about 26.5%. (Virtual Finland). International competition is changing into competition for high technology investments and skilled labour. Countries and regions are competing for capital and highly educated personnel. Thanks to technological developments, Finland has significantly improved its advantage as a corporate location.

Sources and suggested links:

Virtual Finland - An online magazine created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Helsinki from A to Z - A guide to museums, galleries and theaters in Helsinki, plus maps

Finland Diary - Blogs about Finland from the Washington Post

Finland Links - links to 3000 English language websites about everything Finnish

Finn Facts - Information on Finnish industries and economy

Visit Finland - the Finnish Tourist Board’s official travel guide to Finland

Mil.fi - The Official Finnish Military Website

Thank you to Steve Lucas for providing some of the photos used on this page.

Marshall in front of the Cathedral at the Senate Square in Helsinki.

About the webmaster: Since the 1970's, Marshall has traveled all over the world spending many months studying culture and history in Asia and Europe. His fulltime job is software support and network integration but in his spare time he works in his pottery studio, builds websites, and on sunny days, you might find him flying a small plane around Texas. He founded the Artists For Angels program in Dallas to raise money to create sports programs for cognitive challenged children and is president of the local Kiwanis Club. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Connie, and is a proud new grandparent. Connie is teaching their grandchild to call him "Ukki" - the Finnish familiar for Granddad.