Chapter 01 · c. 8800 BCE – 1809
The Finnic Peoples and Six Centuries as Part of Sweden
Settled by Finnic peoples and the Sami after the Ice Age, Finland was drawn into Latin Christendom and became, for six centuries, the eastern half of the Kingdom of Sweden.
Human settlement in Finland reaches back to around 8800 BCE, when people moved into the land as the great Ice Age glaciers retreated, following the waterways and coasts. Over the following millennia the country came to be inhabited chiefly by Finnic-speaking peoples, whose tongues belong to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, quite distinct from the Germanic and Slavic languages of their neighbours. In the north lived the Sami, an indigenous Finno-Ugric people whose semi-nomadic life centred on hunting, fishing and, in time, reindeer; they remain the only recognised indigenous people of the European Union, today concentrated in the far north of Finnish Lapland.
From the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Finland was gradually drawn westward, both by Hanseatic trade and by the spread of Latin Christianity carried on the Swedish crusades. Turku (Swedish: Abo), founded in the thirteenth century, became the country's principal town, an episcopal seat and the administrative and religious centre of the eastern part of the realm. The Treaty of Noteborg of 1323 fixed an approximate boundary between the Swedish and the Novgorodian (Russian) spheres in Karelia, dividing the Karelians between the Catholic west and the Orthodox east, a religious frontier that has endured. In the Reformation of the sixteenth century the bishop and scholar Mikael Agricola created written Finnish, translating the New Testament in 1548.
For roughly six centuries Finland was not a separate state but the eastern half of the Kingdom of Sweden, governed from Stockholm and sharing Sweden's laws, church and institutions. Finnish men served in Sweden's armies through its age of great-power ambition, and the country was repeatedly a battlefield in Sweden's wars with Russia. That long association ended in the Finnish War of 1808-09, when Russia conquered Finland from Sweden, but it left a permanent inheritance: a Swedish-speaking minority, a Lutheran church, Nordic legal traditions and a society oriented toward the West.
“For some six centuries Finland was the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden, sharing its church, laws and institutions until Russia conquered it in 1809.”
— On the Swedish era
Turning points
- c. 8800 BCEPeoples & Migration
First settlement of Finland
People moved into Finland as the Ice Age glaciers retreated, settling along the coasts and waterways; the land was later inhabited by Finnic-speaking peoples and, in the north, the Sami.
See the data - 13th centuryReligion
- 1323Politics & Power
- 1548Culture & Ideas
Mikael Agricola and written Finnish
The Reformation-era bishop Mikael Agricola created written Finnish, translating the New Testament in 1548 and laying the foundation of Finnish literary culture.
- 1808–1809War & Rupture
The Finnish War and the end of Swedish rule
Russia conquered Finland from Sweden in the war of 1808-09, ending some six centuries during which Finland had formed the eastern half of the Kingdom of Sweden.
See the data
Figures of the era
Mikael Agricolac. 1510 – 1557
Bishop and father of written Finnish
A reformer and scholar, Agricola gave the Finnish language its written form, translating the New Testament into Finnish in 1548 and providing the foundation on which a later national literature would be built.
The Sami
Indigenous people of the north
A Finno-Ugric indigenous people of the European Arctic, the Sami long inhabited much of Finland before the spread of Finnish settlement pushed their communities northward; they remain the only recognised indigenous people of the European Union.
Chapter sources: History of Finland, Sami (people), Finland: Finland under Swedish rule, Main outlines of Finnish history, History of Finland
Chapter 02 · 1809 – 1917
The Grand Duchy of Finland under the Russian Empire
Joined to Russia as an autonomous Grand Duchy under the tsar, Finland kept its own laws, gained Helsinki as its capital, found a national voice in the Kalevala, and was hardened by late-century Russification.
By the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809 Sweden ceded Finland to Russia, but Finland was not absorbed as an ordinary province. It was joined to the empire through the person of the monarch, becoming the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland with the Russian tsar reigning as Grand Duke. At the Diet of Porvoo in 1809 Alexander I pledged to uphold the country's inherited laws, religion and liberties, and the Finns kept their own legal system, their Lutheran faith and a wide measure of self-government. In 1812 the capital was moved from Turku to Helsinki, closer to Saint Petersburg, and the small town was rebuilt as a neoclassical capital.
The long peace of the nineteenth century, and the breathing space that autonomy allowed, nourished a Finnish national awakening. Its central monument was the Kalevala, the national epic compiled by the physician and folklorist Elias Lonnrot from oral folk poetry he collected in Karelia and eastern Finland; the first edition appeared in 1835 and an enlarged version in 1849. The epic gave Finns a sense of their own antiquity and raised the prestige of the Finnish language, until then overshadowed by Swedish. Reformers such as the philosopher and statesman J. V. Snellman pressed for Finnish to take its place as a language of administration and learning, and a distinct national culture took shape.
Toward the end of the century the autonomy that had made all this possible came under attack. From 1899 Tsar Nicholas II and his governors-general pursued a policy of Russification, seeking to bind Finland more tightly to the empire: a February Manifesto claimed the right to legislate for Finland without the consent of its Diet, Russian was promoted as an official language, and in 1901 the Finnish army was to be disbanded and Finns conscripted into Russian units. The measures provoked widespread resistance, expressed in mass petitions, passive disobedience and a surge of patriotic culture, of which Jean Sibelius's tone poem Finlandia of 1899 became the most stirring emblem. In 1906 Finland gained a modern unicameral parliament elected by universal suffrage, the first in Europe to give women the vote.
“Finland was not annexed to Russia but joined to it through the tsar, who reigned as Grand Duke, leaving the country its own laws, religion and self-government.”
— On the Grand Duchy of Finland
Turning points
- 1809Politics & Power
- 1812Politics & Power
- 1835Culture & Ideas
- 1899Politics & Power
- 1906Politics & Power
A modern parliament and votes for women
Finland adopted a unicameral parliament elected by universal suffrage, becoming the first country in Europe to grant women the right to vote and to stand for election.
Figures of the era
Elias Lonnrot1802 – 1884
Folklorist and creator of the Kalevala
A country physician and philologist, Lonnrot travelled through Karelia gathering oral folk poetry, which he wove into the Kalevala (1835, enlarged 1849). The epic gave Finns a national mythology and raised the standing of their language.
Jean Sibelius1865 – 1957
Composer
Finland's foremost composer, Sibelius poured national feeling into his music. His tone poem Finlandia (1899), written amid the Russification crisis, became an unofficial anthem of Finnish resistance and identity.
Chapter sources: History of Finland, History of Finland, Main outlines of Finnish history, Elias Lonnrot, Kalevala: the Finnish national epic, Finlandia by Jean Sibelius
Chapter 03 · 1917 – 1920
Independence and the Finnish Civil War
In the wreckage of the Russian Revolution Finland declared independence on 6 December 1917, only to be torn apart within weeks by a savage civil war between Reds and Whites.
The collapse of the Russian monarchy in 1917 removed the keystone of Finland's constitutional link to Russia, for the country had been bound to the empire through the person of the tsar. As the Provisional Government faltered and the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd, Finnish leaders moved to break free. On 6 December 1917 the Parliament of Finland approved a declaration of independence put forward by the senate of P. E. Svinhufvud. Lenin's Bolshevik government, judging that it could not hold the empire's periphery, recognised Finnish sovereignty on 31 December 1917, and other states soon followed.
Independence did not bring peace. Finnish society was deeply divided between a conservative, propertied side and a large, radicalised labour movement, and the example of revolution in Russia was near at hand. In late January 1918 these tensions erupted into civil war. The Reds, drawn from the industrial and landless working class and based in the southern towns, fought to establish a socialist Finland; the Whites, conservative and led by the former imperial Russian general Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, fought for the legal government and drew support from the rural north.
The war was short and ferocious. Fought from late January to mid-May 1918, it ended in victory for the Whites, aided by an intervention of German troops. The cost was appalling for so small a country: out of some 36,600 deaths, roughly 9,700 were executions and about 13,400 were caused by the conditions in prison camps, where defeated Reds died in large numbers. The bitterness of 1918 scarred Finnish politics for a generation, though the republic that emerged held together; a republican constitution was adopted in 1919, and a long process of reconciliation slowly bound the wounds the war had opened.
“Out of some 36,600 deaths in the civil war, roughly 9,700 were executions and about 13,400 were caused by conditions in the prison camps.”
— On the toll of the Finnish Civil War of 1918
Turning points
- 6 Dec 1917Independence
Declaration of independence
The Parliament of Finland approved a declaration of independence amid the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, ending more than a century as an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire.
See the data - 31 Dec 1917Independence
Soviet Russia recognises Finland
Lenin's Bolshevik government formally recognised Finnish independence on the last day of 1917, calculating that it could not retain the periphery of the former empire.
See the data - Jan–May 1918War & Rupture
The Finnish Civil War
From late January to 15 May 1918 Finland was convulsed by civil war between socialist Reds and conservative Whites under Mannerheim; the Whites won, but some 36,600 died, many in executions and prison camps.
See the data - 1919Politics & Power
Republican constitution
Finland adopted a republican constitution in 1919, establishing a parliamentary republic with a strong presidency rather than the monarchy that conservatives had briefly favoured after the civil war.
Figures of the era
P. E. Svinhufvud1861 – 1944
Head of the senate and statesman
Chairman of the senate that proclaimed Finnish independence in December 1917 and secured its recognition by Soviet Russia, Svinhufvud led the Whites' government during the civil war and later served as president of the republic.
Carl Gustaf Mannerheim1867 – 1951
Military commander and statesman
A former general of the Russian imperial army, Mannerheim commanded the White forces in the 1918 civil war and would later lead Finland's defence in the wars against the Soviet Union, becoming the country's most revered soldier-statesman and, briefly, its president.
Chapter sources: History of Finland, Main outlines of Finnish history, History of Finland, How Finland found a road to reconciliation after the Civil War of 1918
Chapter 04 · 1920 – 1939
The Aland Islands Dispute and the Interwar Republic
The young republic's first great test of its borders was settled not by war but by the League of Nations, whose 1921 decision on the Aland Islands became a landmark of peaceful conflict resolution.
Even before the civil war's wounds had healed, Finland faced a dispute over its territory with its old partner Sweden. The Aland Islands, a strategic archipelago at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia, were overwhelmingly Swedish-speaking, and most of their inhabitants wished to be reunited with Sweden as the old empires dissolved. Finland, which had inherited the islands from the Grand Duchy, insisted they were an integral part of the new state. With both Nordic countries claiming the archipelago, the quarrel was referred to the newly created League of Nations, the first major territorial dispute it was asked to resolve.
On 24 June 1921 the Council of the League reached its decision: sovereignty over the Aland Islands was awarded to Finland, but on conditions designed to protect the islanders and reassure Sweden. Finland was placed under an international obligation to guarantee the population their Swedish language, culture, local customs and a system of self-government; Finland had already passed an Autonomy Act for the islands in 1920. A separate convention, signed in October 1921, confirmed the demilitarisation of Aland that dated back to the Treaty of Paris of 1856 after the Crimean War, and added its neutralisation, keeping the islands outside any future theatre of war. The settlement is still cited as a model of how international institutions can resolve a dispute over territory and minority rights without recourse to arms.
For the rest of the interwar period Finland consolidated itself as a parliamentary democracy. It weathered the strains of the early 1920s and the threat of an extreme-right movement that attempted a coup in 1932, only to be rejected by the majority of Finns. Finnish-language education and culture flourished, and the country built the institutions of a modern Nordic state. Yet it remained a small nation wedged between Scandinavia and a vast, now Soviet, neighbour, and the security of its long eastern border would soon be tested far more violently than the question of Aland.
“In 1921 the League of Nations awarded the Aland Islands to Finland while guaranteeing the population their Swedish language, culture and self-government.”
— Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Turning points
- 1920Politics & Power
- 24 Jun 1921Politics & Power
- Oct 1921Politics & Power
- 1932Politics & Power
The far-right coup attempt fails
An attempted uprising by the extreme-right Lapua movement collapsed within days when the majority of Finns rejected it, and the parliamentary republic held firm through the interwar years.
Figures of the era
K. J. Stahlberg1865 – 1952
First President of Finland
A jurist and the principal author of the 1919 constitution, Stahlberg became Finland's first president and pursued reconciliation after the civil war, pardoning many Red prisoners and helping to anchor the new republic as a parliamentary democracy.
Chapter sources: The special status of the Aland Islands, The Aland example: Autonomy protects a minority, The Aland Islands Solution: a precedent for successful international disputes settlement, The Legal Basis of Aland's Demilitarization and Neutralization, How Finland found a road to reconciliation after the Civil War of 1918
Chapter 05 · 1939 – 1947
The Winter War, the Continuation War and the Loss of Karelia
Twice invaded by the Soviet Union, Finland fought ferociously to survive, kept its independence, but lost Karelia and Petsamo and had to resettle some 400,000 evacuees.
In August 1939 the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact assigned Finland to the Soviet sphere. When Finland refused Soviet demands to move its border on the Karelian Isthmus away from Leningrad and to cede bases, the Soviet Union attacked on 30 November 1939, beginning the Winter War. Vastly outnumbered, the Finns under Mannerheim mounted a famous defence through the bitter winter, inflicting heavy losses on the Red Army before Soviet artillery broke the Mannerheim Line in February 1940. The Moscow Peace Treaty of March 1940 ended the fighting: Finland kept its independence but ceded large parts of Karelia, including its second city, Viipuri, and the population of the ceded lands was evacuated into the rest of Finland.
Seeking to recover what it had lost, Finland fought a second war. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Finland joined the attack in what Finns call the Continuation War, retaking the lost Karelian territory and advancing beyond the old frontier. The tide turned with the wider war: by 1944 the Soviet Union forced Finland onto the defensive, and Finland sought terms. The Moscow Armistice of 19 September 1944 ended hostilities, restoring in essence the 1940 border, returning Petsamo (Pechenga) and its nickel mines and Arctic Ocean outlet to the Soviet Union, leasing the Porkkala peninsula near Helsinki as a Soviet naval base, and imposing heavy reparations.
These terms were confirmed by the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947. Finland lost about a tenth of its territory, including most of Finnish Karelia and the whole of Petsamo, and was required to pay some 300 million US dollars in reparations. The human consequence was a vast internal migration: around 400,000 people, more than a tenth of the population, were evacuated from the ceded areas and resettled within Finland's new borders, a relocation the state organised by law. Unlike its Baltic neighbours, however, Finland had preserved its independence and its democracy through the catastrophe of the Second World War.
“Finland kept its independence and its democracy, but at the cost of Karelia, Petsamo and the resettlement of some 400,000 evacuees.”
— On the wars with the Soviet Union
Turning points
- 30 Nov 1939War & Rupture
The Winter War begins
The Soviet Union invaded Finland on 30 November 1939 after Finland refused to cede territory near Leningrad; the outnumbered Finns mounted a celebrated defence through the winter of 1939-40.
See the data - Mar 1940War & Rupture
Moscow Peace Treaty cedes Karelia
The Winter War ended in March 1940 with Finland keeping its independence but ceding much of Karelia, including Viipuri; the inhabitants of the lost lands were evacuated into the rest of Finland.
See the data - 1941–1944War & Rupture
The Continuation War
Allied with Germany after its 1941 invasion of the USSR, Finland fought the Continuation War to recover Karelia, but a Soviet offensive in 1944 forced it to seek an armistice.
See the data - 19 Sep 1944War & Rupture
Moscow Armistice and cession of Petsamo
The Moscow Armistice ended the Continuation War, restoring the 1940 border, returning Petsamo to the Soviet Union, leasing Porkkala as a naval base, and imposing reparations.
See the data - 1947Peoples & Migration
Paris Peace Treaty and the Karelian evacuees
The 1947 Paris Peace Treaty confirmed the cession of Karelia and Petsamo and reparations of 300 million dollars; some 400,000 Karelian evacuees were resettled within Finland's new borders.
See the data
Figures of the era
Carl Gustaf Mannerheim1867 – 1951
Commander-in-chief and President
Marshal of Finland, Mannerheim led the defence in the Winter and Continuation Wars and became president in 1944, steering Finland out of the war and into an armistice that preserved its independence.
The Karelian evacuees
Displaced population
Around 400,000 people, more than a tenth of Finland's population, were evacuated from the parts of Karelia and other regions ceded to the Soviet Union and resettled across Finland under a state-organised relocation, leaving a lasting mark on Finnish society.
Chapter sources: Russo-Finnish War (Winter War), Finland during World War II, Draft Peace Treaty with Finland (Paris Peace Treaty terms), History of Finland
Chapter 06 · 1947 – present
Neutrality, the European Union and NATO
From the careful neutrality of the Cold War to membership of the European Union and, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, of NATO, Finland transformed its place in the world.
After 1945 Finland steered a careful course beside its powerful Soviet neighbour. Bound by a 1948 treaty of friendship and the realities of geography, it pursued a policy of strict neutrality, avoiding alignment with either Cold War bloc, a stance that came to be called 'Finlandization'. Within those constraints Finland preserved its democracy and market economy, recovered the Porkkala base in 1956, joined the United Nations and the Nordic Council in 1955, and under long-serving President Urho Kekkonen made itself a respected mediator, hosting the talks that produced the Helsinki Final Act of 1975. It grew into one of the world's most prosperous and egalitarian societies.
The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union freed Finland to move decisively westward. In an advisory referendum on 16 October 1994 some 57 per cent of Finns voted in favour of European Union membership, and Finland joined the EU on 1 January 1995, alongside Sweden and Austria. It went on to adopt the euro at the single currency's launch, the only Nordic country to do so, and became a full and active participant in European integration while remaining outside any military alliance.
For decades Finland kept faith with military non-alignment even as it deepened its partnership with NATO. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 overturned that calculation almost overnight: public opinion swung sharply in favour of joining the Alliance, and Finland, together with Sweden, applied for membership. After a rapid ratification by the existing members, Finland deposited its instrument of accession and became NATO's 31st member on 4 April 2023, ending generations of neutrality and more than doubling the length of NATO's land border with Russia.
“Finland deposited its instrument of accession and became NATO's 31st member on 4 April 2023, ending generations of neutrality.”
— On Finland's accession to NATO
Turning points
- 1948Politics & Power
- 1975Politics & Power
The Helsinki Final Act
Under President Kekkonen, neutral Finland hosted the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, whose Helsinki Final Act of 1975 became a landmark of Cold War detente.
- 1 Jan 1995Politics & Power
- May 2022Politics & Power
- 4 Apr 2023Politics & Power
Finland becomes NATO's 31st member
Finland deposited its instrument of accession and joined NATO as its 31st member on 4 April 2023, ending generations of neutrality and more than doubling the Alliance's land border with Russia.
Figures of the era
Urho Kekkonen1900 – 1986
President of Finland
President from 1956 to 1982, Kekkonen embodied Finland's Cold War policy of neutrality, managing relations with the Soviet Union while securing Finland's room for manoeuvre and hosting the 1975 Helsinki conference.
Sauli Niinistoborn 1948
President of Finland
President from 2012 to 2024, Niinisto led Finland through its historic decision to abandon non-alignment and join NATO in 2023 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Chapter sources: History of Finland, History of Finland, Main outlines of Finnish history, Finland joins NATO as 31st Ally