The assistance provided by the Russians to the Red Guard was compromised by the peace treaty signed between Germany and Russia on 3 March in Brest-Litovsk, which ruled that Russia should pull its troops out of Finland. The Germans landed in Finland through Åland in early March and drove out the Swedes who had attempted […]
13 March A peace treaty is signed in Moscow, ending the Winter War. Finland has to surrender the Karelian Isthmus and parts of Salla, Kuusamo and Petsamo. The Hanko area, including several islands, is rented to the Soviet Union as a military base. During the Winter War, more than 26,000 men lost their lives, two-thirds […]
3 April The 9,500-strong Baltic Sea Division, headed by General Rüdiger von der Goltz, lands in Hanko. The Red administration’s newspaper “Bulletins of the Finnish People’s Delegation” publishes a law on compulsory work. It applies to all men under 55, but “may be extended to idle women as well.” The law enters into force immediately. […]
Patriot, supporter of parliamentarism, opener of the EU door During the presidential term of Dr. Mauno Koivisto, Finnish parliamentarism stabilised and Finland became a member of the European Union. Koivisto served as President of Finland for two terms, from 1982 to 1994, and twice as Prime Minister, from 1968 to 1970 and 1979 to 1982. […]
The Finnish Civil War was fought between two quickly recruited armies with mostly untrained fighters. In the early stages of the conflict, the core of the two armies was made up of volunteers who joined the troops in ideological fervour. At the beginning of the war, the White Army consisted mainly of members of the […]
In November 1917, Finland broke off from Russia, to which it had belonged as an autonomous Grand Duchy since 1809. The international status and alliances of independent Finland have changed during the past one hundred years, but the country has always remained independent and democratic and has never been occupied. War-torn years 1918–1920 Finland broke […]
1 April Finland’s first icebreaker, Murtaja, built in Sweden, arrives in Hanko. 12 June Alexander III signs a Postal Manifesto which transfers the Finnish postal system under the Russian Ministry of the Interior.
When Finland was born, the Finns were quite literally a young nation. In 1917, 35 per cent of Finns were under 15 years of age, and half of the population was under 25. When Finland became independent, it was a rural country whose urbanisation had been accelerating since the end of the 19th century. Apart […]
Kullervo Manner – a socialist Speaker of parliament as the head of state of Red Finland Kullervo Manner (1880–1939) served as Speaker of the Finnish parliament with a socialist majority in 1917. In 1918, he became Chairman of the People’s Delegation that governed the so-called Red Finland. Towards the end of the civil war, Manner […]
P. E. Svinhufvud – a lawyer, a supporter of Finnish independence, a defender of democracy P. E. Svinhufvud (1861–1944) was a key contributor to the achievement and consolidation of Finnish statehood in three different stages of history. He was the most prominent figure in the legal battle of the early 20th century that led to the […]
