HISTORY
The origins of the Finnish
people are still a matter of conjecture, although many scholars
argue that their original home was in what is now west-central
Siberia. The Finns arrived in their present territory thousands
of years ago, pushing the indigenous Lapps into the more remote
northern regions. Finnish and Lappish--the language of Finland's
small Lapp minority--both are Finno-Ugric languages and are in
the Uralic rather than the Indo-European family.
Finland's nearly 700-year
association with the Kingdom of Sweden began in 1154 with the
introduction of Christianity by Sweden's King Eric. During the
ensuing centuries, Finland played an important role in the political
life of the Swedish-Finnish realm, and Finnish soldiers often
predominated in Swedish armies. Finns also formed a significant
proportion of the first "Swedish" settlers in 17th-century America.
Following Finland's incorporation
into Sweden in the 12th century, Swedish became the dominant language,
although Finnish recovered its predominance after a 19th-century
resurgence of Finnish nationalism. Publication in 1835 of the
Finnish national epic, The Kalevala--a collection of traditional
myths and legends--first stirred the nationalism that later led
to Finland's independence from Russia.
In 1809, Finland was conquered
by the armies of Czar Alexander I and thereafter remained an autonomous
grand duchy connected with the Russian Empire until the end of
1917. On December 6, 1917, shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution
in Russia, Finland declared its independence. In 1918, the country
experienced a brief but bitter civil war that colored domestic
politics for many years. During World War II, Finland fought the
Soviet Union twice--in the Winter War of 1939-40 and again in
the Continuation War of 1941-44. This was followed by the Lapland
War of 1944-45, when Finland fought against the Germans as they
withdrew their forces from northern Finland.
During the Continuation War (1941-1944) Finland was a co-belligerent with Germany. However, Finnish Jews were not persecuted. Of the approximately 500 Jewish refugees who arrived in Finland, eight were handed over to the Germans, for which Finland submitted an official apology in 2000. Also during the war, approximately 2,600 Soviet prisoners of war were exchanged for 2,100 Finnish prisoners of war from Germany. In 2003, the Simon Wiesenthal Center submitted an official request for a full-scale investigation by the Finnish authorities of the prisoner exchange. It was established there were about 70 Jews among the extradited prisoners but none was extradited as a result of ethnic background or religious belief.
Treaties signed in 1947 and
1948 with the Soviet Union included obligations and restraints
on Finland vis-a-vis the U.S.S.R. as well as territorial concessions
by Finland; both have been abrogated by Finland since the 1991
dissolution of the Soviet Union.
