Finland
Country in Scandinavia, bounded to the north by Norway, east by Russia,
south and west by the Baltic Sea, and northwest by Sweden.
Government
Finland is a republic that combines a parliamentary system with a strong
presidency. The single-chamber parliament, the Eduskunta, has
200 members, elected by universal suffrage through a system of
proportional representation for a four -year term. The president
is elected for six years by popular vote, or, if there is not
a clear majority, by a 301 -member electoral college, chosen by
popular vote in the same way as the parliament. The president
appoints a prime minister and a cabinet (council of state), whose
members are collectively responsible to the Eduskunta.
The relationship between the president, prime minister, and
council of state is unusual, with the nearest equivalent to be
found in France. The president has supreme executive power and
can ignore even a unanimous decision reached in the council of
state, but the prime minister is concerned with the day-to- day
operation of the government, so that to some extent they can,
at times, both act as heads of government. Both the president
and the Eduskunta can initiate legislation and the president has
a right of veto, though this can be overruled by a newly appointed
parliament.
Because of the system of proportional representation, there
is a multiplicity of parties, and the prime minister invariably
heads a coalition council of state, typically among four parties.
History
The nomadic Saami, or Lapps, were the earliest known inhabitants. From
about the 1st century BC they were gradually driven north by the
ancestors of the present-day Finns into the far northern region
they occupy today. Swedish settlements were made on the southwest
coast before and during the Viking era (8th -11th centuries AD).
The Finns themselves were not converted to Christianity until
conquered by the Swedes in the 12th-13th centuries.
Sweden and Russia vie for control
Finland remained a dependency of Sweden for 500 years, but enjoyed
autonomous government, becoming a grand duchy in 1581. Russia
repeatedly tried to seize the country from Sweden, and in 1721
by the Treaty of Uusikaupunki (Nystad), Peter (I) the Great of
Russia won the part of Finland that formed the Karelian province
of Vyborg. In 1743, by the Peace of Turku, Peter the Great's daughter
Empress Elizabeth extended the Russian frontier to the Kymijoki.
Russian rule
In 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars, Russia invaded Finland, and Sweden
ceded the rest of the country, with the Åland Islands, to Alexander
I of Russia in the Peace of Hamina (Fredrikshamn). During the
19th century nationalist feeling grew. Finland preserved its ancient
constitution until 1897, when its autonomy was attacked by the
Russian government. In 1899 Russia declared its right to legislate
on Finnish affairs, regardless of the consent of the Finnish parliament,
and between 1900 and 1902 the national Finnish forces were incorporated
into the Russian army, and Russian was made the official language
of the Senate (government) and of the more important public departments.
There was great discontent in the country, and in 1904 Nikolai
Bobrikov, the ultranationalist Russian governor general, was assassinated.
In 1905, the Constitutionalists and the Social Democrats formed
a coalition and, taking advantage of trouble in St Petersburg
(in the Russian Revolution, 1905), succeeded in winning certain
concessions from the new governor general, Prince Obolenski. There
was further trouble in 1908 when the Russian government again
attempted to curtail the powers of the Finnish parliament, and
in 1910 the `Imperial Legislation Law´ was passed depriving the
parliament of its right to legislate on such questions as the
imposition of taxes, police direction, school management, and
the control of the press, which, it declared, affected `imperial
interests´. In 1911 the Russian Duma (parliament) passed a bill
`placing Russians on civil equality with the Finnish citizens
in the grand duchy´.
The struggle for independence
Following the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the collapse of the Russian
Empire, the Finnish parliament declared Finland independent (6
December 1917). However, a large contingent of Russian troops
in Finland remained to support the Red Guards that had been formed
by Finnish socialists. The Red Guards seized control of southern
Finland, including Helsinki and Tampere. White (anticommunist)
forces under Carl Gustav Emil von Mannerheim, supported by Finnish
soldiers trained in Germany (the Jägers) and later by German troops,
fought the Red Guards in a civil war marked by atrocities on both
sides. The Whites finally won in May 1918.
The Whites-dominated rump parliament elected the German Frederick
Charles of Hesse as king of Finland, but on Germany's collapse
at the end of World War I in November 1918 he refused the crown.
New elections in Finland produced a pro-republican parliament,
and under the constitution of 17 June 1919 Finland became a republic
under a president with wide executive powers. Peace was concluded
with the Soviet government at Tartu, Estonia, in 1920, and Finland's
independence was acknowledged.
Finland between the wars
The idea of communism continued to alarm some Finns, and the movement
was outlawed in 1930. However, the extreme right-wing Lappo movement
was decisively crushed when it tried to organize a coup in 1932.
In the same year a nonaggression pact was signed with the USSR.
Other internal troubles arose over the bitter struggles between
the Finnish and Swedish language groups, but a dispute with Sweden
over possession of the Åland Islands was settled peacefully by
the League of Nations in Finland's favour (1921).
The extension of Soviet influence in the Baltic in 1939, following
the establishment earlier in the same year of military, naval,
and air bases in the three Baltic republics of Estonia, Lithuania,
and Latvia, offered an obvious threat to Finland. Finland had
been assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence by the Nazi- Soviet
Nonaggression Pact (the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact) of 23 August
1939, and the USSR went on to demand from Finland a small part
of the Karelian Isthmus, some islands in the Gulf of Finland,
and the right to establish a naval base at Hanko. There were negotiations
in Moscow, but it was clear that the USSR was presenting demands
incompatible with Finnish independence. When the talks collapsed,
the Soviet government denounced the nonaggression pact of 1932
and diplomatic relations were broken off.
The Winter War
On 30 November 1939 Soviet bombers began hostilities by attacking Helsinki
and a number of other Finnish towns, including Viipuri (Vyborg)
and Enso (now Svetogorsk). The fortress of Hanko was bombarded
by Soviet warships and the Arctic port of Petsamo (Pechenga) was
seized. At the same time a so-called Finnish people's government
was set up at Terijoki (Zelenogorsk) by Otto V Kuusinen, one of
the founders of the Finnish Communist Party, who had been in exile
in the USSR for many years. This `Winter War´ was branded by the
League of Nations as an act of Soviet aggression in December 1939.
Although outnumbered, the Finnish forces, under the leadership
of Field Marshal Mannerheim, offered a determined resistance to
the Soviet invasion. Heavy casualties were inflicted on the Soviet
troops both in the Karelian Isthmus and to the north of Lake Ladoga
(1 December). Large numbers of Russian tanks were destroyed in
the course of the gradual withdrawal of the Finns to the Mannerheim
Line, a series of fortifications across the Karelian Isthmus.
The USSR then proclaimed the blockade of the Finnish coast of
the Gulf of Bothnia down to Hanko and 32 km/20 mi out to sea.
The Finnish government appealed to the world for help, but though
Finland won much verbal sympathy, little concrete aid was forthcoming.
In the week of 16-23 December the Soviets, by means of massed
troop attacks, made attempts to break the Mannerheim Line, but
were repulsed with great losses. Heavy damage was done to Helsinki
in numerous air raids on 18-21 December. The Finns continued to
offer a strong resistance, defeating the Soviets at Aglajärvi,
Salla, and elsewhere, and even crossing the Soviet frontier north
of Lake Ladoga; while in the far north the Soviets were also forced
back in retreat. The Soviet command retaliated with more bombing
raids on the main Finnish towns, and these repeated raids undoubtedly
had a cumulative effect on Finnish morale. In the penultimate
week of January many Soviet attacks were launched northeast of
Lake Ladoga in a new effort to outflank the Mannerheim Line, but
the Finns still held firm.
The Soviet command then brought up some of their best shock
troops in a determined effort to break the stubborn Finnish resistance.
Massed attacks were made ceaselessly, and at length the Finns
were forced to withdraw from their advanced positions (11-17 February
1940), having inflicted some 30,000 casualties on their attackers.
Finland appealed in vain to the Swedish government for military
assistance, and by 25 February the Russian offensive on the Karelian
Isthmus had brought their forces close to Viipuri (Vyborg) and
compelled the Finns to evacuate the important fortress of Kovisto.
The Finnish defeat
Defeated by sheer weight of numbers (around 1 million Soviet troops
were deployed in the February offensives), the Finns were forced
to sue for peace. Hostilities ended early in March, and a peace
treaty was signed in Moscow on 12 March. Under it Finland ceded
the Rybachiy Peninsula on the Arctic Ocean, the Karelian Isthmus,
and other land in southeastern Finland, including Viipuri, Viipuri
Bay, and the shores of Lake Ladoga, as well as a 30-year lease
of the port of Hanko and neighbouring mainland. The total land
and lake area ceded under the treaty was 41,880 sq km/16,166 sq
mi.
These terms were far more onerous than those presented by the
USSR in the Moscow negotiations of October -November 1939, especially
as the ceded territory included the whole Mannerheim Line defences;
nor were any concessions made to Finland such as had been previously
proposed by the USSR. But at least Finland retained its independence.
Finland in World War II
When Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941, Finnish troops at once became
involved, together with German forces, in hostilities with the
USSR, reoccupying most of the land ceded under the treaty of 1940
and seizing part of Soviet Karelia. In 1944 the Soviets, who had
been counterattacking throughout 1943- 44, made a determined effort
to eliminate Finland from the war. Finnish resistance was overcome,
and Viipuri fell on 20 June. On 19 September an armistice was
signed with the USSR, Britain, and Finland.
Finland was ordered to expel all German troops on its soil,
and Finnish troops were to be withdrawn behind the frontiers fixed
by the treaty of 12 March 1940. Territorial concessions were severe
(12% of Finland's total area): Finland agreed to cede the Petsamo
area, its only outlet on the Arctic Ocean, and to lease for 50
years the Porkkala headland in the Gulf of Finland, with a considerable
stretch of sea and land for use as a military base. The leased
territory was handed back to Finland, without compensation, in
1955. Finland also undertook to pay $300 million in reparations
within six years.
Postwar relations with the USSR
Of all the problems that faced Finland in the postwar period, the foremost
was to build up relations with the USSR on a basis of peaceful
neighbourly dealings between two sovereign states of widely different
size and power. In 1948 Finland signed the Finno-Soviet Pact of
Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (the YYA Treaty).
The YYA Treaty was extended in 1955, 1970, and 1983, and a 15-year
trade agreement was signed with the USSR in 1977. Although the
YYA Treaty required it to repel any attack on the USSR through
Finnish territory by Germany or its allies, Finland maintained
a policy of strict neutrality, which was accepted by all the major
powers.
Economically, the reconstruction and resettlement of the population
of the ceded territories was a major undertaking. The payment
of the very heavy war reparations to the USSR, completed by 1952,
was another remarkable achievement - during 1945-48 the payments
represented 5 % of the gross domestic product. However, within
ten years of the end of hostilities, Finland had begun to recover
its former prosperity. Its devastated towns had been rebuilt with
vision and imagination, and the country was once again continuing
the social progress that had been a characteristic of the years
between the world wars.
The effects of the world recession and the disruption of trade
with the former USSR led in 1992 to the markka being devalued
and cutbacks being made in the extensive welfare system.
Finland in international organizations
In 1955 Finland joined the United Nations and the Nordic Council (which
includes Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). From March 1962
Finland was an associate member of the European Free Trade Area
(EFTA), and a trade agreement was signed with the European Community
(EC) in 1973. In 1989 Finland was admitted into the Council of
Europe. A national referendum in October 1994 gave support to
Finland's application for European Union membership, and in January
1995 it became a full EU member.
Internal politics
Finnish politics have been characterized by instability in governments,
over 60 having been formed since independence, and minority coalitions.
The presidency, on the other hand, has been very stable, with
only four presidents since 1946. Juho Kusti Paasikivi was president
1946-56, followed by Urho Kekkonen, who was elected president
in 1956 and reelected in 1962, 1968, and 1978. In 1981 he resigned
from office on health grounds. Mauno Koivisto became president
in January 1982, and was reelected in 1988.
The Social Democratic Party (SSDP) and Centre Party dominated
Finland 's coalition politics for many years, but the 1987 general
election resulted in the SSDP entering government in coalition
with its arch enemies, the Conservatives, while the Centre Party
was forced into opposition. In 1994 Martti Ahtisaari of the SSDP
was elected president, and his party went on to win the March
1995 general election.
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