Finland

Suomi Finland
	85px
Flag	Coat of Arms
Capital	Helsinki
Government	Parliamentary democracy
Language	Finnish, Swedish (official)
President	Tarja Halonen
Prime minister	Matti Vanhanen
Area	130,558 sq mi
Population	5,296,128 (2007)
GDP per capita	$40,197 (2005)
Currency	euro

Finland (Suomi in Finnish, Finland in Swedish) is a country of northern Europe known for its largely social democratic economic system. The Finnish conservative party, the National Coalition led by Jyrki Katainen, is its principal conservative organization.

The state capital is Helsinki and the principal exports are machines, electronics (for example mobile phones) and forestry products. Finnish is the principal language spoken, a Finno-Urgic language, it is difficult for speakers of English and Romance languages to learn, so many Finns speak English to facilitate communication with other countries. The second official language is Swedish, which has the same status as Finnish in the country. Finland is known as "the land of lakes".

History

The Finns have in the past resisted communism, first declaring independence after the Russian Revolution in 1917, and then inflicting very heavy and humiliating losses on the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939-40. Because of many Soviet miscalculations, including using troops from the Caucasus who were not habituated to the cold (it was one of the coldest winters on record, too), and because the Finns were able to adopt tactics centered around fast-moving guerrilla units, the Finnish army was able to kill some 120,000 Soviets while only losing 25,000 of their own men. This has been considered by many as a sign that Stalin's purges had weakened the Red Army high command, and that guerrilla warfare could be very effective against even modern mechanized forces. The defensive line built to protect Finland was known as the Mannerheim Line, after Marshal Mannerheim, the Finnish President. Eventually, the line was breached and Finland was made to cede territory in Karelia. In 1941, Finland joined the Nazi Germany in attacking the Soviet Union, but its forces didn't participate in the Siege of Leningrad. Mannerheim also refused to cut the Murmansk railway, which the citizens of Leningrad, nowadays St.Petersburg, remember even today. In 1944 Finland made a separate peace with the Soviet Union, ceding the Arctic Ocean port of Petsamo, and undertaking to maintain a policy of strict neutrality in the post-war years (the so-called Finlandisation policy).

Geography

The area of Finland is approximately 440 000 square kilometers, with a nort-south axis of 890 kilometers. Most of the landscape is covered with lakes, glaciers and forests. Finland is often called the "Land of Thousands of Lakes", which is true, because the number of lakes in the country exceeds 11 000. In the sea there are more than 3000 islands. In the North there are many glaciers, the most famous of which is Saana. Cultivated land and habitation only account for 17% of the land area, rest being mainly Norway spruce forests.

Finland is bound by Sweden in the West, Norway in the North, Russia in the East,Estonia in the South and the Gulf of Finland is the West.

Culture

Finnish people are known for their love of nature. Nature is prominent in the works of Finnish artists, such as Jean Sibelius, Aki Kaurismäki, Alvar Aalto, Mika Häkkinen, and more recently, the renowned Christian hip-hop artist Ruudolf. In the sculptures of Esteri S. Kookkolankokko, Finland's first female sculptor, the motifs of birth, death, and resurrection are expressed by means of nature. As per the Finnish tradition of "village idiots," a drunken man is depicted sleeping in the shady forest, surrounded by the tolling of the bells, in the iconic painting "Kyläjuoppo" by Kalle Galleen-Aksela. In the music of Jean Sibelius, we hear the faint trinkling of dew on the roof of the village church in his native Järvenpää. The above modest selection of Finnish works already demonstrates the deep faith of this nation and their love of Christian iconography.

The great masters of Finnish literature include Mika Waltari, Väinö Linna, Viktor Runeberg, Hjalmar Söderberg, and Rosa Liksom. Finland is a bi-lingual country and has produced its literary heritage in both Finnish and Swedish. Books in Russian are, sadly, still marginilized and do not receive government funding. This has been a great controversy in the country since Finland first fought the Soviet Union in 1917. The beloved Moomintrolls -- small reptilian creatures living a bourgeois life in the imaginary valley of Ankkalinna -- were created by the writer and graphic artist Tove Jansson, who later fled the Communist uprising into solitude on her island Ankkalampi (or Ankdammen) in the Gulf of Finland.

Perhaps the most controversial Finnish cultural figure of recent years is the dramatist and playwright Jouko Turkka. His highly political and polemic works include his recent play "Nokia," about the homosexual love affair between an alcoholic bum and the CEO of Nokia, Jorma Ollila. The play created wide spread disgust in the common man with its critique of free market economy and praise of the homosexual life-style. Even though it was defended by far left-wing homosexual activists, it was widely condemned by the press and the political intelligentsia. Another well-known playwright, Minna Kant, created the tragic female character of Pitsi-Liina Annnastina, and many other tragic female characters, such as Hanna, and The Wife of Professor Hellman. Her works mainly deal with issues related to women's emancipation and social justice, from a firmly conservative standpoint.