1.
Finland
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Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
2.
Historiography
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Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic using particular sources, techniques, beginning in the nineteenth century, with the ascent of academic history, there developed a body of historiographic literature. The extent to which historians are influenced by their own groups, in 2007, of 5,723 faculty in the departments of history at British universities,1,644 identified themselves with social history and 1,425 identified themselves with political history. In the early period, the term historiography meant the writing of history. In that sense certain official historians were given the title Historiographer Royal in Sweden, England, the Scottish post is still in existence. Understanding the past appears to be a human need. What constitutes history is a philosophical question, the earliest chronologies date back to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, though no historical writers in these early civilizations were known by name. For the purposes of article, history is taken to mean written history recorded in a narrative format for the purpose of informing future generations about events. Before writing, there was only oral history or oral tradition, in China, the earliest history was recorded in oracle bone script which was deciphered and may date back to around late 2nd millennium BCE. The Zuo Zhuan, attributed to Zuo Qiuming in the 5th century BCE, is the earliest written of narrative history in the world, the Classic of History is one of the Five Classics of Chinese classic texts and one of the earliest narratives of China. It is traditionally attributed to Confucius, zhan Guo Ce was a renowned ancient Chinese historical compilation of sporadic materials on the Warring States period compiled between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. Sima Qian was the first in China to lay the groundwork for professional historical writing and his written work was the Shiji, a monumental lifelong achievement in literature. His work influenced every subsequent author of history in China, including the prestigious Ban family of the Eastern Han Dynasty era, traditional Chinese historiography describes history in terms of dynastic cycles. In this view, each new dynasty is founded by a morally righteous founder, over time, the dynasty becomes morally corrupt and dissolute. Eventually, the dynasty becomes so weak as to allow its replacement by a new dynasty, the tradition of Korean historiography was established with the Samguk Sagi, a history of Korea from its allegedly earliest times. It was compiled by Goryeo court historian Kim Busik after its commission by King Injong of Goryeo. It was completed in 1145 and relied not only on earlier Chinese histories for source material, the latter work is now lost. The earliest works of history produced in Japan were the Rikkokushi, the first of these works were the Nihon Shoki, compiled by Prince Toneri in 720
3.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
4.
Tribe
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A tribe is viewed, developmentally or historically, as a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states. A tribe is a group of people, dependent on their land for their livelihood, who are largely self-sufficient. It is perhaps the term most readily understood and used by the general public, stephen Corry defines tribal people as those who. have followed ways of life for many generations that are largely self-sufficient, and are clearly different from the mainstream and dominant society. There are a one hundred and fifty million tribal individuals worldwide. Although nearly all people are indigenous, some are not indigenous to the areas where they now live. The distinction between tribal and indigenous is important because tribal peoples have a special status acknowledged in international law and they often face particular issues in addition to those faced by the wider category of indigenous peoples. Many people used the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of social, especially familial, a customary tribe in these terms is a face-to-face community, relatively bound by kinship relations, reciprocal exchange, and strong ties to place. Tribe is a term due to its roots of being defined by outsiders during the period of colonialism. The word has no shared referent, whether in political form, some argue that it conveys a negative connotation of a timeless unchanging past. To avoid these implications, some have chosen to use the ethnic group. In some places, such as India and North America, tribes are polities that have granted legal recognition. The English word tribe occurs in 12th-century Middle English-literature as referring to one of the tribes of Israel. The Ramnes were named after Romulus, leader of the Latins, Tities after Titus Tatius, leader of the Sabines, according to Livy, the three tribes were squadrons of knights, rather than ethnic divisions. The terms ultimate etymology is uncertain, perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European roots tri-, in 242–240 BC, the Tribal Assembly in the Roman Republic included 35 tribes. The Latin word as used in the Bible translates as Greek phyle, race, tribe, clan, in the historical sense, tribe, race and clan can be used interchangeably. Considerable debate has accompanied efforts to define and characterize tribes, scholars perceive differences between pre-state tribes and contemporary tribes, there is also general controversy over cultural evolution and colonialism. In the popular imagination, tribes reflect a way of life that predates, tribes also privilege primordial social ties, are clearly bounded, homogeneous, parochial, and stable. Tribes are an organization among families, which generates a social and ideological basis for solidarity that is in some way more limited than that of a group or of a nation
5.
Finns
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Finns or Finnish people are a Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland. Also, some of these may be classified as ethnic groups. These include the Kvens and Forest Finns in Norway, the Tornedalians in Sweden, the most notable autochthonous group is the Finnish-speaking population of Sweden, who trace their origin to Second Swedish Crusade after which Finland came under Swedish rule. Finnish, the language spoken by most Finnic people, is related to other Finnic languages. The Finnic languages are a subgroup to the Uralic family of languages and these languages are markedly different from most other languages spoken in Europe, which belong to the Indo-European family of languages. Native Finns can also be divided according to dialect into subgroups sometimes called heimo, the Population Register Centre maintains information on the birthplace, citizenship and mother tongue of the people living in Finland, but does not specifically categorize any as Finns by ethnicity. The majority of living in the Republic of Finland consider Finnish to be their first language. According to Statistics Finland, of the total population of 5,300,484 at the end of 2007,91. 2% considered Finnish to be their native language. It is not known how many of the ethnic Finns living outside Finland speak Finnish as their first language, Finns have been traditionally divided into sub-groups along regional, dialectical or ethnographical lines. These subgroups include the people of Finland Proper, Satakunta, Tavastia, Savo and these sub-groups express regional self-identity with varying frequency and significance. Historically, there were three dialects, the South-Western, Tavastian, and Karelian, the Sweden Finns are either native to Sweden or have emigrated from Finland to Sweden. An estimated 450,000 first- or second-generation immigrants from Finland live in Sweden, the majority moved from Finland to Sweden following the Second World War, taking advantage of the rapidly expanding Swedish economy. This emigration peaked in 1970 and has been declining since, there are also native Finnish-speaking minorities in Sweden, e. g. the Tornedalingar and the Finns of Dalecarlia. The Finnish language has official status as one of five minority languages in Sweden, the term Finns is also used for other Finnic peoples, including Izhorians in Ingria, Karelians in Karelia and Veps in the former Veps National Volost, all in Russia. Among these groups, the Karelians is the most populous one, according to a 2002 census, it was found that Ingrians also indetify with Finnish ethnic identity, referring to themselves as Ingrian Finns. The Finnish term for Finns is suomalaiset and it is a matter of debate how best to designate the Finnish-speakers of Sweden, all of whom have migrated to Sweden from Finland. Historical references to Northern Europe are scarce, and the given to its peoples and geographic regions are obscure, therefore
6.
Greater Finland
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Greater Finland is an irredentist and nationalist idea that emphasized territorial expansion of Finland. Some proponents also included the Kola Peninsula, Finnmark, Torne Valley, Ingria, the idea of Greater Finland gained popularity and influence rapidly in 1917, but lost support after World War II and the Continuation War. There was a disagreement between Sweden and Russia as to where the border between the two countries should be, the Swedish government considered a three-isthmus border to be the easiest to defend. Although the term Greater Finland was not used in the early 19th century, in 1837, the botanist Johan Ernst Adhemar Wirzén defined Finlands wild plant distribution area as the eastern border lines of the White Sea, Lake Onega, and the River Svir. The geologist Wilhelm Ramsay defined the concept of Fenno-Scandinavia at the beginning of the 19th century. Karelianism was a national romantic hobby for artists, writers, and composers in which Karelian, karelianism was most popular in the 1890s. For example, the author Ilmari Kianto, known as the White friend, wrote about his travels to White Karelia in the 1918 book Finland at Its Largest, the Kvens, a minority in Northern Norway, helped Finnish settlements spread, especially in the 1860s. The Academic Karelia Society and the Finnish Heritage Association worked actively with the Kvens from 1927–1934, in the early days of its independence, Finland wanted Finnish-speaking areas in Norrbotten, Sweden, to join Finland. This was a reaction to the effort by Finlands own Åland Islands to join Sweden, the Finnish government set up a committee to expand Finnish national movements. Sweden, for its part, pushed for instruction in the Swedish language in its northern Finnish regions, in the 1950s, schools there were punished for using the Finnish language. The Greater Finland ideology gained strength from 1918–1920, during the Heimosodat, similar ideas also spread in western East Karelia. Two Russian municipalities, Repola and Porajärvi, wanted to part of Finland. They declared themselves independent in 1919, but the change was never officially confirmed, mainly because of the treaty. In the Treaty of Tartu negotiations in 1920, Finland demanded more of Eastern Karelia, Russia agreed to this but kept Repola and Porajärvi for itself, offering Finland Petsamo instead. President Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg of Finland agreed to the exchange, Karelians in Uhtua wanted their own state, so they created the Republic of Uhtua. Ingrian Finns also created their own state, North Ingria, both states ceased to exist in 1920. The Greater Finland ideology inspired the Academic Karelia Society, the Lapua movement, and that movements successor, the Mannerheim Sword Scabbard Declarations in 1918 and 1941 increased enthusiasm for the idea. The modern National Coalition Party and Centre Party remain supporters of it, under the Treaty of Tartu, the Soviet Union agreed to give Eastern Karelia political autonomy as a concession to Finnish sentiment
7.
Estonian War of Independence
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It was fought in connection with the Russian Civil War during 1918–1920. The campaign was the struggle of Estonia for its sovereignty in the aftermath of World War I and it resulted in a victory for the newly established state and was concluded in the Treaty of Tartu. Soon thereafter, the Bolsheviks dissolved the Estonian Provincial Assembly and temporarily forced the pro-independence Estonians underground in the capital Tallinn and this first period of independence was extremely short-lived, as the German troops entered Tallinn on the following day. The German authorities recognized neither the government, nor its claim for Estonias independence. In late November 1918, Soviet forces moved against Estonia, on 28 November 1918, the 6th Red Rifle Division struck the border town of Narva, which marked the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence. The town was defended by men of the Estonian Defence League, the Reds captured Narva on 29 November, and the Infanterie-Regiment Nr.405 withdrew westwards. The Soviet 2nd Novgorod Division opened a front south of Lake Peipus, with 7,000 infantry,12 field guns,50 machine guns. Estonian military forces at the time consisted of 2,000 men with light weapons, the end of November 1918 saw the formation of the Baltic Battalion, primarily a mounted machine-gun company plus infantry. This contrasts with the Baltische Landeswehr in Latvia, the 49th Red Latvian Rifle Regiment took the Valga railway junction on 18 December and the city of Tartu on Christmas Eve. Also on Christmas Eve, the 6th Red Rifle Division captured the Tapa railway junction, Estonian Bolsheviks declared the Estonian Workers Commune in Narva. By the end of the year, the 7th Red Army controlled Estonia along the front line 34 kilometers east of Tallinn, west from Tartu, Colonel Johan Laidoner was appointed Commander in chief of the Estonian armed forces. He recruited 600 officers and 11,000 volunteers by 23 December 1918, the national government obtained foreign assistance. On 5 December, Finland delivered 5,000 rifles and 20 field guns along with ammunition. A British Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair arrived at Tallinn on 31 December, and delivered 6,500 rifles,200 machine guns, and two field guns. The squadron captured two Russian destroyers, Spartak and Avtroil, and turned them over to Estonia, which renamed them Vambola, on 2 January, Finnish volunteer units with 2,000 men arrived in Estonia. Three armored trains were built in Tallinn under the command of Captain Anton Irv, by the beginning of 1919, the Estonian Army had increased its ranks to a total of 13,000 men, with 5,700 on the front facing 8,000 Soviets. The strengthened Estonian Army stopped the 7th Red Armys advance in its tracks between 2 and 5 January 1919 and went on the counter-offensive on 7 January, Tapa was liberated two days later in a campaign highlighted by the implementation of the highly successful soomusrongid. This turn of events was followed by the liberaton of the sizable town of Rakvere on 12 January
8.
Viena expedition
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The Viena expedition was a military expedition in March 1918 by Finnish volunteer forces to annex White Karelia from Bolshevist Russia. It was one of the kinship wars fought near the newly independent Finland during the Russian Civil War. The Russian East Karelia was never a part of the Swedish Empire or the Grand Duchy of Finland, however, many advocates of a Greater Finland considered these Karelians a kindred Finnish nation and supported the annexation of Russian East Karelia to Finland. The expedition was made up of two groups, one group was Finnish Jäger troops led by Lieutenant Kurt Martti Wallenius. Initial operations in Northern Finland were successful and the Red Finns were forced to withdraw to Eastern Karelia and he and his light infantry crossed the border at Kuusamo but got bogged down in fighting the Finnish Red Guards. In the end the force was back within Finnish borders. The other group was led by Lieutenant Colonel Carl Wilhelm Malm, by 10 April, Malms group had advanced as far as the coastal town of Kem on the White Sea. Malm was unable to capture the town and retreated to Uhtua where he began defending western White Sea Karelia, the Finns now switched tactics and adopted a village-by-village strategy of persuading locals to join the Finnish volunteer side. When the Finnish troops arrived in White Sea Karelia they noticed that the population was divided, a part of the population wanted to secede from Russia and form an independent Karelia separate from Finland. However, a part of the population just wanted some form of autonomy. Many thought they would get autonomy as part of Bolshevist Russia, a small minority of the population wanted Karelia to be joined to the new state of Finland. Most importantly, for the majority of the population, practical issues were more important than ideological issues. In the end, the proposal to join East Karelia to Finland received support in the White Karelian villages around Uhtua, local Finnish White Guard militias were formed in over 20 villages in that area. In July, Malm was recalled back to Finland and in his place Captain Toivo Kuisma was placed in charge of the Finnish troops, the Finnish government could not decide whether to recall the troops or to send reinforcements. The arrival of British reinforcements and an Allied plan for them to link up with units in Siberia prompted Trotsky, now at peace with the Germans. In July these troops were disarmed and seen off by the British, the situation of the Viena expedition began to deteriorate. The Karelian regiment stationed in Kem attacked the Finnish troops at Jyskyjärvi on 27 August, the next attack came against Luusalmi on 8 September when 42 Finns were killed. Subsequent battles were fought at Kostamus and Vuokkiniemi in September–October, the Finnish troops withdrew to Finland on 2 October
9.
Murmansk Legion
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Murmansk Legion, also known as the Finnish Legion, was a British Royal Navy organized military unit during the 1918–1919 Allied North Russia Intervention. It was composed of Finnish Red Guards who had fled after the Finnish Civil War from the White dominated Northern Finland to Soviet Russia, the Legion fought the 1918 Viena expedition of Finnish White Guards and defended the Murmansk Railroad along with British troops. Finnish White Guards had started their campaign in March 1918. The goal was to annex White Karelia from Bolshevist Russia, British Royal Marines had invaded Murmansk at the same time to prevent the Germans and their Finnish White Guard allies from gaining the White Sea coast and the Murmansk Railroad. Murmansk Legion was armed with British equipment and wore British uniforms, the Legion was led by Oskari Tokoi and Verner Lehtimäki who were both promoted as Colonel by the British Navy. Strength of the Legion peaked in February 1919 and was about 1,200 men, Murmansk Legion was disbanded in 1919 as the British troops withdraw. In the autumn of 1919 most of the Murmansk Legion fighters returned to Finland but some 20 highest-ranked officers like Tokoi, Lehtimäki and Aarne Orjatsalo fled to North America. Some legionnaires joined later the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and few of the youngest even fought in the Finnish Army during the World War II
