1.
Amorphis
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Amorphis is a Finnish heavy metal band founded by Jan Rechberger, Tomi Koivusaari, and Esa Holopainen in 1990. Initially, the band was a metal act, but on later albums they evolved into playing other genres, including heavy metal, progressive metal. They frequently use the Kalevala, the Epic Poem of Finland, Jan Rechberger played in a thrash metal band called Violent Solution, which Tomi Koivusaari had left in 1990 to form the death metal band Abhorrence, with Koivusaari being replaced by Esa Holopainen. Violent Solution slowly dissolved with Jan Rechberger and Esa Holopainen deciding to continue working with other to form their own death metal band. With Rechberger having ties with Koivusaari, In early 1990, Koivusaari became the vocalist, during that time, Koivusaari also performed rhythm guitar, leading to the band dumping all original compositions and starting over again. Koivusaaris other band, Abhorrence, split up and he himself with more time to put into Amorphis. A demo tape, Disment of Soul, was recorded in 1991 by Timo Tolkki at TTT studios and it was meant to be Dismemberment of soul but they forgot the word member and so it was Disment. After the band recorded their first studio demo tape, Relapse Records offered Abhorrence a recording contract, since Abhorrence was no longer active, they sent their own demo in the return mail and got signed to a worldwide recording deal. Soon after getting signed they released their death metal debut, The Karelian Isthmus under the new name Amorphis and this 1994 release, while still rooted in death metal, was their first step toward a new direction as melodic clean vocals were added, provided by Ville Tuomi. Tales from the Thousand Lakes won the band a fan base thanks to its sound and fusion of death metal with traditional folk, psychedelia. This album went on to influence the signature Amorphis sound, during the subsequent tours Kasper left the band, to be replaced by Kim Rantala. Jan was replaced by Pekka Kasari, and a member was recruited. The third album, Elegy was released in 1996, lyrics were again adapted from Finnish mythology, in this case, the Kanteletar, a collection of ancient folk poetry. Pasi and Tomi shared the vocals on a basis, with Pasis providing only clean parts. After a year and a half of touring following the release of Elegy and their next offering, 1999s Tuonela was a mellow guitar album, although toward the end of the studio sessions, Santeri Kallio of Kyyria was brought in to add some keyboard tracks to the songs. New instruments were introduced and the death growls were reduced, as all vocals were performed by Pasi, the band experienced another line-up change. Following the breakup of Kyyria, Santeri joined Amorphis as a full-time member, bassist Oppu was replaced by another ex-Kyyria member, Niclas Etelävuori, to tour with Amorphis on their third U. S. tour. The tenth-anniversary compilation Story was released, am Universum was released in 2001, which included more emphases to keyboards and saxophone work, the latter contributed by Sakari Kukko
2.
The Karelian Isthmus
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The Karelian Isthmus is the title of the third release\first full-length studio LP album of Finnish metal band Amorphis, released in 1992. The epic side is broken up by the occult lyrical themes in tracks including Pilgrimage, Misery Path. In recent years, songs from this album have been receiving more play during Amorphis live performances and this release was the last recorded release to have the original lineup of the band as later on the band would have either additional members or original members quitting. Privilege of Evil was the last release with the original lineup, both releases were combined in a 2003 reissue
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Winter War
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The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, the League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League on 14 December 1939. Finland refused and the USSR invaded the country, the Soviets possessed more than three times as many soldiers as the Finns, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks. The Red Army, however, had been crippled by Soviet leader Joseph Stalins Great Purge of 1937. With more than 30,000 of its officers executed or imprisoned, including most of those of the highest ranks, because of these factors, and high morale in the Finnish forces, Finland repelled Soviet attacks for several months, much longer than the Soviets expected. However, after reorganization and adoption of different tactics, the renewed Soviet offensive overcame Finnish defenses at the borders, hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded territory representing 11% of its area and 13% of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the international reputation suffered. While the Soviet Union did not conquer all Finland, Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and they gained substantial territory along Lake Ladoga, providing a buffer for Leningrad, and territory in northern Finland. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation, the end of the war cancelled the Franco-British plan to send troops to Finland through northern Scandinavia. One of the goals of the projected Franco-British operation had been to take control of northern Swedens iron ore. For this reason it was also a factor in the launching of Operation Weserübung, Nazi Germanys invasion of Denmark. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged Hitler to think that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful, until the beginning of the 19th century, Finland constituted the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden. In 1809, to protect their capital, Saint Petersburg. While abortive because of Russias internal strife, these attempts ruined Russias relations with the Finns, the new Bolshevik Russian government was weak, and with the threat of civil war looming Soviet Russia recognized the new Finnish government just three weeks after the declaration of independence. Sovereignty was fully achieved in May 1918 after a civil war. Finland joined the League of Nations in 1920, from which it sought security guarantees, nevertheless, the government of Sweden carefully avoided committing itself to Finnish foreign policy. Another Finnish military policy was the top secret military cooperation between Finland and Estonia, the 1920s and early 1930s were a politically unstable time in Finland
5.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
6.
Romanization of Russian
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Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST, OST8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced in 16 October 1935. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as a standard of the COMECON. GOST7. 79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and it is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO stadards for travel documents and it was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013. The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, ISO/R9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization. It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages, ISO9,1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R9,1968, which it deprecates, for Russian, the UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products, American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, British Standard 2979,1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce, the portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules, in 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports, a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST52535. 1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports, in 2010, the Federal Migratory Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST52535. 1-2006. The standard was abandoned in 2013, finally in 2013, Order No.320 of the Federal Migratory Service of Russia came into force. It states that all names in the passports must be transliterated using the ICAO system. This system differs from the GOST52535. 1-2006 system in two things, ц is transliterated into ts, ъ is transliterated into ie, Scholarly ¹ Some archaic letters are transcribed in different ways
7.
Swedish language
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Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
8.
Gulf of Finland
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The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it, other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn. The eastern parts of the Gulf of Finland belong to Russia, as the seaway to Saint Petersburg, the Gulf of Finland has been and continues to be of considerable strategic importance to Russia. Some of the problems affecting the Baltic Sea are at their most pronounced in the shallow gulf. The area of the gulf is 30,000 km2, the length is 400 km and the width varies from 70 km near the entrance to 130 km on the meridian of Moshchny Island, in the Neva Bay, it decreases to 12 km. The gulf is shallow with the depth decreasing from the entrance to the gulf to the continent. The sharpest change occurs near Narva-Jõesuu, which is why this place is called Narva wall, the average depth is 38 m with the maximum of 100 m. The depth of the Neva Bay is less than 6 metres, therefore, a channel was dug at the bottom for safe navigation. Because of the influx of fresh water from rivers, especially from the Neva River. The average water temperature is close to 0 °C in winter, in summer, it is 15–17 °C at the surface, the gulf is usually frozen from late November to late April, the freezing starts in the east and gradually proceeds to the west. Complete freezing is usually reached by late January, and it not occur in mild winters. There are frequent strong winds causing waves, surges of water. The northern coast of the gulf is high and winding, with abundant small bays and skerries only a few large bays, the coast is mostly sloping, there are abundant sandy dunes, with occasional pine trees. The southern shores are smooth and shallow, but along the entire coast runs the Baltic Klint with the height up to 55 m, in the east, the gulf ends with Neva Bay and on the west merges with the Baltic Sea. The gulf contains numerous banks, skerries and islands, starting from 1700, nineteen artificial islands with fortresses were built in the gulf by Russia. Their purpose was defense from attacks from water and their construction was urged by the Great Northern War of 1700–1721 and those include Fort Alexander, Krasnaya Gorka, Ino, Totleben, Kronshlot and others. The largest rivers flowing into the gulf are Neva, Narva, keila, Pirita, Jägala, Kunda, Luga, Sista and Kovashi flow into the gulf from the south. From the north flow Sestra River, Porvoo, Vantaa and several small rivers
9.
Lake Ladoga
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Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia just outside the outskirts of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake in Europe, and the 15th largest freshwater lake by area in the world, Ladoga Lacus, a methane lake on Saturns moon Titan, is named after the lake. In one of Nestors chronicles from the 12th century he mentions a lake called the Great Nevo, ancient Norse sagas and Hanseatic treaties both mention a city made of lakes named Old Norse Aldeigja or Aldoga. Since the beginning of the 14th century this hydronym was commonly known as Ladoga, according to T. N. Jackson, it can be taken almost for granted, that the name of Ladoga first referred to the river, then the city, and only then the lake. Therefore, he considers the primary hydronym Ladoga to originate in the inflow to the lower reaches of the Volkhov River whose Finnic name was Alodejoki river of the lowlands. The Germanic toponym was soon borrowed by the Slavic population and transformed by means of the Old Russian metathesis ald- → lad- to Old East Slavic, Ладога. Other theories about the origin of the name derive it from Karelian, aalto wave and Karelian, aaltokas wavy, or from the Russian dialectal word алодь, meaning open lake, eugene Helimski by contrast, offers an etymology rooted in German. Through the intermediate form *Aldaugja, Old Norse, Aldeigja cam about, the lake has an average surface area of 17,891 km2. Its north-to-south length is 219 km and its width is 83 km. Basin area,276,000 km2, volume,837 km3, there are around 660 islands, with a total area of about 435 km2. Ladoga is, on average,5 m above sea level, most of the islands, including the famous Valaam archipelago, Kilpola and Konevets, are situated in the northwest of the lake. Separated from the Baltic Sea by the Karelian Isthmus, it drains into the Gulf of Finland via the Neva River, Lake Ladoga is navigable, being a part of the Volga-Baltic Waterway connecting the Baltic Sea with the Volga River. The Ladoga Canal bypasses the lake in the part, connecting the Neva to the Svir. The basin of Lake Ladoga includes about 50,000 lakes and 3,500 rivers longer than 10 km, about 85% of the water inflow is due to tributaries, 13% is due to precipitation, and 2% is due to underground waters. Geologically, the Lake Ladoga depression is a graben and syncline structure of Proterozoic age and this Ladoga–Pasha structure, as it known, hosts Jotnian sediments. During the Pleistocene glaciations the depression was partially stripped of its sedimentary rock fill by glacial overdeepening, deglaciation following the Weichsel glaciation took place in the Lake Ladoga basin between 12,500 and 11,500 radiocarbon years BP. Lake Ladoga was initially part of the Baltic Ice Lake, a historical stage of Baltic Sea. It is possible, though not certain, that Ladoga was isolated from it during regression of the subsequent Yoldia Sea brackish stage, at 9,500 BP, Lake Onega, previously draining into the White Sea, started emptying into Ladoga via the River Svir
10.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
11.
River Neva
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The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of 74 kilometres, it is the fourth largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge, the Neva is the only river flowing from Lake Ladoga. It flows through the city of Saint Petersburg, three towns of Shlisselburg, Kirovsk and Otradnoye, and dozens of settlements. The river is navigable throughout and is part of the Volga–Baltic Waterway and White Sea – Baltic Canal. There are at least three versions of the origin of the name Neva, from the ancient Finnish name of Lake Ladoga, from the Finnish, neva meaning swamp, or from the Swedish, ny – new river. Modern names for the distributaries of the delta were settled only by the end of the 18th century. In the Paleozoic, 300–400 million years ago, the territory of the modern delta of the Neva River was covered by a sea. Modern relief was formed as a result of glacier activity and its retreat formed the Littorina Sea, the water level of which was some 7 to 9 metres higher than the present level of the Baltic Sea. Then, the Tosna River was flowing in the bed of the Neva. In the north of the Karelian Isthmus, the Littorina Sea united by a strait with Lake Ladoga. The Mga River then flowed to the east, into Lake Ladoga, near the source of the Neva River. Near the modern Lake Ladoga, land rose faster, and a reservoir was formed. Its water level began to rise, eventually flooded the valley of Mga, the Ivanovo rapids of the modern Neva were created in the breakthrough area. So about 2000 BC the Neva was created with its tributaries Tosna, according to some newer data, it happened at 1410–1250 BC making the Neva a rather young river. The valley of Neva is formed by glacial and post-glacial sediments, the delta of Neva was formed at that time, which is actually pseudodelta, as it was formed not by accumulation of river material but by plunging into the past sediments. The Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga near Shlisselburg, flows through the Neva Lowland and it has a length of 74 kilometres, and the shortest distance from the source to the mouth is 45 kilometres. The river banks are low and steep, on average about 3 to 6 metres and 2 to 3 metres at the mouth. There are three turns, the Ivanovskye rapids, at Nevsky Forest Park of the Ust-Slavyanka region and near the Smolny Institute
12.
Vyborg Bay
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Vyborg Bay is a deep inlet running northeastward near the eastern end of Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. The city of Vyborg is located near the head of the gulf, the bay is connected by the Saimaa Canal to the lake Saimaa in Finland. In 1790 the bay was the scene of one of the largest naval battles in history, the end of the bay is called Zashchitnaya Bay (Russian, бухта Защитная, Finnish, Suomenvedenpohja
13.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
14.
Leningrad Oblast
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Leningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia. It was established on August 1,1927, although it was not until 1946 that the borders had been mostly settled in their present position. The oblast was named after the city of Leningrad, the first governor of Leningrad Oblast was Vadim Gustov. The current governor, since 2012, is Alexander Drozdenko, the oblast has an area of 84,500 square kilometers and a population of 1,716,868, up from 1,669,205 recorded in the 2002 Census. The most populous town of the oblast is Gatchina, with 88,659 inhabitants, Leningrad Oblast is located around the Gulf of Finland and south of two great lakes of the European Part of Russia, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega. Its northeastern part, between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, occupies the Karelian Isthmus, some islands in the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga also belong to the oblast. Much of the area of the oblast belongs to the basin of the Neva. Whereas the Neva, which flows to the Gulf of Finland is relatively short, its basin is enormously big and includes Lake Onega. The Svir and the Volkhov flow from Lake Onega and Lake Ilmen, respectively, other major tributaries of Lake Ladoga include the Vuoksi and the Syas. Rivers in the part of the oblast flow to the Gulf of Finland. Minor areas in the east of the oblast belong to the basin of the Chagodoshcha, a tributary of the Mologa. Thus, the divide between the basins of the Baltic and Caspian Seas crosses the oblast, the Karelian Isthmus is a rocky terrain which hosts a lake district. The biggest lakes on the Karelian Isthmus are Lake Vuoksa, Lake Sukhodolskoye, the rest of the area of the oblast is essentially flat. The exception is the Tikhvin Ridge, a chain of hills in the east of the oblast, most of the area is covered by forests and swamps. The most taxonomically diverse vascular plant families are Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae and Rosaceae, by far the most diverse genus is Carex. The territory has no endemic plant taxa, the territory of present-day Leningrad Oblast was populated shortly after the end of the Weichsel glaciation and now hosts numerous archaeological remnants. The Volga trade route and trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks crossed the territory, staraya Ladoga, the first capital of legendary Rurik, founded in the 8th-9th century, is situated in the east of the oblast, on the Volkhov River. During the Russo-Swedish Wars of the 15th-17th centuries, the border moved back, ingrian Finns soon became the dominant ethnic group
15.
Ingria
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The Orthodox Izhorians, along with the Votes, are the indigenous people of historical Ingria. With the consolidation of the Kievan Rus and the expansion of the Republic of Novgorod north, Ingria became a province of Sweden in the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 that ended the Ingrian War, fought between Sweden and Russia. After the Swedish conquest of the area in 1617 the Ingrian Finns, descendants of 17th-century Lutheran emigrants from present-day Finland, in 1710, following a Russian conquest, Ingria was designated as the Province of St. Petersburg. In the Treaty of Nystad, Sweden formally ceded Ingria to Russia, in 1927 the Soviet authorities designated the area as Leningrad Province. Deportations of the Ingrian Finns started in late 1920s, and Russification was nearly complete by the 1940s, as of 2015, Ingria forms the northwestern anchor of Russia—its window on the Baltic Sea—with Saint Petersburg as its centre. This notwithstanding, many still recognize their Ingrian heritage. In the Viking era, from the 750s onwards, Ladoga served as a bridgehead on the Varangian trade route to Eastern Europe, a Varangian aristocracy developed that would ultimately rule over Novgorod and Kievan Rus. In the 860s, the warring Finnic and Slavic tribes rebelled under Vadim the Bold, the Swedes referred to the ancient Novgorodian land of Vod as Ingermanland, Latinized to Ingria. Folk etymology traces its name to Ingegerd Olofsdotter, the daughter of the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung, upon her marriage to Yaroslav I the Wise, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Kiev, in 1019, she received the lands around Ladoga as a marriage gift. They were administered by Swedish jarls, such as Ragnvald Ulfsson, in the 12th century, Western Ingria was absorbed by the Republic. There followed centuries of frequent wars, chiefly between Novgorod and Sweden, and occasionally involving Denmark and Teutonic Knights as well, the Teutonic Knights established a stronghold in the town of Narva, followed by the Russian castle Ivangorod on the opposite side of the Narva River in 1492. However, Novgorod re-conquered Landskrona in 1301 and destroyed it, Ingria eventually became a Swedish dominion in the 1580s, but the Treaty of Teusina returned it to Russia in 1595. Russia in its turn ceded Ingria to Sweden in the Treaty of Stolbova after the Ingrian War of 1610-1617, the degree to which Ingria became the destination for Swedish deportees has often been exaggerated. In 1664 the total amounted to 15,000. The proportion of Lutheran Finns in Ingria comprised 41. 1% in 1656,53. 2% in 1661,55. 2% in 1666,56. 9% in 1671 and 73. 8% in 1695, the remainder being mostly Izhorians and Votes. Ingermanland was to a considerable extent enfiefed to noble military and state officials, however, a small number of Russian Orthodox churches remained in use until the very end of the Swedish dominion, and the forceful conversion of ethnic Russian Orthodox forbidden by law. Nyen became the trading centre of Ingria, especially after Ivangorod dwindled. In 1656 a Russian attack badly damaged the town, and the centre moved to Narva
16.
Karelia (historical province of Finland)
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Karelia is a historical province of Finland which Finland partly ceded to Russia after the Winter War of 1939–40. The Finnish Karelians include the inhabitants of North and South Karelia. Present Finnish Karelia has 315,000 inhabitants, the more than 400,000 evacuees from the ceded territories were re-settled in various parts of Finland. First indications of settlement in Karelia are from the Mesolithic period. The oldest find from the area is the over 9000 years old Antrea Net which is a net of willow bast. The number of finds from the area is lower towards the end of the Stone Age, archeological finds from Karelia are relatively rare between the years 400-800. From the Merovingian period onwards finds from Karelia display a distinct features of West Finnish influences which has interpreted to result at least partly from a colonisation. At least 50 sites of iron age settlements and 40 hillforts are known from Karelia, according to archeological record and historical data most of the hillforts in Karelia where erected between years 1100 and 1323. Particular Karelian culture including axes, brooches and ornamental culture flourished approximately between the years 1000-1400, during the 12th and 13th century, Karelians fought against Swedes and other Finnic tribes situated in western Finland, such as Tavastians and Finns proper. Karelians were listed as Novgorodian allies in the century in Russian Chronicles. The Third Swedish crusade, led by the marshal Torgils Knutsson took place between 1293 and 1295, as a result of the crusade the western parts of Karelia fell under Swedish rule and the building of the Castle of Viborg on the site of destroyed Karelian fort started. According to Eric Chronicles invading Swedes conquered 14 hundreds from Karelians during the crusade, hostilities between Novgorod and the kingdom of Sweden continued in 1300 when a Swedish force attacked the mouth of the River Neva and built a fort near the current location of Saint Petersburg. The fort was destroyed the year by the Novgorodians. Indecisive fighting in 1321 and 1322 led to negotiations and peace by the Treaty of Nöteborg which for the first time decided the border between Sweden and Novgorod. Sweden got territory around Viborg, the western Karelian Isthmus and South Karelia, in 1617 Sweden conquered Kexholm County from Russia. In 1634 Savonia and old Swedish Karelia were incorporated in the Viborg, after the Treaty of Nystad in 1721 eastern parts of the Viborg and Nyslott County and the Kexholm County were ceded to Russia. The rest of these counties were incorporated into the Kymmenegård and Nyslott County, the southeastern part of this county was also ceded to Russia in the Treaty of Åbo of 1743. After the conquest in 1809 of the rest of Finland, Russias 18th century gains, called Old Finland, were in 1812 joined to the Grand Duchy of Finland as a gesture of good will
17.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
18.
Great Northern War
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The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway. George I of Great Britain and of Brunswick-Lüneburg joined the coalition in 1714 for and for Hanover in 1717, Charles XII led the Swedish army. Swedish allies included Holstein-Gottorp, several Polish magnates under Stanisław I Leszczyński, the Ottoman Empire temporarily hosted Charles XII of Sweden and intervened against Peter I. The treaty also secured the extradition and execution of Johann Reinhold Patkul, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Russian-Moldavian army in the Pruth River Campaign, but that peace treaty was in the end without great consequence to Russias position. After Poltava, the anti-Swedish coalition revived and subsequently Hanover and Prussia joined it, the remaining Swedish forces in plague-stricken areas south and east of the Baltic Sea were evicted, with the last city, Riga, falling in 1710. The coalition members partitioned most of the Swedish dominions among themselves, Sweden proper was invaded from the west by Denmark–Norway and from the east by Russia, which had occupied Finland by 1714. Sweden defeated the Danish invaders at the Battle of Helsingborg, Charles XII opened up a Norwegian front, but was killed in Fredriksten in 1718. The war ended with Swedens defeat, leaving Russia as the new dominant power in the Baltic region, by these treaties Sweden ceded her exemption from the Sound Dues, and lost the Baltic provinces and the southern part of Swedish Pomerania. The peace treaties also ended her alliance with Holstein-Gottorp, Hanover gained Bremen-Verden, Brandenburg-Prussia incorporated the Oder estuary, Russia secured the Baltic Provinces, and Denmark strengthened her position in Schleswig-Holstein. In Sweden, the monarchy had come to an end with the death of Charles XII. Between the years of 1560 and 1658, Sweden created a Baltic empire centred on the Gulf of Finland and comprising the provinces of Karelia, Ingria, Estonia, and Livonia. During the Thirty Years War Sweden gained tracts in Germany as well, including Western Pomerania, Wismar, the Duchy of Bremen, during the same period Sweden conquered Danish and Norwegian provinces north of the Sound. However, the Swedish state ultimately proved unable to support and maintain its army in a prolonged war. The cost of the proved to be much higher than the occupied countries could fund, and Swedens coffers. The foreign interventions in Russia during the Time of Troubles resulted in Swedish gains in the Treaty of Stolbovo, the treaty deprived Russia of direct access to the Baltic Sea. In the late 1690s, the adventurer Johann Patkul managed to ally Russia with Denmark and Saxony by the secret Treaty of Preobrazhenskoye, Charles XII of Sweden succeeded Charles XI of Sweden in 1697, aged 14. From his predecessor, he took over the Swedish Empire as an absolute monarch, Charles XI had tried to keep the empire out of wars, and concentrated on inner reforms such as reduction and allotment, which had strengthened the monarchs status and the empires military abilities
19.
Grand Duchy of Finland
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The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed between 1809 and 1917 as an part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian Emperor as Grand Duke. The new title Grand Duke of Finland did not result in any Finnish autonomy, during the next two centuries, the title was used by some of Johns successors on the throne, but not all. Usually it was just a title of the king, used only on very formal occasions. The title Grand Duke of Finland was added to the long list of titles of the Russian Tsar, after his return to Finland in 1812, the Finnish-born Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt became counsellor to the Russian emperor. The formation of the Grand Duchy stems from the Treaty of Tilsit between Czar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon Bonaparte of France, the treaty mediated peace between Russia and France and allied the two countries against Napoleons remaining threats, Great Britain and Sweden. Russia invaded Finland in February of 1808, claimed as an effort to impose sanctions against Sweden, but not a war of conquest. The oath also dubbed anyone person who gave aid to the Swedish or Finnish armies a rebel, the Finns complied, bitter over Sweden abandoning the country for their war against Denmark and France, and begrudgingly embraced Russian conquest. The Diet of Finland was now to only meet whenever requested, further on, Alexander I requested a deputation of the four Finnish estates, as he expressed concern over continued Finnish resistance. The deputation refused to act without the Diet, to which Alexander agreed with, by 1809, all of Finland had been conquered and The Diet was summoned in March. Finland was then united through Russia via crown, and Finland was able to keep the majority of its own laws, the earlier years of the Grand Duchy can be seen as uneventful. In 1812, the area of Old Finland, known as the Viipuri Province was returned to Finland after being annexed by Russia in the Great Northern War, despite the outcry, the borders remained set until 1940. Moreover, Alexander moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki, a fortified town protected by Suomenlinna. Finlands main university also transferred to Helsinki after a fire out in Turku. Alexander went a step further to demand a Finnish House of Nobles, the house was designed to register all noble families in Finland, so that the highest Finnish estate would be representative of the next Finnish diet. As for Sweden, the majority did not think too much about Finlands conquest, as Sweden itself annexed Norway from Denmark in 1814, despite this, Alexander I ceased to give in to Finnish affairs and returned to governing Russia. In 1823, Arseny Zakrevsky was made general of Finland and quickly became unpopular by the Finns. Zakrevsky abolished the Committee for Finnish Affairs and managed to obtain the right to submit Finnish affairs to the Czar, bypassing the Finnish Secretary of State
20.
Vsevolozhsky District
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Vsevolozhsky District is an administrative and municipal district, one of the seventeen in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. Petersburg in the west, and is washed by Lake Ladoga in the east, the area of the district is 3,036.4 square kilometers. Its administrative center is the town of Vsevolozhsk, the Okhta River flows through the district while the Neva defines its southeastern border. There are many lakes in the district, most significant of them being Lakes Lembolovskoye, Kavgolovskoye, Khepoyarvi, the landscape is mostly flat with in the south and east and hilly in the west and northwest. Altitudes range between 170–180 meters above sea level in the north to less than 1 meter in the south, about 60% of the districts territory is covered by forests, mostly pine. In 1617, according to the Treaty of Stolbovo, the west of the area was transferred to Sweden, in the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by Peter the Great, the area was included into Ingermanland Governorate. In 1727, it became a part of Saint Petersburgsky Uyezd, and in 1755, Shlisselburgsky Uyezd was established, in 1914, the uyezd and the governorate were renamed Leningradsky. On February 14,1923 Shlisselburgsky Uyezd was merged into Petrogradsky Uyezd, in January,1924 the uyezd and the governorate were renamed Leningradsky. On August 1,1927, the uyezds were abolished and Leninsky District, the governorates were also abolished, and the district was a part of Leningrad Okrug of Leningrad Oblast. It included parts of former Leningradsky Uyezd, on July 23,1930, the okrugs were abolished as well, and the districts were directly subordinated to the oblast. On August 19,1930 Leninsky District was abolished and merged into newly established Leningradsky Prigorodny District with the center in the city of Leningrad. Another district established on August 1,1927 was Pargolovsky District with the center in the settlement of Pargolovo III. It was a part of Leningrad Okrug of Leningrad Oblast and included parts of former Leningradsky Uyezd, on August 19,1930 Pargolovsky District was abolished and split between Kuyvozovsky District and newly established Leningradsky Prigorodny District. On August 19,1936 Leningradsky Prigorodny District was abolished and split between the town of Leningrad and Krasnoselsky, Slutsky, Mginsky, Vsevolozhsky and Pargolovsky Districts. Krasnoselsky, Slutsky, Vsevolozhsky, and Pargolovsky Districts were established on that day to accommodate the areas belonging to Leningradsky Prigorodny District. It also included settlements of Imeni Morozova and Dubrovka. On November 27,1938 a number of settlements, including Vsevolozhskoye, were merged into the urban-type settlement of Vsevolozhsky. On December 8,1955 some areas in the south of the district were transferred to the city of Leningrad, on February 1,1963 the urban-type settlement of Vsevolozhsky was renamed Vsevolozhsk and granted the status of town of oblast significance
21.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
22.
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
23.
Continuation War
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The Continuation War consisted of hostilities between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. The Continuation War began shortly after the end of the Winter War, in the Soviet Union, the war was considered part of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its war efforts on the Eastern Front. Acts of war between the Soviet Union and Finland recommenced on 22 June 1941, the day Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union, open warfare began with a Soviet air offensive on 25 June. Subsequent Finnish operations undid its post-Winter War concessions to the Soviet Union on the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia, on the Karelian Isthmus, the Finns halted their offensive 30 km from Leningrad, at the pre-World War II border between the Soviet Union and Finland. Finnish forces did not participate in the siege of Leningrad directly, in 1944, Soviet air forces conducted air raids on Helsinki and other major Finnish cities. A ceasefire ended hostilities on 5 September and was followed by the Moscow Armistice on 19 September, the 1947 Paris peace treaty concluded the war formally. Finland ceded Pechengsky District to the Soviets, leased Porkkala peninsula to them, shortly afterward, Germany invaded Poland and as a result the United Kingdom and France declared war against Germany. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on 17 September, next, Moscow demanded that the Baltic states allow the establishment of Soviet military bases and the stationing of troops on their soil. The Baltic governments accepted these ultimatums, signing corresponding agreements in September and October 1939, the Finnish government refused, and the Red Army attacked Finland on 30 November 1939. Condemnation of the Soviets by the League of Nations and by all over the world had no effect on Soviet policy. International help for Finland was planned, but very little actual help materialized, the Moscow Peace Treaty, which was signed on 12 March 1940, ended the Winter War. By the terms of the treaty, Finland lost one eleventh of its national territory, however, Finland had avoided having the Soviet Union annex the whole country. Finlands foreign policy had been based on multilateral guarantees for support from the League of Nations, Finnish public opinion favored the reconquest of Finnish Karelia. Finlands government declared the countrys defense to be its first priority, Finland purchased and received donations of war material during and immediately after the Winter War. On Finlands southern frontier the Soviet Union had acquired a base in Hanko near the capital Helsinki. Finland also had to resettle some 420,000 evacuees from the lost territories, to ensure the supply of food, it was necessary to clear new land for the evacuees to cultivate. This was facilitated by the Rapid Settlement Act, the Finnish leadership wanted to preserve the spirit of unanimity that was commonly felt throughout the country during the Winter War
24.
Interim Peace
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The Interim Peace was a short period in the history of Finland during the Second World War. The term is used for the time between the Winter War and the Continuation War, lasting a little over a year, from 13 March 1940 to 24 June 1941. The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 12 March 1940, in the aftermath of the Winter War, both the Soviet Union and Finland were preparing for a new war while the Soviets pressured the Finns politically. In early 1940 Finland sued for an alliance with Sweden but both the Soviet Union and Germany opposed it, in April, Germany occupied Denmark and Norway. In June the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic states, next year Finland negotiated their participation in the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. The Baltic republics soon gave in to Soviet demands for bases and troop transfer rights, as diplomatic pressure had failed, arms were resorted to, and on November 30,1939, the Soviet Union began an invasion of Finland—the Winter War. The Winter War produced in Finns a rude awakening to international politics, condemnation by the League of Nations and by countries all over the world seemed to have no effect on Soviet policy. Even right-wing extremists were shocked to find that Nazi Germany did not help at all, the Moscow Peace Treaty, which ended the Winter War, was perceived as a great injustice. It seemed as if the losses at the table, including Finlands second largest city. A fifth of the industrial capacity and 11% of agricultural land were lost. Of the 12% of Finlands population who lived in the lost territories, only a few hundred stayed, the Moscow Peace Treaty, signed on March 12,1940, was a shock for the Finns. The immediate response was to broaden and intensify this policy, the term Välirauha hence became popular after the harsh peace was announced. To protest the Moscow Peace Treaty, two ministers resigned and Prime Minister Ryti was forced to form a new cabinet right away, to achieve better national consensus, all parties except the right extremist IKL participated in the cabinet. The most difficult post to fill was that of Foreign Minister, for which Ryti, on March 15, this plan was published for discussion in the parliaments. Although the peace treaty was signed, the state of war was not revoked because of the world war, the difficult food supply situation. Censorship was not abolished but was used to suppress critics of the Moscow peace treaty, within a week after the peace treaty was signed, the fortification works were started along the 1200 km long Salpalinja, where the focus was between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Saimaa. Military expenditures rose in 1940 to 45% of Finlands state budget, military purchases were prioritised over civilian needs. Under-secretary of MEW, Charles Hambro was authorized to form the war trade treaty with Finland and he had already exchanged letters with Ryti, and they reached quickly to the basic understanding of the contents of the treaty
25.
Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, also called Soviet Karelia or simply known as Karelia was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 1940 until it was part of the Russian SFSR in 1956 as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was set up on March 31,1940 by merging the KASSR with the Finnish Democratic Republic. The entire Karelian population of the areas, about 422,000 people, was evacuated to Finland. In 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured the area, Soviet sovereignty was recognized by Finland in the Moscow Armistice and Paris Peace Treaty. The Finnish Karelians were evacuated to Finland again, in September 1944, the Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg was transferred from the Karelo-Finnish SSR to the Leningrad Oblast of the RSFSR, but Ladoga Karelia remained a part of the republic. On July 16,1956, the republic was incorporated into the Russian SFSR as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the abolition of the Karelian SSR in 1956 was the only case in the history of the USSR of merging a member republic of the USSR into another republic. In the waning days of the USSR, the Karelian ASSR became the Republic of Karelia, the chairman of the Karelo-Finnish Supreme Soviet was Finnish communist Otto Ville Kuusinen. In the republic there was also a separate Karelo-Finnish Communist Party led in the 1940s by G. N, yuri Andropov served for some years as the first secretary of the republics Komsomol branch, the Leninist Communist Youth League of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic. Winter War Karelia Karelia Karelian question in Finnish politics Republics of the Soviet Union First Secretary of the Karelian Communist Party
26.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
27.
Kurortny District
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Kurortny District is a district of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on the Karelian Isthmus along the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland. As of the 2010 Census, its population, was 70,589, kurortny District comprises two municipal towns and nine municipal settlements. Tourism in the district is driven by Finnish bus tours, the current hotel stock is predominantly economy class, with a few four star hotels. Plans to develop the hotel stock are coming to fruition. A large hospital and rehabilitation center is situated in Sestroretsk, Закон №411-68 от25 июля2005 г. «О территориальном устройстве Санкт-Петербурга», в ред, Закона №685-130 от26 декабря2014 г. «О внесении изменений в Закон Санкт-Петербурга О территориальном устройстве Санкт-Петербурга и Закон Санкт-Петербурга О рассмотрении предложений о присвоении наименований географическим объектам», Вступил в силу через10 дней после дня официального опубликования, за исключением отдельных положений, вступающих в силу в иные сроки. Опубликован, Новое в законодательстве Санкт-Петербурга, №22,4 августа2005 г
28.
Priozersky District
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Priozersky District is an administrative and municipal district, one of the seventeen in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It is located in the northwest of the oblast and borders with Lakhdenpokhsky District of the Republic of Karelia in the north, Vsevolozhsky District in the south, in the east, the district is bounded by Lake Ladoga. The area of the district is 3,597.5 square kilometers and its administrative center is the town of Priozersk. The area of the district is elongated north to south along the shore of Lake Ladoga. It completely belongs to the catchment area of Lake Ladoga, with the biggest river being the Vuoksi, the landscapes are typical for Kartelian Isthmus, with the hilly and rocky terrain covered by coniferous forest, and with many lakes. The biggest lakes in the district are Lake Vuoksa, Lake Sukhodolskoye, Konevets Island on Lake Ladoga also belongs to the district. Forests occupy 63% of the area of the district, the territory of the modern district was originally settled by Karelians around the 1st century CE. It was a part of the Kievan Rus from the 9th to 12th century, after that, it was a part the Novgorod Republic. Most Karelians were converted to the Russian Orthodox faith during Russian rule, Russians built the fortress of Korela, which was a nucleus of modern Priozersk. The territory passed hands many times during the 16th and 17th centuries between Russians and Swedish, until it was claimed by Russians in 1711 during the Great Northern War. During Swedish rule in the area, the town was known by its Swedish name Kexholm, which in Russian became Keksgolm. In the 18th century, it was a part of Saint Petersburg Governorate, and later of Vyborg Governorate and it became part of independent Finland, when the former Grand Duchy declared its independence in December 1917. During the Interwar Period, the location was known by its Finnish and Swedish names, Käkisalmi, the area was ceded from Finland to the Soviet Union as a result of the 1939-40 Winter War. It was retaken by Finland during the 1941-44 Continuation War, regained by Soviet troops in 1944, nearly all of Finnish residents evacuated the area, which was repopulated by Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. Place names were changed in 1948 to remove remaining Finnish names in the district, Keksgolmsky District with the administrative center in Keksgolm was established in March 1940 as a part of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. On March 31,1940, the Karelian ASSR was transformed into the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, on November 24,1944, Keksgolmsky District was transferred from Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic to Leningrad Oblast. On October 1,1948, the district was renamed Priozersky, on February 1,1963 the district was abolished and merged into Vyborgsky District, on January 12,1965 it was re-esteblished. On May 16,1940, Rautovsky District with the center in the suburban settlement of Rautu was also established
29.
Vyborgsky District, Leningrad Oblast
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Vyborgsky District is an administrative and municipal district, one of the seventeen in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. Petersburg in the south, Kymenlaakso and South Karelia regions of Finland in the northwest, from the southwest, the district is limited by the Gulf of Finland. The area of the district is 7,475.472 square kilometers and its administrative center is the town of Vyborg. The district occupies the part of the Karelian Isthmus. The landscape is hilly and forested, with rock formations. The northern part of the lies in the basin of the Vuoksi River. The Vuoksi itself crosses the district from northwest to southeast, other rivers in the district, the largest of which are the Gryaznovka and the Sestra, drain directly into the Gulf of Finland. There are many lakes in the district, especially in the basin of the Vuoksi, Lake Glubokoye is the largest one. The western part of the Karelian Isthmus, inhabited by Karelians and Finns, Vyborg was founded in 1293 as a Swedish fortress for protection from the Novgorod Republic. In 1323, the Treaty of Nöteborg established the border between Novgorod and Sweden along the Sestra River and this border corresponds to the current southern limits of Vyborgsky District. The Novgorod Republic besieged Vyborg in 1411, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which by then annexed Novgorod, besieged it in 1495, according to the Treaty of Stolbovo, the whole Karelian Isthmus was ceded to Sweden and the border moved southeast. In 1710, during the Great Northern War, the troops of Tsar Peter the Great conquered Vyborg and this was confirmed by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. In the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by Peter the Great, in 1719, it became a part of Vyborg Province, and in 1744, Vyborg Governorate with the seat in Vyborg was established. In 1783, it was transformed into Vyborg Viceroyalty, then in 1801 back into Vyborg Governorate. In 1801, Vyborg Governorate was renamed Finland Governorate, and in 1812, it was renamed back and included into the Grand Duchy of Finland, after 1812, it was known as the Viipuri Province. On July 17,1919, the Viipuri Province became a part of independent Finland, the border between Finland and Soviet Union was drawn along the Sestra River. After the Winter War, Finland ceded this territory to the Soviet Union by the terms of the Moscow Peace Treaty, the territory was recaptured by Finns between 1941 and 1944 during the Continuation War but was again ceded to the Soviets after the Moscow Armistice. The secession was formalized after signing of the Paris Peace Treaty in 1947, Viipuri Province was divided, with the larger part ceded to Soviet Union and the smaller part remaining in Finland
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Russian Census (2002)
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Russian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, carried out on October 9 through October 16,2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics, the census data were collected as of midnight October 9,2002. The census was intended to collect statistical information about the resident population of Russian Federation. All detailed census tables are for the resident population, a sample of the participants were also asked more detailed questions about their economic and housing situation. Also, the census also counted two more groups of people, Russian citizens currently living abroad for more one year in connection with the employment with the federal government. Persons permanently residing abroad, but temporarily present in Russia, Foreign citizens present in Russia as employees of foreign diplomatic missions or international organizations, and members of their household, were excluded from the census altogether. The Census recorded the resident population of 145,166,731 persons and that included urban population of 106,429,000 and rural population of 38,738,000. The non-resident populations included, Russian citizens living abroad in connection with the government service,107,288. Census participants were asked what country they were citizens of,142,442,000 respondents reported being Russian citizens, among them,44,000 also had citizenship of another country. Among Russias resident population,1,025,413 foreign citizens and 429,881 stateless persons were counted,1,269,023 persons did not report their citizenship. Among the questions asked were Are you competent in the Russian language, and What other languages are you competent in. As the census manual explained, competence meant either the ability to speak, read and write a language, the questions did not distinguish native and non-native speakers, nor did they try to measure the degree of language competence. For small children, presumably, the answer was based on the language spoken by the parents. 142.6 million of the responders claimed competence in Russian, other widely reported languages are listed in the table below. 1.42 million responders did not provide language information, for a more detailed list, see List of languages of Russia. Demographics of Russia Russian Empire Census Soviet Census Official census home page Population of Chechnya, was the Census correct
31.
Vuoksi River
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The Vuoksi is a river running through the northernmost part of the Karelian Isthmus from Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland to Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia. Since 1857, the old northern distributaries drain only the lower reaches of the Vuoksi basin and are not fed by Lake Saimaa, the northern and southern branches actually belong to two separate river systems, which at times get isolated from each other in dry seasons. The descent between Lake Saimaa and Lake Ladoga is 69 metres, the entire run of the river is 162 kilometres via the Priozersk branch, or 150 kilometres via the Taipale branch. For most of its length, the river broadens out to a series of lakes bound together by shorter riverlike connections, one of these lakes, Uusijärvi close to Priozersk, was renamed Ozero Vuoksa by the Soviets. The Vuoksi connects Lake Ladoga with central Finland, and was once an important route for trade, a western branch, which disappeared due to ongoing land uplift, was an alternative route for the Karelians to reach the Gulf of Finland when the Neva River was blocked by enemies. Now the Saimaa Canal bypasses the Vuoksi and enters the Gulf of Finland in the Bay of Vyborg near the city of Vyborg. During both the Winter and Continuation Wars the river Vuoksi was a major Finnish defensive line against the Soviet advance, the Mannerheim Line and VKT-line were located along the northern shore of its southern armlet. From the Industrial Revolution, power generated from Vuoksis rapids made the Vuoksi region Finlands industrial center in the late 19th century, since the Winter War, the Karelian Isthmus has belonged to Russia and only 13 kilometres of the rivers length remains in Finland. The major power stations at Tainionkoski and Imatra are on the Finnish side in the city of Imatra, the rivers surroundings, including the Korela Fortress, is a popular resort for Saint Petersburgs residents. The river is famous for its rapids, for instance Imatrankoski in Imatra, the rapid junction of the Vuoksi and Suvanto/Lake Sukhodolskoye at Losevo is a popular area for kayak, canoe and catamaran competitions. Around 5,000 BP the waters of the Saimaa Lake penetrated Salpausselkä, forming the river emptying into Lake Ladoga in its northwestern corner and raising the level of the latter by 1 to 2 metres. Lake Ladoga transgressed, flooding lowland lakes and the Vuoksi, and connected with the Baltic Sea at Heinjoki, the connection disappeared due to ongoing land uplift. In 1818, a canal was dug to drain spring flood waters from Lake Suvanto into Lake Ladoga, Taipaleenjoki started draining Suvanto and decreased its level by 7 metres. Originally Lake Suvanto flowed into the Vuoksi river through a waterway at Kiviniemi, but as a result of the change, in 1857 a channel was dug there, but the stream reversed direction, creating rapids and rendering navigation at Kiviniemi impossible. The creation of the Vuoksi River preceded a significant cultural shift, September 15,2014, Phys. org
32.
Priozersk
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It is served by a station of the same name on the St. Petersburg—Khiytola railway. From the Middle Ages, Priozersk was known as Korela to Russians, the town was a part of Vodskaya pyatina of the Novgorod Republic. Novgorod taxation documents from 1500 list 183 houses in Korela, suggesting a population of 1. The Swedes captured Korela twice, in 1578 for seventeen years, in the Swedish Empire, the fortress was called Kexholm and the whole region became known as the County of Kexholm. Russia definitively secured the area during the Great Northern War, the towns Swedish name was retained, however, unfortunately, wars and devastating fires in 1300,1580,1634, and 1679 took their toll on the civilian population. Consequently, when the town gained its first court house in 1800, in 1812, as the Grand Duchy of Finland three years earlier had been formed within the Russian Empire, Tsar Alexander I incorporated Keksgolm with the rest of Old Finland into an autonomous region. Keksgolm was the smallest city in the governorate, since 1812, Vyborg Governorate was known as the Viipuri Province. Towns growth was boosted by the construction of the St. Petersburg–Hiitola railway in 1917, in 1939, Käkisalmi had a population of 5083. Around the town laid the rural municipality of Käkisalmi, with a population of 5,100, minorities were Orthodox, Swedish, Russian, or German. Total population was 11,129 in 1939, the Winter War on November 30,1939 began with the Soviet attack. Eventually, after fighting, Finland was forced to cede Käkisalmi. During the Continuation War in 1941–1944, Finland gained back Keksgolm, the population returned to rebuild the town, but were again evacuated at the close of World War II. Keksgolmsky District with the center in Keksgolm was established as a part of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in March 1940. On March 31,1940, the Karelian ASSR was transformed into the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, on November 24,1944, Keksgolmsky District was transferred from the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic to Leningrad Oblast. On October 1,1948, Keksgolm was renamed Priozersk as a part of the campaign to rename localities in the areas annexed from Finland, Priozersk was settled with mainly Russians, Belorussian, and Ukrainian migrants, who have since comprised the majority of the local population. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Priozersk serves as the center of Priozersky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with three rural localities, incorporated within Priozersky District as Priozerskoye Settlement Municipal Formation, as a municipal division, Priozerskoye Settlement Municipal Formation is incorporated within Priozersky Municipal District as Priozerskoye Urban Settlement. The main industrial enterprise in Priozersk is the paper mill transformed into a furniture production plant
33.
Understory
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In forestry and ecology, understory comprises plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but above the forest floor. Only a small percentage of light penetrates the canopy so understory vegetation is generally shade tolerant, the understory typically consists of trees stunted through lack of light, other small trees with low light requirements, saplings, shrubs, vines and undergrowth. Small trees such as holly and dogwood are understory specialists, in temperate deciduous forests, many understory plants start into growth earlier than the canopy trees to make use of the greater availability of light at this time of year. A gap in the canopy caused by the death of a tree stimulates the potential emergent trees into competitive growth as they grow upwards to fill the gap and these trees tend to have straight trunks and few lower branches. At the same time, the bushes, undergrowth and plant life on the forest floor become more dense, the understory experiences greater humidity than the canopy, and the shaded ground does not vary in temperature as much as open ground. This causes a proliferation of ferns, mosses and fungi and encourages nutrient recycling, the understory is the underlying layer of vegetation in a forest or wooded area, especially the trees and shrubs growing between the forest canopy and the forest floor. Plants in the understory comprise an assortment of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with specialist understory shrubs and herbs, young canopy trees often persist in the understory for decades as suppressed juveniles until an opening in the forest overstory permits their growth into the canopy. In contrast understory shrubs complete their cycles in the shade of the forest canopy. Some smaller tree species, such as dogwood and holly, rarely grow tall, the canopy of a rainforest is typically about 10m thick, and intercepts around 95% of the sunlight. The understory receive less light than plants in the canopy. Understory plants therefore must be shade tolerant—they must be able to photosynthesize adequately using such light as does reach their leaves and they often are able to use wavelengths that canopy plants cannot. In temperate deciduous forests towards the end of the leafless season and this is important because it provides the understory plants with a window in which to photosynthesize without the canopy shading them. This brief period is often a period in which the plant can maintain a net positive carbon balance over the course of the year. As a rule forest understories also experience higher humidity than exposed areas, the forest canopy reduces solar radiation, so the ground does not heat up or cool down as rapidly as open ground. Consequently, the understory dries out more slowly than more exposed areas do, the greater humidity encourages epiphytes such as ferns and mosses, and allows fungi and other decomposers to flourish. This drives nutrient cycling, and provides favorable microclimates for many animals and plants, such as the pygmy marmoset
34.
Calluna
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Calluna vulgaris is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is the dominant plant in most heathland and moorland in Europe and it is tolerant of grazing and regenerates following occasional burning, and is often managed in nature reserves and grouse moors by sheep or cattle grazing, and also by light burning. The specific epithet vulgaris is Latin for common, Calluna is differentiated from Erica by its corolla and calyx each being in four parts instead of five. Calluna has small scale-leaves borne in opposite and decussate pairs, whereas those of Erica are generally larger and in whorls of 3-4, the flowers emerge in late summer, in wild plants these are normally mauve, but white-flowered plants also occur occasionally. They are terminal in racemes with sepal-like bracts at the base with a superior ovary, unlike Erica, Calluna sometimes sports double flowers. Calluna is sometimes referred to as Summer heather to distinguish it from winter or spring flowering species of Erica, Calluna is native to Europe, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the Azores. It has been introduced many other places worldwide with suitable climates, including North America, Australia, New Zealand. Despised until the 19th century for its associations with the most rugged rural poverty and it is a very popular ornamental plant in gardens and for landscaping, in lime-free areas where it will thrive, but has defeated many a gardener on less acid soil. There are many named cultivars, selected for variation in colour and for different foliage colour. Different cultivars have flower colours ranging from white, through pink and a range of purples. The flowering season with different cultivars extends from late July to November in the northern hemisphere, the flowers may turn brown but still remain on the plants over winter, and this can lead to interesting decorative effects. Cultivars with ornamental foliage are usually selected for reddish and golden leaf colour, a few forms can be silvery grey. Many of the ornamental foliage forms change colour with the onset of winter weather, some forms are grown for distinctive young spring foliage. Cultivars include ‘Beoley Crimson’, ‘Boskoop’, ‘Cuprea’, Firefly, ‘Long White’, willow Grouse and Red Grouse feed on the young shoots and seeds of this plant. Both adult and larva of the Heather Beetle Lochmaea suturalis feed on it, the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species also feed on the plant, notably the small emperor moth Saturnia pavonia. Formerly heather was used to dye wool yellow and to tan leather, with malt, heather is an ingredient in gruit, a mixture of flavourings used in the brewing of heather-beer during the Middle Ages before the use of hops. The use of heather in the brewing of modern heather beer is carefully regulated, by law, the heather must be cleaned carefully before brewing, as the undersides of the leaves may contain a dusting of an ergot-like fungus, which is a hallucinogenic intoxicant. From time immemorial heather has been used for making besoms, a practice recorded in Buy Broom Buzzems a song written by William Purvis from Newcastle-upon-Tyne
35.
Weichselian glaciation
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In the Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation. It was characterised by an ice sheet that spread out from the Scandinavian Mountains and extended as far as the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein. In Northern Europe it was the youngest of the glacials of the Pleistocene ice age, the preceding warm period in this region was the Eemian interglacial. The last cold period began about 115,000 years ago and its end corresponds with the end of the Pleistocene epoch and start of the Holocene. About 115,000 years ago average temperatures dropped markedly and warmth-loving woodland species were displaced and this significant turning point in average temperatures marked the end of the Eemian interglacial and start of the Weichselian glacial stage. It is divided into three sections, based on the variation, the Weichselian Early Glacial, the Weichselian High Glacial. During the Weichselian, there were frequent major variations in climate in the northern hemisphere, the Weichsel Early Glacial is in turn divided into four stages, Odderade Interstadial. The pollen spectra indicate a boreal forest and it starts with a tree birch phase, which rapidly transitions to pine forest. Also apparent are larches and spruce as well as low numbers of alder, in North Germany the pollen spectra indicate a grassy tundra followed later by shrubby tundra. Several profiles show a period of cooling shortly after the start of the Brörup Interstadial. This led some authors to distinguish the first warm period as the Amersfoort Interstadial, however, since then, this first warm period and cooling phase has been included in the Brörup Interstadial. Northern Central Europe was populated by birch and pine woods, the Brörup Interstadial is identified with marine isotope stage 5c. The Herning Stadial was the first cold phase, in which northwestern Europe was largely treeless and it corresponds to marine isotope stage 5d. In the Weichselian High Glacial the ice advanced into North Germany. In this period, however, several interstadials have been documented, glaciation and ice sheet advances to North Germany. The pollen spectra indicates a shrubby tundra landscape, the pollen show sedges and temporarily a high number of dwarf birches. The pollen spectra show a treeless tundra vegetation with a proportion of sedges. The pollen diagrams indicate a treeless, shrubby tundra, in North Germany this period is characterised by pollen-free sands
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Moraine
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A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions on Earth, through geomorphological processes. Moraines are formed from debris previously carried along by a glacier, lateral moraines are formed at the side of the ice flow and terminal moraines at the foot, marking the maximum advance of the glacier. Other types of moraine include ground moraines, till-covered areas with irregular topography, moraines may be composed of debris ranging in size from silt-sized glacial flour to large boulders. The debris is typically sub-angular to rounded in shape, moraines may be on the glacier’s surface or deposited as piles or sheets of debris where the glacier has melted. Moraines may form through a number of processes, depending on the characteristics of sediment, the dynamics on the ice, moraine forming processes may be loosely divided into passive and active. Passive processes involve the placing of chaotic supraglacial sediments onto the landscape with limited reworking and these moraines are composed of supraglacial sediments from the ice surface. Active processes form or rework moraine sediment directly by the movement of ice and these form push moraines and thrust-block moraines, which are often composed of till and reworked proglacial sediment. Moraine may also form by the accumulation of sand and gravel deposits from glacial streams emanating from the ice margin and these fan deposits may coalesce to form a long moraine bank marking the ice margin. Several processes may combine to form and rework a single moraine, moraines can be classified either by origin, location with respect to a glacier or former glacier, or by shape. Some moraine types are only from ancient glaciers, while medial moraines of valley glaciers are poorly preserved. Lateral moraines are parallel ridges of debris deposited along the sides of a glacier, the unconsolidated debris can be deposited on top of the glacier by frost shattering of the valley walls and/or from tributary streams flowing into the valley. The till is carried along the glacial margin until the glacier melts, lateral moraines stand high because they protect the ice under them from the elements, causing it to melt or sublime less than the uncovered parts of the glacier. Multiple lateral moraines may develop as the glacier advances and retreats, ground moraines are till-covered areas with irregular topography and no ridges, often forming gently rolling hills or plains. They are accumulated at the base of the ice as lodgment till, in alpine glaciers, ground moraines are often found between the two lateral moraines. Ground moraines may be modified into drumlins by the overriding ice, Rogen moraines or ribbed moraines are a type of basal moraines that form a series of ribs perpendicular to the ice flow in an ice sheet. The depressions between the ribs are sometimes filled with water, making the Rogen moraines look like tigerstripes on aerial photographs, Rogen moraines are named after Lake Rogen in Härjedalen, Sweden, the landform’s type locality. End moraines, or terminal moraines, are ridges of unconsolidated debris deposited at the snout or end of the glacier and they usually reflect the shape of the glaciers terminus. Glaciers act much like a belt, carrying debris from the top of the glacier to the bottom where it deposits it in end moraines
37.
Saimaa
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Saimaa is a lake in southeastern Finland. At approximately 4,400 square kilometres, it is the largest lake in Finland, and it was formed by glacial melting at the end of the Ice Age. Major towns on the lakeshore include Lappeenranta, Imatra, Savonlinna, Mikkeli, Varkaus, the Vuoksi River flows from Saimaa to Lake Ladoga. Most of the lake is spotted with islands, and narrow canals divide the lake in many parts, thus, Saimaa exhibits all major types of lake in Finland at different levels of eutropification. In places in the Saimaa basin, there is more shoreline here per unit of area than anywhere else in the world, the number of islands in the region,14,000, also shows what a maze of detail the system is. The Saimaa Canal from Lappeenranta to Vyborg connects Saimaa to the Gulf of Finland, other canals connect Saimaa to smaller lakes in Eastern Finland and form a network of waterways. These waterways are used to transport wood, minerals, metals, pulp and other cargo. An endangered freshwater seal, the Saimaa Ringed Seal, lives only at Saimaa, another of the lakes endangered species is the Saimaa salmon. About 6000 year ago, ancient Lake Saimaa, estimated to cover nearly 9000 km2 at the time, was discharged through a new outlet. The event created thousands of kilometres of new residual wetlands. Due to its rich, easily accessible asbestos deposits, the shores of the lake are the most probable origin of asbestos-ceramic and he wrote to his divorced wife Ekaterina, writing its beautiful here, like a fairy tale
38.
Saimaa Canal
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The Saimaa Canal is a transportation canal that connects lake Saimaa with the Gulf of Finland near Vyborg, Russia. The canal was built from 1845 to 1856 and opened on 7 September 1856 and it was overhauled and widened in 1963–1968. A system of waterways and canals in the 120 interconnected lakes of the south-central. The network of channels in Lake Saimaa with at least a draught of 4.2 metres covers 814 kilometres. The deep channels all the way to Kuopio in Central Finland. The canal begins near Lauritsala, Lappeenranta, Finland and ends in Vyborg, Russia, connecting Lake Saimaa, on the way, it connects Lake Nuijamaa, on the Finnish–Russian border, and three smaller lakes in Russia. The canal crosses 12 motor vehicles bridges,6 of them in Finland –3 movable and 3 immovable the other 6 in Russia –4 movable and 2 immovable 2 railroad bridges, both of them are immovable. The canal, inaugurated in 1856, was built between the cities of Lappeenranta and Vyborg, both of then in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire. In the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, the Karelian Isthmus, following a treaty agreement in 1963, the USSR leased the Soviet section of the canal area and the Maly Vysotsky Island to Finland for fifty years. A new deeper canal was constructed by the Finns, which opened to traffic in 1968, the length of the canal itself is 42.9 kilometres. Under the new Saimaa Canal lease treaty signed by the Finnish and Russian governments in 2010, the treaty went into effect on 17 February 2012. The area is not part of Finland, it is a part of Russia. Russian law is in force, with a few exceptions concerning maritime rules and the employment of canal staff, there are also special rules concerning vessels traveling to Finland via the canal. Russian visas are not required for just passing through the canal, negotiations in 2008 agreed upon an extension of 50 years beginning in 2013, with an increase of the yearly rent of 290,000 euros to 1.22 million euros. The rent will thereafter be adjusted every 10 years, media related to Saimaa Canal at Wikimedia Commons Finnish Transport Agency, Saimaa Canal
39.
Ecoregion
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An ecoregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than an ecozone. All three of these are less or greater than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, the biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. Three caveats are appropriate for all bio-geographic mapping approaches, firstly, no single bio-geographic framework is optimal for all taxa. Ecoregions reflect the best compromise for as many taxa as possible, secondly, ecoregion boundaries rarely form abrupt edges, rather, ecotones and mosaic habitats bound them. Thirdly, most ecoregions contain habitats that differ from their assigned biome, biogeographic provinces may originate due to various barriers. Some physical, some climatic and some ocean chemical related, the history of the term is somewhat vague as it was used in many contexts, forest classifications, biome classifications, biogeographic classifications, etc. The concept of ecoregion of Bailey gives more importance to ecological criteria, while the WWF concept gives more importance to biogeography, there is significant, but not absolute, spatial correlation among these characteristics, making the delineation of ecoregions an imperfect science. Such transition zones are called ecotones, Ecoregions can be categorized using an algorithmic approach or a holistic, “weight-of-evidence” approach where the importance of various factors may vary. An example of the approach is Robert Bailey’s work for the U. S. The intended purpose of ecoregion delineation may affect the method used, according to WWF, the boundaries of an ecoregion approximate the original extent of the natural communities prior to any major recent disruptions or changes. WWF has identified 867 terrestrial ecoregions, and approximately 450 freshwater ecoregions across the Earth, the use of the term ecoregion is an outgrowth of a surge of interest in ecosystems and their functioning. In particular, there is awareness of issues relating to spatial scale in the study and it is widely recognized that interlinked ecosystems combine to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF as priorities for conservation, Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater and marine ecoregions. In this context, terrestrial is used to mean of land, WWF ecologists currently divide the land surface of the Earth into 8 major ecozones containing 867 smaller terrestrial ecoregions. The WWF effort is a synthesis of previous efforts to define. Many consider this classification to be decisive, and some propose these as stable borders for bioregional democracy initiatives. The eight terrestrial ecozones follow the major floral and faunal boundaries, identified by botanists and zoologists, ecozone boundaries generally follow continental boundaries, or major barriers to plant and animal distribution, like the Himalayas and the Sahara
40.
Phytochorion
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A phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phytochoria do not usually have a boundary, but rather a soft one. The region of overlap is called a tension zone. However, some prefer not to rank areas, referring to them simply as areas. Systems used to classify vegetation can be divided in two groups, those that use physiognomic-environmental parameters and characteristics and those that are based on floristic relationships. Several systems of classifying geographic areas where plants grow have been devised, most systems are organized hierarchically, with the largest units subdivided into smaller geographic areas, which are made up of smaller floristic communities, and so on. Phytochoria are defined as possessing a large number of endemic taxons. Floristic kingdoms are characterized by a degree of family endemism, floristic regions by a high degree of generic endemism. In the late 19th century, Adolf Engler was the first to make a map with the limits of distribution of floras. His Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien, from the third onwards, also included a sketch of the division of the earth into floral regions. Other important early works on floristics includes Augustin de Candolle, Schouw, Alphonse de Candolle, Drude, botanist Ronald Good identified six floristic kingdoms, the largest natural units he determined for flowering plants. Goods six kingdoms are subdivided into units, called provinces. The Paleotropical kingdom is divided into three subkingdoms, which are subdivided into floristic provinces. Each of the five kingdoms are subdivided directly into provinces. There are a total of 37 floristic provinces, almost all provinces are further subdivided into floristic regions. Armen Takhtajan, in a widely used scheme that builds on Goods work, identified thirty-five floristic regions, each of which is subdivided into floristic provinces, guide to Standard Floras of the World. An annotated, geographically arranged systematic bibliography of the principal floras, enumerations, checklists, 2nd ed. pp. xxiv,1100. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
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Circumboreal Region
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The Circumboreal Region is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom in Eurasia and North America, as delineated by such geobotanists as Josias Braun-Blanquet and Armen Takhtajan. Northern portions of the region include polar desert, taiga and tundra biomes, many geobotanists divide the Eurasian and North American areas into two distinct regions. The continents, however, share much of their boreal flora, the flora was severely impoverished during glaciations in the Pleistocene. The region is bordered by Eastern Asiatic, North American Atlantic, Rocky Mountain, there are no biological families endemic to this region, but it has endemic genera and a lot of endemic species, especially in the mountains. It is subdivided into a number of floristic provinces, caucasian Province, with five endemic genera and many endemic species, many endemic species and genera shared with the Euxinian Province. Okhotsk-Kamchatkan Province, with one genus and many endemic species. Michael Hogan. National Council for Science and the Environment, imperfect balance, landscape transformations in the Precolumbian Americas, Science,547 pages, page Robert F. Thorne. Phytogeography of North America North of Mexico, flora of North America, Vol.1, Ch.6
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Boreal Kingdom
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The Boreal Kingdom or Holarctic Kingdom is a floristic kingdom identified by botanist Ronald Good, which includes the temperate to Arctic portions of North America and Eurasia. Its flora is inherited from the ancient supercontinent of Laurasia, however, parts of the floristic kingdom was glaciated during the Pleistocene and has a very young flora. Cenozoic relicts found refuge in the southern and mountainous parts of the kingdom, especially in the Eastern Asiatic Region, Good noted that many plant species of temperate North America and Eurasia were very closely related, despite their separation by the Atlantic Ocean and the Bering Strait. Millions of years ago, before the opening of the Atlantic Ocean, North America and Eurasia were joined as a single continent, after the opening of the Atlantic, the continents were connected to one another periodically via land bridges linking Alaska and Siberia. A floristic kingdom is the analogue to an ecozone, which takes into account the distribution of animal as well as plant species. Many biogeographers distinguish the Boreal Kingdom as comprising two ecozones, the Nearctic and Palearctic, others, based on the distribution of related plant and animal families, include the Palearctic and Nearctic in a single Holarctic ecozone, which corresponds to Goods Boreal Kingdom. The kingdom is subdivided into three floristic subkingdoms and nine floristic regions, circumboreal Region Eastern Asiatic Region North American Atlantic Region Rocky Mountain Region Macaronesian Region Mediterranean Region Saharo-Arabian Region Irano-Turanian Region Madrean Region
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Taiga
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Taiga also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces and larches. The taiga is the worlds largest biome apart from the oceans, in North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States, where it is known as the Northwoods or North woods. However, the tree species, the length of the growing season. Hoffman discusses the origin of this use in North America. Although at high elevations taiga grades into alpine tundra through Krummholz, it is not an alpine biome only like subalpine forest, Taiga is the worlds largest land biome, and makes up 29% of the worlds forest cover, the largest areas are located in Russia and Canada. The taiga is the terrestrial biome with the lowest annual average temperatures after the tundra, extreme winter minimums in the northern taiga are typically lower than those of the tundra. The lowest reliably recorded temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were recorded in the taiga of northeastern Russia, the taiga or boreal forest has a subarctic climate with very large temperature range between seasons, but the long and cold winter is the dominant feature. This climate is classified as Dfc, Dwc, Dsc, Dfd and Dwd in the Köppen climate classification scheme, meaning that the summer lasts 1–3 months. In Siberian taiga the average temperature of the coldest month is between −6 °C and −50 °C, the mean annual temperature generally varies from -5 °C to 5 °C, but there are taiga areas in eastern Siberia and interior Alaska-Yukon where the mean annual reaches down to -10 °C. According to some sources, the boreal forest grades into a mixed forest when mean annual temperature reaches about 3 °C. The winters, with temperatures below freezing, last five to seven months. Temperatures vary from −54 °C to 30 °C throughout the whole year, the summers, while short, are generally warm and humid. In much of the taiga, -20 °C would be a winter day temperature and 18 °C an average summer day. In Canada, Scandinavia and Finland, the season is often estimated by using the period of the year when the 24-hour average temperature is +5 °C or more. For the Taiga Plains in Canada, growing season varies from 80 to 150 days, some sources claim 130 days growing season as typical for the taiga. Other sources mention that 50–100 frost-free days are characteristic, data for locations in southwest Yukon gives 80–120 frost-free days. The closed canopy boreal forest in Kenozersky National Park near Plesetsk, Arkhangelsk Province, Russia, the longest growing season is found in the smaller areas with oceanic influences, in coastal areas of Scandinavia and Finland, the growing season of the closed boreal forest can be 145–180 days. High latitudes mean that the sun not rise far above the horizon
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Scots pine
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In the north of its range, it occurs from sea level to 1,000 m, while in the south of its range it is a high altitude mountain tree, growing at 1, 200–2,600 m altitude. It is readily identified by its combination of short, blue-green leaves. The species is found on poorer, sandy soils, rocky outcrops. On fertile sites, Scots pine is out-competed by other, usually spruce or broad-leaved tree species and it is the national tree of Scotland. The bark is thick, scaly dark grey-brown on the lower trunk, the habit of the mature tree is distinctive due to its long, bare and straight trunk topped by a rounded or flat-topped mass of foliage. The lifespan is normally 150–300 years, with the oldest recorded specimens in Lapland, the shoots are light brown, with a spirally arranged scale-like pattern. On vigorous young trees the leaves can be twice as long, leaf persistence varies from two to four years in warmer climates, and up to nine years in subarctic regions. Seedlings up to one year old bear juvenile leaves, these are single, 2–3 cm long, flattened, the cone scales have a flat to pyramidal apophysis, with a small prickle on the umbo. The seeds are blackish, 3–5 mm in length with a pale brown 12–20 mm wing and are released when the open in spring 22–24 months after pollination. The pollen cones are yellow, occasionally pink, 8–12 mm long, over 100 Pinus sylvestris varieties have been described in the botanical literature, but only three or four are now accepted. They differ only minimally in morphology, but with more pronounced differences in genetic analysis, populations in westernmost Scotland are genetically distinct from those in the rest of Scotland and northern Europe, but not sufficiently to have been distinguished as a separate botanical variety. Trees in the far north of the range were formerly treated as var. lapponica. The bulk of the range, from Scotland and Spain to central Siberia, the Balkans, northern Turkey, Crimea, and the Caucasus. Foliage more consistently glaucous all year, not becoming duller in winter, mongolia and adjoining parts of southern Siberia and northwestern China. Foliage duller green, shoots grey-green, leaves occasionally up to 12 cm long, the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain and possibly other Spanish populations Kalenicz. Cones often with scales, but doubtfully distinguishable on morphology. From border regions between Russia and Ukraine, in central and southern Europe, it occurs with numerous additional species, including European black pine, mountain pine, Macedonian pine, and Swiss pine. In the eastern part of its range, it occurs with Siberian pine, the tree spread across the British Isles after the Last Glacial Maximum
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Picea abies
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Picea abies, the Norway spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce and it is very closely related to the Siberian spruce, which replaces it east of the Ural Mountains, and with which it hybridises freely. The Norway spruce is widely planted for its wood, and is the used as the main Christmas tree in several cities around the world. It was the first gymnosperm to have its genome sequenced, Norway spruce is a large, fast-growing evergreen coniferous tree growing 35–55 m tall and with a trunk diameter of 1 to 1.5 m. It can grow fast when young, up to 1 m per year for the first 25 years under good conditions, the shoots are orange-brown and glabrous. The leaves are needle-like with blunt tips, 12–24 mm long, quadrangular in cross-section, the seed cones are 9–17 cm long, and have bluntly to sharply triangular-pointed scale tips. They are green or reddish, maturing brown 5–7 months after pollination, the seeds are black, 4–5 mm long, with a pale brown 15-millimetre wing. The tallest measured Norway spruce,62,26 m tall, grows near Ribnica na Pohorju, the northern limit is in the arctic, just north of 70° N in Norway. Its eastern limit in Russia is hard to define, due to extensive hybridisation and intergradation with the Siberian spruce, however, trees showing some Siberian spruce characters extend as far west as much of northern Finland, with a few records in northeast Norway. The hybrid is known as Picea × fennica, and can be distinguished by a tendency towards having hairy shoots, Norway spruce cone scales are used as food by the caterpillars of the tortrix moth Cydia illutana, whereas Cydia duplicana feeds on the bark around injuries or canker. The Norway spruce is one of the most widely planted spruces and it is used as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens. It is also planted for use as a Christmas tree. Every Christmas, the Norwegian capital city, Oslo, provides the cities of London, Edinburgh and Washington D. C. with a Norway spruce and this is mainly a sign of gratitude for the aid these countries gave during the Second World War. In North America, Norway spruce is widely planted, specifically in the northeastern, Pacific Coast and it is naturalised in some parts of North America. There are naturalised populations occurring from Connecticut to Michigan, and it is probable that they occur elsewhere, Norway spruces are more tolerant of hot, humid weather than many conifers which do not thrive except in cool-summer areas and they will grow up to USDA Growing Zone 8. The Norway spruce tolerates acidic soils well, but does not do well on dry or deficient soils, from 1928 until the 1960s it was planted on surface mine spoils in Indiana. The Norway spruce is used in forestry for timber and paper production, the tree is the source of spruce beer, which was once used to prevent and even cure scurvy. This high vitamin C content can be consumed as a tea from the tips or even eaten straight from the tree when light green
